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Avi Singh
ELSA, Inc.
408-919-9100 ext. 140
avi@elsa.com
Courtney Zoog
Focal Point Communications
415-289-0351
courtneyzoog@earthlink.net
ELSA Synergy II Award-Winning 2D/3D Graphics Accelerator
Santa Clara, Calif. - June 3, 1999 - ELSA Inc., a world leader in computer graphics add-on and peripheral solutions, today announced the immediate availability of the highly acclaimed Synergy II - offering high-performance graphics acceleration for workstation professionals at a fraction of the cost of comparable solutions. With up to 32 MB of memory, the AGP 4X/2X Synergy II is the ultimate solution for graphic-intensive computing such as workstation game development, 3D animation, computer-aided design and engineering (CAD/CAE), and image processing. For the affordable price of $299, the Synergy II combines ELSA's unique OpenGL technology and certified application-specific enhancements with nVidia's RIVA TNT2 (TwiN-Texel) graphics processor to deliver extremely fast 3D and 2D performance. "The unleashing of the Synergy II is very exciting because we are giving professional workstation users something new - a powerful high-performance 2D/3D graphics solution at a revolutionary low price," said Uli Theissen, president of ELSA, Inc. "Never before has this much performance been available for such a minimum investment." Advance notices on Synergy II have been very favorable with a sneak preview in Cadalyst magazine. The Synergy II was recently given WHQL (Microsoft Windows Hardware Quality Labs) certification and also received Cadence Magazine's coveted 'Show Stopper Award' at the National Design and Engineering Show (NDES) this spring. As stated by Peter Sheerin, senior editor at Cadence Magazine, "The Synergy II is the result of ELSA's uniquely innovative vision to combine, ELSA's OpenGL driver, optimization for the new Pentium III Streaming SIMD instructions, the nVidia RIVA TNT2 chip and 32MBs of memory to provide better 3D CAD performance than cards costing several times as much." The ELSA Synergy II includes ELSA's SIMDream™ optimization for the Intel™ Pentium® III processor, which delivers Streaming SIMD Extensions to ELSA's unique OpenGL and Windows NT drivers. Utilizing nVidia's RIVA TNT2 processing engine as its integrated hardware setup core, Synergy II leverages the Pentium III core for high-bandwidth graphics processing such as geometry, transformation and lighting acceleration. With the implementation of Intel's new Streaming SIMD Extensions instruction set, the Synergy II maximizes the Pentium III's potential by accelerating important parts of the geometry pipeline to deliver significant application performance improvements. Jeremy Hubbell, product marketing manager at Discreet, a division of Autodesk stated "3D Studio VIZ users demand quick 2D and 3D performance from their graphics card. Until the Synergy II, this simply wasn't possible. The new TNT2 chipset, combined with the custom OpenGL drivers, re-define high performance video-especially at this price point. Finally, the VIZ user can get the best of all graphics performance worlds at a price that will fit into just about everyone's budget. ELSA clearly has a winning combination with the Synergy II and MAXtreme drivers." With its support for AGP 2X and completely compliant AGP 4X support, Synergy II offers unmatched Windows NT performance. The graphics controller has TwiN-Texel 32-bit color pipeline with a 24-bit Z-buffer, 8-bit stencil buffer and per-pixel precision. It delivers fill rates of up to 300 million pixels-per-second, and can drive 9 million triangles per second. The Synergy II provides resolutions of up to 1920 x 1200 with a 300MHz RAMDAC. ELSA Software Advantage Included with every ELSA professional graphics accelerator, the ELSA Software Advantage provides users with application specific performance and productivity advantage for OpenGL and 2D. Software drivers and utilities for AutoCAD and 3D Studio MAX/VIZ. ELSA OpenGL technology achieves a ProCDRS score surpassing 9. Synergy II also surpassed competitive products with an Indy 3D simulation benchmark score of 29.98 compared with 24 for 3Dlabs Oxygen VX1, 20.96 for E&S Lightning 1200 and 17.3 for Diamond FireGL1 (all tests were conducted under Windows NT at 1280 x 1024 true color). Synergy II is also the highest 2D performer with a high end 2D Winbench 99 score of 394 compared to 384 for Oxygen VX1, 359 for Matrox Millennium G200 and 269 for E&S Lightning 1200. ELSA POWERdraft is the only driver delivering hardware acceleration for both AutoCAD R13 and R14. ELSA MAXtreme is for 3D graphics performance with a customized driver combining OpenGL, HEIDI, and ELSA technology. ELSAview 3D is a real-time 3D editor and viewer tightly integrated with AutoCAD R14, AutoCAD R13, MDT and ADT. ELSA POWERdraft and ELSAview will also support for AutoCAD 2000. Through the ELSA Software Advantage, customers take advantage of a wide array of unique, high-performance drivers and utilities to enable Synergy and GLoria accelerator boards to achieve maximum 2D/3D graphics performance. ELSA leverages experience in CAD and high-end graphics to create high-quality drivers to accelerate professional applications such as AutoCAD or 3D Studio MAX. Synergy II Pricing and Availability ELSA Synergy II is available immediately through distribution partners, resellers and integrators. Pricing for the Synergy II starts at $249 for the 16MB version and $299 for the 32MB version. The Synergy II comes with a 6-year warranty. Multi-screen support will be available in Q4/99.
ELSA Information
ELSA Inc. is a subsidiary of ELSA AG, a Germany based publicly listed company,
trading on the 'Neuer Markt' trading segment of the Frankfurt stock exchange.
Founded in 1980, ELSA has built a world-class reputation in high-performance 2D
and 3D graphics solutions for professional workstations, commercial desktop and
consumer PCs. In addition ELSA offers a wide range of communications products
such as modems, ISDN-internet access solutions and PC based videoconferencing
products. Please visit http://www.elsa.com for more information about ELSA.
# # #
The ELSA logo is a registered trademark of ELSA AG. All other trademarks are
the property of their respective owners.
Press Contacts: Product Contact:
Courtney Zoog Dana Forsyth Michael Viramontes
Focal Point Communications ELSA, Inc. ELSA, Inc.
707-875-3556 408-919-9100 x134 408-919-9100 x105
courtneyzoog@earthlink.net danaf@elsa.com michaelv@elsa.com
The ELSA logo is a registered trademark of
ELSA AG. All names mentioned may be trademarks or registered trademarks
of their respective owners.
