Matrox Graphics, a company who was one of the leaders in consumer graphics cards some 5 years ago and who is has been pretty quiet since then, is likely to bring some new products later on this year. The first introduction is reported to happen in weeks from now.

An article published by German web-site Tweak PC claims that Matrox Graphics is going to introduce a revised version of its Parhelia graphics card with AGP 8x support and 128MB of memory within the next few weeks, maybe even this month. There is no information about target market for the part, but they say it will feature TV-Out, a capability that is typically used by home users, who also demand enough speed in 3D games.

The report also suggests that this Summer Matrox Graphics is likely to release a new graphics processor that will inherit the general feature-set of the Parhelia VPU introduced about two years ago. Something totally new from Matrox Graphics is possible to expect in 2005, Tweak PC believes.

In early 2004 Matrox Graphics acquired a license to use nSys PCI Express nVS verification tools for use in its chip design efforts from Netsys Software. Matrox engineers have been using PCI Express nVS product to verify the correct operation of the PCI Express interface in its chip designs since then. The tool is intended to help Matrox Graphics’ engineers to catch potential bugs during pre-silicon verification.

“PCI Express is a key technology for our next-generation Graphics offering and we have developed a very sophisticated verification environment to ensure the quality of this new interface,” said David Chiappini, ASIC Project Director at Matrox.

Matrox Graphics will require PCI Express bus already this year to be in a position to sell its graphics cards to owners of new desktops with PCI Express x16 slot. In order to gain Windows Longhorn compatibility, Matrox Graphics will require a chip with hardware support for Pixel Shaders.