The WAVE Report on Digital Media
3D --- Media Creation --- Shared Space
Published by 4th Wave, Inc.
Issue #726 10/01/97
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CONTENTS

726.1 Quick News
726.2 Conference Report – Microsoft Professional Developer’s Conference
726.3 Points to Ponder – Windows Complexity, Ease of Use and Scalability
726.4 Company Profile – Dynamic Pictures
726.5 Facility Review – Ontario Mills
726.6 Book Overview – How to Grow Your Business on the Internet
726.7 Book Overview – Michael Abrash’s Graphics Programming Black Book
726.8 3Dlabs Reports Preliminary Third Quarter 1997 Results

726.1 Quick News
By Christina Person, Jonathan Sunberg, and Malisa Burkeen

MetaCreations Ports Final Effects to Digital Fusion
(September 12)

eyeon Software's (a partner with Digital Processing Systems) Digital Fusion application on Windows NT will gain Final Effects plug-ins for running natively on Intel and DEC Alpha CPUs in late 1997. These plug-ins will offer video and animation special effects tools including particle systems. Users will be able to generate fire, smoke, rain, explosions, transitions, dramatic color shifts on background elements and distortion effects. Digital Fusion is an advanced resolution-independent, composing, image processing and special effects environment for film and video image post-production. Performance enhancements include increased operational speed and the addition of z-depth coordinates to allow for the creation of 3-D-like particle explosions and illuminations. Final Effects, currently available only for Adobe Affect Effects for Macintosh, Windows/NT, will now become available for use on Digital Fusion Windows NT and DEC Alpha platforms and will cost $695.

http://www.metacreations.com

http://www.eyeonline.com/Support/Help/dfusionVideo_Input_and_Output.html
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Oak Gets Design Win from SANYO
(September 12)

SANYO Technosound, a division of SANYO Electric Co., Ltd. will be entering the consumer PC market with the WARP 5 3D graphics and Audia3D audio solutions.

http://www.oaktech.com

http://www.sanyo.co.jp/

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E3 Ends Run in Atlanta after 1998
(September 17)

The Electronic Entertainment Exposition (E3 Expo) bowed to the impact on attendance in Atlanta this year and announced that it will return to Los Angeles May 13 to 15, 1999 for a five-year run. This was announced by the show's owner, the Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA). The 1998 E3 will be held again in Atlanta at the G.W.C.C. from May 28 to 30, 1998.

http://www.e3expo.com/

http://www.e3expo.com/idsa/idsa.html

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Virage and SGI Create Video Management Solution
(September 15)

Silicon Graphics and Virage, Inc. will combine the Virage Media Management System and the Silicon Graphics StudioCentral asset management system so that large libraries of video tapes and multimedia content can be cataloged automatically. The combined products will provide a media management system to search, find and manage content from a Web browser. The product is targeted at broadcasters, post-production houses, Fortune 500 media production work-groups, stock houses and advertising agencies working with large videotape and multimedia libraries. The StudioCentral developer kit is currently shipping and available at $7500 US list. The Virage Media Management System on StudioCentral will be available calendar Q1/1998. Pricing and configuration bundles for this product are not yet available.

http://www.virage.com

http://www.sgi.com

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NDS Selects Zenith Digital Set-Top-Boxes For Deployment With Its New Digital Broadcasting Systems
(September 15)

NDS has selected Zenith Electronics Corporation to supply digital set-top-boxes for its digital video system, code named Mummy Bear. The Zenith World Box is designed and configured to work with NDS software, conditional access and headend products. Project Mummy Bear is a complete end-to-end digital broadcasting system, which supports up to one-million subscribers.

http://www.zenith.com
http://www.ndsworld.com ---- 7-Eleven Puts Internet Stations in Seattle (September 15) 7-Eleven has introduced Internet stations in eight Seattle-area stores in conjunction with U S WEST Communications. The Internet stations allow customers to access e-mail, the World Wide Web and on-line services. The terminals are menu-driven and connected to the Internet via an Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN).Customers can activate the terminals with the swipe of a credit card. The cost is 35 cents per minute or blocks of time for $2.95 for the first 10 minutes (30 cents per minute) and $1.95 for each additional 10 minutes (20 cents per minute).

http://www.7-11.com

http://www.uswest.com

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PixelPutty Animation System Version 2.0 Released for Power Macintosh
(September 15)

Pixels PixelPutty Animation System is now shipping for Power Macintosh. Version 2.0 includes fully integrated texturing/rendering, and similar integration of animation, modeling and rendering system, an improved look and feel, forward kinematics, and improved workflow. The approximate price for the PixelPutty Animation System is $499. Upgrade pricing varies. A studio version, which includes the PixelPutty Animation System version 2.0, PixelRender and unlimited priority technical support, is available for $999.

http://www.pixels.net/

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Virtual World Shutters San Diego Site
(September 22)

One week ago Virtual World closed the San Diego site permanently. This leaves only one site as standalone – Indianapolis. All the other US sites have been combined with Dave & Busters or other operators.

http://www.virualworlds.com

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USGS Topographic Maps Now on CD-ROM
(September 15)

Earthvisions has released its product called the US Terrain Series (version 1.22) with G-REF for Maryland and DC which has 275 maps. The CD-ROM includes 7.5 minute maps in both 1:24,000 and 1:100,000 scales. USGS paper maps typically sell for around $5-$6 per map. Earthvisions' CD has over 200 maps for $99 versus $1,000 for paper maps. There is a working demo of one map along with all the navigational tools available from their web site. To date, Earthvisions has released Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Maine, New Jersey, Delaware, California and Wisconsin. By the end of September, New York and Pennsylvania will be released. The company is in the process of completing the entire country.

http://www.earthvisions.com

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Sub $500 PC Announced
(September 15)

Micro Electronics, Inc. is now selling a fully functional multimedia PC which will be priced at $499 throughout the U.S. Available through its nationwide chain of large-format computer stores, Micro Center's PowerSpec model 1660 is a Cyrix MediaGX-based machine running at 166MHz with a 1-Gigabyte hard drive, floppy drive, and CD-ROM drive and 33.6KB Fax/Modem, as well as speakers, keyboard, mouse, and integrated sound and video. A monitor must be purchased separately. Elitegroup, the third-largest motherboard manufacturer in the world, manufactures the motherboard. The system includes a full 1-year on-site parts and labor warranty. The system comes fully preloaded with Microsoft's Windows '95, Microsoft Works, Microsoft Money Home Banking Edition, and Microsoft's Windows Entertainment Pack.

http://www.microcenter.com

http://www.cyrix.com

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ATI's 3D RAGE PRO AGP Chip Scores Design Wins
(September 15)

ATI Technologies Inc. has stated that its 3D RAGE PRO Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) chip has been selected by IBM for the Aptiva(R) L Series, with up to 300 MHz second-generation Pentium(R) II processors and in three models of the Aptiva S Series machines. The chip will also be used in Dell OptiPlex(TM) GXa business systems, Compaq Computer's Presario(R) AGP systems and in AGP systems from Acer.

Sony Electronics has also selected ATI's All-In-Wonder graphics accelerator & TV tuner board for its new VAIO PCV-220 (266MHz Pentium II with MMX & 32MB RAM) & PCV-240 (300MHz Pentium II with MMX & 64MB) tower computers. This includes ATI's 3D RAGE PRO Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) chip with 4MBs of SGRAM.

The current OEM wins include:

IBM
Compaq
Dell
Acer
Sony
AST

http://www.atitech.com/

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VideoLogic Reduces Prices of Apocalypse
(September 22)

The prices for an entry level Apocalypse 3D based on the original PowerVR NEC PCX1 is now $79.99 and the bundle includes four games (Ultim@te Race, Mech Warrior 2, Revolte and Cyber Gladiators). The Apocalypse 3Dx with a price of $159.99 is based on the PowerVR NEC PCX2 chip. It is bundled with 5 PowerVR games including Tomb Raider (OEM version), WipeOut XL, Ultim@te Race (new three track), MechWarrior 2 and Terracide (OEM version). The Apocalypse 5D is a 2D/3D combination that uses the PowerVR NEC PCX2 and ET6100 from Tseng Labs fits into on a single slot PCI Plug and Play card. The Apocalypse 5D is available in 6MB (4MB SDRAM texture memory and 2MB MDRAM graphics memory) and 8MB (4MB SDRAM and 4MB MDRAM) options. The Apocalypse 5D 6MB version has a suggested price of $269.99 and the 8MB version has a suggested price of $299.99.

All registered customers of Apocalypse 3D can upgrade to the new Apocalypse 3Dx pack for $99. All customers of 3Dfx(R) based cards, such as the Righteous 3D from Orchid and Monster 3D from Diamond Multimedia can upgrade to the new Apocalypse 3Dx for $129 upon proof of purchase.

http://www.videologic.com

---- Unigraphics to Support Logitech Magellan 3D Controller (September 23) EDS Unigraphics will support Logitech's MAGELLAN 3D Controller in Unigraphics V14. Logitech's MAGELLAN (in Europe known as the "SpaceMouse") offers leading-edge opto-electronic technology that allows for optimal manipulation of objects or graphics in as many as six degrees of freedom simultaneously. It is used in 3D applications in conjunction with a normal mouse. Fingertip pressure on the spring-mounted cap is sufficient to provide translation and rotation information to the computer.

http:http://www.eds.com

http://www.eds.com

http://www.logitech.com/

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DoD Goes for 3D Display (September 23)
Infinity Multimedia, Perceptronics & Litton have received a Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) which was issued by DOD's Simulation, Training and Instrumentation Command (STRICOM). This effort is to develop software for DOD's High Level Architecture (HAL) for widely distributed players to interact in a simulated exercise or game that uses Infinity/Litton's patented 28-view 3-D display. This monitor offers true 3-D imagery without special glasses or head tracking. Those units employing the Infinity/Litton 3-D monitor would see their views in real 3-D while others with normal computer displays would interact in the same exercise, but viewing in 2-D as they do now. For the entertainment business, the research will develop technology for the economical networking of interactive games in a true 3-D environment. It allows for players and viewing non-players to each obtain all the information required to generate their own point of view in true 3-D.

http://www.infinitymultimedia.com/
Infinity Multimedia International Inc. (818)981-4950
Perceptronics, Inc. 21010 Erwin Street, Woodland Hills, CA 91367 (818)884-7470 (818)348-0540 FAX
http://www.litton.com/

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3Dfx Will Exchange Hercules Stingray 128 2D/3D for Voodoo (September 24)
3Dfx has responded to an onslaught of user concern about the performance of its Voodoo Rush product as produced by Hercules. The GLQuake community was disappointed with a performance hit of 30% compared to Voodoo. Although 3Dfx was careful to state that the two products are not the same the avid game players saw all Voodoo labeled products as being at the same level. At issue was the frame rate in GLQuake and 3Dfx claims this variation is from 5 – 7 f/s. 3Dfx has prepared new BIOS, device driver and OpenGL driver to address the issues. In spite of these improvements, which narrow the differences between the two chips to 2f/s 3Dfx has taken action. To stem the tide of comments 3Dfx has offered to exchange the daughter cards on the Hercules Stingray products for a Voodoo based chip set. Not addressed in the exchange are the potential concerns by the users of the Jazz Multimedia and Intergraph Voodoo Rush cards.

http://www.3dfx.com
---- 726.2 Conference Report – Microsoft Professional Developer’s Conference (PDC) San Diego, CA – Sept. 22-26,1997 By John Latta This conference was about Windows NT 5.0 and the future of Windows. In a nutshell Microsoft is building Windows to be a scalable distributed OS. After Windows 98 there will be only one Windows for the desktop and this will be based on NT. Windows CE 1.0 is a weak and narrowly focused OS and at the PDC Version 2.0 was rolled out – a vast improvement but it still has shortcomings.

The conference was packed into the relatively small San Diego Convention Center. It was straining with 6,500 attendees. If you came expecting to sign up on site Sold Out signs were posted to the disappointment of procrastinators. The conference was sold out 3 weeks before it began.

Windows NT 5.0

In an awkward juxtaposition Bill Gate’s keynote was the last event on Friday at the end of the show. The WAVE Report did not stay until Friday. In each of the days there was a keynote.

Paul Maritz, Group Vice President, Platforms and Applications kicked off the conference. He introduced Windows DNA (Distributed Network Applications) as the next generation of Windows. He positioned it as important as the 1992 roll out of the 32-bit version of Windows where the framework for Windows 95 and NT was laid out. There are three components in DNA that provide the basis for future application development: user interface and navigation, business processes and integrated storage. The integration of the DNA services is tied together with a refined version of COM now called COM+. This allows for greater reusability of code, works with all languages and includes support functions that will make development easier.

In spite of the proclamations that DNA is the next generation of Windows we found DNA poorly articulated. Microsoft passed out a book with 10 strategic white papers and DNA was not even mentioned. Subsequent talks had elements of DNA, yet, the compelling reasons why this is important and how it will impact the future of computing were no more evident later in the PDC. When asked at the news conference what DNA is, Paul responded that it is both a response to Java and that it has new elements – of which we take COM+ to be the foundation.

Windows NT 5.0 is a major step forward by being a distributed operating system. At its core are the distributed services (DS). These include OS management, Active Directory, Security, Networking and Base Services including the Distributed File Services (DFS). Active Directory is the implementation of the distributed file system. Integrated is a security model with keys and other protections for clients, servers and the enterprise. The DFS includes replicas, Intellimirror client side caching and the configuration information in the directory. At the center of DFS is Active Directory. It is a directory service that can be replicated and partitioned. It is also based on X.500, DNS and LDAP. The directory is also a distributed database. Replication is supported to enable higher availability, locality and load balancing. Thus, the directory is an embedded part of the OS. In a broader context, the infrastructure of the computing environment is embedded into the OS.

There are other extensions to Windows NT 5.0 and these include Plug and Play, Power Management, a consistent device driver model with WDM, and hardware scalability. On the file side features such as disk quotas, multilevel storage infrastructure, hot-spot and volume management have been added. The OS is also multilingual with Unicode support. Multiple languages can be supported at the same time within a client. TCP/IP is the default networking including support for Unicast, Multicast and NAT. There is a new application installer which addresses many of the problems of installing and removing applications. DirectX is embedded in the OS and Microsoft recommends that NT 5.0 as the development platform of choice for DirectX.

Future Direction of Windows

Microsoft is also positioning its OS offerings for the future of a single desktop to enterprise operating system. Windows 98 was described, as an "exciting upgrade for consumers" while Windows NT 5.0 is the premier OS for business. In the post 1998 time frame, broadly stated as 1999+ it was announced that Windows 98 would be "NT Technology" thus, the DOS legacy would disappear and there would be a common OS foundation.

Jim Allchin, Senior VP for Personal & Business Systems Group stated it succinctly – Windows NT 5.0 is a " bet your company on it" OS.

The future timeline for Windows NT 5.0 was not disclosed. In fact, the timetable for Beta 2 was stated to be set only after the comments from Windows NT 5.0 Beta 1 had been evaluated (a copy was released at the conference on the last day). It has been widely speculated that NT 5.0 would be released in mid-1998, however, given the early state of much of the Beta and the fact that many of the features are not included in it, any assumption about which quarter Windows NT will ship in 1998 or even get delayed to 1999 is highly speculative at this point.

Interesting Windows Statistics

Some interesting statistics were released.

100M 32bit Windows have been shipped 4M Windows developers generate $100M in revenue 100,000 Windows NT Servers are being sold per month 1M Windows NT Servers sold in the last 12 months 8,232 Windows NT Applications Since its introduction Windows 95 has sold an average of 4M copies/month Windows NT has sold 7M copies Shipments of Windows NT have tripled since Windows NT 4.0 100,000 Applications run on Windows 27,000 Microsoft Certified Systems Engineers 85% of all clients on Internet are Windows Code Base for Windows NT NT 3.1 – 6M lines of code NT 4.0 – 16.5M lines of code NT 5.0 Beta 1 – 27M lines of code Time to do a Build of NT X86 X4 Processor System with 200MB of Memory – 11 hours A New Build of NT 5.0 is done very day Development Team for NT 5.0 400 Development 400 Test 150 UI 250 International Versions 100 Program Management Windows NT 5.0 Testing 1,400 Printers 405 Video Cards/Controllers 2600 Modems

Putting Windows NDA Together

David Vaskevitch, Vice President for Database and Transaction Engines, best articulated the potential for Windows DNA and the future of computing. He described the evolution of computing as taking place in 20-year cycles. The attributes of each cycle include geography, users, connection, servers, personal applications, and application architecture. In the 1990’s we are at the beginning of the next major 20-year shift with the movement to computing which is everywhere, there are millions connected, servers can be transitory, personal applications can include many media related uses (aside from what we associate with computing today). The questions he posed about the evolution of the next 20-year cycle included interfaces, objects, storage, centralization, scale and frameworks. In each case he laid out the contrasts in issues facing computing. For example, the question was asked: Pages or Code. Pages being a reference to HTML constructs and code being an expression of how to interface with the user with programming. His answer was the combination of Dynamic HTML and Visual Tools in what David described as "Hyper Intelligent Pages." His proposition is that it is the union of both in a rich expression of DHTML and visual programming languages that will form the basis for constructing the user interface. In another dilemma he asked the question: should storage be Islands of Data or a Warehouse of Data in the Sky? Again his solution was the union in what he described as Integrated Storage. In each example, David sought to show the role of Windows DNA and how it provides a foundation of the future of computing. David spoke for 2 hours and provided a compelling overview of how Windows and its development environment will provide the basis for computing for the next 10+ years.

Windows CE 2.0

Also announced at the PDC was Windows CE 2.0. Officially this will be rolled out at the Embedded Systems West the week of 1 October. CE 2.0 is a major step forward. Windows CE is a totally new OS – written from the start to leverage the Windows 32 bit API without the old legacy requirements of DOS or 16 bit applications.

Microsoft positions Windows CE as providing a platform for non-PC devices based on a familiar software development environment. Another part of the strategy is to enable OEMs , IHVs and ISVs to develop new categories of devices.

The architecture now includes support for device drivers including streaming and PnP cards, systems with and without a display, color displays, file system support, communications including TCP/IP, Active X and user interface shells. There will be an IE for CE. The OS is configurable on a component by component basis. Microprocessors supported include MIPS 3900, MIPS 4XXXX, SH3, 486, Pentium, and PowerPC. Support for MIPS 16, StrongARM and ARM is coming in Q1 1998.

The minimum memory requirements would allow the OS to fit into 128K of ROM and an application within <32K of RAM. However, a more practical size would be 2MB in ROM. Software emulator is available, which runs on Windows NT.
Post OS 2.0 features will include USB, FastIR, consumer IR, handwriting recognition and DirectX (Q1 1998).

Windows CE 2.0 is only an OEM product with the licensing details negotiated on a case by case basis. Microsoft did not disclose any pricing.

Key to the development of Windows CE applications are the tool kit. However, in the tool session Microsoft would not define when the tools will be available for 2.0.

A CE topic that surfaced frequently was its support of real time applications and functionality. Microsoft skirted the issue by asking what is real time? It stated at the worst case response, under the proper configuration is 150ms. Microsoft also stated that CE would soon be seen in embedded controllers. It appeared that a number of attendees were disappointed by Microsoft’s lack of response to the real time issues. Microsoft also stated that it would have a white paper on real time on its web site in the next week after the conference.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsdna/
http://www.microsoft.com/msdn/

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726.3 Points to Ponder – Windows Complexity, Ease of Use and Scalability By John Latta We came away from the Microsoft PDC struck by the complexity of what is unfolding. The potential of a distributed OS is only matched by its complexity. On one hand Microsoft touts ZAW (Zero Administration Windows) to ease the administration burden and a new installer to make it easy to add and delete new applications and on the other hand one is faced with Active Directory. Embedded security in Active Directory and client level security can easily create a user and administrative nightmare. To ease the burden Microsoft was showing the Microsoft Management Console, yet this only seems to be part of the tools which will be necessary to cope with the complexity. All of this complexity may be the price to pay for a scalable OS that supports millions as David Vaskevitch described. Yet, we wonder if the lowly Windows CE user connected on a wireless link can be masked from the underlying infrastructure? Maybe, but how the complexity impacts the scope of what Microsoft is seeking to accomplish remains to be seen.

Before we went to the PDC the WAVE Report was also at the Oracle Open World ’97 conference in Los Angeles. The keynote, on Monday – "Sun Day," was given by Scott McNealy, Chairman and CEO of Sun Microsoft. This was a barely informative talk laced with jokes about Microsoft and NT. Not to be left out was Scott’s top 10 list. The talk had minimum technical information. One was left with the impression that Scott fits better in a David Letterman role than a leader of a technical company. Yet, Sun continues to shape solutions in enterprise network computing and is approaching a $10b company, as Scott said. However, in total context, the future of companies seeking to shape the computing market is both about leadership and IP (intellectual property). On the IP side Windows is an impressive juggernaut. For example, we regard it as highly unlikely that Sun has created 10M new lines of code for Solaris in the last 18 months, as Microsoft has done during the transition from Windows NT 4.0 to Windows NT 5.0 Beta 1. Sun may argue that with pure Java it is more efficient but it certainly appears that Microsoft will continue to set the directions of computing with Windows and not Solaris. In spite of Microsoft continually being late in its deliveries it is enlarging its code base and IP which will shape applications and opportunities for IHVs and ISVs.

Scott McNealy made a point that Office 97 is a 250MB "fur ball." The code may be bloated but with the continuing declines in hard drive costs users seem to hardly care – unless they are running on old computers. More importantly Microsoft has it right in putting the emphasis on ease of use and the "user experience." Yet Scott ignored the issue that there are conflicts in attempting to decrease the size of the code base while making computers easier to use. Few claim that UNIX is easy to use. At the PDC it was clear that another wave (pun intended) of complexity is approaching. Yet, will the uses have to put up with the fa�ade of a slick user interface only to find that it is burdened with an underlying complexity that limits use. It remains to be seen how the future of computing will unfold as Microsoft continues to struggle with lowering its support costs as a new era of complexity approaches.

The vision of a scalable computing infrastructure from a wallet PC to massive networks of distributed computers a is mind leap into the next century. Yet, we came away under whelmed by the lack of vision for Windows CE. At the WAVE Report we have written about Application Specific PCs and the potential for PCs on a chip, driven in part by National Semiconductor and Cyrix. Windows CE is the beginning of a platform that can make scalable anywhere, anytime and any function possible. Yet, we were struck by the narrow view of the potential of this platform. Maybe the Microsoft law that it takes 3 of anything to get it right is applicable with Windows CE. ---- 726.4 – Company Profile – Dynamic Pictures by John Latta

The WAVE Report met with Dinesh Sharma, VP of Marketing and Daniel Shaprio, Director of Marketing to learn more about Dynamic Pictures. The company heritage extends to DEC when its principals led a team to develop the DEC PixelStamp 3D graphics processor in 1991. In 1993 the company was formed and continued to develop the ZLX technology. Its first generation technology as Dynamic Pictures was the V192 based 3D accelerator card which was sold to DEC, NEC and NeTpower.

In 1996 the second-generation card based on the Oxygen series was introduced. Dynamic Pictures feels that an advantage to its approach is the scalability of the design. This is reflected in the Oxygen based cards: 102, 202, and 402 that have respectively 1, 2 and 4 rasterizer chips. The rasterization is accomplished by segmenting the display area. The company takes the unusual position of not stating performance figures for its cards. It claims that most numbers cited in the industry do not relate to actual performance. In a multiple chip configuration each Oxygen chip uses its own SDRAM memory but outputs to a common VDAC with different regions of the frame buffer.

Dynamic Pictures has the first multithreaded implementation of OpenGL that they call PowerThread and it works only on the Oxygen. The implementation is a continuation of the segmentation already present in the rasterizer. That is, an independent CPU is required for each Oxygen card to parallelize the geometry calculations. PowerThreads allows a CPU to communicate with multiple Oxygen chips. PowerThreads will be integrated into the Oxygen 3.0 drivers which are expected to ship late Q4. Given the method by which both PowerThreads work and Oxygen segments the display screen, there will be no impact on the ISV applications to use the capabilities of PowerThreads.

Dynamic Pictures has carved out a position in the DCC (Digital Content and Creation) market. It claims a significant portion of the accelerator market for Softimage on NT. The company takes pride in the fact that it is responsible for all elements of making a successful card for the end user: chip, card and drivers. As Dinesh described it "We have complete control of the technology." Formal certification is represented for EDS Unigraphics, PTC, Softimage and SDRC. Further, the cards have been extensively tested on: Kinetix, SolidWorks, MacNeal-Schwendler, Lightscape and Bentley. Dinesh Sharma stressed the reputation the company has in providing the most consistent and reliable products for the 3D professional. With many of the users on NT coming from the UNIX environment they have come to expect a degree of support which professionals are accustomed. It is this standard that Dynamic Pictures feels they meet.

The company has set up a channel for its products, which includes 150 VARs and SIs.

On September 22 the company announced new pricing for its cards:

Oxygen 102 $799
Oxygen 202 $1,699
Oxygen 402 $2,999

The company received venture funding from Vanguard Venture Partners, Canaan Partners and APV Technology Partners in May 1996.

http://www.dynamicpictures.com

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726.5 – Facility Review – Ontario Mills
by John Latta

The melding of retail with entertainment is best illustrated at the new mall called Ontario Mills. Located at the intersection of I-10 and I-15 near the Ontario Airport in Southern California it has 1.7m square feet of retail space. It is 30 minutes from Disneyland and 45 minutes from Downtown LA. During the first 45 days there were 4.5 million visitors and its expected to have 15 million in the first year of operation. Located at Ontario Mills are both a Dave & Busters and Gameworks installation. We see the combination of high traffic centers, retail and entertainment as being at the center of new entertainment venues. One only has to walk Ontario Mills to see how the line between shopping and entertainment are increasingly becoming blurred. In the end it is all about extracting money from the consumers pockets and at the same time having a positive after effect so that they return.

We visited both Dave & Busters and Gameworks shortly after lunch time on a Monday. Certainly not the best time to do a survey. Even with this limitation we offer the following:

Gameworks
Total Customers in Facility = 61
Those in the Restaurant = 6
Players of Classic Games = 6
Players of Internet Terminals = 1
Visible Staff = 16

Davd & Busters
Total in the Midway = 51
60,000 Square Feet
New at Ontario Mills – Turbo Ride Theater

We did the usual sampling of prices and compared this to our database of other visits. The Internet stations at Gameworks cost $12/hour and were hardly being used. At Gameworks we noted the following:

Sega Rally
Ontario $1.00
Seattle $1.25

Sega The House of the Dead
Ontario $1.25
Seattle $1.50

Sega Virtua Fighter 3
Ontario $1.00
Seattle $1.25
Seattle $1.50 (First Visit)

This is part of a trend of the lowering of the prices, although some prices had not changed between facilities.

At Dave & Busters we noted the following:

Virtuality
Ontario $2.86
England $6.87

Sega Virtua Fighter 3
Ontario $.93
England $1.76

Namco Time Crisis
Ontario $1.05
England $1.89

Namco Propcycle
Ontario $1.00
England $1.93

On many of the pieces in Ontario Mills the prices were approximately � those in Birmingham, England.

We see the softening of prices, especially at Gameworks, as an important indicator. That is, as play rates soften the best way to raise usage is by lowering the price to play. At Dave & Busters we see the high prices in England as being unsustainable. It is also clear that Virtuality has gone off the cliff in play.

The WAVE Report has been critical of the high cost to play and facilities we see as not tuned to the interests of the public. In spite of the fact that new facilities continue to surface, practically on a monthly basis, it is far too early to assess sustainability. Seeing a dropping of cost per play is an important indicator that play rates are falling off faster than the operators would like. We also noted that there were only a few new games. This is symptomatic of the slow rate of new game titles coming to market in the coin-op industry.

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726.6 – Book Overview – How to Grow Your Business on the Internet, 3rd Edition, Coriolis Group of Books, Vince Emery, $29.99.
by John Latta

In 720 pages this book covers most topics related to business on the Internet. From the use of e-mail to EDI there are 25 chapters that cover most aspects of have a network presence in business. The book is light on illustrations but heavy on works and explanation. For those just looking into business on the Internet this book provides many hints, tricks and topics to watch out for.
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726.7 – Book Overview – Michael Abrash’s Graphics Programming Black Book, Special Edition, Coriolis Group of Books, Michael Abrash, $59.99.

Without a doubt Michael Abrash is the leading programmer and author in graphics programming. This book takes a wheelbarrow to move around at 1,378 pages. It contains a wealth of information, opinions and insights. This book is a collection of his writings that includes the Zen of Graphics Programming, 2nd Edition and the Zen of Assembly Language. Equally as important there are 20,000 new words on the development of Quake. A must for any graphics programmer and especially those programming in 3D.

---- 726.8 3Dlabs Reports Preliminary Third Quarter 1997 Results (October 1)
3Dlabs Inc. Ltd. today announced that based on preliminary estimates, 1997 third quarter results will be lower than analysts' expectations. Revenues in the third quarter of 1997 are expected to be approximately $13.6 million compared with revenues of $5.92 million in the third quarter of 1996, and compared with $17.34 million reported in the second quarter of 1997. Net income for the third quarter of 1997 is expected to be in the range of approximately $1.7 million to $1.9 million, or approximately $0.09 to $0.11 per share, compared with net income of $1.38 million, or $0.11 per share, in the third quarter of 1996, and compared with $6.04 million, or $0.38 per share, reported in the second quarter of 1997.

"We are disappointed with our less than stellar financial performance in the third quarter," said Osman Kent, president and CEO of 3Dlabs. "As we indicated last quarter, we expected our product transition process to continue in the third quarter and we believe a number of temporary factors have contributed to the current shortfall.

Those factors include a very late production ramp-up of PERMEDIA 2 parts at our semiconductor partner combined with higher than anticipated per-unit costs for those parts, as well as delays in the introduction of GLINT MX-based products by our customers, resulting in GLINT revenues in the third quarter being significantly below recent historical levels." Continuing, Kent said, "Despite the shortfall, we are very pleased with the significant design wins we now have with PERMEDIA 2 at leading system OEMs such as
Gateway and Micron, and the momentum we have managed to achieve in the market place as exemplified by the various awards our board level customers have received with the product. We are also happy to see additional OEM momentum with GLINT MX at both Compaq and Dell, who have introduced new PC based workstations using the product in the third quarter. We do not plan to let this temporary situation distract us from the potential market opportunities that we believe we have in front of us. We expect to enter 1998 with a strong product and customer line-up and with most of the recent transition difficulties behind us."

3Dlabs expects to announce its final results for the third quarter of 1997 after the close of markets on October 21, 1997.
http://www.3dlabs.com/

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