ACADEMIA

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA -- Designing the next-generation sports car, creating a must-have game, training future fighter pilots or producing the next blockbuster movie will become easier with the latest version of the OpenGL® application programming interface (API). SGI, building on its 20 years of graphics leadership and innovation, and the OpenGL Architecture Review Board (ARB) today announced the availability of the OpenGL® 1.4 specification. Introduced 10 years ago by SGI (NYSE: SGI - News), OpenGL is now the premier environment used by software developers to create interactive 2D and 3D visual applications for computer systems ranging from consumer PCs to graphics workstations and supercomputers. With new features and functionality designed to increase the level of graphics quality and realism, the OpenGL 1.4 specification represents the latest enhancement to the industry's leading cross-platform 2D and 3D graphics API. OpenGL 1.4 implementations are expected to be available for various platforms later this year. The OpenGL 1.4 specification evolved with input from both the OpenGL ARB, an independent consortium, and interested additional participants, reflecting predominant trends in the graphics industry. The ARB's process of enhancing OpenGL includes evaluating and determining which features proposed by ARB members should be incorporated and officially supported within the API. In OpenGL 1.4, several additional features and functions have been ratified and brought into the API's core functionality. "We are proud of the global acceptance OpenGL has earned in its 10-year history, as evidenced by the broad range of hardware vendors and independent software vendors that rely on its cross-platform functionality and depth of graphics quality. We are also pleased that the ARB is delivering on its intention to provide a new specification every year, and OpenGL 1.4 is the latest proof point," said Shawn Underwood, director of marketing, SGI. New OpenGL 1.4 Core Features at-a-Glance * Depth textures and shadow textures, enabling real-time shadows and related image-based rendering techniques * Vertex programming framework, setting the stage for user-defined geometry, lighting and shading programs and enabling high-level general-purpose shading languages * Automatic texture mipmap generation, providing rapid updates and high-quality texture filtering for dynamic textures * Numerous smaller enhancements including: -- Multiple draw arrays, for higher geometry throughput -- Window raster position, for precise 2D and image rendering -- User-defined fog coordinate, for advanced fog effects -- User-defined secondary color, point parameters, texture level-of-detail bias, texture crossbar, and new frame buffer blending modes and stenciling functions for more flexible shading and rendering effects Most Widely Adopted Graphics Standard With more than 60 hardware developer licensees, OpenGL has the broadest industry support of any openly licensed graphics API. In 1992, SGI formed the industry-wide ARB that now governs the evolution and ongoing development of OpenGL, a technology originally created by SGI, as an open, platform-independent standard for professional-quality 3D graphics. The 13 voting members of the OpenGL ARB are 3Dlabs, Apple, ATI, Dell Computer Corporation, Evans & Sutherland, Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM Corp., Intel Corp., Matrox Graphics, Inc., Microsoft Corp., NVIDIA, Sun Microsystems and SGI. Other ARB participants include Discreet, Id Software, NEC, Quantum 3D, SONICblue and the University of Central Florida. In addition to the voting members and participants, OpenGL is universally licensed throughout the graphics hardware developer community. Platforms supporting OpenGL include AIX®, HP-UX®, IRIX® OS, Linux® OS, Mac® OS X, Microsoft® Windows® 2000 and Windows® XP OS, Solaris(TM) operating environment (OE) and many other operating systems. More information on OpenGL 1.4 and its supporters will be made available on the OpenGL Web site at http://www.opengl.org . "With the advancements in depth and shadow textures, plus increased flexibility in shading and rendering, the increased value of OpenGL 1.4 will soon be seen in dynamic software development," said Neil Trevett, senior vice president of market development for 3Dlabs. "While 3Dlabs develops OpenGL API-based silicon for the PC, we are committed to the concept and future development of the OpenGL cross-platform API standard as the only truly open standard that will determine the future feature set of graphics programs." "OpenGL 1.4 brings graphics and visualization developers one step closer to movie-quality images by setting the stage for user-defined shading programs and languages," said Bjorn Andersson, group marketing manager for graphics and visual media at Sun Microsystems, Inc. "As a contributor to the OpenGL 1.4 specification and having shipped high-quality OpenGL implementations for the Solaris OE since 1996, the high-performance capabilities of OpenGL 1.4 directly benefit customers using Sun's Solaris OE to drive graphics realism to new levels." Future Development As OpenGL prepares to enter its second decade, the foundation for the next generation of graphics is being readied. OpenGL will be advanced, appropriately, via the open industry consortium that has ensured its continued significance in the graphics industry. The ARB has already started working toward enhancing OpenGL with a higher-level language that will impact programmability of current and future graphics architectures while still maintaining full backwards compatibility. "As SGI celebrates our 20th anniversary and looks forward to 20 more years of providing high-performance computing and visualization solutions for technical and creative users, we anticipate announcing the next major version, OpenGL 2.0, very soon as well. This next version will be instrumental in advancing shaders, the new frontier in cinematic-quality graphics realism," added Estes.