CHICAGO, IL - March 13, 2000 - Solid Concepts Inc. and S3® Incorporated's (NASDAQ: SIII) Professional Graphics Division today announced at the National Design Engineering Show (NDES) that the two companies have formed a marketing alliance designed to address the needs of the growing engineering collaboration market. S3's Diamond Fire GL1 customers can now access a free download of Solid Concepts' SolidView/Lite 3D CAD viewer from www.firegl.com. S3's new partnership with Solid Concepts is also expected to extend to future generations of Diamond Fire GL graphics accelerators.
Visitors to the Solid Concepts booth (#1057) at NDES will have an opportunity to win copies of SolidView/Pro, a $495 value, as well as one of four Diamond Fire GL1 professional graphics accelerators, valued at $699. A copy of SolidView/Pro will be given away after each SolidView presentation, and a Fire GL1 accelerator, along with a copy of SolidView/Pro, will be given away at the end of each day.
"More and more companies are using solid modeling systems for product design, and they are always looking for ways to leverage their investment in solid modeling," said Ed Huang, Vice President of Business Development for the Professional Graphics Division of S3 Incorporated. "By making 3D design data available to everyone involved in the product development process, companies can realize cost savings and shorter time to market, while improving product quality. The right visualization software along with high-performance graphics hardware such as the Diamond Fire GL1 can turn virtually any desktop PC into a powerful collaboration tool."
According to Ray Bradford, vice-president of Software at Solid Concepts, "Most companies are just beginning to realize the benefits of making 3D data available to everyone involved in the development process. Everyone accepts the fact that you can improve the product and reduce costs by getting manufacturing, purchasing, and suppliers involved early in the design process. The problem has been that the organizations outside of engineering have had to rely on 2D drawings to understand the design, which meant that their contributions were often too little and too late. When you can provide these organizations with a 3D model they can view, measure, and markup, they can be much more active participants in the product development process."
The SolidView family of products from Solid Concepts includes SolidView/Lite, a free viewer of SFX, VRML, STL, and other 3D formats, SolidView, a very low cost view, measure, and markup tool for SFX, VRML, and other 3D formats, and SolidView/Pro, a fully integrated 2D and 3D view, measure, and communication tool.
Featuring IBM's first graphics chipset for the Windows NT platform, S3's Diamond Fire GL1 accelerator delivers the first 256-bit engine for Windows NT and brings powerful graphics performance to NT workstations. The Diamond Fire GL1 accelerator includes software settings for various ISV applications as well as a full suite of software drivers, including Linux driver support. Available in PCI and AGP configurations, the Diamond Fire GL1 comes with 32MB of memory and carries an estimated retail price of $699. Additional information about the award-winning Fire GL brand of professional graphics accelerators is available at www.firegl.com.
About S3 Professional Graphics
S3's Professional Graphics Division designs, develops and markets the Fire GL brand of OpenGL-based graphics accelerators and is a leading provider of solutions for the NT and Linux workstation markets. The Diamond Fire GL1 graphics accelerator, featuring IBM's first graphics chipset for the Windows NT platform and delivering the first 256-bit engine for Windows NT, is included in the systems of leading PC OEMs such as Dell, IBM, Legend and Siemens. For more information about the award-winning line of Fire GL professional graphics accelerators, visit www.firegl.com.
Except for historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this press release, such as S3's ability to maintain a successful marketing relationship with Solid Concepts, are forward-looking statements that are subject to risk and uncertainties, including market acceptance of the Fire GL products, the impact of competitive products and other risks detailed from time to time in S3's SEC reports, including its quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 1999.
SolidView® is a registered trademark of Solid Concepts Inc. S3 is a registered trademark of S3 Incorporated. The S3 corporate logo, Diamond Multimedia, Viper, Stealth, Rio, Supra, HomeFree and Fire GL1 are trademarks of S3 Incorporated. Other names are property of their respective owners.
