Tuesday was a busy day for the public relations department at 3Dlabs. With four fairly large announcements, the company sent along word on what it's been up to.

　　First, 3Dlabs has filed a lawsuit in California accusing Texas Instruments of a breach of contract and misappropriation of trade secrets. California's trade secret provisions in the civil code state that violations occurred with inside information about the company that were made public on the Web as well as confidential information in printed materials belonging to the 3D chip maker.

　　Also, the suit claims that TI violated other provisions of its contract (TI is a manufacturer of 3Dlabs' chips). "We have a responsibility to our shareholders to ensure that we protect our intellectual property and trade secrets with diligence," said Osman Kent, president and CEO of 3Dlabs. "While TI is a valued business partner of 3Dlabs, we reluctantly had to take this step to protect our rights."

　　SGS-Thomson and 3Dlabs announced that they inked an agreement for SGS to supply Permedia 2 chips to 3Dlabs. It is interesting because TI was the only manufacturer of the chips before. In the release issued by 3Dlabs, it said that it would be using chips made by both companies.

　　The company also announced that it had shipped over one million low-cost 2D/3D chipsets, the Permedia 2, since it began shipping in volume in September 1997. Permedia 2 chips in AGP cards are shipping in PCs by Acer, Compaq, Dell, Digital, Gateway, Hitachi, IBM, Micron, and NEC. Add-board makers including Creative Labs, Diamond, ELSA, Hercules, Leadtek, and STB use the chip as well.

　　In other news, 3Dlabs announced record financial figures for the fourth quarter '97 and for the entire year. Fourth-quarter revenues went up 159 percent to US$22.3 million from last year's results. Revenues for 1997 were up 251 percent to $69.1 million compared with 1996's $19.7.