MIME-Version: 1.0 Server: WebSTAR/1.3.1 ID/5007 Message-ID: Date: Friday, 21-Nov-97 02:57:45 GMT Last-Modified: Friday, 22-Aug-97 22:55:47 GMT Content-type: text/html Content-length: 8963 Radius Press Release: Radius Launches New High Performance, Low Cost Graphics Card Family

Radius Logo CONTACT:
Bud Koch
Vice President Marketing
Radius, Inc.
408-541-5525
408-541-5271fax
bud_koch@radius.com

Cheryl Landman
Marketing Communications
408-541-5034
408-541-5502fax
cheryl_landman@radius.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE



Radius Launches New High Performance, Low Cost Graphics Card Family

New Product Available Now at $399

Sunnyvale, Calif., August 4, 1997--Radius Inc. (NASDAQ: RDUS), the decade's leader in high-quality graphics products, announced today a 2D/3D graphics accelerator card family called Tempest for price conscious power users. This new family of products will broaden Radius' user base and will complement Radius' award-winning professional product family known as Thunder. The first two products in the Tempest family are named Tempest and Tempest II. Both products are based on 3Dlabs Permedia chip set.

The first Tempest product is designed to add faster processing and smoother image manipulation performance of 2D and 3D imagery to Mac OS-based systems. The product is available immediately and has a North America manufacturer's suggested retail price of $399.

Tempest II is the first Macintosh card that is completely cross-platform between the Macintosh and Microsoft Windows-based systems. The single card can plug into either platform seamlessly maintaining performance and strict high quality requirements. Tempest II will ship in October and will have a manufacturer's suggested retail price of $599. Tempest users who need the cross-platform feature of Tempest II, can purchase an upgrade for $250.

"Radius products are known for high quality, professional-level performance. We want to make these qualities much more affordable and offer the Radius experience to a broader base of customers," said Mark Housley, president and chief executive officer. "Tempest provides professional quality 2D/3D performance at an affordable price -- a benefit that previously only expensive, workstation-level graphics boards could provide."

Tempest is the first Macintosh graphics card based on 3Dlabs, Inc. Permedia and Glint Delta acceleration chip set. By combining these processors with its own technology, Radius has created an acceleration engine with 8 MB of super fast (600 MB/sec) synchronous graphics memory (SGRAM) for video buffering. This implementation yields over 600,000 polygons per second (textured, bilinear filtered per pixel perspective) -- the best in its class. The board can also support 3D plug-ins for Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator as well as modeling, animation and virtual reality modeling language (VRML) applications.

"We've worked with Radius for many years and are pleased with the consistency and quality the company has produced for its customers," said Tony De Young, owner ARTLab, a San Francisco-based Web design agency. "Tempest brings top of the line 2D/3D graphics to the designers or artists who couldn't normally afford to invest in top of the line 2D/3D accelerators. At this low price/performance point, the product should become standard equipment in every designers tool box."

Tempest Features
Tempest is optimized for high quality 3D while providing fast 2D/3D performance. Its memory architecture provides 8MB SGRAM, a 16-bit z-buffer and perspective correct textured mapping memory. Tempest can also be reprogrammed via software for ROM updates. The product supports 8-bit and 16-bit color up to 1600 x 1200 resolution, and 24-bit color up to 1152 x 870. To allow users to choose between more speed or better image quality, Tempest includes two drawing engines for QuickDraw 3D Interactive Renderer.

Tempest supports any Power Macintosh or Mac OS-compatible with an available 7- or 12-inch PCI slot. It's compatible with Radius, Apple, SuperMac, NEC and other Macintosh compatible displays.

Pricing and Availability
Tempest is available immediately and has a suggested retail price of $399. Tempest II will be available in October and has a suggested retail price of $599. Both models include a five year replacement warranty. For more information, users can call Radius at 1-800-5RADIUS (1-800-572-3487).

RADIUS INC.

Founded in 1986 and based in Sunnyvale, California, Radius offers the highest quality digital video solutions, Super Resolution 2D & 3D graphics cards, professional color calibrated display systems, and PC compatibility cards. Radius products are available through a worldwide network of Radius authorized resellers, system integrators, and distributors. Radius may be reached at 408-541-6100 or on the worldwide web at www.radius.com.

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Radius and Thunder are registered trademarks of Radius Inc. Tempest is a trademark of Radius Inc. Macintosh is a registered trademark of Apple Computer. All other brands and products are trademarks of their respective companies.