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Press Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


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SciTech Software Inc.
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www.scitechsoft.com


SciTech Software Inc. to Open Source Its Proprietary Device Driver Architecture

* SciTech Software Inc confirms Open Source plans, and offers two licenses to accommodate the needs of developers and vendors.

Chico, Calif., August 27, 2002 -- SciTech Software, Inc. today announced the intention to release the bulk of its proprietary device driver development tools under a new dual license structure. SciTech has selected the GNU General Public License (GPL) license to handle the needs of Open Source developers along with a commercial software license for those seeking to offer non-GPL solutions. By providing an Open Source license to its powerful development tools SciTech is seeking to gain wider acceptance of its unique SciTech SNAP device driver architecture. To date companies such as IBM, and ATI have benefited from the binary compatibility that the SciTech SNAP architecture provides. With this latest announcement embedded and industrial developers will have the ability to utilize the same architecture to further their own efforts.

ôOver the years IÆve been asked to put up or shut up by some powerful players in the Open Source community regarding this architecture; well I guess the time has come to put up,ö said Kendall Bennett, founder/CEO of SciTech Software Inc., adding ôthe alternate OS community has suffered long enough through the lack of a solid binary compatible device driver architectureö

SciTechÆs commercially available graphics driver pack, SciTech SNAP Graphics, currently supports nearly 180 graphics chip sets on multiple OSÆes with full 2D acceleration. Access to all existing SciTech SNAP drivers will remain available under SciTechÆs commercial license and will not be Open Sourced due to existing NDAÆs with chip vendors. However, anyone choosing to utilize the SciTech SNAP development tools will have the ability to study GPL samples of SciTech SNAP drivers in the DDK. The dual license will allow developers the ability to quickly tap into this fully plug-and-play support base with little effort.

ôWe see this as an important step for the alternate OS space,ö said Andrew Bloo, Director of Sales and Marketing for SciTech Software Inc. ôfor the first time OS vendors that service emerging markets get a true alternative to the aging X11 driver model. SciTech SNAP provides complete 2D acceleration, plug-and-play and a support base equal to anything available regardless of OS including Windowsö.

By providing application developers, hardware and OS vendors the ability to fully develop solutions free of charge, SciTech is providing real value to emerging markets. Should developers decide to ship drivers and or applications developed with SciTechÆs tools they can then decide to release their source code under the terms of the GPL or easily change their license to the commercial version and protect their proprietary code.

About SciTech
SciTech Software, Inc. is a leading supplier of PC graphics utilities, drivers, and tools for the embedded, industrial and enterprise markets. SciTechÆs products allow software developers to achieve maximum performance from their systems graphics hardware. SciTechÆs products include, SciTech SNAP Graphics, a fully accelerated binary compatible graphic device driver solution, SciTech GLDirect, an OpenGL to Direct3D driver and SciTech MGL, an Open Source, professional graphics library used to develop some of todayÆs most popular software programs. SciTech products support the Windows, Linux, OS/2, DOS, QNX, and SMX operating systems. Many major software companies and hardware companies license portions of SciTechÆs technology for incorporation in their products. SciTech is privately held and the company's web address is http://www.scitechsoft.com

check the announcement at:

http://www.scitechsoft.com/news/press/open_src_release.html

Source: OS2VOICE

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