3Dlabs Wildcat VP970

3Dlabs Wildcat VP970 ... traditional professional applications with ground-breaking programmability. Wildcat VP sets the standard for traditional mid-range workstation graphics by providing the flexibility to rapidly deliver the latest OpenGL and Direct3D API functionality, programmable anti-aliasing and texture filters, dual 10-bit DACs for flawless color representation and twice the memory bus width, twice the number of simultaneous textures, twice the number of vertex processors and twice the multisampling capability compared to its nearest competitor.

Wildcat VP also adapts many proven CPU architectural techniques to deliver outstanding system performance and flexibility. Wildcat VP's innovative fast task-switching capability provides the power of multiple dedicated graphics engines; designers can move seamlessly among numerous graphics windows for a highly productive workflow, using multiple virtual VPUs. The highly innovative 16-GB virtual memory subsystem of Wildcat VP shatters the limitation of on-board memory by automatically handling huge datasets, while caching essential data for fastest access.

The Wildcat VPUs are the industry's first graphics processors that are programmable from high-order surfaces through to anti-aliased framebuffer pixels - with highly efficient SIMD scalar processor arrays replacing hardwired logic and inflexible register-combiners at critical sections in a highly optimized graphics pipeline. This programmability enables acceleration of non-traditional algorithms such as wavelet-based decompression, ray-tracing engines and RenderMan-like photo-realistic renderers.