Intel MMX(TM) Technology--Press Release

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INTEL RELEASES MMX^(TM) TECHNOLOGY DETAILS TO SOFTWARE COMMUNITY TO DRIVE NEW MULTIMEDIA, GAME AND INTERNET APPLICATIONS

New Technology Garners Broad Industry Support

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF. -- March 5, 1996 -- Intel Corporation today released details to the software community of its MMX technology, a major enhancement to the Intel Architecture. With MMX technology, software developers will deliver a new generation of higher-performance multimedia and communications applications, and further advance the PC as the premier computing and entertainment platform.

The public release of MMX technology allows tools vendors, software developers, independent hardware vendors, and system manufacturers to collaborate and prepare products that will take advantage of the new technology.

"The proliferation of multimedia software, growth of the Internet, and new storage technologies such as DVD allow the PC to continue as a broad-based platform for home and business," said Fred Pollack, an Intel Fellow. "Pentium® processor-based systems were the springboard for innovative multimedia applications. Pentium processors with MMX technology will accelerate the rate of technology innovation."

He said today that the home computing market segment consumes most multimedia software, and within that segment, games, education and entertainment applications are prime candidates to take advantage of MMX technology. MMX technology will be integrated into the Intel Architecture beginning with a Pentium processor code named P55C, which Intel expects to have in initial production in the fourth quarter of this year. MMX technology will also be integrated into succeeding generations of Intel processors. The volume ramp for processors with MMX technology will occur in 1997. A number of software titles using MMX technology will begin appearing later this year, and wide availability is expected in 1997.

Pollack delivered the keynote speech on the opening day of IntermediaWORLD, a venue for software and hardware vendors who provide tools, materials and services used to create interactive digital content and programming. A number of software development vendors outlined plans for tools to support application development with MMX technology. Microsoft discussed plans to provide MMX technology support in its newly announced Direct3D* API, a set of API services for real-time, interactive 3-D graphics; ActiveMovie*, its next-generation video technology; and its Visual C++ compiler. Macromedia, Criterion, IBM, NuMega, and Powersoft were also among leading tool suppliers announcing support. In addition, many key application software, independent hardware, and system vendors indicated today their support for MMX technology. A list of vendors follows this release.

MMX Technology Benefits and Details
In his keynote, Pollack said MMX technology will enhance users' experience on the Internet by enabling higher quality, high-performance technologies for graphics, video and audio. "PCs that use MMX technology will help make it possible for users in the next few years to dial up friends, relatives or colleagues on the Internet with video conferencing equipment, share applications, and watch full-length movies with stereo sound all at once. While we can do this to varying degrees today on specially configured PCs, MMX technology will enable this kind of usage on standard PC platforms at today's popular system price points."

Pollack explained that processor performance improvements are typically derived by boosting clock frequencies and using microarchitecture techniques such as branch prediction, superscalar execution, and superpipelining. In addition to these traditional means, Intel added 57 powerful new instructions to its architecture to speed up certain compute-intensive loops in multimedia and communications applications. While the loops typically occupy 10 percent or less of the overall application code, they can account for up to 90 percent of the execution time.

MMX instructions process multiple data elements in parallel using a technique called Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD). In simulations and preliminary tests on development systems, Pollack said performance benefits have ranged from 50 to 400 percent, depending on the application.

MMX instructions will also scale with succeeding generations of Intel Architecture processors. Once developers integrate the new extensions into their applications, PCs based on multiple Intel processor generations will benefit. Programmers need only modify a small portion of their code to reap performance benefits. They simply include their own enhanced subroutines or call MMX technology-enabled drivers and library routines through existing application programming interfaces (APIs).

Because MMX technology consists of general-purpose instructions, it will enhance performance for a large body of multimedia and communications software and maintain complete compatibility with the Intel Architecture. This technology is also fully compatible with existing operating systems and application software.

Planning for MMX Technology
Developers who are interested in obtaining additional information about MMX technology, including a Programmer's Reference Manual, should consult Intel's site on the World Wide Web at URL http://www.intel.com/pc-supp/multimed/mmx/index.htm.

Intel, the world's largest chip maker, is also a leading manufacturer of personal computer, networking and communications products.

MMX(tm) Technology Tool Provider/Application Developer Statements of Support
Technology Independent Hardware Vendors
Public Relations Contacts

MMX(tm) Technology Tool Provider/Application Developer Statements of Support
March 1996

Microsoft Corporation:

"We're excited about the promise that Intel's MMX(tm) technology brings to multimedia and communications on the PC. Microsoft has been working closely with Intel to best exploit MMX technology in our tools and operating systems software. We will provide MMX technology support in our recently announced Direct3D and ActiveMovie products. We will also ship our Visual C++ compiler with MMX technology support shortly. We believe these APIs and tools provide an excellent path for application ISV's to develop compelling titles using MMX technology. In the future, we expect to find new ways to utilize this technology in Windows, and to make the use of a PC more exciting and compelling," said Paul Maritz, Group Vice President, Platforms, Microsoft Corporation.

Macromedia:

"Macromedia’s authoring tools, used in conjunction with Intel’s MMX(tm) technology, will be a major boom for the multimedia, graphics, video and on-line communities," said Joe Dunn, Macromedia’s vice president of product management. "Macromedia will be working closely with Intel to support MMX technology in our key products including new Director 5."

Adobe:

"Intel’s new MMX(tm) technology represents an exciting step forward that will ultimately benefit our customers with significant performance enhancements that lead to real productivity gains," said Dave Pratt, senior vice president and chief operating officer at Adobe. "We are committed to supporting the MMX technology in future versions of our applications beginning with Adobe Photoshop - the industry standard image editing software, and Adobe PhotoDeluxe - the new digital photo editing application from our consumer products group."

Books That Work:

As the premier publisher of design and visualization products for the home and the garden, Books That Work relies heavily on 3D graphics performance," said Dan Levin, President of Books That Work. "Intel’s new MMX(tm) technology will enable us to build exciting and powerful products that deliver a new level of graphics performance. Books That Work plans to incorporate and support MMX technology in the development of forthcoming software applications."

Criterion Software Inc.:

"Criterion Software is pleased to announce its support and commitment to Intel's new MMX(tm) Technology" said Mike King, Executive Vice President at Criterion. "We are incorporating support for this technology into RenderWare(tm) to enable our 700+ licensed developers to benefit from the faster 3D rendering performance, made possible by the new MMX technology."

Epic MegaGames Inc.:

"For an action game developer wanting to push performance limits, we're very excited about Intel's MMX(tm) technology. It allows us to take PC games to new heights of realism in graphics and sound that were previously not possible."

"By taking advantage of the MMX(tm) instructions, we're able to achieve a 4-times improvement in graphics handling that allows our action games to utilize ultra-realistic 16.7 million color modes where previously we could only use 256 colors."

"With today's best console games already being ported to the PentiumÒ processor, one can just imagine what kind of games are possible with MMX(tm) technology," said Mark Rein, Vice President of Epic MegaGames.

IBM

"Future releases of IBM's Voice Type* products will include support for Intel's Pentium(R) processors with MMX(tm)technologies. The MMX technology, combined with onboard audio capability, will provide enhanced performance without the need for special adapter cards or DSPs.

In addition, MMX technology-enabled platforms will allow developers to incorporate voice recognition in graphically demanding applications such as games, education titles and productivity software. Adding advanced voice recognition capabilities will enaboe users to interact with your applications easily, naturally, and efficiently, keeping their eyes and hands free for essential tasks. "

Intel Corporation - Indeo(R) Video Interactive:

"Intel Corporation will deliver an enhanced version of Indeo(R) video interactive utilizing MMX(tm) technology. This new version of Indeo video interactive will provide developers more headroom to further integrate video into their applications. Multiple video streams, the increased ability to manipulate video ‘sprites’ and larger frame sizes at increased frame rates are just a few of the benefits MMX(tm) technology will provide to applications developers."

Iterated Systems:

"Iterated Systems is glad to be an early supporter of Intel's MMX(tm) technology. By exploiting the capabilities of MMX technology, we expect a rapid and profound performance gain across our line of video and imaging products for network computing. Working with Intel and its development partners, Iterated's imaging tools will enable a new level of graphic communication for users of the Internet and other client-server networks," said John R. Festa, President and CEO of Iterated Systems.

Omniview Inc.:

"Omniview Inc. is pleased to announce its support and commitment to Intel’s MMX(tm) technology," said H. Lee Martin, Omni President and Founder. "Omniview will integrate its 360 degree visualization software, called PhotoBubbles, with MMX technology. In doing so, our customers will be able to widely distribute compelling, photorealistic tours for a multitude of ‘Location on Demand’ applications."

On-Live:

"We believe that MMX(tm) technology will make a huge difference in the performance of our products," said Rod McGregor, CEO of On-Live. "3D applications, such as On-Live place a huge demand on the processing power of PC’s. Even though we are seeing a doubling of performance roughly every 18 months from Intel, we expect MMX technology to represent a quadrupling in performance for our class of applications."

ParaGraph International:

"ParaGraph International will support Intel’s new MMX(tm) technology. Our dream is to create a Virtual Time Machine, which will enable people to travel in history. With MMX technology, we expect to accelerate our rendering and multimedia software by at least a factor of three. This will help make our dreams for Virtual Home Space Builder(tm) and Alter Ego(tm) a reality. Intel’s MMX technology will deliver the R in VR for our customers," said Stephan Pachikov, President and CEO, ParaGraph International.

Pegasus Imaging Corporation:

Pegasus Imaging Corporation plans to develop imaging development kits that use Intel’s MMX(tm) technology to enable high speed viewing and manipulation of graphics and images within multimedia developer’s applications. By developing tools that support MMX technology, our customers will be able to successfully develop and accelerate the availability of compressed color images using Pegasus’ incredible compression for 1 bit to 24 bit images. Pegasus’ support of MMX technology will allow developers to implement better, smaller, and faster color image applications. "We expect that our image decompression and color optimization routines will achieve at least a twofold increase in speed through access of the MMX technology," said Steve Mann, Vice President of Research & Development at Pegasus.

Powersoft Corporation:

"Powersoft Corporation has announced a commitment to deliver a version of Watcom C/C++ that supports Intel’s new MMX(tm) technology. This support will enable development of lightning fast applications that exploit the capabilities of the MMX instruction set and that leverage the industry-leading optimization technology of Watcom C/C++. Watcom C/C++ will feature complete debugging support (including MMX technology register display and the disassembly of MMX instructions) as well as a functional interface from C/C++ that generates in-line MMX instructions."

QSound Labs, Inc.:

"QSound Labs, Inc. is pleased to announce its support and commitment to Intel’s new MMX(tm) technology. QSound Labs plans to incorporate this new technology into its QMixer95 SDK which will enable developers to implement more powerful three dimensional audio processing in their applications. By developing our tools in support of MMX technology, our developer customers will be able to provide superior audio realism on PC’s with MMX technology support."

Vicarious, Inc.:

Vicarious, Inc. is pleased to announce its support and commitment to Intel’s new MMX(tm) technology. Intel’s MMX technology allows us to create reference products that kids can get excited about and will want to use. MMX technology enables us to integrate such features as enhanced video, 3D, and a collaborative Internet experience, which really brings our reference products to life. We plan to be at the forefront of companies delivering products based on MMX technology.

Virage Inc.:

"The new MMX(tm) technology from Intel gives Virage a high performance environment for showcasing our Visual Information Retrieval (VIR) system. Virage is pioneering an entirely new class of search and retrieval capabilities for image-driven markets such as stock photo, ad agencies, multimedia productions companies, medical imaging, and publishers. To be successful, we need an architecture such as the Intel’s MMX technology will enable Virage’s VIR to provide rich, more interactive computing for end users," said Paul Lego, CEO, Virage, Inc.

MMX^(TM) Technology Independent Hardware Vendors
March 1996

Analog Devices Inc.

“We are excited that Intel has adopted multimedia processing as a cornerstone for PC motherboard architecture. Intel’s command of microprocessor and motherboard design, in conjunction with Analog Devices’ broad base of audio, video and communications technologies insures that the dream of Digital Convergence will become a market reality,” said Ray Stata, Chairman & CEO, Analog Devices, Inc.

“MMX technology provides the perfect foundation for signal processing integration into the PC architecture. These instruction set enhancements, together with continuous time oversampling I/O and the intelligent application of hardware acceleration, will produce scaleable multi-audio solutions with standard setting cost structures and many new and useful features on the desktop,” said Dave French, Vice President and General Manager, DSP and Computer Products, Analog Devices Inc.

“MMX technology and multi-audio will make advanced multimedia and communications ubiquitous in the home and in the office,” said John Croteau, Director of Strategic Marketing, Analog Devices Inc. “New PC capabilities such as operating Digital Video Disk players as well as enhanced Internet performance and DSVD-based audio and video conferencing introduce new audio sources requiring advance I/O demand as well as the raw power of MMX technology.”

“MMX technology enables the prolific integration of audio on the PC motherboard. Users are about to encounter low-cost multi-audio solution capable of delivering a new level of performance and value to the PC OEM as well as to the end user,” said Jim Moore, Director of Computer Products, Analog Devices Inc.

ATI

“End-users will experience dramatic improvements in 3D graphics and video performance when using ATI products that have been optimized for Intel’s new MMX™ technology. ATI is working closely with Intel to maximize the benefits of the MMX technology on our 3D RAGE™ and ATI-264VT family of multimedia accelerators. Applications such as video conferencing, 3D gaming and video capture with all benefit from Intel’s MMX technology and ATI accelerators,” said Henry Quan, V.P. Marketing.

Cirrus Logic

“Cirrus Logic believes that Intel’s MMX™ technology will create new marketing opportunities for multimedia solutions that work in conjunction with the host processor. To that end, we see new opportunities for systems optimized to take full advantage of the MMX technology and Cirrus Logic’s silicon solutions,” states George Alexy, senior vice president of marketing for Cirrus Logic.

Creative Labs, Inc.

“Creative Technology eagerly anticipates Intel’s volume shipments of silicon with MMX (tm) technology. Creative has consistently used host based media processing software to reduce the cost of Sound BlasterÔ, 3D BlasterÔ, Modem BlasterÔ, and Share VisionÔ products. We expect to deliver further feature enhancements and cost reductions in Creative’s products by utilizing the MMX instruction set concurrent with volume silicon availability,” said Rich Sorkin, Vice President, Strategic Business Division, Creative Technology, Ltd.

Crystal Semiconductor

“Crystal is pleased to announce its support and commitment to Intel’s new MMX™ technology. Crystal’s plans include the development of integrated circuits and supporting software that are optimized and complementary to this important new technology. We are excited about the opportunity this technology provides to companies such as Crystal to allow new price/performance options for its customers.”

ESS Technologies

“ESS Technology is pleased to announce support and commitment to develop products supporting Intel’s new MMX™ technology and ESS AudioDrive audio mixed-signal processors, end-users’ PC multimedia experience will be significantly enriched.”

"Intel's new MMX technology sets a new baseline for multimedia performance that complements S3's newest generation of 2D and 3D accelerators," said Michael Nell, vice president of corporate marketing, S3. "From this new baseline, S3 will further extend PC multimedia capabilities through hardware acceleration of WaveTable audio, MPEG decoding and video conferencing."

Yamaha

“Yamaha applauds Intel on their introduction of MMX™ technology on all future Pentium® processors. This step demonstrates Intel’s commitment to advancing the performance of multimedia applications. Yamaha has a long history of commitment to improving the Multimedia PC experience and we are excited about working with Intel to develop new audio, graphics and communications hardware and software that can take advantage of the MMX technology.”

Tool ISVs Supporting MMX^(TM) Technology

March 1996

Customer: PR Contact: Phone:

IBM Corp. John Crowe 512-838-9636

Iterated Meredith Kolbe 404-264-8012

Macromedia Mary Leong 415-252-2118

Microsoft Corp. Patti Pierson 503-245-0905

NuMega Technologies, Inc. Bob O’Brien 603-889-2386

Omniview, Inc. Sharon Pound 423-546-7661

PagaGraph International John Poluektov 408-364-7740

Pegasus Imaging Corp. Susan Boda 813-875-7575x316

Personal Library Software Jim Meikeljohn 301-990-1155x233

Powersoft Karen Ali 519-883-6315

PureSpeech Amy Limb 617-441-0000

QSound Christine Anderson 403-291-2492

SuperScape Andrew de Vries 415-772-8431

Virage Elaine Knechtel 415-306-4191

Voxware Lee Feldman 203-497-0015

Applications ISV’s Supporting MMX^(TM) Technology

March 1996

Customer: PR Contact: Phone:

Adobe Therese Bruno 206-470-7568

Books That Work Laura Grams 415-843-4441

Compcore Ron Richter 408-567-0552

Epic MegaGames Mark Rein 905-939-8174

On-Live Trudy Nicolai 408-777-2173

Philips Dictation Manuela Messmer-Wullen 43(1)60101/1563

Vicarious Beth Haas 415-610-8318

Independent Hardware Vendors Supporting MMX^(TM) Technology

March 1996

Customer: PR Contact: Phone:

Analog Devices Mike Stringer 617-246-0444

ATI Brian Hentschel 905-882-2600x8130

Cirrus Logic Connie Duncan 510-226-2346

Creative Technology Ltd. Theresa Pulido 408-428-2329

Crystal Semiconductor Thomas Agler 512-912-3701

ESS Technologies Bill Windsor 510-226-1088x191

S3 Kelly Morris 408-980-5401x3674

Yamaha Sandra Park 415-948-8907

OEM’s Supporting MMX^(TM) Technology

March 1996

Customer: PR Contact: Phone:

Acer Jessica Kersey 408-922-2989

AST Camerone Welch-Thorson 714-727-8858

Compaq Evonne Donaldson 713-374-4463

Digital Judy Carlson 508-264-7974

Dell Jill Shanks 512-728-4984

Escom Dr. Wirsing 49-6252-709-193

Gateway 2000 Craig Nyreen 605-232-2465

Hewlett Packard Larry Sennett 408-553-2916

IBM Mike Gikas 914-697-9711

Micron Raymond Jones 208-463-3612

NEC Michael Wong 415-528-5875

Olivetti Mario Figini 39-125-529986

Packard Bell Michael Goldstein 310-785-0515

SNI Mrs. Doris Schneider 49-821-804-3709

Toshiba Michaela Brehm 714-252-5377

* Legal Information © 1999 Intel Corporation

Customer:	PR Contact:	Phone:
IBM Corp.	John Crowe	512-838-9636
Iterated	Meredith Kolbe	404-264-8012
Macromedia	Mary Leong	415-252-2118
Microsoft Corp.	Patti Pierson	503-245-0905
NuMega Technologies, Inc.	Bob O’Brien	603-889-2386
Omniview, Inc.	Sharon Pound	423-546-7661
PagaGraph International	John Poluektov	408-364-7740
Pegasus Imaging Corp.	Susan Boda	813-875-7575x316
Personal Library Software	Jim Meikeljohn	301-990-1155x233
Powersoft	Karen Ali	519-883-6315
PureSpeech	Amy Limb	617-441-0000
QSound	Christine Anderson	403-291-2492
SuperScape	Andrew de Vries	415-772-8431
Virage	Elaine Knechtel	415-306-4191
Voxware	Lee Feldman	203-497-0015

INTEL RELEASES MMX(TM) TECHNOLOGY DETAILS TO SOFTWARE COMMUNITY TO DRIVE NEW MULTIMEDIA, GAME AND INTERNET APPLICATIONS