Written by Stefan
Saturday, 03 September 2005
The Roadmap of S3 Graphics has changed and has been made more
specific. This changes are surprsing since there haven't been any
informations about that around. The following things should be brought to
the market in the next months:
Desktop
The so far planned models GammaChrome S14 (4 pipelines, Low-Cost)
and
GammaChrome S19 (8 pipelines, Mid-Range) have been dropped and instead zu
Chrome S2X turns in. Chrome S2X contains 8 pipelines and is manufactured
in
0,09 µm. So clock rates of at least 700 MHz should be possible with the
top
model Chrome S27. The models Chrome S23, S25 and S27 are due for the
market. The models will most likely only differ in the clock rate.
Engineering Samples should exist already and the mass production is
expected
to begin in November 2005. If everything works as planned, Chrome S2X
based
gaphic cards could reach the market in December! In general Chrome S2X is
another reincarnation of the well-known Columbia Design on which
DeltaChrome
and GammaChrome are already based. However there are two considerable
differences: Chromotion 3.0 and Multi-G!
Chromotion 3.0
Chromotion 3.0 is the further developed Chromotion-Engine known from
DeltaChrome and GammaChrome. Apart from this old features such as MPEG2
acceleration and DeBlocking filter, Chromotion 3.0 offers hardware
acceleration of the video formats WMV9 HD and MPEG4. Both formats are
very
im****tant for HDTV and therefure S3 Graphics made a very good improvement.
Multi-G
Mulit-G is - as the name supposes - the technology of S3 Graphics to
enable the parallel operation of two (or more) PCI-Express graphic cards,
a
technology similar to nVidias SLI or ATIs CrossFire. More exact details
are
not yet known, but it is very likely that the technology resembles the
ones
of the competition. Whether a special Bridge is used like nVidiaor a
special
master card is needed like ATi or another third own variant is used, is
not
unknown until now. S3 Graphics reacted with this step to the increasing
meaning of Multi-GPU configurations and is just close to ATi with its
solution (if the schedules are kept). So S3 Graphics is relatively early
present ins this apparently rapidly growing market. With the help of
Multi-G, S3 Graphics want to make step into into the performance market.
Two
Chrome S27 graphics cards with 700+ MHz clock rates could possible match
this target.
Multi-G is then of course im****tant for Destination Films: The two
models D1 (Upper Mainstream) and D2 (Mainstream) are planned for third
(D1)
and the fourth quarter 2006 (D2). With Multi-G the performance market
should aslo be occupied. The are unfortunately no further specification
known for Destination Films, except that it's sup****ting DirectX 10 with
pixel and vertex shaders 4.0.
Mobile
In the also im****tant mobile market S3 Graphics wants to regain some
lost market share in the next months. With GammaChrome S18 and S18 ULP
there are currently two power saving chips for ****tables and thin & light
notebooks. Some notebooks and MXM modules with this two ****ps should hit
the
market in this quarter. Since S3 Graphics uses the MXM format of nVidia (a
plug-in card with graphic chip and memory specially for notebooks) they
have
a good start position. MXM seems to become a standard and with the
low-power
chips and the use of MXM, S3 Graphics has some good chances.
The Chrome XM series should further strengthen the position in the
market. The first chip to appear is the Chrome XM27 in November as desktop
replacement. Its specifications should be indentical to the Chrome S27,
but
probably lower clocked.
In the first quarter of 2006 Chrome XM25 and XM23 are set to be
released for ****tables and thin & light notebooks. If the GammaChrome
solutions are well accepted by the OEMs, then the chances are very good,
that Chrome XM can increase the market share of S3 Graphics in this market
And in the third and fourth quarter the corresponding mobile chips
of
Destination Films, XD1, XD2 and a still unnamed chip, should be released.
They are also exptected to be used for desktop replacement, ****tables and
thin & light notebooks.
Final words:
The dropping of GammaChrome S14 and S19 are not really a surprise.
The
delay of S18 and the several models of S18 would have put S14 down in
market
where it doesn't makes sense to launch a new product.
The faster model S19 was stopped in favour of the three new variants
Chrome S23, S25 and S27. With 90nm manufacturing, Multi-G and the improved
Chromotion engine of Chrome S2X, the death of GammaChrome S19 is not
really
sad. If S3 Graphics manages to bring the chips to the market in time,
those
surely will have an impact on the market
In the mobile sector, you have to wait and see how the chips are
accepted by the OEMs and the customers. This market is very slow, since
the
development of a Notebook model takes some time and the manufactures are
rather conservative with new techniques.
But S3 Graphics in general seems to strengthen its ambitions. There
are more chips planned in the the next 12 months than had been been
released
in the last three years at all, especially in the mobile sector S3
Graphics
wants to make some real come-back. And the future IGPs of VIA Technologies
are not even considered.
____________________________________________
source, with roadmap charts
http://www.chrome-center.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=78&Itemid=63
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