X-bit labs

S3 Graphics’ Chrome GPUs to Be Made by Fujitsu.

Category: Video

by Anton Shilov

[ 11/01/2005 | 06:45 PM ]

S3 Graphics and Fujitsu Limited Tuesday announced that Fujitsu will be producing the new range of S3 Graphics’ Chrome graphics processors using the company’s 90nm process technology. The designers promise that the new chips will offer high clock-speeds amid low power consumption.

“Fujitsu’s proven 90nm fabrication technology will enable us to offer the fastest yet lowest power-consuming graphics products,” said Dr Ken Weng, General Manager and Vice President at S3 Graphics.

Unlike previously expected, S3 Graphics has decided to use Fujitsu’s Mie Plant in Mie prefecture, Japan, facility to produce its new series of graphics processing units (GPUs). The fab processes 300mm wafers and the companies may expand their collaboration to thinner manufacturing processes, such as 65nm and 45nm, if everything goes well.

While S3 Graphics again declined to comment on performance of its Chrome-series products, it said the new “silicon produced by Fujitsu showed up to 75% performance improvement over earlier S3 Graphics generations”. In case of 75% improvement over GammaChrome S18 Pro product released earlier this year, then, in the best case, the Chrome product is to score about 2600 points in 3DMark05, or a bit less compared to the RADEON X1300 PRO, and about 6500 points in 3DMark03, or inline with the RADEON X700 PRO.

S3 Graphics said that Chrome “silicon” runs both 25% faster and with power savings of at least 25% compared to chips made using “conventional 90nm processes”.

S3 Graphics’ Chrome20 graphics processors are designed for PCI Express bus and sport a bit revamped architecture compared to the GammaChrome family unveiled earlier this year. In particular, the new Chrome20-series will feature a new video engine – Chromotion 3.0, a multi-GPU technology called Multi-G as well as improved antialiasing patterns, according to information posted earlier by unofficial sources. The Chrome20 family of chips does not have any feature-set improvements compared to predecessors and sport a set of DirectX 9.0+ capabilities found in GammaChrome and DeltaChrome.

General specifications of the Chrome20 family were also unknown at press time, but, according to unofficial claims, the top-of-the-range S27 processor would sport 8 pixel processors and, probably, no less than 4 vertex processors. The chip will support DDR, GDDR2 and GDDR3 types of memory with 128-bit interface width.

In mid-September S3 Graphics said in an interview that the new Chrome20-series products would be available within the following two months.