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P. Interview @ Gamers Depot
Gamers Depot has an interesting interview with Kamran Ahmed from Matrox who's answering questions about the Parhelia card, here's a snippet:
I've read through the whole six-page article and it's worth reading. 
GD: John Carmack has been quite public about his desire for 64bit color, do you think you guys "missed the mark" with only doing 10-bit?
Kamran/Matrox
"The goal of full 64-bit color depths (or 16-bits per color channel) is to allow very high precision to remain in all color values to minimize artifacts in demanding multi- pass next generation 3D rendering techniques. There is no question that these very high color formats will be important to enable better image quality in the photo-realistic 3D titles of the future (we may even see a move to 32-bits per color channel eventually) and that they are the right thing to do. That being said, Matrox’s implementation of a full 10-bit per color channel throughout all pipelines brings a number of important benefits to current and future applications. Parhelia supports 10-bit across the entire pipeline, to the frame buffer (display buffer), through the LUTs and out to the DACs and TV-encoder - and for 2D, 3D and DVD. 10-bit is 64x the precision and number of colors available with existing 8-bit per color channel architectures. All this extra precision means that a wider gamut of color is available for viewing, shadows can be more subtle, the Windows desktop more vibrant and a more fine color match can be made between multiple monitors. One of the key areas being targeted with these technologies is the 2D Workstation and the color professional. The other thing that is nice about the 10-bit Gigacolor format is that it can be made to fit within the standard 32-bit per pixel display formats which makes it easier to take advantage of in the existing OS’s and applications."
GD: In the press release, it said that both 64MB and 256MB versions of Parhelia would be released. Do you have an ETA or expected pricing for these yet?
Kamran/Matrox
"While I can't give any specifics on these products, I will say that you can expect to see them this summer. Believe it or not the 64MB board will be less expensive than the 128MB board, and the 256MB board will be more expensive J Both cards will bring the entire feature set of the Parhelia to the market including TripleHead Windows and Surround Gaming."
GD: Now that Matrox is finally back "in the 3D game", when do you think we can expect to start hearing about "Parhelia 2"?
Kamran/Matrox
"What, Parhelia 2?"
Kamran/Matrox
"The goal of full 64-bit color depths (or 16-bits per color channel) is to allow very high precision to remain in all color values to minimize artifacts in demanding multi- pass next generation 3D rendering techniques. There is no question that these very high color formats will be important to enable better image quality in the photo-realistic 3D titles of the future (we may even see a move to 32-bits per color channel eventually) and that they are the right thing to do. That being said, Matrox’s implementation of a full 10-bit per color channel throughout all pipelines brings a number of important benefits to current and future applications. Parhelia supports 10-bit across the entire pipeline, to the frame buffer (display buffer), through the LUTs and out to the DACs and TV-encoder - and for 2D, 3D and DVD. 10-bit is 64x the precision and number of colors available with existing 8-bit per color channel architectures. All this extra precision means that a wider gamut of color is available for viewing, shadows can be more subtle, the Windows desktop more vibrant and a more fine color match can be made between multiple monitors. One of the key areas being targeted with these technologies is the 2D Workstation and the color professional. The other thing that is nice about the 10-bit Gigacolor format is that it can be made to fit within the standard 32-bit per pixel display formats which makes it easier to take advantage of in the existing OS’s and applications."
GD: In the press release, it said that both 64MB and 256MB versions of Parhelia would be released. Do you have an ETA or expected pricing for these yet?
Kamran/Matrox
"While I can't give any specifics on these products, I will say that you can expect to see them this summer. Believe it or not the 64MB board will be less expensive than the 128MB board, and the 256MB board will be more expensive J Both cards will bring the entire feature set of the Parhelia to the market including TripleHead Windows and Surround Gaming."
GD: Now that Matrox is finally back "in the 3D game", when do you think we can expect to start hearing about "Parhelia 2"?
Kamran/Matrox
"What, Parhelia 2?"
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