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Division-HewlettPackard
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1994-08-30
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From: Pierre duPont <pierre@division.demon.co.uk>
Subject: INDUSTRY: HP and Division Sign VR Technology Agreement
Newsgroup: sci.virtual-worlds
Contact:
Pierre duPont, Division +44 454 615554
Doug Schiff, Division +1 919-968-7797
Tim Hurley, HP USA +1 617-252-0606
HP and Division Sign Virtual Reality Technology Agreement
--Companies will collaborate on R&D and marketing initiatives
Bristol, UK - July 18, 1994 - Hewlett-Packard and Division have signed
a strategic alliance and product development agreement that will
strengthen the two companies' offerings in the growing market for
virtual reality (VR) applications in computer-aided design (CAD),
training and medicine.
The agreement covers the following areas of collaboration:
. Division's dVS distributed VR runtime environment and dVISE
virtual world authoring and simulation development software
will be ported to HP 9000 Series 700 workstations.
. Division has integrated its PROVISION 10 virtual reality
accelerator hardware with the HP Series 700 graphics
workstations to create a new line of interactive, fully
immersive virtual reality systems.
. Division will act as a value-added reseller of HP
workstations in virtual reality markets.
. Division will offer virtual reality solutions to customers
with applications in CAD; architecture, engineering and
construction (AEC); training; simulation; medicine; and other
areas.
The two companies will also collaborate on future generations
of high-performance graphics products based on HP's PA-RISC and
Division's PixelFlow(tm) technology licensed from the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
"Graphics performance is the principal barrier to widespread
acceptance of virtual reality for mainstream applications,"
says Charles Grimsdale, Managing Director of Division Group
plc. "We are devoting considerable research and development
effort towards products that combine high levels of image
fidelity with real-time interaction."
"Virtual reality is swiftly emerging as an important technology
in engineering and other key markets where HP has a leadership
role," said Mark Canepa, general manager of the Advanced
Systems Division in HP's Workstation Systems Group. "We've
chosen Division as a strategic partner because they are widely
recognized as the leader in the virtual reality industry,
offering powerful and flexible solutions oriented toward the
key markets we want to pursue."
The agreement with HP will give Division access to a large
customer base in what the company sees as its biggest market:
CAD in industries such as automotive, aerospace, architecture
and other product development areas. "We see virtual reality as
the natural evolution of the human/computer interface for 3D
graphics computing," says Grimsdale. "Already, we have
demonstrated applications with tremendous return-on-investment
potential in areas such as virtual automotive prototyping,
interactive housing design, and concurrent digital pre-assembly
of aircraft parts."
Division's VR software -- dVS and dVISE -- will be available
across the HP Series 700 product line and will take advantage
of HP's entire family of graphics accelerators. These software
products support a variety of 3D input and output devices,
including stereo displays and 3D mice. They can also take
advantage of distributed and multiprocessor computing
environments.
Customers using HP Model 715 or 735 workstations can create a
fully immersive VR system by adding Division's PROVISION 10
virtual reality accelerator. PROVISION 10 is based on PIXEL
PLANES technology developed at the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill. It uses massive parallelism (8,192 processors)
to deliver peak performance of 300k Gouraud-shaded, textured
polygons per second. The system's pixel throughput is 997
megapixels per second. PROVISION 10 supports the true stereo
output needed for head-mounted displays, and allows for an
optional 3D audio capability.
Fully immersive systems based on PROVISION 10 can be ordered
immediately for delivery in the third quarter of this year.
Division's virtual reality software will be available on HP
workstations in the fourth quarter of this year.
Pricing for a complete VR software environment, including
interactive authoring software, starts at stlg4,400. PROVISION 10
starts at stlg14,000. Complete immersive systems based on Hewlett
Packard workstations range from stlg26,000 to stlg70,000.
The Division Group of companies specializes in providing
virtual reality technology, products, and services for
professional virtual reality applications. Headquartered in
Bristol, England, Division has US offices in Chapel Hill, North
Carolina and Redwood City, California, and a major distributor
in Japan. The company has sold integrated virtual reality
systems and services to a world-wide customer base of
professional users, who include British Telecom, GTE, Nynex,
Glaxo, Shell, DoD, DRA, McDonnell Douglas, NASA, and
Matsushita. Its shares are traded on the London Stock Exchange.
HP is the second largest computer supplier in the United
States, with computer revenue in excess of $15.6 billion in its
1993 fiscal year. Hewlett-Packard Company is an international
manufacturer of measurement and computational products and
systems recognized for excellence in quality and support. The
company's products and services are used in industry, business,
engineering, science, medicine and education in approximately
110 countries. HP has 97,000 employees and had revenue of $20.3
billion in its 1993 fiscal year.
=============================================================
email: dupontp@division.demon.co.uk
Pierre duPont phone: +44 454 615554
Marketing Director fax: +44 454 615532
Division Limited
19 Apex Court, Woodlands, Almondsbury, Bristol BS12 4JT UK
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