NVIDIA’s New Quadro2 Workstation Graphics Solutions Break Barriers in Technology, Performance, and Price.
SIGGRAPH 2000 Booth No. 2809 — July 25, 2000
Quadro2 Pro and Quadro2 MXR Capitalize on Company’s Technological
Leadership to Deliver NVIDIA’s First Complete Workstation Solution
NVIDIA(R) Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA) today introduced Quadro2(TM), the company’s first family of complete graphics solutions for the workstation market. The Quadro2 family comes complete with NVIDIA’s second generation workstation graphics processor unit (GPU) and its unified driver architecture to deliver unmatched graphics horsepower for the advanced professional user. The Quadro2 family of workstation solutions is being demonstrated in the NVIDIA booth (No. 2809) at the SIGGRAPH 2000 trade show in New Orleans this week. NVIDIA will sell Quadro2 solutions directly to OEM’s. ELSA will sell and market the NVIDIA solutions to other channels through an exclusive partnership also announced today.
“Based on our data, NVIDIA leveraging its expertise in the consumer 3D graphics market into industry leading workstation graphics solutions,” said Jon Peddie, founder and president of Jon Peddie Associates, a leading market research firm specializing in graphics and multimedia. “This leading graphics technology from NVIDIA will deliver to OEMs and professional end users the best graphics solution available.”
Previously, NVIDIA sold graphics chipsets to board manufacturers and PC OEMs. With this new product line, NVIDIA offers two complete workstation board solutions. Quadro2 Pro(TM) is the fastest workstation graphics solution available for the professional digital content creator,MCAD engineer, or financial visualization professional. A single-chip solution, Quadro2 Pro beats previous generations of workstation solutions in terms of both price and performance. Quadro2 MXR(TM) provides a cost-effective alternative for the mainstream graphics professional and features NVIDIA’s TwinView(TM) display architecture. Both products will ship with NVIDIA’s unified driver architecture, which allows forward-and-backward as well as top-to-bottom compatibility, and greatly simplifying system maintenance for protecting hardware investment. UDA is found only in NVIDIA technology.
“NVIDIA is changing the dynamics of the workstation graphics industry,” stated Jen-Hsun Huang, president and CEO of NVIDIA. “By applying our proven economy of scale and execution model to the Quadro2 family of solutions we are providing breakthrough features and capabilities for graphics professionals on the leading edge as well as those in the mainstream.”
The Quadro2 family of products is designed for use with professional design applications such as AutoCAD, 3D Studio MAX, Maya, SOFTIMAGE/3D, LightWave 3D, Pro/ENGINEER, Solidworks, ESRI and Adobe Photoshop. With support for AGP 2X and AGP 4X with Fast Writes support, the Quadro2 line offers unmatched Microsoft(R) Windows NT(R) performance. Quadro2 products uniquely offer workstation professionals a single “develop and deploy” platform since they not only supports Windows(R) 98 and Windows 2000 operating systems, but are also binary compatible with NVIDIA’s consumer products. This ensures that content developed using a Quadro2 solution will also run on the popular consumer graphics solutions — which use NVIDIA chipsets.
“NVIDIA’s new robust, full-featured solution delivers unprecedented 3D graphics performance for all budgets of all workstation users,” said Brad Peebler, vice president of Newtek. “By working together with NVIDIA, our end users are assured that their graphics systems are the driving force pushing the edge of video and graphics technology.”
The Fastest Graphics Workstation Solution
Quadro2 Pro delivers an astounding 31 million triangles per second and one gigapixel per second rendering power — resulting in fast, dedicated application performance for game content development, film effects and visualization.
In addition to this unprecedented performance, the Quadro2 Pro delivers advanced features such as anti-aliased points and lines, two-sided lighting, full transform, front buffer 3D clipping and shared back-buffer support for powerful 3D modeling, design and drafting performance.
NVIDIA Quadro2 Pro’s 350MHz RAMDAC enables superb displays up to 2048×1536 resolution. With its 64MB of DDR memory and 6.4 gigabytes per second of memory bandwidth the Quadro2 Pro delivers realtime frame rates with 32-bit color at high resolutions.
The Mainstream Professional Solution
NVIDIA’s Quadro2 MXR delivers 25 million triangles per second and 400 million pixels per second. It provides a cost-effective solution for mainstream professional end users who want the benefits of advanced workstation solutions but at an affordable price.
Through its TwinView(TM) display architecture, Quadro2 MXR offers unparalleled flexibility in display options. TwinView supports a dizzying array of multidisplay configurations, allowing various combinations of multiple monitors, flat panels, and TVs to be connected to a single Quadro2 MXR. TwinView even supports two independent flat panels, an industry first.
“Maya users are going to be all over these two new workstation GPUs,” said Bob Bennett, General Manager of Entertainment Business Unit at AliasWavefront. “The new dual-display support of Quadro2 MXR is a workflow enhancer that will be especially appreciated.”
Product Availability
The Quadro2 Pro and Quadro2 MXR are scheduled to be available in Q3 2000. For more information, please visit NVIDIA’s website at www.nvidia.com.
NVIDIA Products
The first 3D graphics semiconductor company to deliver a complete top-to-bottom family of 3D solutions, NVIDIA gives developers the advantage of a unified driver architecture across all implementations. NVIDIA’s single-chip GPUs enable high-frame-rate 3D graphics, benchmark-winning 2D graphics, and high-definition digital video processing for unequaled visual realism and real-time interactivity. Optimized for both Microsoft(R) Direct3D(R) and OpenGL(R) APIs, the NVIDIA product line currently includes:
— NVIDIA Quadro2 Pro(TM) and Quadro2 MXR(TM) for the professional workstation, digital content creation, and MCAD markets. The Quadro2 Pro is the fastest workstation graphics solution available for the engineering professional. The Quadro2 MXR provides cost-effective, advanced workstation capabilities and offers the revolutionary TwinView(TM) display architecture for the mainstream professional. Both include features such as second generation transform and lighting and per-pixel shading.
— NVIDIA GeForce2 GTS(TM)and GeForce 256(TM)graphics processing units (GPUs) for the PC enthusiast market. The GeForce2 GTS delivers geometry processing power and radical per-pixel shading features unmatched by any other graphics processor. GeForce 256 is the world’s first GPU.
— NVIDIA GeForce2 MX(TM) GPU for the corporate desktop market. The GeForce2 MX offers Digital Vibrance Control(TM), TwinView display options, and a unified driver — making it the ultimate graphics solution for the corporate user. It leverages the GeForce2 GTS architecture, including features such as second generation transform and lighting and per-pixel shading, yet is priced at one-third of the cost of the original GeForce 256 GPU. The rich feature set, combined with its low cost, makes GeForce2 MX truly a GPU for the masses.
— NVIDIA TNT2(TM) Pro for the performance PC market. The TNT2 Pro features NVIDIA’s award-winning, fourth-generation, 128-bit 3D architecture that has garnered more than 400 industry awards.
— NVIDIA Vanta(TM), Vanta LT, and TNT2 M64 for the commercial and corporate mainstream PC markets. Also based on the original award-winning NVIDIA TNT2 architecture, these processors offer low-cost, high-performance choices for business and entertainment applications.
— Aladdin TNT2(TM)for the sub-$1000 PC market. The first truly integrated graphics chipset; Aladdin TNT2 redefines the possibilities for the lowest cost platforms.
About NVIDIA
The computing industry recognizes NVIDIA as the global leader in advanced graphics processing technology for mainstream platforms, honoring the company with the most graphics awards in the history of the PC industry. The unmatched breadth of the NVIDIA product family enables gripping multimedia experiences for the entire desktop computer market from workstations to internet-enabled appliances. PC OEMs, add-in card manufacturers, system builders, and consumer electronics companies worldwide choose NVIDIA GPUs as the core component of their graphics processing solutions. NVIDIA GPUs are used by large corporations, small- to medium-sized businesses, and home-based consumers. NVIDIA graphics processors deliver superior performance and crisp visual quality for PC-based applications such as manufacturing, science, e-business, entertainment, and education. For more information, please visit the Company’s web site at http://www.nvidia.com.
Certain statements in this press release, including the statements relating to the Company’s performance expectations for NVIDIA’s family of products and expectations of continued revenue growth, are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause results to be materially different than expectations. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, manufacturing and other delays relating to new products, difficulties in the fabrication process and dependence of the Company on third-party manufacturers, general industry trends including cyclical trends in the PC and semiconductor industries, the impact of competitive products and pricing alternatives, market acceptance of the Company’s new products, and the Company’s dependence on third-party developers and publishers. Investors are advised to read the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, particularly those sections entitled “Factors Affecting Operating Results,” for a fuller discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties.
Notes to Editors: GeForce 256, GeForce2 GTS, and GeForce2 MX should be written as shown, with an uppercase “G” and “F”, with a lowercase “e” and a lowercase “orce.” There is no space between “GeForce” and “2” for GeForce2 GTS and GeForce2 MX. There is a space before “GTS,” “MX” and “256.” “MX” and “GTS” are in ALL CAPITALS. The recommended format for Vanta and Quadro is title case. Quadro2 Pro and Quadro2 MXR should be written as shown, there is no space between “Quadro” and “2”. There is a space before “MXR” and it is in ALL CAPITALS. The recommended format for NVIDIA, NVIDIA TNT2, NVIDIA TNT, RIVA 128, and RIVA 128ZX and is ALL CAPITALS. For further nomenclature information, please visit our image kit at www.nvidia.com/company.nsf/imagekit.html.
NVIDIA, the NVIDIA logo, GeForce, GeForce2 MX, GeForce2 GTS, GeForce 256, Quadro2, NVIDIA Quadro2, Quadro2 Pro, Quadro2 MXR, Quadro, NVIDIA Quadro, Vanta, NVIDIA Vanta, TNT2, NVIDIA TNT2, TNT, NVIDIA TNT, NVIDIA RIVA, RIVA, NVIDIA RIVA 128ZX, and NVIDIA RIVA 128 are registered trademarks or trademarks of NVIDIA Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Other company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of the respective owners with which they are associated.