X-bit labs

X-bit labs CeBIT 2005 Coverage: Day 1 (page 2)

Category: Editorial

by Anton Shilov

[ 03/11/2005 | 01:38 PM ]

S3 Graphics: Skips Shader Model 3.0, Talks Shader Model 4.0

On the first day of the show S3 Graphics pulled the wraps off from its GammaChrome S18 processor – the firm’s first PCI Express graphics chip – and confirmed the next big thing for the company: the Shader Model 4.0 visual processing unit that, according to a confidential slide from the company’s presentation found on the Web, is called Destination Generation.

GammaChrome, as you might have read from the preview at X-bit labs, is a follow-up product to the DeltaChrome visual processing unit (VPU) with some tangible improvements in the internal design. Thanks to the improvements in the architecture, the efficiency of the GammaChrome S18 is close, or even is on par with that of ATI’s RADEON X600-series products. According to the benchmark results by the company, the GammaChrome S18 clocked at the speed of ATI’s RADEON X600 XT is faster than ATI’s VPU in 3DMark05 benchmark (which is understandable given that the benchmark is heavily dependant on the performance of vertex processors: GammaChrome has 4 of them, whereas the X600 has 2), a bit behind in the Doom III game, but is seriously outrun by the X600 XT in the Half-Life 2 possibly due to immaturity of the driver that still is not ideal.

S3 Graphics said it removed logic to support FP16 calculations from the pixel pipeline, leaving only full-precision FP24 capability. Furthermore, the firm improved vertex shaders processing and even incorporated four of them into the chip that has just four pixel pipes, which is a rather innovative configuration. Additionally, the Fremont, California-based company said its Early-Z hidden surfaces removal technology also improved from the DeltaChrome times.

With the GammaChrome the company will try to sell its graphics cards on its own, which is also a rather new business approach for S3, which may work now and later this year when the firm launches its GammaChrome S19, a chip that has 8 pixel pipelines.

While S3 Graphics pins hopes on the GammaChrome product series, it does not position them as competitors for $300+ graphics cards based on chips from ATI Technologies and NVIDIA Corp.. Nevertheless, the firm believes its next-generation VPU code-named Destination Generation will be able to compete with products by the two largest graphics processor designers positioned at the high-end of the market.

Destination Generation will be compatible with the Windows Graphics Foundation 2.0, which requires graphics processors to have unified pixel and vertex processors, allowing to dynamically assign them depending on the load. S3 Graphics has already initiated work on such architecture, which may indicate possibilities for the company to launch WGF 2.0-compatible product inline with ATI and NVIDIA.

As said last year, S3 Graphics will skip the Shader Model 3.0 product and will offer the graphics chip supporting the so-called Shader Model 4.0 right after its Shader Model 2.0-compliant GammaChrome. The Destination Generation is expected to be available in 2006, along with Windows Longhorn and its competitors.