(Note to editors: AGP 3.0 is the name of the technical specification. AGP 8x is the name of the actual technology.)
Intel Developer Forum, San José, Sept. 11, 2002 - Designed to satisfy the performance and scalability needs of today's workstation class graphics applications, Intel Corporation released the final AGP 3.0 specification. (AGP stands for Accelerated Graphics Port). The corresponding AGP 3.0 Design Guide (Rev. 2.0) will also be available this month.
The AGP 3.0 Specification, which defines AGP 8x technology and is an evolutionary migration from AGP 4x, is owned by Intel and offered royalty free to licensing program participants.
Retaining backward compatibility with the older AGP 4x technology, AGP 8x doubles the graphics bandwidth of the AGP interface to 2.1 gigabytes per second (GB/s) which is designed to benefit applications on today's most popular workstation platforms. It is expected to impact the desktop market segment in 2003 as desktop applications become more bandwidth-intensive.
The final specification release milestone, announced today at Intel Developer Forum, Fall 2002 (IDF) in San Jose, Calif., brings to fruition two years of collaborative effort by Intel developers and key graphics vendors. AGP 8x is likely to play a significant role in enhancing high-end workstation graphics performance, employing such resource-intensive applications as volumetric rendering; 3-D animation and modeling; production; and digital content creation, effects and editing. The bandwidth augmentation will prove to be one of the key determinants of the overall performance of the graphics subsystem, motivating designers to write more complex, credible, 3-D-realistic software that will increasingly saturate the interface. For example, it will spur new applications as real-time video editing in that editors will create content with richer and more life-like features.
"Streamlining the artistic feedback loop through enhanced interactivity is paramount to the creative process," said Phil Miller, vice president of Discreet's Animation Products Group. "We are excited about AGP 8x because it has the potential to dramatically accelerate the creation of incredible experiences and effects using such products as 3ds max*. AGP 8x will extend our users' reach into the realm of the impossible, substantially increasing throughput from the CPU workhorse to the graphics adapter that communicates visually with the artist or designer."
Jason Ziller, Intel technology initiatives manager, said "the continuous progression of discrete AGP graphics, from 2x to 4x to 8x, will enable graphics hardware vendors to drive more and more vertices processing and pixel synthesizing capability, and lead the software developer community to deliver superb 3-D characterization, digital content creation, editing, and production."
Intel plans to launch two chipsets supporting AGP 8x for both dual processor and uni-processor workstations in the fourth quarter of 2002. A variety of systems and boards based on these chipsets, as well as AGP 8x graphics cards, are displayed this week at IDF in the Workstation Technology Showcase. Intel intends to follow these workstation platforms with a mainstream desktop chipset for back-to-school 2003.
AGP 8x technology is intended to be the last parallel interface step that meets the industry's requirements before transitioning to a PCI Express-based serial graphics solution in 2004. The PCI Express architecture is a high-speed, general-purpose, serial I/O interconnect that provides a unifying standard, consolidating a number of I/O interconnects within a platform.
The final 1.0 revision of the AGP 3.0 specification may be viewed at http://developer.intel.com/technology/agp.
About IDF
The Intel Developer Forum is the technology industry's premier event for hardware and software developers. Held worldwide throughout the year, IDF brings together key industry players to discuss cutting-edge technology and products for PCs, servers, communications equipment, and handheld clients. For more information on IDF and Intel technology, visit http://developer.intel.com.
Intel is 's werelds grootste chipfabrikant en een vooraanstaand producent van personal computer-, netwerk- en communicatieproducten. Meer informatie over Intel is te vinden op: http://www.intel.com/pressroom/.
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