X-bit labs

X-bit Labs CeBIT Hannover 2004 Coverage: Part 3

Category: Editorial

by Anton Shilov

[ 03/23/2004 | 03:57 AM ]

Please read our third part of the CeBIT report, where we will tell you about the new products from Albatron, GeiL, S3 and ULi. Besides, there are also some hot news about the upcoming NV40 solution from NVIDIA, so don’t miss it!

Table of contents:

• S3 Graphics: GammaChrome is Here!
  
• ALi/ULi: Back in the Business?
  
• GeIL Displays DDR2-667 Memory Modules
  
• Albatron – Unleashing PCI Express, LGA775 Solutions
  
• NVIDIA NV40 in Action – DirectX 9.0 Performance Monster
  

We continue to tell you about the hottest events at CeBIT 2004 trade-show. The third day as expected appeared to be pretty crowded – that is because it is Saturday and a lot of people from Hannover and nearby are heading to the European’s key technology show – CeBIT.

<%BANNER[article]%>

On the other hand, there are a little bit less representatives for IT companies among visitors and also less people who go to the exhibition with a purpose, therefore, it is easier to get to a transport. Unfortunately, traffic jams are still a problem and they will probably remain on Sunday as well. Anyway, what to expect from an exhibition that has 700 thousand of visitors?

S3 Graphics: GammaChrome is Here!

Visiting S3 Graphics’ booth that is co-located with VIA Technologies is something I would consider as “promising”. The company that once used to be the No.1 graphics chip designer and in the total oblivion the other time is now returning into the market. Maybe S3 Graphics does not produce the fastest chips on the planet, but its fair-play and ability to work on driver issues leaves an astonishingly good impression about the company’s come-back.

The main activity of S3 Graphics today is to improve performance and ensure stability of its DeltaChrome graphics processors. In fact, the company has quite notable memory bandwidth saving technologies that include Z-compression, rapid Z clear and some tile-like approaches for optimized rendering (tile size is reprogrammable and can be either 2x4 or 4x2 pixels). Moreover, there are additional ways to improve performance of the DeltaChrome, so, generally speaking, S3 is now quite optimistic about the future. Once available, Delta Chrome S4 Nitro, S8 and S8 Nitro will be quite affordable, probably at price points below specified earlier.

S3 Graphics does not have plans to introduce PCI Express solutions shortly. There will be no S3-based graphics cards with PEG->AGP bridges, like those used by NVIDIA or XGI. Instead, the company aims to deliver a new architecture that has native PCI Express interface and tangibly improved performance of the currently available products. The chip named GammaChrome is expected to be formally released in summer 2004 with actual graphics cards shipping sometime towards the Fall. Currently no precise details are given in regards speeds and timeframes simply because there is hardly a point to specify them nearly two quarters prior the shipments.

Just like NVIDIA and ATI S3 Graphics is currently developing a special improved compiler for shaders to incorporate it into its drivers. The new compiler will bring a performance advantage to the DeltaChrome chips, but its main target is the GammaChrome architecture. It is possible to expect that GammaChrome will take a very substantial advantage of the compiler in addition to generally revamped architecture.

At this time S3 Graphics has no plans to implement the Pixel Shaders 3.0 and Vertex Shaders 3.0 support into its GammaChrome or any other future products before Microsoft’s DirectX 10 is out. The company believes that the majority of graphics effects that can be done with Shaders 3.0 may also be done using Shaders 2.0. A very big jump for the industry, the company notes, is DirectX 10 with Pixel Shaders 4.0 and Vertex Shaders 4.0, while the version 3.0 is probably not a feature consumers may really need.