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1994-09-26
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From lslater@mcscorp.com Mon Sep 26 13:57:16 1994
Date: Fri, 08 Apr 94 23:27:39
From: lslater@mcscorp.com
To: scivw@u.washington.edu
Subject: ANNOUNCE: Synthetic Images announces Reality Blaster card
PRESS RELEASE
Synthetic Images Announces Revolutionary Reality Blaster (TM) Technology;
VR Board Provides High-End Workstation Power On Ordinary PC.
NEW YORK, April 5, 1994 -- Synthetic Images Incorporated today announced
its first Reality Blaster (TM) technology based product, the Model RB-
1000PC. The new Reality Blaster technology (patents pending) combines
RISC, DSP and custom processor hardware with breakthrough advanced math
and control algorithms, to produce a PC board that provides advanced
Virtual Reality (VR) and simulation capabilities previously found only on
mainframe or high-end graphics workstations. According to Carlos
Sampayo, President and CEO of Synthetic Images, "Our objective was to
bring VR and simulation performance previously available only to the
military and aerospace community to the PC world -- and do so at a
breakthrough price."
The Reality Blaster RB-1000PC is a standard IBM PC compatible full-length
ISA card. It has the ability to hold an entire virtual world in its
onboard memory, and then render that world at high resolution (640x480 VGA
or 484x368 NTSC) at 30 Frames Per Second (FPS). Applications running on
the host PC interact with the board through a comprehensive library of 'C'
API calls, which in turn communicate with the board via standard I/O ports
(no DMA required).
The board provides continuous processing of 60,000 textured/shaded
polygons per second, which allows a full 2,000 polys/frame at a 30 FPS
update rate. The video output DSP's then display this information at a
refresh rate of 60Hz. Full 3-D stereo output is available through either
an optional output channel daughterboard (update rate 15 FPS @ 2000
polys/frame), or by using a second PC board (full 30 FPS). Sixteen
million (24-bit) colors are available, with 1Mb of subdividable texture
maps. Texture mapping, flat and smooth shading, transparency,
translucency and Z-Depth buffering are all performed onboard. Lee
Slater, Director of Marketing at Synthetic Images, points out that "The
Reality Blaster will finally allow true high performance VR at a price
level consistent with the PC world. It gives the educational, research
and cottage programming worlds the low cost resource required to develop
the 'killer apps' this industry needs." The board will also allow
manufacturers of high-end location based entertainment games to get under
the critical $15K total game cost threshold needed to penetrate the
arcade market.
The advanced onboard database allows a world of 25,000 polygons, but
object oriented instancing capabilities can increase that number to
5,000,000 or more. There can be 200 instantaneous moving models, with
1,000 available in the scenario.
The basic board includes a standard LCD shutter glass interface.
Software includes a world editor, compiler and visualizer, as well as
utilities which convert existing DXF, 3DS and other popular formats into
Reality Blaster format. Sample worlds and custom programming examples
using the 'C' API are also provided. Onboard options include an anti-
aliasing processor (3x3 kernel convolution), a 484x368 sync-locked NTSC
output processor, and a real-time Optics Distortion Processor (for LEEP,
spherical projections, etc). Optional software includes a 'C' cross-
compiler that allows execution of custom processes or even entire
applications right in the onboard RISC processors. Commercial release is
scheduled for May, 1994. Pricing starts at $2,495.
Contacts: Carlos Sampayo, President/CEO (csampayo@mcscorp.com)
Lee Slater, Dir of Marketing (lslater@mcscorp.com)
Synthetic Images, Inc.
5454 Hoffner Ave, Suite 102
Orlando, FL 32812
Voice: 407-282-7740 Fax: 407-282-7730