Press release: 1996-08-06: Mitsubishi's Graphics Memory Products Power REAL 3D's R3D/PRO-1000 Graphics Engine

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Language: English
Original source: The Free Library

Mitsubishi's Graphics Memory Products Power REAL 3D's R3D/PRO-1000 Graphics Engine; 3D-RAM and Cached DRAM add quality and speed to image generator's graphics capability.

NEW ORLEANS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 6, 1996--The Electronic Device Group of Mitsubishi Electronics America, Inc., and REAL 3D(R), a Lockheed Martin Company, jointly announced today that REAL 3D uses two of Mitsubishi's specialty graphics memory products as part of its high-end R3D/PRO-1000 real-time 3-D graphics engine. 

With Mitsubishi's 3D-RAM functioning as the frame-buffer memory and its Cached DRAM as the texture memory, the R3D/PRO-1000 provides a professional-level, standalone, real-time 3D graphics engine. The R3D/PRO-1000 offers a combination of low-cost and high image quality for commercial training, engineering visualization, and location-based entertainment applications. 

Mitsubishi's 3D-RAM improves data transfer rates in the R3D/PRO-1000 by integrating key functions on-chip, including an arithmetic logic unit (ALU) to accelerate Z-buffering and alphablending. In this way, the 3D-RAM helps eliminate read-modify-write bottlenecks and enables high-speed graphics architectures to achieve blistering-fast 3D graphics performance. 

The Cached DRAM (CDRAM) incorporates high-speed, on-board SRAM cache enabling fast texel access. The chip provides a high internal bandwidth that allows large blocks of data to transfer from the DRAM to the SRAM segments of the chip rapidly -- in a single DRAM cycle. Unlike other high-bandwidth memories, the Cached DRAM maintains low latency even under the demanding requirements of tri-linear MIP mapping. 

According to Walt Steiner, REAL 3D's high-performance graphics systems architect, "We selected Mitsubishi's Cached DRAM for the R3D/PRO-1000 for a number of reasons. The cache fill rate is very high, the cost is reasonable, the DRAM and cache are independently addressed, and it's available in 4 Mbit and 16 Mbit densities. Having cache memory on-board meant we didn't have to spend gates putting cache on our ASIC."

Said John Lenyo, REAL 3D's sales and marketing director, "When we decided to develop a high-performance, low-cost graphics engine for real-time image generator markets, it was most important for us to establish a new price-performance standard in the industry. This requirement was pervasive throughout the design, including selecting the optimum frame-buffer and texture memory devices for our leading-edge graphics architecture." 

"We are delighted that REAL 3D chose the 3D-RAM and Cached DRAM graphics memory products for their high-performance, cost-sensitive commercial systems," said Alan Wessel, Mitsubishi's product marketing manager for application-specific memories. "Their choice of our products helps confirm our leadership position in the 3D graphics memory market." 

Mitsubishi is demonstrating its 3D-RAM and CDRAM performance in REAL 3D's R3D/PRO-1000 graphics engine at the SIGGRAPH 96 graphics trade show in New Orleans, during the week of August 5, 1996. 

About REAL 3D and Lockheed Martin 

REAL 3D is a commercial graphics hardware and software component of the Lockheed Martin Corporation. Lockheed Martin is a highly diversified $23 billion advanced technology company with core businesses in defense, commercial, civil government, energy, and international markets. 

About Mitsubishi Electric and Mitsubishi Electronics America 

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation pioneered the integration of DRAM, SRAM and logic on the same piece of silicon with its successful 3D-RAM and cache DRAM application-specific memories. The company markets its graphics memory products in North America through the Electronic Device Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Electronics America, Inc. 

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation and its North American affiliate, Mitsubishi Electronics America, Inc., are world-class suppliers of semiconductors and electronic products for visual computing. Mitsubishi combines its systems-level expertise and high-level silicon process technology to provide chip, chipset, and system-on-a-chip solutions. 

The company is ranked among the top 10 worldwide semiconductor suppliers and offers an extensive range of semiconductor-based products in the North American marketplace including graphics memory products, standard memory ICs, ASICs, microcontrollers, ASSPs, optoelectronic products, microwave GaAs FETs, MPEG codecs, and flat-panel displays. -0- 

Note to Editors: All trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. 

CONTACT: Mitsubishi Electronics America, Inc. 

Sherry Hill, 408/774-3188 

[email protected] 

or 

REAL 3D 

John Lenyo, 407/306-3356 

[email protected] 

or 

Mediatech 

Ken Kilner, 904/672-0135 

[email protected] 

or 

The Horn Group, Inc. 

Susan Rozmanith, 415/579-6447 

[email protected]
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