2D ‘TRIO’ SERIES OF VIDEO CARDS WERE QUITE POPULAR IN THE PRE-3D ERA
http://dervishcom.blogspot.com/2011/07/2d-trio-series-of-video-cards-were.html
VIA voiced currently which it’s sealed an agreement to sell a share in S3 Graphics to a mobile phone manufacturer HTC. S3′s GPU record (dubbed Chrome) powers VIA’s assorted chipsets and– is interconnected with a company’s Nano processor as partial of a CPU platform. Given VIA’s relations splinter of marketplace share, this competence not appear similar to an critical transaction—but it is.
It’s been over a decade given S3 was a vital player in a graphics arrangement industry; a company’s 2D ‘Trio’ array of video cards were utterly renouned in a pre-3D era.
S3 attempted to come in a 3D market, yet a company’s ViRGE products achieved so abysmally, they warranted a nickname ’3D Decelerators.’ The association followed a ViRGE with a Savage 3D and– Savage 4 architectures, yet never managed to furnish a rival 3D part. It was in a future purchased by VIA; a GPUs were integrated in to which company’s motherboards.
S3′s a single durability grant to a 3D attention and– a reason we’re articulate about a association today, was S3 Texture Compression (dubbed S3TC, otherwise well known as DXTC). When it debuted a Savage 3D design in 1998, S3 additionally demonstrated an algorithm which could be use–d to restrict a 4×4 retard of pixels to 1/6 (24-bit) or 1/4 (32-bit) of their strange size. Since both mental recall band–width and– sum video label RAM were during a reward behind then, S3′s record was at large adopted. Microsoft incorporated S3TC await in to a DirectX 6.0 stand–ard; S3TC stays in drawn out use– today.
On Jul 1, Apple was found guilty of infringing dual S3TC-related patents. Six days later, you see HTC shopping S3 Graphics for a little $300 million (VIA and– S3′s first investment holder, WTI Investment, will separate which volume $147M/$153M respectively). Meanwhile, a burgeoning success of NVIDIA’s Tegra height equates to S3TC await is starting to be increasingly critical to mobile devices. Like a 3D accelerators of yesteryear, mobile inclination have been tasked with muscle action tall opening from minimal amounts of RAM and– singular device band–width. HTC’s preference to buy S3 upon a heels of a ITC preference is well-timed indeed.
According to VIA’s Board Director, Tzu-Mu Lin, “The contract would concede VIA to monetize a apportionment of a abounding IP portfolio, nonetheless keep a graphics capabilities to await a growth and– sale of a processors and– chipsets. We instruct to appreciate WTI for a collateral grant to await S3 Graphics given 2005.” This implies which VIA has defended a little grade of entrance to S3′s GPU IP. The range and– length of which agreement have been unknown, yet it as if covers products formed upon a most-current IGP record VIA has to offer.
We strongly think which HTC paid for a S3TC obvious some-more than it paid for S3 as such. While it could really repurpose a company’s efforts towards building a own mobile GPUs, a obvious is both a income tide and– a negotiate thinly slice it can use– to move alternative vital players to a table. S3TC’s capabilities have been important–quite presumably critical sufficient to shift a change of energy between mobile device developers.
