LONDON, August 4th, 2003 - 3D Prophet 9200 SE, Hercules' new entry-level graphics board based on ATI®'s RADEON(tm) 9200 SE chipset, is about to democratize DirectX® 8.1 and AGP 8X support for all gamers. 3D Prophet 9200 SE is the latest entry in Hercules's celebrated range of 3D graphics boards, providing high-quality manufacturing and realistic rendering for a superb gaming experience at a very affordable price.

"3D Prophet 9200 SE offers gamers 128MB of fast DDR RAM, DirectX® 8.1 hardware support and up to AGP 8X motherboard compatibility at a truly jaw-dropping price," states Philippe Pecheu, 3D Graphics Product Manager at Hercules.

Hercules has created this board to allow gamers who have been hesitant or unable to buy a 3D graphics board to make the leap and discover all the advantages they have to offer. Most of the games currently available are built on the Microsoft DirectX® 8.1 protocol, and the 128MB of DDR RAM provides enough memory to store lifelike textures and complex game levels for an incredible gaming experience.

"3D Prophet 9200 SE transforms today's entry-level PCs into advanced gaming machines and allow users to enjoy the latest technological advances at a very reasonable price," explains Philippe Pecheu. "The board is also completely silent thanks to its chipset heatsink, and provides dual display support via its dual VGA and TV outputs for clone or extended desktop mode."

3D Prophet 9200 SE

Key selling points and benefits:

Ø RADEON(tm) 9200 SE technology.
Ø Ready for the future: full DirectX® 8.1 hardware accelerator.
Ø AGP 8X/4X/2X: the highest standard available.
Ø Powerful 3D performance with 4 pipelines and 128MB DDR RAM.
Ø Dual display support (2 VGA + TV outputs).
Ø Advanced multimedia features: hardware DVD decoding and real-time streaming.
Ø Hercules' know-how in innovative design.
Ø Chipset heatsink for silent heat dissipation.

Main features:

· Advanced technology for performance and realism in all applications:

- AGP 8X/4X/2X for incredible transfer rates between the CPU (Central Processing Unit) and the VPU (Visual Processing Unit).
- ATI's next-generation RADEON(tm) 9200 SE graphics processor: powerful 3D performance with 4 pipelines.
- 128MB of fast DDR RAM.
- Hercules' know-how in innovative hardware design.

· Experience lifelike 3D gaming thanks to advanced rendering:

- SMARTSHADER(tm) technology for full DirectX® 8.1 hardware support of existing and future games (Pixel Shaders 1.4 & Vertex Shaders 1.1) and OpenGL®1.3.
- CHARISMA ENGINE(tm) II acceleration engine for Transformation, Clipping & Lighting.
- HYPERZ(tm) II memory bandwidth-saving technology.
- SMOOTHVISION(tm) technology for image filtering: anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering.
- TRUFORM(tm) technology, adding realism to 3D shapes.

· A high-end DVD player:

- VIDEO IMMERSION(tm) II technology for high-quality DVD playback:
-TV/video output for display on NTSC and PAL TV sets at up to 1024x768 resolution.
- Hardware HDTV decoder (iDCT & Motion Compensation), MPEG-2 decoder, Adaptive Per
Pixel De-Interlacing.
- HYDRAVISION(tm) flexible multi-screen display management (TV & 2 VGA outputs, dual integrated 400MHz RAMDACs).

·Real-time video streaming:

- FULLSTREAM(tm) technology for accelerated hardware de-blocking of RealVideo(tm) Internet video streams.

Availability: August 2003.

Price: £64.99 inclusive of V.A.T.

About Hercules Technologies

Founded in the United States in 1982, Hercules developed the industry's first high-resolution graphics boards for PC. Having set the monochrome graphics standard, Hercules then proceeded to pioneer advances in color graphics solutions. Over the years Hercules has constantly sought to evolve, providing innovative lines of graphics, video and audio products geared principally towards the international gaming community. Hercules has been a division of the Guillemot Corporation group since 1999.

Guillemot Corporation designs and manufactures a complete range of PC hardware products and PC and game console accessories. With an active presence in 17 countries, the group currently distributes its products throughout 45 countries worldwide. Guillemot Corporation is listed on the Paris Stock Exchange, Sicovam code 6672.

For more information, please visit our website at http://www.hercules.com.