Entering into the graphics software market, SPEA Software AG has announced three new Windows products. SPEAview, a display management tool enabling the user to increase flexibility by working on an area up to 2,048 by 1,536 pixels, with a monitor that has only a physical display up to 800 by 600 pixels. The operating resolution can also be altered without rebooting the system. Doublewin can expand the available Windows desktop to two separate screens for users who have two similar SPEA V7 graphic boards and two monitors, rather than moving in and out of different files or applications; and BigNT, a Windows NT driver for Windows accelerators that the company claims is up to 15% faster than standard S3 drivers. The Starnberg, Germany-based firm has also launched two new graphics boards, the V7-Mercury PCI and V7-Mercury Lite PCI, which offer PCI bus interfaces. The Mercury PCI uses a 32-bit graphic chip and has 2Mb of Video RAM with pixel frequency up to 135MHz and display at up to 1,280 by 1,024 pixels with 256 colours and 75Hz refresh rate. The Mercury Lite PCI, also based on the S3 32-bit graphic chip has 1Mb of VRAM and pixel frequency of 110MHz and the same display resolution with 16 colours at 60Hz refresh rate. Both products are now available at UKP550 and UKP350 plus tax respectively. Moving into the multimedia arena, Spea has launched the V7-media fx sound board which uses 16-bit wave table technology for improved sound clarity and incorporates an integrated pre-amplifier that can be disconnected or used as an external speaker outlet. It supports Matsushita Panasonic CR523 or CR563, Miusumi CRMC and Sony CDU 31a CD-ROMs. The product is compatible with Sound Blaster, Adlib and General MIDI among others and comes with a range of software. Available immediately, no price was given. For the computer aided design market there is SPEA 3-D World which enables 3-D Viewer for AutoCAD to be used with V7-Mercury and V7-Mercury Pro boards at UKP350; a Dual Screen option to increase available drawing space and BigFocus, a display list driver for AutoCAD under Windows.
