Glaze3D
Encyclopedia
Glaze3D was a family of graphics cards announced by BitBoys Oy
on August 2, 1999 that would have produced substantially better performance than other consumer products available at the time. The family, which would have come in the Glaze3D 1200, Glaze3D 2400 and Glaze3D 4800 models, was supposed to offer full support for DirectX 7, OpenGL
1.2, AGP
4×, 4× anisotropic filtering
, full-screen anti-aliasing and a host of other technologies not commonly seen at the time. The 1.5 million gate GPU would have been fabricated by Infineon on a 0.2 μm eDRAM process, later to be reduced to 0.17 μm with a minimum of 9 MB
of embedded DRAM
and 128 to 512 MB of external SDRAM
. The maximum supported video resolution was 2048×1536 pixel
s.
The GPU was later redesigned under a new codename, Axe, to take advantage of DirectX 8 and compete with a developing competition. The new version sported such features as an additional 3 MB of eDRAM
, proprietary Matrix Antialiasing and a vastly improved fillrate
, as well as offering a programmable vertex shader and widened internal memory bus. The new card was to have been released as Avalanche3D by the end of 2001.
The third development, codenamed Hammer, started development as Axe lost viability toward the end of 2001. This new card was to be a high-end DirectX 9 part, offering new features such as occlusion culling, improved rendering performance and various other innovations. This version, like the ones before it, never shipped commercially.
Bitboys turned to mobile graphics and developed an accelerator licensed and probably used by at least one flat panel display manufacture, although it was intended and designed primarily for higher-end handhelds. Later on ATI bought Bitboys for an extra research and development unit, so as of 2008 Bitboys was owned by AMD. In 2009, Bitboys was transferred to Qualcomm.
The Glaze3D family was well-known for the bold performance claims that were associated with it. The low-end 1200 model was purported to achieve a fillrate of 1.2 billion
texel
s per second, with a geometry throughput of 15 million triangles per second. Most importantly, the card was originally claimed to achieve over 200 frames per second in id Software
's Quake III Arena
at maximum visual quality.
The 1200 model's claimed specifications would place it as the rough equivalent of the GeForce FX 5200 Ultra
or Radeon 9200 Pro
(very low performance GPUs of 2002 vintage), while its claimed performance would place it at the same level as the GeForce 3 Ti 500 or Radeon 8500 (high-end GPUs from 2000-2001). To compound matters, the cards' specifications were later updated to nearly double their original performance levels.
While the Glaze3D 1200 was supposed to achieve unheard of performance in video games, it was claimed that the 2400 and 4800 models would each be substantially more powerful in turn. Using two and four GPU configurations respectively, and including an additional geometry accelerator on the 4800, the higher-end Glaze3D cards were to be aimed at the very highest end of the video gaming market.
BitBoys Oy
Bitboys Oy is a hardware development and licensing company based in Finland, founded in 1991 and acquired by ATI Technologies for up to US$44M on May 2, 2006...
on August 2, 1999 that would have produced substantially better performance than other consumer products available at the time. The family, which would have come in the Glaze3D 1200, Glaze3D 2400 and Glaze3D 4800 models, was supposed to offer full support for DirectX 7, OpenGL
OpenGL
OpenGL is a standard specification defining a cross-language, cross-platform API for writing applications that produce 2D and 3D computer graphics. The interface consists of over 250 different function calls which can be used to draw complex three-dimensional scenes from simple primitives. OpenGL...
1.2, AGP
Accelerated Graphics Port
The Accelerated Graphics Port is a high-speed point-to-point channel for attaching a video card to a computer's motherboard, primarily to assist in the acceleration of 3D computer graphics. Since 2004 AGP has been progressively phased out in favor of PCI Express...
4×, 4× anisotropic filtering
Anisotropic filtering
In 3D computer graphics, anisotropic filtering is a method of enhancing the image quality of textures on surfaces that are at oblique viewing angles with respect to the camera where the projection of the texture appears to be non-orthogonal In 3D computer graphics, anisotropic filtering...
, full-screen anti-aliasing and a host of other technologies not commonly seen at the time. The 1.5 million gate GPU would have been fabricated by Infineon on a 0.2 μm eDRAM process, later to be reduced to 0.17 μm with a minimum of 9 MB
Megabyte
The megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission with two different values depending on context: bytes generally for computer memory; and one million bytes generally for computer storage. The IEEE Standards Board has decided that "Mega will mean 1 000...
of embedded DRAM
Dram
Dram or DRAM may refer to:As a unit of measure:* Dram , an imperial unit of mass and volume* Armenian dram, a monetary unit* Dirham, a unit of currency in several Arab nationsOther uses:...
and 128 to 512 MB of external SDRAM
SDRAM
Synchronous dynamic random access memory is dynamic random access memory that is synchronized with the system bus. Classic DRAM has an asynchronous interface, which means that it responds as quickly as possible to changes in control inputs...
. The maximum supported video resolution was 2048×1536 pixel
Pixel
In digital imaging, a pixel, or pel, is a single point in a raster image, or the smallest addressable screen element in a display device; it is the smallest unit of picture that can be represented or controlled....
s.
Development History
The Glaze3D family of cards were developed in several generations, beginning with the original Glaze3D "400" with multi-channel RDRAM instead of internal eDRAM. This was offered only as IP but with no takers. Bitboys revised the design and decided to have it manufactured themselves, in cooperation with Infineon Technologies, the chip fabrication arm of Siemens. They came up with a new Glaze3D pitched for release in Q1, 2000. The card promised extremely high performance compared to contemporary consumer GPUs. As bug-hunting, validation and manufacturing problems delayed the launch, new features became necessary and a DX7 variant with built-in hardware Transform & Lighting was announced, but never appeared.The GPU was later redesigned under a new codename, Axe, to take advantage of DirectX 8 and compete with a developing competition. The new version sported such features as an additional 3 MB of eDRAM
EDRAM
eDRAM stands for "embedded DRAM", a capacitor-based dynamic random access memory integrated on the same die as an ASIC or processor. The cost-per-bit is higher than for stand-alone DRAM chips but in many applications the performance advantages of placing the eDRAM on the same chip as the processor...
, proprietary Matrix Antialiasing and a vastly improved fillrate
Fillrate
The term fillrate usually refers to the number of pixels a video card can render and write to video memory in a second. In this case, fillrates are given in megapixels per second or in gigapixels per second , and they are obtained by multiplying the number of raster operations by the clock...
, as well as offering a programmable vertex shader and widened internal memory bus. The new card was to have been released as Avalanche3D by the end of 2001.
The third development, codenamed Hammer, started development as Axe lost viability toward the end of 2001. This new card was to be a high-end DirectX 9 part, offering new features such as occlusion culling, improved rendering performance and various other innovations. This version, like the ones before it, never shipped commercially.
Bitboys turned to mobile graphics and developed an accelerator licensed and probably used by at least one flat panel display manufacture, although it was intended and designed primarily for higher-end handhelds. Later on ATI bought Bitboys for an extra research and development unit, so as of 2008 Bitboys was owned by AMD. In 2009, Bitboys was transferred to Qualcomm.
Performance Claims
1000000000 (number)
1,000,000,000 is the natural number following 999,999,999 and preceding 1,000,000,001.In scientific notation, it is written as 109....
texel
Texel (graphics)
A texel, or texture element is the fundamental unit of texture space, used in computer graphics. Textures are represented by arrays of texels, just as pictures are represented by arrays of pixels....
s per second, with a geometry throughput of 15 million triangles per second. Most importantly, the card was originally claimed to achieve over 200 frames per second in id Software
Id Software
Id Software is an American video game development company with its headquarters in Richardson, Texas. The company was founded in 1991 by four members of the computer company Softdisk: programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, and artist Adrian Carmack...
's Quake III Arena
Quake III Arena
Quake III Arena , is a multiplayer first-person shooter video game released on December 2, 1999. The game was developed by id Software and featured music composed by Sonic Mayhem and Front Line Assembly...
at maximum visual quality.
The 1200 model's claimed specifications would place it as the rough equivalent of the GeForce FX 5200 Ultra
GeForce FX
The GeForce FX or "GeForce 5" series is a line of graphics processing units from the manufacturer NVIDIA.-Overview:...
or Radeon 9200 Pro
Radeon R200
The Radeon R200 is the second generation of Radeon graphics chips from ATI Technologies. The architecture features 3D acceleration based upon Microsoft Direct3D 8.1 and OpenGL 1.3, a major improvement in features and performance compared to the preceding Radeon R100 design. The GPU also includes 2D...
(very low performance GPUs of 2002 vintage), while its claimed performance would place it at the same level as the GeForce 3 Ti 500 or Radeon 8500 (high-end GPUs from 2000-2001). To compound matters, the cards' specifications were later updated to nearly double their original performance levels.
While the Glaze3D 1200 was supposed to achieve unheard of performance in video games, it was claimed that the 2400 and 4800 models would each be substantially more powerful in turn. Using two and four GPU configurations respectively, and including an additional geometry accelerator on the 4800, the higher-end Glaze3D cards were to be aimed at the very highest end of the video gaming market.
External links
- Glaze3D Announced
- PDF version of a presentation by Petri Norlund, Chief Architect at BitBoys Oy in 1999.
- BitBoys at Siggraph - analysis of the Glaze3D cards.
- A Look Inside BitBoys - a detailed description of the development history of Glaze3D.