Alias|Wavefront Celebrates 20Th Anniversary and Announces Name Change to Alias Submitted By: Axicom Friday, 18 July 2003

Alias|Wavefront celebrates 20th Anniversary and announces name change to Alias Submitted by: AxiCom Friday, 18 July 2003

Alias|Wavefront, a Silicon Graphics, Inc. (NYSE: SGI) company, announced that today marks the start of its 20th anniversary celebrations and the launch of a corporate identity change from Alias|Wavefront to Alias. The name Alias signifies the rich heritage of the company and provides a simple yet powerful name that is well known throughout the 3D industry and beyond. The 20th year of the company has been an outstanding one to date and began with an Oscar® statuette for the development of Alias|Wavefront™ Maya® software. “Being an industry leader for 20 years is absolutely amazing, but more incredible than that is what's in store for the next 20 years. I am proud to be part of a company that teams with its customers to push the technology envelope to deliver more value,” said Doug Walker, president, Alias. “Contributing to the creation of some of the most defining moments of 3D history is an honour we share with these talented customers. We look forward to further developing these important partnerships in the years ahead.” In the Beginning Alias Research® was founded in 1983, in Toronto, Canada, with Wavefront Technologies launching one-year later in Santa Barbara, California. Both companies experienced strong growth and developed products such as Composer, Kinemation™, Dynamation™, Alias® and PowerAnimator™ through the late eighties and into the nineties. In the mid-90’s, the two companies were acquired and merged under Silicon Graphics as Alias|Wavefront. The goal of the merged company was to develop leading-edge software for producing the most realistic digital visual experience possible and it has achieved just that. With two product lines, it is a leader in its class. StudioTools™ and Maya software are the result of two companies bringing together their brightest minds and product development powerhouses. A New ‘Alias’ for Alias|Wavefront The decision to evolve the name comes at a time when the company is pushing forward to launch new products and provide even greater value to the Alias customer base. “Alias will bring new products and services to market more rapidly over the next 5 years than ever before in our 20 year history. At the same time we are committed to continuing with our historical industry leading investment in both Maya and StudioTools,” Walker continued. “Our new name allows us to focus on building a single brand for new products going forward and frees up resources to invest in the products themselves.” Along with the new name comes a new logo and new branding for the company. To read more about the launch of Alias and the story of the new logo, please visit www.alias.com. Defining Moments The past 20 years are filled with exciting moments in the computer graphics history and Alias software has played a role in some of the most defining moments:

Page 1 – Alias software was used to bring vision to life in such cutting edge films as Tron, The Abyss, Terminator 2, Jurassic Park and to recent Oscar award-winning films Lord of the Rings™: The Two Towers™, The Matrix, Shrek and For the Birds. – In games, early favourites such as Donkey Kong Country, Star Control® II and Quake® took full advantage of Alias technology and most recently, six out of 10 top selling 2002 holiday games were made with Maya software, including Madden Football 2003, SOCOM™: US Navy Seals. – Every major automotive manufacturer uses Alias software, from Audi® with its new Audi TT; to Renault with its Megane II, and our longest standing customer, General Motors – In product design, Alias customers are creating award-winning designs and world-recognised brands including Apple® computers, Nike® sports gear, Trek® racing bicycles, Herman Miller® furniture, John Deere® tractors, the Segway® human transporter and even Olympic torches. “Two decades of pioneering the future of Industrial Design. Wow! For myself and others who have worked closely with Alias|Wavefront for most of those years, thanks for giving our profession the most powerful tool since the first napkin sketch,” commented Brian Baker of GM Design. “The Chevy SSR and the subsequent math revolution proved beyond a doubt that passionate production vehicles were possible using StudioTools. Thanks for the first 20 years, and I’m looking forward to the future with you as a partner.” “As computer graphics software has been developed and become more sophisticated over the past 20 years, Alias|Wavefront has emerged as a leader in the field – always propelling the technology to the next level – allowing us to produce more complex images,” said Jeff Kleiser, co-founder, Kleiser-Walczak. “We look forward to working with Alias over the next 20 years to pave the road into the future as digital film making becomes more and more ubiquitous in the entertainment and design worlds.” Driving the Evolution of 3D Graphics Forward – The Alias Visualisation Studio™ Alias will continue to fulfill its vision of the past 20 years – to develop leading-edge software and services to enable its customers to create, visualise and communicate the world's most compelling digital visual experiences. As part of delivering on that vision, Alias will launch the Alias Visualisation Studio, a new state-of-the-art customer briefing facility equipped with best of breed technology from Alias and its partners. The Alias Visualisation Studio will provide a space to share ideas and facilitate collaboration with customers and partners to define the future of digital visualisation for film and video, games, automotive and industrial design and to help bring new value to markets where the potential of digital visualisation is emerging. The Alias Visualisation Studio will officially launch in autumn 2003 at the company’s headquarters in Toronto. With the most innovative and advanced customers in the world developing products in design and entertainment markets that touch every aspect of people’s lives; from the cars we drive, to the films we watch, the interactive games we play and the running shoes we wear – Alias will continue to play a starring role. Siggraph 2003

Page 2 Alias looks forward to formally celebrating the 20th anniversary with customers, partners and the CG industry at Siggraph® 2003 where the annual AGUA@Night user group meeting will feature highlights of the past 20 years of the company. To register for AGUA@Night, please visit www.alias.com/agua. About Alias As the world’s leading innovator of 3D graphics technology, Alias develops software for the film and video, games, web, interactive media, industrial design, and visualisation markets. In 2003, the company was awarded an Oscar for Technical Achievement from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for its development of Maya software, its professional 3D animation and effects package. Entertainment and games customers include: Acclaim Entertainment, Inc., CNN, Core Design Limited, Digital Domain, Disney, Electronic Arts, Industrial Light & Magic, Factor 5 LLC, Midway Games, Nintendo, Pacific Data Images (PDI), Pixar, Sega, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Square Co., Ltd., Warner Feature Animation and Weta Ltd. Alias is a wholly owned, independent software company of SGI with headquarters in Toronto and custom development centre in Santa Barbara. Please visit the Alias web site at http://www.alias.com or call call 01494 441273 for the nearest sales office or authorised reseller in your area. Alias is a registered trademark and the Alias logo, the swirl, Alias|Wavefront, Alias Visualisation Studio, StudioTools, Kinemation, Dynamation and PowerAnimator are trademarks of Alias Systems, a division of Silicon Graphics Limited in the United States and/or other countries world-wide. Maya is a registered trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc., exclusively used by Alias Systems, a division of Silicon Graphics Limited. Silicon Graphics and SGI are registered trademarks of Silicon Graphics, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries world-wide. Oscar is a trademark and service mark of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. SOCOM is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. Quake is a registered trademark of Id Software, Inc. Corporation. Star Control is a registered trademark of Accolade, Inc. General Motors is a registered trademark of General Motors Corporation. Audi is a registered trademark of Audi AG. Apple is a registered trademark of Apple Corporation Inc. registered in the U.S. and other countries. Nike is a registered trademark of Nike Inc. Trek is a registered trademark of Trek Bicycle Corporation. Herman Miller is a registered trademark of Herman Miller, Inc. Corporation. Segway is a registered trademark of Segway LLC. John Deere is a registered trademark of Deere & Company. SIGGRAPH is a registered trademark of the Association for Computing Machinery, Inc. All other products or companies mentioned are trademarks or service marks of their respective owners. Alias, 210 King Street East, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5A 1J7, Tel: 416-362-9181, Fax: 416-369-6140. Press Contact: Lucy Mitchell, AxiCom Tel: (0)20 8600 4611 [email protected] For press images, please visit www.alias.com/forthepress

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