Avesco Plc’s soon-to-be-floated VideoLogic Ltd says it has won the support of Compaq Computer Corp and Gateway 2000 Inc for its VMC VESA Media Channel specification for video acceleration and claims that most major personal computer manufacturers are set to follow suit over the next few months. IBM Corp has been jointly developing products based on the technology with VideoLogic, and is also supplying personal computers with it built in; the first systems are due to ship in the next eight weeks. Compaq and Gateway, says the company, will have products available in time for Comdex. VESA Media Channel provides a simpler – and thus cheaper – standard video connection VideoLogic’s 928Movie graphics accelerator, based on VMC, is claimed to accelerate Windows and graphics applications by up to six times over ordinary Video Graphics Array, with resolution right up to 1,280 by 1,024 and a refresh rate of 75Hz. This means that video clips can be run full screen at up to 30 frames per second. The basic version costs ?300; with the addition of 16-bit CD-quality sound, it retails to dealers for ?400, which means a street price of around ?480. Other models are planned, from a top-end Weitek Corp 9100 version to a low-end, lower-cost, D-RAM version. The company is pushing to have its VMC made part of the Multimedia PC Council’s forthcoming MPC III specification for multimedia personal computers.
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