Wave Issue 2004 1/25/00 Article 5-01

***Creative Labs Offers 3D Blaster Annihilator and 3D Blaster
TNT2 Pro Graphics Accelerator to Gateway Performance Customers
(January 20)

Creative Technology announced that Gateway is shipping Creative's
3D Blaster Annihilator graphics accelerator with their
Performance 600 XL PCs as well as their 3D Blaster TNT2 Pro
graphics accelerator in several of its Performance line of PCs.

The 3D Blaster Annihilator features a GPU that moves the 3D
pipeline off the host CPU and onto the graphics card. The single-
chip GeForce 256 processor features the QuadEngine which handles
transform, lighting, setup and rendering, generating 15 million
polygons/second, and the 256-Bit QuadPipe rendering engine, which
is capable of outputting 480 million fully filtered pixels/second
performance. By integrating transform and lighting, the GeForce
256 delivers two to four times the triangle rate for dramatically
enhanced 3D scenes. The GeForce 256 chipset frees up host CPU
overhead substantially, resulting in more realistic object
behaviors and character animation.

The Creative 3D Blaster Annihilator delivers 32MB of ultra-fast
memory and AGP 4X support with Fast Writes, which enables the
host PC to send data directly to the NVIDIA processor. This
eliminates the need to write data to main memory, which typically
yields slower graphics performance. A 350MHz RAMDAC delivers
sharp, solid image quality at 2048 x 1536 resolution at 75Hz, and
the 256-Bit 2D Rendering Engine delivers fast 2D performance at
high resolutions and 32-bit color depths.

Based on the next generation of TNT2 architecture from NVIDIA,
the 3D Blaster TNT2 Pro graphics accelerator combines both
performance and image quality, targeting customers looking for
high-end graphics performance with a digital flat panel display.
Creative designed a custom configuration of this graphics card,
which features the DVI-I (Digital Visual Interface) video
connector. This version of the 3D Blaster TNT2 Pro offers a
single DVI-I video output connector. This connector system
supports both digital flat panel and/or analog displays over a
single connector.

Features, such as, full 32-bit color rendering, multiple textures
as large as 2048 x 2048, bump-mapping, full-screen anti-aliasing,
and stencil buffering, deliver performance and 3D imagery.
Combining 128-bit architecture and a patented TwiN-Texel dual-
pipeline 3D rendering engine, the 3D Blaster TNT2 Pro delivers
power and performance for gameplay. It also supports high
resolutions and refresh rates with 32MB of high-performance
synchronous memory and a 300 MHz DAC for pixel-perfect color.

The 3D Blaster TNT2 Pro supports software DVD decoders with
hardware-based color and pixel format conversion. The graphics
engine delivers performance, while programmable gamma tables
optimize image quality for both text and image-based
applications. A provided adapter cable allows users to connect
the 3D Blaster TNT2 Pro to either analog or digital flat panel
displays.

www.creative.com