Digital Equipment Corp is in the process of acquiring graphics accelerator company Megatek Corp, the US subsidiary of Nihon Unisys Ltd for an undisclosed sum. The deal, subject to final terms and conditions, involves the 3D graphics engineering team and rights and patents to Megatek products, and Digital will take over the company’s San Diego base. Founded in 1992, Megatek went through a series of acquisitions until it was bought by Nihon Unisys in 1992 for around $4m – it had revenues at the time of $20m (CI No 1,920). Digital set up an informal relationship with the company two years ago, just as its partnership with Kubota Corp was falling apart (CI No 2,477), but so far no products using Megatek hardware or software have been shipped . As well as integrating the Megatek technology, consisting of graphics algorithms and proprietary ASIC hardware, DEC will continue to work with Nihon Unisys to develop products for customers in Japan: sales are currently aimed at automotive customers such as Toyota and Honda with the Megatek products running on Sun workstations, though DEC would obviously prefer that to change. DEC spokesperson Linn Thorson-Jensen claimed the Megatek technology, particularly strong in high-performance rendering areas such as anti-aliasing, would not overlap with other DEC graphics initiatives, such as the Powerstorm 4DT series 3D graphics accelerators announced in August (CI No 2,973), or the very high-end Evans and Sutherland collaboration.
