Tasmania 3D

3D Graphics chips from Yamaha to change PCs forever; Price/Performance barrier down, virtual reality, modeling, animation to benefit

"SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 14, 1994--Two new high performance 3D Graphics chips from Yamaha Systems Technology Division catapult the company and the industry into the next phase of PC graphics.

The two new chips, the first in the "virtuality" series, the Rendering Polygon Accelerator (RPA) (Yamaha YGV611) and a lower cost system version provide high quality 2D or 3D performance, on PCs and low end workstations at unmatched low cost.

Graphics boards designed with these graphics controllers will bring sophisticated drawing, shading, texture mapping and video capture to animation, presentations, modeling, CAD/CAM and virtual reality.

According to Jon Peddie, a leading market analyst in the computer graphics arena: "The advent of 3D APIs (applications program interface), combined with faster interfaces to Windows and a pent up demand for fast 3D graphics, has primed the market for 3D coprocessors for the PC. Add the increasing installed base of high performance PCs in the home and you have a situation that market forecasters, manufacturers and investors dream about."

"There is nothing else like this in the market right now," said Henry Choy, Yamaha Graphics product manager. "We believe this will dramatically change the look of graphics, multimedia, and virtual reality."

Yamaha's Multimedia History

The new "virtuality" series from Yamaha is consistent with the Yamaha tradition of bringing high quality multimedia effects to the PC marketplace. Just as the audio products -- based on early, high quality musical instrument research -- now pervade the PC and virtual reality markets, Yamaha also developed high performance graphics chips which were used in high-end graphics boards and color graphic terminals for OEMs in the 1980s.

That same graphics expertise has now been transformed with new architecture into the low cost, high performance products announced today.

RPA Details

The RPA (YGV611) will provide low cost, high speed graphics rendering in 2D or 3D for PCs or low end workstations. The YGV611 performs Gouraud shading and texture mapping at 210k polygons/second (50-pixel polygons). The YGV611 also performs hidden surface removal, video capture and Bit Block Transfer (BitBLT). The frame buffer interface is 128 bits wide (64 bit interleaved) for high performance graphics. The 16 or 32 bit wide host bus interface operates up to 33 MHz. The YGV611 supports resolutions up to 1280x1024 16-bit color. CMOS processing is used for lower power consumption.

3D DRAM Controller Details

Yamaha's next 3D controller, which is being designed, will support a DRAM frame buffer, direct PCI bus support, and integrated DAC (Digital to Analog Converter). These changes will dramatically lower the system cost. Board manufacturers should be able to sell a 3D accelerator board for significantly less than $300. It will support VESA Local Bus with minimum glue logic. Availability of this version will closely follow the YGV611.

Price and Delivery

The YGV611 evaluation boards are available now. Engineering samples of the YGV611 are available in Q1, 1995. Production quantities are scheduled for Q2, 1995. Price is expected to be $80/1000 pieces.

Comdex Booth No. M460

First public showing of the YGV611 will be at Fall Comdex in Yamaha's booth at the Sands, No. M460. Graphics board manufacturer STB will also show Yamaha's YGV611 at the Sands, No. S4014.

YGV612

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 15, 1995--In response to demand from game board manufacturers, Yamaha Systems Technology, Inc. has created a low cost, DRAM version of their recently announced 3D Graphics controller chip. The new YGV612 brings the same sophisticated features provided earlier to the PC market (in the VRAM-based YGV611), to game developers.

Texture mapping, available now from Yamaha is one of the many game- oriented features of the new, lower cost chip. Texture mapping simplifies and speeds the development of games by eliminating the pixel by pixel shading usually necessary for realistic effects. Gouraud shading and Z buffering are incorporated as well.

First Low-cost 3D Silicon

"As the first 3D silicon available to them, the YGV611 immediately attracted the attention of independent software developers at Fall Comdex," stated Robert Starr, YST assistant general manager and director of sales and marketing. "Only two quarters after that, the YGV612 can satisfy the requirements of DOS and Windows 95 game developers," he concluded.

Backward Compatibility

For games currently available and in development, the VRAM-based YGV611 and DRAM-based YGV612 are backward register compatible. A game development cycle that started on the YGV611 can jump tracks to the YGV612 with no wasted motion.

"The YGV612 kickstarts the 3D game market into a universally affordable realm for the 1995 Christmas season," states Henry Choy, Yamaha graphics product manager. "This single-chip solution allows games to run in 640X480/64K colors and high frame rates. The RPA supports resolutions up to 1280X1024 bit color."

YGV612 - A Developer's Dream

Using the YGV612, a game developer can now create high-speed, three- dimensional images with subtle color variations (Gouraud shading at 300K polygons/second); fill in polygons with a texture map (texture mapping at 150K polygons/second *50-pixel polygons*) and easily perform hidden surface removal. With up to 1280x1024/64K colors available, the results can be awesome.

The YGV612 supports a DRAM frame buffer, direct PCI bus support and integrated DAC (digital to analog converter). It will also support VESA Local Bus with minimum glue logic. The streamlined controller/memory/glue logic component configuration allows significant system cost reductions resulting in $250 street-priced 3D accelerator boards.

Price and Delivery

The YGV612 is available in sample quantities for $40. Evaluation boards and samples are available in limited quantities now. Production quantities will be available in August."
Yamaha Press Office, 14th November 1994

Yamaha announces support for Windows 95; PC 3D games and graphics will benefit

"SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 24, 1995--Yamaha's 3D graphics controllers (YGV611 and YGV612) will support the Windows 95 Game SDK (software development kit) proposed by Microsoft Corp.

This will accelerate the acceptance of ultra-realistic game into PCs and make PCs a game platform of the future.

Ultra-realistic 3D games and entertainment will drive PC 3D graphics hardware into homes. Most 3D games currently are at a low 320 x 240 resolution and offer only 256 colors. Hardware will accelerate games to 640 x 480 resolution and at 64K colors. This will dramatically change the look and feel of future PC games.

Yamaha will lead the 3D market support of the Microsoft Game SDK with its 3D texture mapping controllers. The Microsoft Game SDK will allow a standard way for APIs (application program interface) to talk to different hardware. Thus, the game development community will have a standard method through different 3D APIs to accelerate their games in Windows 95.

"We are pleased that Yamaha is developing 3D graphics controllers that support our new Game SDK," said Brad Silverberg, senior vice president of the personal systems division at Microsoft. "We believe that such hardware will provide extra performance to games under Windows 95."

"Windows 95 will surely make a big impact as a game platform for the near future. 3D standards for hardware and APIs will certainly help accelerate that. Yamaha plans to work closely with Microsoft to ensure that our hardware is tuned for maximum 3D performance for PC games and graphics," said Henry Choy, Graphics Product Manager at Yamaha.

Yamaha 3D Graphics Chips

The Yamaha RPA (YGV611 and YGV612) delivers high speed 3D graphics to PCs at an unbeatable price. The RPA is the only available 3D accelerator today with texture mapping capability targeted for the PC. The RPA supports Gouraud Shading, texture mapping, and hidden surface removal. Resolutions up to 1280 x 1024/16 bit-color are supported."
Yamaha Press Office, 24th April 1995