Message-Id: <MAILQUEUE-101.940412203344.448@george0.division.demon.co.uk>
To: diderot@hitl.washington.edu
From: Pierre duPont <pierre@division.demon.co.uk>
Date:         Tue, 12 Apr 1994 20:33:44 BST
Subject:      Greetings from Division Limited
Priority: normal

Toni -

Andy Hamilton of Division's California office suggested that I put you 
on our mailing list.  This I will do, and you will therefore receive 
about one press release per month hereafter.  Let me know if I should 
NOT do this or drop you in the future.

Also attached are the last several press releases we have issued:
------------------
1. Division, Matsushita and Silicon Graphics Demonstrate Advanced 
Interactive VR Experience at UNIFORUM'94

2. VIRTUOSI - Support for Virtual Organisations

3. Division Extends Virtual Reality VAR Agreement with Silicon 
Graphics to Entire World

4. Pixel-Planes defines new price-performance for Virtual Reality 
graphics 

5. "Fantastic Journey" will speed development of drugs
---------------
Some of these press releases, plus interesting photos, have recently 
been sent to Alden Jones.

How do you prefer to receive your info - electronic or paper? And what 
will you (would you, might you, may you?) do with things that get sent 
to you?

Thanks!  The press releases follow-

=======================================================
Contact:	Pierre duPont: Marketing Director
                Division Limited, +44 454 615554
Kelly Stremel: Franson, Hagerty & Associates, +1 415 462-1605

Division, Matsushita and Silicon Graphics Demonstrate Advanced 
Interactive VR Experience at UNIFORUM'94

VR System Simulates Advanced Living Environment Utilizing Silicon 
Graphics Supercomputer

23 March 1994 - Division, the provider of professional virtual reality 
systems, and Japan's Matsushita Electric Works (MEW), the world 
leader in building construction, will demonstrate an advanced 
interactive design experience with a virtual reality architectural 
walk-through in a Japanese house.  Users can experience this demo 
at UNIFORUM'94 in the World of the Future Pavilion, at the Moscone 
Center, San Francisco, March 23-25.

MEW now uses virtual reality to simulate an advanced living 
environment, simulating all features of the home including lighting, 
heating and acoustics, saving immense design costs and time.  The 
demonstration, configured as a complete two-story Japanese house, 
includes fully textured, detailed bedrooms, kitchen, bathrooms and 
interconnecting stairs.  With a head-mounted display and a 3D 
mouse, users will be able to walk around the rooms and up the stairs 
to different stories of the house.  This complexity, detail and quality of 
virtual reality has not yet been experienced in public.

The system being demonstrated uses a Silicon Graphics OnyxOE 
RealityEngine2OE graphics supercomputer, which delivers the world's 
fastest compute and graphics performance.  In addition to this 
particular application, Onyx systems are utilized in a wide variety of 
applications ranging from flight simulation and automotive styling to 
digital film production and interactive entertainment.

At the core of Matsushita's simulated environment is Division's 
distributed virtual reality software, dVSOE, which provides a very 
advanced software environment enabling work-group VR applications. 
 With this configuration, Matsushita is able to provide the highest 
performance virtual reality experience for several people 
simultaneously sharing and interacting within the same world.

Dr. Nomura, head of VR research at Matsushita, said, "With this 
successful installation, Division has proven that it has the most 
advanced VR systems in the world."  Charles Grimsdale, Division's 
MD added, "This demonstrates the rapidly growing power of VR 
technology as a problem-solving tool in one of many demanding 
applications.  We've been able to use Division's open, 
standards-based software architecture to rapidly develop this 
demonstration."

"Matsushita has developed one of the most advanced software and 
hardware environments to enable a new level of realism and 
interactivity in a virtual world," said Josh Larson-Mogal, Silicon 
Graphics' manager of virtual reality/simulation products and markets. 
 "Virtual reality continues to move into mainstream visualization and 
design applications, such as this `simulated environment,' 
intensifying the demand for high-performance computational and 
graphics computer systems."

Division is a member of the Division Group of companies, 
specializing in providing virtual reality technology, products and 
services for professional virtual reality applications.  Headquartered 
in Bristol, England, with offices in Chapel Hill, N.C., and Redwood 
City, California, Division services a world-wide installed base of its 
integrated VR systems.

Based in Tokyo, Japan, Matsushita Electric Works is a major supplier 
of building materials and home furnishings including kitchens, 
bathrooms, etc.  This virtual reality development is being undertaken 
by the A&I laboratory in Osaka, Japan, one of Japan's leading centers 
of VR research.

Division is located at 19 Apex Court, Woodlands, Almondsbury, 
Bristol, BS12 4JT, England, Tel: +44 454 615554.  Its shares are 
traded on the London Stock Exchange.  dVS is a tradmark of Division. 
 Silicon Graphics is a registered trademark, and Onyx and 
RealityEngine are trademarks of Silicon Graphics, Inc.

Note: Photographs are available. Contact Pierre duPont at +44 454 
615554.


=======================================================

Contact:	Pierre duPont, Marketing Director,
Division Limited, +44 (0)454 615554

VIRTUOSI - Support for Virtual Organisations

Bristol, UK - 29 March 1994 - The UK Department of Trade and 
Industry (DTI) has announced funding for the VIRTUOSI project, a 
consortium of UK industrial and academic partners which will explore 
the use of virtual reality to allow multiple users to perform 
simultaneous, co-operative work across geographically dispersed 
locations. This project, part of the DTI/SERC Computer Supported 
Co-operative Work (CSCW) programme, has a total budget of 
approximately stlg2.5m over three years, with a DTI/SERC contribution 
of about stlg1m.

Virtuosi will allow people to join discussions and problem-solving 
activities at home or in different offices or factories across the world. 
Virtual reality technology from the UK company, Division Ltd, will 
contribute to the core framework of the project, providing powerful 
tools to allow users to interact within the virtual environment.

A strong theoretical basis will be provided for the project by 
Nottingham, Lancaster and Manchester Universities.  These 
Universities are all involved in UK and European research projects to 
establish the fundamental principles for interacting and co-operating 
in virtual environments that will be set up across future information 
superhighways.  In addition to developing models and systems, they 
will also be involved in capturing user requirements and assessing 
the effectiveness of the two application pilots.

Two pilot applications will be developed by the project.  One will be 
concerned with improving communication between a number of BICC 
Cable factories throughout the world.  The aim is to enable managers 
and workers to share expertise as easily as if they were in a single 
factory.  For example, technical experts on one continent will be able 
to "visit" shopfloor staff on another continent to co-operate on 
resolving technical and production issues at the remote factory.
A compact 3D representation of the total organisation will be 
generated on the screen of the desktop computer.  Users will be able 
to move round this visualisation to locate individuals and sources of 
expertise at the remote sites.  The system will then integrate video 
windows and computer based data into this virtual world while setting 
up a conference call to the participants.

The other pilot service will be based in the textile and clothing 
industry to allow co-operation between a number of small and 
medium enterprises involved in the design and manufacture of 
fashion garments.  This application will be part of Nottinghamshire 
County Council's programme to support industry in its area and to 
provide competitive advantage to its users.

Designers will be able to use virtual reality techniques to create a 
visualisation of a garment.  The designer will be able to discuss the 
design with remote buyers who will also be able to see the garment 
being worn by a model on a 'virtual catwalk'.  Users will be able to 
make changes and view the effects during their discussions and, 
once agreement has been reached, the details of the design will be 
transferred immediately to the factory for manufacture.  The work on 
this application will be supported by a consultant to the project based 
at Nottingham Trent University who will provide expertise on 
computer support and visualisation techniques in garment design

Both BT and GPT Ltd will be involved in developing the 
telecommunications aspects of the project.  GPT's contribution will 
also be supported by GEC Marconi Hirst Research Laboratories which 
has considerable experience in virtual reality applications.

NOTES TO EDITORS:  VIRTUOSI is a project within the DTI/SERC 
Computer Supported Co-operative work (CSCW) programme.  Its aim 
is to promote research into the use of computer systems to support 
groups of people working together in industry or commerce.  Virtuosi 
is one of eight projects selected for the programme.  The total budget 
for the project, which will run for three years, is in the order of stlg2.5m, 
with a government contribution from DTI and SERC of about stlg1m.

The organisations that form the project consortium are British 
Telecommunications plc (the lead partner on the project), BICC plc, 
Division Ltd, GPT Ltd, The University of Lancaster, The University of 
Manchester, and The University of Nottingham.

Note: Photographs representative of the goals of the project are 
available.

=======================================================

Contact:	Pierre duPont, Marketing Director,
                Division Limited, +44 454 615554
               Clive Jones, Division Limited +44 594 529619

Division Extends Virtual Reality VAR Agreement with Silicon Graphics 
to Entire World

Bristol, UK - 22 March 1994 - Further expanding on its success in the 
UK and the USA, Division has extended world-wide its existing Valued 
Added Reseller (VAR) agreement with Silicon Graphics.  This new and 
world-encompassing agreement will allow Division and Silicon 
Graphics to jointly sell complete VR systems anywhere in the world, 
through Silicon Graphics' network of local offices and distributors.

Under the terms of the agreement, Division will sell Silicon Graphics 
workstations with Division's dVSOE virtual reality operating 
environment and the dVISEOE Virtual Design EnvironmentOE, and provide 
integration services to customers who are creating professional VR 
applications.

"Virtual reality is fast becoming an important technology for all data 
visualization markets," said Dave Orton, vice president and general 
manager of Silicon Graphics' Advanced Graphics Division. "Working 
with Silicon Graphics, Division will help deliver the products and the 
technical expertise our customers need to quickly develop their next 
generation of professional, visual computing applications."

Division's dVS virtual reality operating environment leverages the 
highest capabilities of Silicon Graphics' systems, from the IndyOE and 
IndigoOE workstations through the OnyxOE RealityEngineOE graphics 
super-computer, by providing a software platform for the development 
of sophisticated virtual reality applications. "End-users or developers 
who want to make use of virtual reality, can now quickly and 
effectively do so with dVS, in the familiar and powerful SGI 
environment," said Charles Grimsdale, Managing Director of Division 
Group plc.

Based on a distributed, multi-user client/server architecture, dVS 
allows geographically separated users to come together over 
networks in a shared, immersive work space, enhancing their 
productivity and effectiveness while reducing the cost of collaboration 
on projects.  Further, dVS ensures that applications automatically 
adapt to the available hardware configuration, from non-immersive, 
flat-screen systems to fully-immersive environments with stereo 
displays, head, hand, and body tracking, and 3D spatialized audio.

Division's dVISE product is an end-user virtual reality application for 
existing Computer Aided Design (CAD) tools. dVISE is the industry's 
first Virtual Design EnvironmentOE and offers a true immersive 3D user 
interface as a seamless extension to mainstream CAD and modelling 
software. dVISE can be readily used without the need for any 
programming.

Silicon Graphics Inc. is the leading manufacturer of high-performance 
visual computing systems.  The company delivers interactive 
three-dimensional graphics, digital media and super-computing 
technologies to technical, scientific and creative professionals.  
Silicon Graphics has offices world-wide. Its headquarters are in 
Mountain View, California.

Division specialises in providing technology, products, and services 
for virtual reality applications. The company services a world-wide 
installed base of its integrated VR systems as part of Division Group 
plc, with offices in Bristol, UK, the USA, and representation by 
Matsushita in Japan. Its shares are traded on the London Stock 
Exchange.

=======================================================

Contact:	Pierre duPont	+44 (0) 454 615554
                Clive Jones	+44 (0) 594 529619
  
Pixel-Planes defines new price-performance
for Virtual Reality graphics 

Bristol UK - 1 February 1994 - Visual realism in virtual reality 
systems has taken a major leap forward following the launch by 
Division of its Pixel-Planes graphics systems. Division has 
engineered a low-cost, massively parallel graphics accelerator for its 
ProVision 100 virtual reality system. This new system, called the 
ProVision 100 VPX, is based upon Pixel-Planes 5, an advanced 
graphics architecture developed at the University of North Carolina, 
USA.  Division has negotiated a world-wide joint exclusive licence for 
the Pixel-Planes technology, and will offer this as an OEM graphics 
sub-system or as part of fully integrated VR systems.

"A whole range of VR applications have now become cost effective, 
because of this new level of visual realism; for example, VR based 
entertainment systems can now achieve the quality of experience 
usually associated with expensive simulation systems," said Charles 
Grimsdale, Managing Director of Division Group plc.

"Division has produced a powerful, low cost single board solution 
based upon Pixel-Planes 5 technology, while adding important 
features such as photo-texturing," said Henry Fuchs, Federico Gil 
Professor of Computer Science at the University of North Carolina. 
"For VR to prove useful,  then there must be cost effective systems 
which solve real problems, and I feel that this system is an important 
step in the right direction."

Virtual reality has previously been limited by the poor quality of the 
graphic images, for anything but the most expensive systems. The 
ProVision 100 VPX gives VR users a dramatic leap in the detail which 
they can display at real-time frame rates. Using massive parallelism 
with a processor dedicated to each pixel in the image, Pixel-Planes is 
able to display an unheard-of 160 million, fully photo-textured, 
Z-buffered, specular-lit pixels per second, at up to 300,000 polygons 
per second. Unique to the Pixel-Planes architecture is its ability to 
directly support the rendering of spheres, achieving up to 300,000 
Z-buffered and specular-lit spheres per second on the VPX hardware.

Pixel-Planes is suitable as a graphics accelerator for OEMs building 
dedicated systems, for example in location-based entertainment and 
low cost training.  In addition, as part of the ProVision 100 VPX, it 
offers unprecedented performance in a  fully-integrated virtual reality 
workstation. The ProVision 100 is the world's only integrated VR 
workstation, offering a simple, yet powerful, VR capability to end 
users and applications developers alike. The ProVision 100 is seeing 
use in a wide variety of applications by companies such as 
Matsushita, Glaxo, Volvo,  British Telecom and the Defence 
community, around the world. 

The ProVision100 VPX is available with a single VPX graphics board 
producing one very high resolution image or a stereo pair of 
video-resolution images, or with two VPX graphics boards producing 
very-high resolution images in stereo, or four video-resolution 
images. Applications range from immersive and interactive 
simulation and training, to entertainment, CAD visualisation and 
scientific visualisation.  Pricing for a complete, ProVision100 VPX 
system starts at stlg50,000, while OEM prices for a single Pixel-Planes 
board start at stlg12,000. 

The Department of Computer Science at the University of North 
Carolina, is a world leader in VR and real time graphics research. The 
Pixel-Planes concept was first conceived by Prof. Fuchs in the early 
1980s, and since then several generations of advanced research 
machines have been built based on this very powerful parallel 
architecture.  The basic principle is to use an array of processors 
(8,192 on the VPX board) to compute pixel data in parallel, with each 
processor dedicated to one or more pixels on the screen. This 
provides significant performance advantages, particularly where 
complex lighting and texture mapping is required on each pixel.  

Division specialises in providing technology, products and services 
for virtual reality applications. The company services a world-wide 
installed base of its integrated VR systems as part of Division Group 
plc, with offices in Bristol, UK, the USA, and representation by 
Matsushita in Japan. It's shares are traded on the London Stock 
Exchange.

Note	35mm transparencies available on request.

=======================================================

Contact:	Pierre duPont, Marketing Director,
Division Limited at +44 (0)454 615554

"Fantastic Journey"
will speed development of drugs

Bristol & London, UK - 14 March 1994 - Scientists and technicians will 
use virtual reality to bring themselves down to the size of the 
molecules they are investigating in a new project aimed at improving 
our understanding of protein molecules and their interactions with 
drugs.

The stlg600,000 project, announced today by Trade and Technology 
Minister Patrick McLoughlin, will enable technicians with limited 
experience to carry out scientific analysis, while experts will be able 
to work without needing to understand the technicalities of the 
computer equipment they use.

Funded by stlg180,000 from the DTI and stlg120,000 from the Science and 
Engineering Research Council (SERC), the project for "interactive 
protein modelling systems using virtual reality" is the latest stage of 
the stlg6.35m government-funded LINK protein engineering programme, 
which is expected to attract an equivalent sum from industry.

The project, using molecules simulated in 3D images, will be 
undertaken by the University of York, Division Ltd (specialists in 
virtual reality and software) and Glaxo Research and Development 
Ltd. The aim is to develop systems using existing stereo imaging 
facilities, which can be developed subsequently to use virtual reality 
systems.  Laboratory workers will be able to use the more intuitive 
user interface of VR systems to understand the structure of 
macromolecules and how the structure relates to their function.
Early take-up of such key enabling technology by UK and European 
companies will lead to direct sales of the system, and economic 
benefits such as shorter development times for new medicines.

Under the project, three molecular modelling and manipulation 
systems will be developed:

. a system for building models of macromolecules that satisfy "low 
resolution" experimental and other constraints;

. a protein visualisation system for natural and effective 
representation and analysis of protein structure; and,

. a system for exploring similarities between molecules, in terms of 
both structure and function.

The key characteristics of these systems are interactive visualisation 
of structure and properties of molecules, and manipulation of 
structure(s) by the user.

A pilot project has demonstrated that virtual reality offers crucial 
advantages over a conventional computer workstation in providing 
these interactive features. The applications in the project will be 
developed to operate both on conventional workstations and within a 
virtual reality system.

Notes for Editors

1.	Recent advances in molecular biology and genetic 
engineering have led to increased commercial interest in the potential 
to design proteins with enhanced or new properties and to produce 
improved drugs, hormones, industrial enzymes, agrochemicals, 
biocatalysts and food proteins. The LINK Protein Engineering 
Programme seeks to encourage collaborative R&D that will generate 
a focused research effort aimed at advancing the understanding of the 
structural properties of proteins and the ground rules which relate 
structure to biological activity.

2.	For further information, contact:
	University of York	Dr Rod Hubbard at 0904-432519
	Division Limited	Pierre duPont at 0454-615554
	Glaxo Group Research Ltd	Philip Connolly 081-966-3470

3.	Photographs are available from Pierre duPont at +44 (0)454 
615554

=============================================================
email: pierre@division.demon.co.uk
Pierre duPont                           phone: +44 454 615554
Division Limited                        fax: +44 454 615532
19 Apex Court, Woodlands, Almondsbury, Bristol BS12 4JT UK