The design goals for the NV1 chip were simple: deliver the highest value multimedia solution for the PC on a single chip, optimized for concurrent acceleration of standards and multimedia content. With the NV1, this is accomplished and more.

NVIDIA's Unique Value Proposition:

One Chip Multimedia:

• 2D graphics
• 3D graphics
• Advanced Wave Table Audio
• Video Acceleration
• Digital Input (Joysticks, gamepads)

• Concurrently accelerates ALL of DirectX APIs
• Supports multiple 3D graphics primitives: Triangles, Quadrilaterals, Curves

• Sega, Activision, Electronic Arts, Crystal Dynamics, etc.
• Hundreds of DirectX titles

• High Performance Functionality in ONE megabyte of frame buffer

What makes the NV1 unique is that it contains all of the key components needed to deliver a PC optimized for interactive multimedia and it accelerates those components concurrently. This means that functionality such as real-time texture mapped 3D graphics, 2D graphics, advanced wavetable audio, digital gameport, and full motion video acceleration, are all concurrently hardware accelerated on a single piece of silicon. This integration is coupled with highly efficient system resource utilization so that only a single megabyte of framebuffer memory is required to provide all of the chip's high performance capabilities. That means lower costs to OEMs, a value that can be passed on to consumers.

This encapsulated multimedia subsystem functionality makes NV1 the industry's first complete DirectX accelerator, accelerating all the pieces of Microsoft's DirectX APIs. The NV1 chip provides breakthrough levels of functionality, performance, low cost, and an immersive entertainment experience for the PC consumer.

Why NV1: Optimized for interactive entertainment applications

• Single-chip multimedia accelerator that supports and accelerates all Microsoft DirectX APIs under Windows 95
• Industry-leading GUI acceleration

• Full-motion video acceleration (Indeo, MPEG, Cinepak)
• Impressive 3D graphics
• Real-time texture mapped 3D graphics create more realistic visuals
• Accelerates all 3D standards: triangles, quadrilaterals and curves
• Hardware audio wavetable synthesis
• Enhanced digital game port

• DirectX, general midi compliant, PCI compliant, DirectDraw/DirectVideo - Hardware 2D/GUI/Video engine; Direct3D - Hardware real-time, 3D texture mapping engine; DirectSound - Hardware digital mixing - no CPU overhead; DirectInput - Digital gameport - support standard PC joysticks and Sega peripherals
• Single chip architecture is optimized to deliver the highest possible performance at an attractive consumer price point

DirectX Acceleration Under Windows 95

The NV1 chip incorporates functionality that directly accelerates today's leading API standard, Microsoft's Windows 95 DirectX APIs. It is currently the only device on the market today that can concurrently hardware accelerate DirectDraw, DirectVideo, Direct3D, DirectSound, and DirectInput. As content developers migrate en masse to this set of API standards, NV1 will be poised to provide the complete acceleration solution with features such as:

• Direct Draw/Direct Video - Hardware 2D/GUI/Video engine
• Direct 3D - Hardware real time 3D texture mapping engine
• Direct Sound - Hardware digital mixing - no CPU overhead
• Direct Input - Digital Gameport - supports standard PC joysticks and Sega peripherals

GUI Acceleration Under Windows 95 includes:

• Extensive support for Microsoft's DirectDraw API
• Optimized for multiple color depths including 8, 15, 24, and 30 bits per pixel
• Hardware color dithering - higher quality with less framebuffer usage

Full-Motion Video Acceleration

The NV1 graphics engine accelerates full-motion video playback and can sustain 30 frames per second of true-color digital video. Hardware video acceleration provides image enhancement and scaling of video streams to full-screen display. In addition:

• Support for DirectVideo in Windows 95
• Video interpolation for enhanced image quality
• Integration of graphics and video enabling special effects
• Accelerate playback of industry standard CODECs such as MPEG, Indeo, and Cinepak
• Interframing for reduced flicker

Real Time Texture Mapped 3D Graphics: Most Realistic Imagery

The NV1's 3D Graphics engine was customized for consumer interactive multimedia from the beginning. This set price goals that drove NVIDIA to produce a graphics engine that maintains its high performance with minimal requirements for framebuffer memory. The NV1 is able to maintain its high performance in only 1MB of framebuffer memory.

Consumer multimedia also dictated that the NV1 be designed to accelerate consumer style 3D graphics. NVIDIA's optimization focuses on delivering the highest possible frame rate for the maximum in interactivity. This optimization is evident on games like Virtua Fighter Remix, which is a 640 x 400 , 16 bits per pixel game that runs at greater than 30 frames per second. To put it in perspective, on today's 133 MHz Pentium without acceleration, its only possible to run 320 x 200, 8 bits per pixel at 20fps.

Some key capabilities of the 3D engine are :

• High performance acceleration of perspective-correct textured triangles, quadrilaterals, and curves
• Highest rendering pixel rate for fastest 3D frame rate
• Photorealistic 3D texture mapping, including lighting, fog, transparency, etc.
• Video Texturing - Ability to treat video as a texture. Allows user to map video onto 3D objects.

Hardware Audio Wavetable Synthesis Engine: Highest Quality Sound

The NV1 chip integrates a high performance audio engine to deliver the highest fidelity and realism for today's interactive multimedia applications. With support for dynamic downloadable samples, developers can utilize custom samples for exciting sound and MIDI effects. Additionally, the NV architecture's native synchronization capability allows developers to precisely control the relationship of audio playback to 3D graphics, video, or other audio streams. This capability is necessary for a truly interactive experience.

For the system integrator, NVIDIA's audio solution offers multiple options on how to implement the audio subsystem. These options offer solutions at various price points and integration levels depending on which of the possible audio interfaces is desired.

• Support for industry audio standards:
• Windows 95 DirectSound API
• MPU-401, General MIDI, Miles Audio Interface Library (AIL), HMI Sound Operating System (SOS)
• Hardware 350MIPS Audio Engine supporting 32 channels of 16 bit wavetable sound
• Concurrent playback and hardware mixing of up to 50 channels of digital audio
• Downloadable wavetable samples stored in system memory instead of dedicated ROM/RAM
• Support for effects such as tremolo, vibrato and portamento
• Support for industry standard I2S interface

Digital Gameport Engine: Exceptional Performance and Control

The NV1 is the first product to feature an IBM-compatible digital game port as well as two SEGA Saturn peripheral ports.

While standard game ports demand the near constant intervention of the PC's microprocessor, NV1's digital game port DMA bursts the joystick's position without interrupting the processor . The benefit is better overall system performance, a crucial advantage in multimedia applications. The NV1 game port also provides higher resolution and sampling rates than standard game ports, enabling a finer degree of joystick control and quicker response to user actions.

Another key advantage of the digital gameport is that it allows a multitude of accessories and functionality not possible on the PC before. Two players can now simultaneously compete using the 2 Sega ports available on every NV card. Up to six players can concurrently participate in multiplayer titles using the optional multi-tap device also supported by this port. Additionally devices like the Sega light gun and mission stick are also fully supported.

• All gaming ports are supported in Microsoft's DirectInput API
• 8-channel digital game port with advanced analog/digital sampler
• 13-bit capture resolution with sample rates up to 92Hz (versus a typical game port of 8-bit resolution and 1Hz sample rate)
• Support for Sega Saturn Peripherals
• Bus mastering DMA frees up to 12% of a Pentium class CPU's bandwidth

Highest Overall Subsystem Performance: Optimized for the PC

The NV1 chip was not designed as a single independent entity. The surrounding components were all taken into account in the performance optimizations that took place. This concept of system performance vs. single chip performance, has always been practiced in the game console industry. That industry has always realized that its useless to just have great graphics, if audio or gameport or video bogs down the final application's performance. That's the main reason that PC titles were never capable of achieving the quality of the top 3D console box titles.

Until now, the solutions in the PC industry have always been fragmented and independent. The software developer for example, had no idea what sound card is coupled with which 3D card, therefore forcing developers to program to the lowest common denominator. The trade-off: sacrifice overall frame rate and title quality.

The NV1 is the PC industry's first self-contained multimedia subsystem. Knowing the performance of all available components ensures consistently high performance throughout the entire subsystem. This allows the NV1 to power the leading titles with the highest possible frame rates.

Lowest Overall Subsystem Cost: Attractive Consumer Price Points

There are usually two main components to the cost of a multimedia subsystem. The cost of the media accelerator chips themselves, and the cost of the memory associated with the individual media accelerators. By integrating the key media types into a single chip, NVIDIA allows the board/system integrator to provide the full consumer interactive multimedia experience in a single low cost card.

Perhaps more importantly, the integration of the various media accelerators allowed for system level optimization of memory resources. Traditionally, the 2D card would have required frame buffer memory (1-2MB), the 3D card requires Z buffer, and texture memory (2-4MB) and the audio card requires even more memory for storing wavetable samples (1-4MB).

In the NV1 subsystem, only 1MB of framebuffer memory is necessary to support the combination of 2D, video, 3D, and wavetable audio. The unique hardware architecture combined with PCI bus mastering DMA capabilities allows the NV1 chip to store wavetable samples, and 3D texture maps in system memory, resulting in the lowest possible memory requirements. This combination of chip integration and memory integration results in the lowest overall system cost that can be passed along to consumers in an attractive, high value solution.

Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks, and DirectX, Direct3D, DirectSound, DirectVideo, DirectDraw, and DirectInput are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.