VIA and ST Microelectronics

[Dave Baumann]

I’ve just noticed a report at The Inquirer (http://www.theinquirer.net/12040211.htm) of an interview with VIA’s CEO at TechChannel.de (http://www.tecchannel.de/hardware/893/index.html). TechChannel asked the CEO if he would comment of the state of negotiations with ST Microelectronics on the rumour bid to buy the latter’s graphics division, to his reply was: “Not until the deal is settled”. This is as clear a cut indication as any that there is in fact a deal at least attempting to be struck between the two companies, however considering the interview was taken at CeBit and we’ve still yet to hear anything more they must have some sticking points in the deal that was being hammered out.

Lets hope we hear more of this VIA / STM deal soon and hopefully PowerVR desktop products will be given a new lease of life.

On a slightly related note, those who are interested in what the extra 25MHz and so called T&L abilities can do for ‘KYROII SE’ (a.k.a. Videologic Vivid!XS Elite & Hercules 3D Prophet 4800) may wish to hop over to Paraknowya (http://www.paraknowya.com/). Paraknowya recently visited Img Tech and had the opportunity to play around with the board whilst there; theres are few 3DMark numbers available on the main page, with more to come in the report of their visit.

[Anonymous]

No deal is likely to happen now, All the ex-GPD staff have moved to other divisions inside ST or have been made redundant.

[Mariner]

Not sure if this is new information but PCPro magazine in the UK has a quote from Richard Brown, director of marketing of VIA:

"Kyro is attractive for discreet and integrated graphics, but these conversations take longer than you imagine."

PCPro is generally pretty reliable which indicates that they are/were at least interested in purchasing the STM graphics division.

[Dave Baumann]

Of course, PowerVR doesn't begin or end with STM. Why bother paying for this function if you can go to the source directly?

[Joe DeFuria]

Because by paying for that function, you buy the engineers that have actually made chips using that technology. That is anything but trivial.

By going "right to the source", then Via would have to start from "scratch" (overly simplistic, but you get the idea), and design chips themselves without building on STMs experience.

So in short, paying for STM should allow VIA to start shipping products sooner rather than later.

[Dave Baumann]

Yes, Joe, we know. I'm pointing out that this may not be the end of it all though - this does not preclude PowerVR based products at some point down the line.