Tech Soft America/Surpac Announce HOOPS 3D Surpac Vision

Tech Soft America (TSA), provider of premier OEM graphics technology and Surpac Software International (SSI), a leading provider of mining industry software, announce the use of HOOPS 3D Application Framework (HOOPS/3DAF) in SSI's new flagship product upgrade, Surpac Vision.

HOOPS/3dAF serves as the architectural foundation for the rapid development of advanced visualization and collaboration applications for Windows, Unix, Linux or the Web. Specific extensions for use in a Java environment, as well as a range of new HOOPS Internet Tools, provide a powerful solution for building client/server Web-based applications with high-performance 2D & 3D graphics. More information on HOOPS and TSA is available at www.hoops3d.com.

Surpac Vision is SSI's new client/server based visualization application that makes use of the power of servers for computationally intensive operations, with an Internet-enabled visualization client. The visualization client makes use of the Java Swing component for its clean "Windows-like" User Interface and the HOOPS 3D Graphics System for visualization. Surpac Vision users will be able to take advantage of the most powerful machine on the network for data processing, with HOOPS delivering powerful graphics capabilities on their local machine. More information on Surpac Vision may be found at www.surpac.com.

Steve Carter, Director of R&D for SSI, stated, "Our recent development focus has been on the deployment of sophisticated 3D graphics over networks, including the Internet, for display on one or more remote clients. This, of course, is what Sun had intended for Java 3D and while the specs for Java 3D showed a lot of promise it has consistently failed to deliver. After detailed, extensive research to determine the best 3D graphics system to satisfy our needs we settled on HOOPS and have been quite pleased with the performance, stability and robustness of the HOOPS API."

Added Tony Hampton, SSI's CEO, "I believe ours is the first such commercial application using Java and HOOPS together. We have been very impressed with the power of the HOOPS solution within a Java environment and the responsiveness of the Tech Soft team. We look forward to leveraging more of HOOPS' new streaming and collaboration capabilities in future releases. We have no doubt our customers will be impressed with what they see."

"We predict Surpac is the first of many application developers who will make use of HOOPS for high performance graphics within a Java environment and we are pleased to have helped them quickly deliver their breakthrough Surpac Vision product. The release of Surpac Vision is a firm indicator that HOOPS is and will continue to be the choice for high performance 3D graphics over networks, particularly the Internet" added Ron Fritz, Managing Partner for TSA.

About SSI

Surpac Software International (SSI) is a team of people dedicated to the development and support of an outstanding suite of mining, engineering and environmental software products. SSI was founded in 1982 and has developed a client base of around 3,000 users spanning more than 80 countries. SSI's mission is to provide their clients with functional products together with an outstanding support service that allows them to maximize the benefits of modern technical software products, and ensure that their projects remain competitive and profitable. Surpac's motto, 'through people we create' is a reflection of their commitment to the growth of the many people that make up the company. This, together with a potent forward-looking culture leads to sustained achievement in R&D and strong commitment to customer service. Surpac has developed a technical support network that spans the globe, and on a "per seat" basis is the most widely used technical mining software application in the world.

A free demonstration version of Surpac Vision can be obtained from SSI, and more information on can be found at www.surpac.com.

About Tech Soft America

Tech Soft America (TSA) provides premier customer driven development tools, consulting and support services enabling their partners to rapidly deliver world-class technical software. The HOOPS 3D Application Framework is a high-level, object oriented development tool, which dramatically simplifies the design, development and maintenance of high-performance, interactive 2D and 3D applications built for Windows, Unix, Linux and the Web.

The core of HOOPS 3D Application Framework is the HOOPS 3D Graphics system, which has been integrated into over 100 commercially shipped applications in the areas of Earth Science, CAD/CAM/CAE, Scientific Visualization, GIS, and Business Graphics.

The company maintains corporate headquarters in Oakland, California and can be reached at www.hoops3d.com.

Contact Melle Amade-Vice Business Development Group, Tech Soft America, 1830 Embarcadero Suite 103 Oakland, CA 94606, 510-769-2304, melle@techsoftamerica.com.