Matrox announces new
Parhelia™-512 GPU delivering unprecedented high-fidelity graphics
World's first 512-bit
GPU delivers unparalleled image quality, superior performance and wide range of
innovative
features for the ultimate visual experience
For Immediate
Release
Montreal,
Canada, May 14, 2002—Matrox
Graphics Inc., the leading professional graphics company, today unveiled the
revolutionary Matrox Parhelia-512 high-fidelity GPU delivering a new level of
visual quality, superior performance and a wide range of innovative new
technologies.
Parhelia-512 is an 80 million transistor, 0.15µ, 2D, 3D and
DVD/video GPU with a true 256-bit DDR memory interface providing over 20
gigabytes per second (GB/s) of raw memory bandwidth. This AGP device supports
unified frame buffers up to 256MB in size and integrates two RAMDACs, a TV
encoder and support for dual TMDS transmitters. Designed to surpass the
expectations of the most demanding
professional users and PC enthusiasts, Parhelia-512 has three major goals: to
dramatically increase the
quality
of all aspects of visualisation, to sustain extremely high
performance
for the most complex and demanding graphics rendering and to deliver a number of
innovative and substantive
features.
"High fidelity refers
to a superb reproduction, which is completely true to the original," said Matrox
president, Lorne Trottier. "The engineering vision fulfilled by Matrox
Parhelia-512 was to achieve the highest-fidelity graphics with the truest
representation of colour, 3D, text and images created by a single source of
incomparable quality, performance and features."
Unparalleled Visual
Quality
To achieve the
highest-fidelity graphics, Parhelia-512 has been designed with tremendous
attention to detail paid to every aspect of the graphics pipeline. Parhelia-512
continues Matrox's unwavering focus on raising the bar in cutting-edge visual
quality by bringing significant new quality-based innovations to market. This
leading image quality and support for the latest display technologies are key
attributes of the product. Some specific quality-related innovations include:
• 10-bit
GigaColor Technology - Parhelia-512 delivers the PC industry's first true 10-bit
per colour channel support for the simultaneous display of
over one billion colors. Full 10-bit precision per colour channel is maintained
throughout the pixel processing pipeline, inside the frame
buffers, as well as in the RAMDACs and TV encoder for additional precision
in 2D, 3D, DVD and video. 10-bit GigaColor is a
forward-looking technology, which provides an exceptionally vibrant Microsoft®
Windows® desktop, the richest graphics, as well as the sharpest 3D
images and in-game graphics.
• UltraSharp
Display Output Technology - The display output subsystem of Parhelia-512 is
based on a sophisticated new design that delivers
truly high fidelity RGB, DVI and TV output. Parhelia-512's dual 400Mhz RAMDACs
are fully gamma correctable to 10-bit per channel
accuracy. Both RAMDACs and the integrated TV encoder, output signals with 10-bit
per channel signal quality. This technology combined
with the most highly developed electronics and filters, delivers the
highest-quality analogue, digital and TV outputs—Matrox's best ever.
• 64 Super
Sample Texture Filtering - Parhelia-512 integrates the world's most advanced
texture filtering units allowing for the dynamic
allocation of up to 64 texture samples per clock—double the number available on
competing GPUs. These samples can be flexibly allocated to provide higher
quality texture filtering with minimal performance impact. For example, the 64
samples could be arranged to deliver
dual textured pixels with trilinear filtering, instead of bilinear filtering, at
no performance penalty; or dual textured pixels with
16-sample anisotropic filtering at comparable performance to trilinear
filtering on competing GPUs.
• Glyph
Antialiasing - Parhelia-512 is the first graphics technology to provide hardware
accelerated antialiased text and font rendering with full
gamma correction—a feature currently available in Microsoft operating systems
but only accelerated in software.
Furthermore, Glyph Antialiasing takes the operating system's text quality
initiative one step further by offering programmable
gamma correction for the antialiasing of text. Glyph Antialiasing
makes onscreen text more readable and provides the ultimate
desktop viewing experience without compromising performance.
• 16x Fragment
Antialiasing (FAA-16x) This revolutionary approach to antialiasing delivers
the highest quality antialiased rendering with minimal
performance impact. For applications compatible with FAA-16x, Parhelia-512
intelligently antialiases only pixels on triangle edges and
applies a full 16 times super-sampling to those pixels while leaving interior
pixels sharp and unblurred. As edge pixels typically
make up only a small fraction of the pixels in the scene, Parhelia-512 is able
to offer this superior quality with a very small performance penalty.
Superior Performance
With massive
memory bandwidth and a colossal array of 3D processing elements, Parhelia-512
delivers the fastest 2D, Microsoft DirectX® 8, OpenGL 1.3 and DVD performance.
It sustains very high levels of performance even during the rendering of complex
3D scenes with high polygon counts, FAA-16x antialiasing, 8-sample anisotropic
filtering, 10-bit GigaColor Technology and deep vertex and pixel shaders.
Parhelia-512 pushes the limits of design and architecture by integrating the
following high fidelity performance technologies:
• 512-bit GPU - Parhelia-512 is the first 512-bit GPU and the first
device with a true 256-bit wide DDR local memory interface, which can
provide over 20 GB/s of raw memory bandwidth. Forming the backbone of
the rendering and display engine, the 512-bit architecture
and massive memory bandwidth enable Parhelia-512 to sustain the
highest performance for the most complex 3D and 2D applications, even during
high resolution, multi-display computing.
• Quad DirectX 9 Vertex Shader Array - Parhelia-512 integrates four
Microsoft DirectX 9 compatible vertex shader units into a single
vertex processing array. Powered by a sophisticated control unit,
with deep instruction and register caches, Parhelia-512 is able to
sustain very high performance levels even when executing complex
vertex shader programs on high-resolution 3D models. In addition,
Parhelia-512 is optimised for OpenGL standard lighting models and
handles these at accelerated rates.
• Quad
Texturing - Parhelia-512 is the first GPU to enable single-pass quad texturing
with four pixel-per-clock throughput. With the latest
generation of 3D games, and a plethora of future games expected to push the
limits of texturing beyond dual texturing, Parhelia-512 is
the only GPU that provides a rendering platform that sustains performance for
cutting-edge graphics applications.
• 36-Stage
Shader Array - With four programmable texture- and five programmable pixel-shader
stages on each of its four pixel pipelines,
Parhelia-512's 36-Stage Shader Array boasts the largest and most powerful pixel
rendering pipeline to date. The massive shading power
of the engine allows Parhelia-512 to render the most demanding next-generation
content at high performance levels.
Distinct Innovative
Features
With a
steadfast tradition of bringing trend-setting new features to market, Matrox
leads the way once again with Parhelia-512, which offers the following
substantive and innovative features:
• Hardware
Displacement Mapping (HDM) - Hardware Displacement Mapping is a powerful new
method of representing and rendering complex 3D geometry
using a simple data representation. Matrox is the first to develop a hardware
implementation of displacement mapping and has
contributed elements of this technology for inclusion as a standard feature in
Microsoft’s DirectX 9 API. Hardware Displacement mapping
works by encoding high-resolution geometric detail into 'displacement maps',
which represent height displacements from a low-resolution
object mesh and stores this data in simple texture maps. Using dynamic,
depth-adaptive vertex tessellation and mip-mapped vertex
texture sampling, Parhelia-512 recombines the base mesh with the displacement
map in real time to enable stunningly realistic 3D
rendered scenes.
• Surround
Gaming - The IMAX® experience of 3D gaming, Parhelia-512 renders the output of
supported 3D games across three displays providing three times the
regular field of view (FOV), fully engaging the player's peripheral vision. With
out-of-the-box support for many popular games including Id
Software™'s Quake III Arena™, Activision®'s Soldier of Fortune II, Microsoft's
Flight Simulator 2002 and LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC's Jedi Knight®
II. Surround Gaming provides gamers with a truly immersive
environment that has to be
experienced to be believed.
•
DualHead®-HighFidelity (HF) - Since its introduction by Matrox four years ago,
DualHead display has become an industry standard
technology. Parhelia-512 extends Matrox's leadership in DualHead technology with
DualHead-HF, the first fully symmetric,
no-compromise multi-display support on a single graphics chip. With DualHead-HF,
Parhelia-512 is capable of independently displaying
dual 2048 x 1536 @ 32bpp analogue outputs or dual 1920 x 1200 @ 32bpp digital
outputs with independently gamma-correctable hardware overlays.
• TripleHead
Desktop - For the maximum onscreen real estate, Parhelia-512 uses a specialised
third RAMDAC to support an ultra-wide rectangular Windows
desktop stretched across three displays to a maximum resolution of 3840 x 1024 @
32bpp.
• PC-Theater DVD Playback - Parhelia-512 provides DVD playback with
home-theatre quality on the PC. Similar to DVD set-top boxes,
Parhelia-512 incorporates 10-bit precision for DVD decoding, advanced video
filtering and scaling, as well as Matrox-pioneered DVDMax
with independent proc-amp controls for overlays and TV output.
"Matrox's Hardware
Displacement Mapping is a unique and innovative new technology that delivers
increased realism for 3D games," said Kenny Mitchell, director 3D Graphics
Software Engineering, Westwood Studios®. "The fact that it only took me a few
hours to get up and running with the technology to attain excellent results was
really encouraging and I look forward to integrating the technology more widely
in future Westwood titles."
Parhelia-512 offers a
host of other features including the Matrox PowerDesk-HighFidelity (HF) utility
suite, a power user's dream for hardware configuration and desktop management in
multi-display environments.
Incorporating the most advanced features and initiatives in
the industry, Matrox Parhelia-512 delivers a breakthrough rendering platform
that combines maximum
quality,
performance
and
features
to deliver the highest-fidelity graphics—with no compromises.
About Matrox
Graphics Inc.
Matrox
Graphics Inc., the leading professional graphics company, has been delivering
high-quality, innovative 2D/3D and video graphics accelerators for more than a
quarter of a century. Pioneer of the trend-setting DualHead® technology, Matrox
is a graphics chip designer and board manufacturer whose products have been
awarded over 1,000 times worldwide for their superior image quality, practical
ingenuity and unwavering stability. A privately held company headquartered in
Montreal, Canada, Matrox has international offices in the United States, the
United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Hong Kong, Ireland and Taiwan.
Information on Matrox products, drivers, technical support and more can be found
at:
www.matrox.co.uk/mga.
Matrox Graphics Inc.
and Matrox are registered trademarks or trademarks of Matrox Graphics Inc.
and/or Matrox Electronic Systems Ltd. Other company, product and service names
and/or logos indicated above may be trademarks or service marks of such other
companies.
