Leading Graphics Chip Companies Announce AGP-Enabled Products

Intel Also Announces High Speed Extension to the AGP Specification

SAN JOSE, Calif., March 24, 1997 -- The Accelerated Graphics Port specification received strong support today when leading graphics chip companies announced AGP-enabled products at Intel Platforms for Visual Computing Day. 3Dlabs, ATI, Cirrus Logic, Evans & Sutherland, NVIDIA, S3, and Trident announced they will be shipping products in 1997.

Intel also announced that development has commenced on a high speed extension to the specification, called AGP 4X mode, that doubles the bandwidth of the Accelerated Graphics Port specification to 1GByte/sec. The AGP specification is designed to be scaleable beyond the 2X mode, which has a bandwidth of 512Mbytes/sec. The 4X enhancement is primarily targeted at high-end workstations and other high-performance platforms and will be incorporated into the AGP specification in Q4, 1997.

The AGP specification, developed by Intel in cooperation with industry leaders, defines a high performance port that significantly improves the performance of 3D graphics and other visually-intensive applications for the next generation of Intel architecture platforms. It is an open specification that is licensed from Intel. The license is reciprocal and royalty free.

"Industry support for AGP has been extraordinary, with a very broad range of products in development -- from the business and consumer desktop PC to workstation-class platforms," said Albert Yu, senior vice president, general manager of microprocessor products group . "All of the exciting AGP products being announced today have gone from design to retail availability in just over one year. This is an excellent example of Intel working with the industry to create open standards so that everyone can deliver compatible products in record time."

Intel and other leading companies outlined an industry blueprint to deliver IA-based platforms that provide interactive, lifelike multi-media experiences for users at Intel Platforms for Visual Computing Day held in San Jose today. The blueprint is called the Visual Computing Initiative and is the next step in the platform's evolution from the Connected PC.

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