X-bit labs

S3 Graphics: "The Market Is Screaming Out for a Solid Third Supplier of Graphics Products – We Will Be That Company"

Category: Video

by Anna Filatova , Anton Shilov

[ 09/19/2005 | 03:11 PM ]

S3 Graphics, the king of the graphics market a decade ago, is currently relatively quiet developing graphics cores that are primarily used in emerging markets. But the company has some solid plans for come back with its soon-to-be released Chrome20-series as well as future generations of products. We interviewed Nadeem Mohammad to find out more about S3 today.

Table of contents:

• The Company Today
  
• Chip Development Process
  
• Driver Issues
  
• New Products
  

X-bit labs had an opportunity to visit S3 Graphics headquarters in Fremont, California earlier this month prior the formal announcement of the Chrome20-series of graphics chips. While the general information about the new product series is still under wraps, we decided to sit down with Nadeem Mohammad, who is Product Marketing Manager at S3 Graphics Inc. in Fremont, CA, and talk about S3 Graphics today and the company’s plans for the future.

The Company Today

X-bit labs: Given that S3 Graphics has been pretty quiet for a few years, can you tell our readers a little bit about your company and how it relates to S3 Inc.

Nadeem Mohammad: In 1999 S3 acquired Diamond Multimedia – this marked the start of the transformation of S3 from a pure graphics processor company into one with multiple business units with various focuses and subsequently changed its name to SonicBlue. It after this transformation that S3 Graphics was formed as a joint venture between VIA technologies and SonicBlue – consolidating all the graphics chip related business into this new focused company. So in essence S3 Graphics is the original S3 and people which folks can associate with the products which revolutionized the graphics industry in the early and mid 1990’s.

X-bit labs: S3 Incorporated used to be the world’s No. 1 supplier of graphics chips in the mid-nineties, who employed more than 650 of developers. Can you tell us, how many developers work on S3 Graphics’ chips today?

Nadeem Mohammad: We have a similar number of employees dedicated to S3 Graphics discrete and integrated graphics business even today – but in addition we leverage central R&D resources from VIA Technologies, particularly for core library development and I/O cell developments.

X-bit labs: Do you hire additional engineers, testers?

Nadeem Mohammad: Yes we are always in market for quality engineering staff, we have several worldwide locations, each with their own employment resource requirements..

X-bit labs: Where are you based at this point?

Nadeem Mohammad: I am based in Fremont , CA, this is the head quarters of S3 Graphics.

X-bit labs: Where the core of the team is physically located, in California, or in Taiwan?

Nadeem Mohammad: The core teams are located in California and China.