S3 takes time to check The Register out

After we wrote a story about S3 being up for sale a couple of weeks ago, the guys came into the office to give us the SP on its future developments. Paul Ayscough, senior manager of S3's European division, said that we'd see its next generation part, codenamed GX4, in four months' time, with unspecified "other things", which he could not disclose, which will move its part into the high end. He said: "Eighty million [desktop] PCs will be sold this year. The top, one million, end of the market is not where we're at." He said the large slice below that was, in S3's sights. "That large bulk area is where Savage4 is aimed at," he said. "We'll have three parts for that, the 143 Pro, the 125GT, and the 110LT." The 143 starts at $25 with the others stepped below that. "Trio3D is low range at the moment, at around $10. Next year, that will be a combined element in the North Bridge," he said. The Trio3D is S3's best version of its old Virge technology but with about four times the performance. He said that Savage4 will cost S3 much less to make and the yields "will be very good". Its design wins include Diamond, Creative, ELSA, Hercules, Number Nine and Creative, he said. The company has already won four out of the top ten OEMs and he expected to sign another two in the next few weeks. S3 already has samples of 0.22 and 0.18 micron chips, said Ayscough. "A mobile part based on Savage4 will be out in a few months' time," he said. He said: "We expect to ship huge quantities of this chip and get a very significant share of the marketplace." ®