Yamaha Co’s Systems Technology Division has two new chips in the virtuality series: the Rendering Polygon Accelerator or Yamaha YGV611 and a lower cost system version. They will provide two- and three-dimensional performance on personal computers and low end workstations. The YGV611 performs Gouraud shading and texture mapping at 210,000 polygons per second and performs hidden surface removal, video capture and Bit Block Transfer. The frame buffer interface is 128 bits wide for high performance graphics. The 16 or 32 bit wide host bus interface operates at up to 33MHz. The YGV611 supports resolutions up to 1,280 by 1,024 in 16-bit colour and is fabricated in CMOS. Yamaha’s next three-dimensional controller, currently being designed, will support a DRAM frame buffer, direct Peripheral Component Interconnect bus support, and integrated Digital to Analogue Converter. Yamaha says these changes will dramatically lower the system cost and estimates that board manufacturers should be able to sell a three-dimensional accelerator board for significantly less than $300. It will support VESA Local Bus with minimum glue logic. Availability of this version will closely follow the YGV611. The YGV611 evaluation boards are available now. Engineering samples of the YGV611 will be available this quarter with production quantities in the second quarter. The price is expected to be $80 for 1,000-up.
