“In a tripartite collaboration, NVIDIA, Silicon Graphics and VA
Linux Systems have announced the first professional-level OpenGL
graphics sub-system for Linux workstations. Said Jen-Hsun Huang,
president and CEO at NVIDIA: “For the first time, developers will
have access to a high-performance, fully native Linux graphics
platform.”
“The planned graphics subsystem will represent a 100%
OpenGL-complaint, hardware accelerated graphics package for the
Linux OS. With NVIDIA’s GeForce 256 3D graphics processor and
OpenGl 1.2, along with VA Linux Systems’ 2D graphics and
multi-monitor work, the new technology is expected to provide 3D
transform and lighting, hardware 2D and video acceleration and
video overlay–along with the ability to integrate applications
with the OpenGL graphics API….”
“While not open source, OpenGL represents the de facto
standard in 3D graphics application development insofar as it is
the broadest of industry platforms, with widely used applications
in CAD, entertainment, manufacturing, gaming and content
creation. If it is true that the proposed platform cannot be
truly OpenGL without being open source (and, thus, accessible at
the code-level), it also true that porting a major OpenGL graphics
system to Linux is significant progress for Linux developers
seeking UNIX-like strength and scalability in 3D graphics
projects.”