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© The HOISe-NM Consortium 1997
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SGI acquires Russian ParaGraph
Mountain View, 14-05-1997 Silicon Graphics acquires ParaGraph International, a 3D Internet software company that was founded by Stepan Pachikov, Garry Kasparov and several prominent Russian scientists. ParaGraph's California Campbell operations will move to Silicon Graphics' Mountain View campus and be integrated into Cosmo Software, the new SGI multiplatform Internet software business unit.
ParaGraph International, Inc., founded in 1989 by Stepan Pachikov, Garry Kasparov (the world chess champion) and several prominent Russian scientists, is developing Virtual Reality technologies for mass market platforms, such as Windows and Macintosh. ParaGraph's mission is to enable people to "Build their own worlds."
Paragraph is a complete Internet Virtual Reality and Digital Ink solutions consisting of authoring tools, multi-user server software, and content creation services. These products and services facilitate the development of lively and realistic Web content and enable users to create and inhabit 3D Web sites, inhabit them with avatars and robots and communicate visually as well as using text, voice and pen.
ParaGraph's team of over 90 software engineers and digital artists play a role in developing key Virtual Reality and Digital Ink technologies and industry standards. ParaGraphís software engineers have co-authored all three of the existing Virtual Reality Modeling Language ("VRML") standards. ParaGraph's knowledge of Internet and VR standards and technologies (VRML, Digital Ink, ActiveX, Java, multi-user client/servers and MMX, among others) has enabled it to bring VR products to market faster than any of its competitors. As a result the Company has established technology leadership and gained a first-to-market advantage.
Paragraph will be incorporated into Cosmo Software, a new SGI business unit established to focus on the high-growth market for multiplatform Internet software.
Cosmo Software will be based in Mountain View, California. Dr. Kai-Fu Lee, most recently the vice president and general manager of the Silicon Graphics Web Products Division, will become president of the new business unit. Dr. Lee has been responsible for the WebFORCE and Cosmo family of products as well as the company's corporate Web strategy.
The WebFORCE systems unit, a major contributor to the company's server business, will join the newly formed Computer Systems organization headed by executive vice president Robert Ewald.
For more information on ParaGraph International visit the Paragraph web site .