Microsoft and SGI to collaborate on OpenGL for Windows

Microsoft and Silicon Graphics (SGI) have announced that they are working together on a 3D graphics kit that will make it easier to develop drivers for Windows supporting the OpenGL standard.

This move is expected to strengthen the OpenGL standard, as well as aid Microsoft?s push into the high end graphics market.

OpenGL is an industry-standard 2D and 3D graphics API developed by Silicon Graphics. OpenGL is used mainly in applications for the high end graphics market, which is still dominated by Unix workstations.

The device driver kit that Microsoft and SGI will codevelop will allow vendors of graphics accelerator hardware to develop OpenGL drivers for Windows 95 and NT 4.0, as well as future versions of both platforms. The kit is expected to be available in the spring of 1998.