Hercules Terminator 3D/DX

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Product Highlights

  • 2D/3D S3 ViRGE/DX graphics & multimedia engine
  • High performance / high bandwidth hardware design
  • 2MB (upgradeable) or 4 MB 40ns EDO DRAM
  • High performance Power Drive drivers for Windows 95
  • Powerful 2nd generation 3D
  • Software player for MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 (requires MMX mainboard, retail only)
  • 170MHz DAC for refresh rates up to 160 Hz
  • Maximum 1600x1200 at 16-bit and 1024x768 true color
  • Hardware accelerated video playback, color space conversion, scaling and X/Y filtering
  • Accelerates playback of DirectDraw and DirectVideo compatible CODECs including MPEG-1, Indeo Video Interactive, Cinepak, TrueMotion-S and QuickTime
  • VESA DPMS, DDC 1, DDC 2B support for Plug-and-Play operation

Excellent 2D/3D Graphics Performance

The Hercules Terminator 3D/DX is a major breakthrough in high-performance 2D/3D graphics and multimedia technology. Compared with considerably more expensive VRAM, SGRAM or 128-Bit boards the Hercules Terminator 3D/DX offers significantly increased 3D performance, faster 2D graphics and enhanced video playback quality.

2nd Generation 3D Delivers Industry Leading Performance

The Hercules Terminator 3D/DX is the "3D feature-set leader." It combines improved 3D frame rate performance with excellent 3D image quality to put Hercules' new 3D accelerator in the leading position of the price/performance/3D-feature competition. Hercules’ unique high-performance/wide-bandwidth hardware design and advanced Power Drive drivers for Windows 95 with enhanced Microsoft DirectX support unleash all the capabilities of the new, powerful controller chip.

S3 ViRGE/DX Graphics Processor

The Hercules Terminator 3D/DX integrates S3’ new ViRGE/DX and 2MB (upgradeable) or 4MB of high-speed EDO DRAM with increased data throughput into a high-performance/wide-bandwidth hardware design to deliver the next level of performance required by emerging 2D/3D business desktop applications and 3D gaming. The Hercules Terminator 3D/DX also takes full advantage of the architectural enhancements of the S3 ViRGE/DX such as "SmartFilter technology" for high quality texture mapping, and the "parallel processing perspective engine" to increase frame rates.

Hercules combines these 3D performance advantages with the support of a variety of 3D effects in hardware such as "bilinear filtering" for smooth edges, "fogging" for atmospherical effects, and "transparency" for realistically rendering of real world environments.

Refresh Rates up to 160Hz

The Hercules Terminator 3D/DX features a 170MHz high-performance DAC for a 16.7 million color display at 1024x768, and 1280 x 1024 at an 85Hz refresh rate. Monitors supported range from standard 14" VGA up to 21" with 110 kHz. Refresh rates are available up to 160Hz.

Software MPEG-2 Player

To further enhance the multimedia experience, full-screen/full-motion video playback is now even smoother with enhanced, high quality linear interpolation in both the horizontal and vertical dimensions. In addition to an MPEG-1 software player the Hercules Terminator 3D/DX is also shipping with an MPEG-2 software player taking full advantage of Hercules’ DirectX driver support and the next generation of MMX processors.

Accelerated Drivers

The Hercules Terminator 3D/DX ships with Hercules’ Power Drive drivers for Windows 95 and accelerated drivers for Windows NT 4.0. In addition, the Hercules CD includes Touch desktop management utilities and the Hercules Entertainment Center, a consumer electronics style control center, which allows the user to easily load and play audio and video files from a fun, easy-to-use on-screen interface.

Accelerated drivers for Windows 3.x, Windows for Workgroups 3.11, Windows NT 3.5x, OS/2 Warp, and AutoCAD are also included.

Complete 3D Support

In addition to being among the fastest 2D accelerators, the Terminator 3D is fully Microsoft Direct3D compatible and supports a complete set of accelerated 3D functions and 3D special effects in hardware, such as video texture mapping, MIP mapping with bi-linear filtering, cueing depth and fogging, alpha blending, Z-buffering, flat shading and Gouraud shading. See our quick course in 3D terminology for more information on these terms! See the chart below for a comparison on how our features stack up to our competition's!

Specifications

  • 64-bit S3 ViRGE/DX -- a powerful 3D, graphics, and multimedia engine
  • Full SuperVGA support - a one-card solution. VESA BIOS extensions in ROM.
  • Refresh rates of up to 160Hz
  • 2MB (or 4MB) 40 ns single-cycle EDO DRAM display memory and Z-buffer storage
  • PCI Bus
  • Standard VGA feature connector
  • VESA DPMS, DDC 1, DDC 2B for Plug-and-Play support

See Also