S3 and Nvidia are friends again, after dumping their patent suits against each other, and agreeing to cross-license each other's technology. With 3dfx stumbling recently, it makes sound commercial sense for the two companies to concentrate their fire on their weakened rival, as opposed to each other. Nvidia and S3 have signed a seven-year deal on the cross-licensing front. S3 has a huge bag of patents, much of which was acquired through the purchase of intellectual property rights from Exponential, the failed chip designer. It means most companies in its field have to talk turkey -- Intel, Cirrus and, now, Nvidia -- are all S3 customers. ®