Intense3D, Intergraph Corp’s recently launched graphics unit spin-off (CI No 3,598) is celebrating three OEM wins for its Wildcat 3D Graphics chips in Intel Pentium III Xeon workstations – or four if you include its parent company. Compaq Computer Corp, Dell Computer Corp, IBM Corp and Intergraph all launched systems yesterday using the new chip. It is only missing Hewlett-Packard Co from the top five list of workstation vendors using the Intel architecture.
Compaq’s Professional Workstation SP700, Dell’s Precision Workstation 610, IBM’s IntelliStation Z Pro and Intergraph’s TDZ 2000 GX1 ViZual Workstation all use 3D Wildcat 4000 graphics subsystems. While Compaq is a new customer, Dell previously OEMed graphics chips from Intergraph before closing its original agreement in November 1998 in favor of 3DLabs Inc and Evans & Sutherland Inc.
IBM Corp has always worked closely with Intergraph, but last year announced plans to offer its own mid-range graphics chip in boards produced by Diamond Multimedia Systems Inc (CI No 3,538). It is also using the Fire GL1 graphics adapter, developed by the Unix workstation team in Austin, Texas, in the IntelliStation Z Pro as a mid-range option. It costs around $600 compared with $3,500 for Wildfire, an IBM spokesman said. The Fire chip integrates 2D and 256-bit 3D OpenGL chips into a single AGP component.
