Well, it looks as if the first unofficial candidate who volunteered to purchase the graphics subdivision of STMicroelectronics has finally appeared. Luckily, it was not NVIDIA, but… VIA, as I read over here. The beginning of negotiations between VIA and STM hasn’t been officially confirmed yet, however, VIA "confirmed that it has indeed been in contact with some international graphics chip companies". But who else could they contact besides STM? NVIDIA? I don’t think so. There also remains Trident, however, they haven’t yet expressed any desire to sell their Blade3D chips to anyone (especially since they are partnering pretty successfully with ALi here).

By the way, if VIA purchases STM’s graphics business, it will be just like VIA. remember the purchasing of such "Flotsam&Jetsam" as Cyrix, IDT, S3, none of which turned out in the right place actually. In fact, VIA can use KYRO and KYRO II chips in its desktop chipsets moving the S3 to the mobile market. However, if we try to imagine how much time they will need to put this idea into life, we will guess that by the time some P2K600 comes out these chips will be completely outdated. As a result, another abortive chipset will be born…

No, VIA seems to know nothing about the best buy :) Unlike AMD, for instance, which got a new breath having purchased Nexgen.