In a move meant to position HTC better in the mobile phone and tables space, HTC is buying old-name graphics company S3 from Via for the tidy sum of $300M.
“In the smartphone and tablet business, there are a lot of patent lawsuits,” said BNP Paribas analyst Laura Chen. “S3 has a lot of patents, and HTC needs more bargaining power in the smartphone business.”
S3 Graphics has been around for a very long time, but hasn’t been terribly relevant since Intel took over the embedded graphics space, and NVidia and AMD began battling over the addin-card market. However, they do have an impressive patent portfolio.
via Smartphone Maker HTC to Buy Chip Firm S3 Graphics for $300M | PCWorld.
Hardware htc, mobile, s3
Looks like companies are taking the challenge of ATI’s Eyefinity 6-display solution seriously, but one unlikely competitor has a promising product coming out: S3. The new S3 Graphics 5400E X2 combines to drive eight monitors at 1080p, with hardware video acceleration and genlock support.
“The S3 Graphics 5400E x2 is a highly integrated and flexible video card that features dual graphics and multimedia processors,” the company said. “Boasting extreme hardware acceleration of the latest HD video codecs, the S3 Graphics 5400E x2 uses S3 Graphics’ PanoChrome technology to provide up to four independent HD video streams at resolutions of 1080p on up to eight displays, employing a variety of display modes and configurations.”
Cards will be on the floor of the Digital Signage Expo in Las Vegas next week, with samples reaching customers in Q2 2010.
via S3 Dual-GPU Card Competes with ATI Eyefinity – Tom’s Hardware.
Hardware multidisplay, s3, via
From the old days of the S3 Virge and the old 3dfx Voodoo, graphics cards have come along way. MaximumPC has a massive 9-page novel chronicling the rise and fall of video cards throughout the years.
It’s pretty amazing when you think about how far graphics technology has come. To help you do that, we’re going to take a look back at every major GPU release since the infancy of 3D graphics. Join us as we travel back in time and relive releases like 3dfx’s Voodoo3 and S3′s ViRGE lineup. This is one nostalgiac ride you don’t want to miss!
via From Voodoo to GeForce: The Awesome History of 3D Graphics | Maximum PC.
Hardware 3dfx, amd, graphicscards, nvidia, s3
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