March 23, 1994 -- Recently, Matrox sent most of the journalists and
analysts covering the PC graphics industry a document accusing Weitek of
"cheating" on its Winbench scores for the POWER 9000 graphics accelerator
chip.

We're confident that an unsolicited statement made by any company about a
competitor would be treated with a healthy degree of skepticism by
professionals. However since Matrox felt the need to document their flawed
argument, we feel obliged to make public our perspective on the issue.

To review: Matrox claims that a feature of Weitek's POWER 9000 Windows
driver, known as the POWER Palette, results in "illegitimate scores" on
the Winbench 4.0.

The specific performance issue is that in 256 color mode, the Windows
default color palette only provides 20 pure colors which it offers as
standard, and when using this palette, any color which is not among these
is created by dithering two of the 20 base colors. This has two adverse
effects: it creates a performance problem by off-loading some processing,
and the dithered color itself is not the one which the application is
trying to create. Neither a dithered color nor a slightly different pure
color is exactly the right color, since the right color would be the pure
color which the dither is trying to best approximate. Even Matrox
acknowledges this.

This is an inherent problem in using a small palette to approximate
everything, and it is why 16-bit and 24-bit color capability is becoming
so important. Dithering is simply Windows' way of trying to solve this
problem, which works even in a standard SVGA environment where no unique
hardware features and device drivers can be assumed.

Both Weitek and Matrox have recognized that this problem provides an
opportunity for Windows performance enhancement, and have taken different
approaches to dealing with it. Matrox built in specific hardware to
perform dithered pattern fills. This method adds silicon, and is one
reason why the Matrox chip requires a significantly bigger die (and thus
has a higher chip and board cost) than most other chips with similar
overall performance.

Weitek believes we have a more efficient solution to the problem. The POWER
Palette optionally uses a larger base palette of pure colors, and selects
a pure color which is the nearest approximation of the original. This mode
not only eliminates many of the dithers, it adds no hardware cost. The
trade-off is that if the application actually requires a dithered color
(unlikely in real life, but possible in a benchmark test), they won't get
one.

We realize that some users (such as graphics designers or publishers) want
to have exactly the Windows default colors, but we believe these users
will generally run in 16 or 24-bit mode.

POWER Palette provides exactly the performance improvement in real
applications as it does in benchmarks. In any event, the POWER Palette is
simply an option. The graphics board manufacturer makes the decision about
whether or not to implement POWER Palette software, and the end user is
free to turn it on or off. Since POWER Palette is fully documented, and
the board manufacturer's use of the option is something over which Weitek
has no control, it is difficult to understand why we are being accused of
being deceptive.

Unless, of course, the accusation is merely smoke and mirrors to distract
opinion leaders from the higher cost and lower performance of the Matrox
product.

We also find it interesting that Matrox is making comparisons to last
year's product from Weitek. If they were concerned about how to compete
with the POWER 9000, they will have their hands full with our POWER 9100,
which is beginning to ship in volume production.

Power 9100 & Video Power Fact Sheets Follow below...

Weitek
1060 E. Arques, Sunnyvale, CA 94086
408-738-8400,  fax 408-738-1185
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POWER 9100 Fact Sheet

64-bit performance, zeroglue, and true color too. WEITEK's Power9100
combines 64-bit performance with integrated, glueless PCI and VESA local
bus support, and its truecolor performance is so high that it outperforms
most low-color accelerators. It's so fast that demanding users can stay in
true-color mode all the time.

By using advanced workstation technologies such as a double clocked
(two-way interleaved) VRAM memory interface and a fully pipelined data
path, WEITEK's Power 9100 is the only graphics controller to combine 64
bit VRAM bandwidth with support for both PCI and VESA local-bus designs in
a single, zero-glue package.

The Power 9100 eliminates the need for other compromises as well.
True-color display is supported at resolutions up to 1280x1024, while
16-bit high color is supported at 1600x1200. All of these modes can be
used at ergonomic refresh rates, since the Power 9100 takes full advantage
of the new generation of high-performance RAMDACs, including their
"packed-24-bit" mode, which increases frame-buffer bandwidth by 30%, while
allowing a 1280x1024 true-color image to fit in a 4 MB frame buffer.

In addition to its native accelerated mode, the Power 9100 has a built-in
SVGA unit for backward compatibility, and on-chip PCI and VESA local-bus
interfaces to give a simple, zero-glue design.

The Power 9100's coprocessor interface allows the system to be enhanced in
a variety of ways. Our Video Power coprocessor works side-by-side with the
Power 9100, giving TV-quality video images at 30 frames per second, even
with display windows as large as 1280x1024 pixels.

The Power 9100 takes full advantage of WEITEK's design edge, and the
architectural innovation that is our trademark. Proprietary design tools
put us ahead of the game when it comes to pushing the high-performance
envelope. Access to state-of-the-art foundries across the world allows us
flexibility in manufacturing. Most important, though, is WEITEK's long
experience with high-performance products, which have gone into everything
from supercomputers to PCs.

Advanced Workstation Architecture

* Interleaved VRAM uses PLL-based generator for 
  zero-wait-state operation
* Fully pipelined internal data path
* Clock-doubled I/O architecture combines integrated, glueless
  PCI and VESA local-bus interfaces with 64-bit VRAM bandwidth

Hardware Features 

* Fully accelerates 8-, 16-, 24-, and 32 bit color 
* Supports 1-4 MB frame buffer 
* Integrated SVGA unit 
* Supports true-color at resolutions up to 1280x1024
* Multimedia coprocessor interface
* Connects directly to 32-bit and 64-bit RAMDACs to 250 MHz 
  and beyond

Complete Software Support

* Windows and Windows NT drivers
* OS/2 drivers accelerate PM, seamless Windows, and 
  full-screen Windows
* AutoCAD R11 and R12 drivers
* SCO UNIX drivers
* VESA-compatible BIOS

Design Support

* Evaluation boards demonstrate fully tested, cost-effective 
  PCI and VESA local-bus designs
* Data book and board theory of operation manuals support 
  product design
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VIDEO POWER FACT SHEET

WEITEK s Video Power is a multimedia coprocessor for Video for Windows and
other environments, providing TV-quality full-screen video when coupled
with our Power 9100 graphics controller.

Video Power improves the performance and image quality of video
applications by performing all post-decompression processing
(interpolative scaling, color space conversion, and dithering) directly in
hardware, rather than on the host CPU. This
allows digital video applications to produce full-screen images at thirty
frames per second, with resolutions up to 1280x1024 Quality is maintained
even at high magnifications by the use of arbitrary interpolative scaling,
which is both more accurate and more attractive than the more common
pixel-replication algorithms. By comparison, digital video applications
running without hardware assistance are limited to small windows (160x120
or 320x240), because the host CPU is simply not fast enough to provide
smoothly animated images of greater size.

Video applications are supported seamlessly, as Video Power's features are
accessed at the GUI device-driver level, not the application level. WEITEK
provides drivers for all major graphical user interfaces. In addition,
Video Power supports all the leading compression/decompression (codec)
formats, including Intel's Indeo, Supermac's Cinepak, Media Vision's
Captain Crunch, MPEG, and Motion-JPEG.

While traditional multimedia systems handle graphics and digital video in
separate frame buffers, Video Power shares the frame buffer with the Power
9100, sending its images directly to a display window. This reduces both
system cost and complexity, while maximizing performance

Video Power also provides a 32-bit digital video port, allowing features
such as video capture and live video in-a-window to be supported in a
Video Power system.

Hardware Features

* Shared frame-buffer architecture allows a single frame buffer
  to support both graphics and video
* High performance, fully pipelined design 
* High quality arbitrary scaling via two dimensional digital
  filtering 
* Flexible color space converter accepts 12 different color
  formats, supporting a wide range of codec standards 
* Accelerated dithering converts from 24 bits per pixel to
  16 or 15 bits per pixel or 8-bit palettes
* Zero-glue support for Philips SAA 7196 video decoder chip
* Support for multiple video streams

Performance

* TV-quality video at 30 frames/sec at 1280x1024 resolution
* 200 MB/sec throughput
* Single-cycle writes and two-cycle reads at 50 MHz
* Single-pass scaling

Complete Software Support

* Video for Windows 1.0 and 1.1 drivers
* Windows NT drivers
* OS/2 2.1 Ultimotion drivers

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