Anything new on KyroIII?

[ActionNews]

Hi!

Does anybody know something about the KyroIII? I thought VIA wanted to buy the grafics-part of STMicro, but i haven't heared anything that the deal is finished ! Will there be a KyroIII or not?
I must say i'm very pleased with my KyroII so i want the KyroIII as my next graficscard .

Kristof, you should know a little more ? What can you say?

Thanks ActionNews

PS: Please excuse my terrible English .

 

[Dave Baumann]

Its been said a few times that the STM Graphics employees have either been made redundant or moved to other areas of the business, so it seems that VIA is probably not purchasing the STM division. Whether VIA have/will deal directly with Img Tec/PowerVR is another matter.

 

[roninja]

kyro 3???

well we might find out some more on Tuesday as its IMG's annual results , they may be able to reveal some news.[/img]

 

[ActionNews]

Do you think we could hear something at Computex?

 

[Daemon_UK]

Give it until Septemeber, then it might not even be worth bothering with.

With

- Matrox, Nvidia, and ATi covering the High-End
- Nvidia, ATi, Creative and SiS covering the Middle-End
- Nvidia, ATi, Creative and SiS covering the Lower-End

of the markets, and offering probably same price and equal/more performance of Kyro..

Why bother?

Kyro will have to be excepionally good to stand out from the crowd, not just because its a tile based render

 

[JF_Aidan_Pryde]

We better start praying, if Teasy wants to keep his .....

 

[Hellbinder]

Its been said a few times that the STM Graphics employees have either been made redundant or moved to other areas of the business

I just cant believe it... The end of another Graphics father is here... This sounds very very sad, and i was not aware of it. All it would have taken was one, just one high end product in all their years and things could be different today.

 

[bystander]

I just cant believe it... The end of another Graphics father is here... This sounds very very sad, and i was not aware of it. All it would have taken was one, just one high end product in all their years and things could be different today.

I don't think ImgTec are entirely out of the game. They do have other revenue sources. I mean they could always do a Matrox (i.e. disappear for ~2 years and then come back with a (hopefully) amazing new product.

I often wonder what would have happened if ImgTec managed to release PVR series 2 earlier (i.e. within a month of the Voodoo 2). We would have had the PVR series 3 against Voodoo 3 and PVR series 4 against Voodoo 4 and GeForce 2. That certainly would have been interesting.

 

[Kristof]

All I can say is that IMG/PowerVR does not plan to roll over and die... not much else I can say given my "DNA"

K~

 

[CoolAsAMoose]

I think IMGTech have a good chance of being in a lot of future 3D-enabled cell phones, PDAs, and maybe the next Gameboy. IMGTech have already signed deals with ARM and Hitachi, whose low-power CPUs are used in a lot of todays 2D-game-capable handheld devices.

I don't think that the PC-chip market is of major concern for IMG, allthough they won't say no to someone who wants to license PowerVR for that market. TBR à la PowerVR simply has a bigger benefit in environments with very limited memory space and memory bandwidth.

So when will we see Gameboy3D using PowerVR?

 

[nggalai]

We better start praying, if Teasy wants to keep his .....

Damn, yes. Would be a pity . . .

eeek.

It truly looks like this will turn into a year to remember for graphics enthusiasts. Let's hope that PVR won't be pushed over to the sideshow because of company politics . . . and not only for "little Teasy's" sake.

ta,
.rb

 

[Dave B(TotalVR)]

"We better start praying, if Teasy wants to keep his ......"

RUHAHAHHAHAAAAA

 

[ParkLife]

I would say that ImgTec now have enough high profile partners in other markets (Hitatchi, ARM, STM (they're still in it for set top) to ensure the future survival of the company. Meta and MBX (possibly combined?) are two VERY important products for the whole industry, so I'm sure these companies will ensure the continued survival of ImgTec as a whole.

As for PowerVR in the PC space, well, that could go either way. I suppose PowerVR Technologies will continue designing the IP and it will be a case of just waiting until the right partner comes along. NEC obviously weren't. ST looked very hopeful at the start but turned out to be just as unenthusiastic as NEC. VIA are a possibility, but god knows whats happeneing there at the moment.

The interesting thing is that PowerVR still maintain that they will continue to be an IP licencing company, ie they are never going to make their own chips. So lets not forget that should they so desire, NVidia, ATI, Matrox, anyone, could license PowerVR technology off them and create it under their own brand. This is what I would assume ImgTec is hoping for in the long run. If IMR's do run out of steam at some point, then the large IMR companies named above will need to develop alternative solutions. Assuming they go down the TBR with HSR route, they have the choice to either attempt to develop it on their own, or license the technology off PowerVR.

This is what I presume PowerVR are hoping for. Although it must be stressed that that would be a long time coming yet.

Many people assume PowerVR operate the same way as NVidia, ATI etc. but the plain truth is that they don't. Their business model is completely differenent, and their attitude towards the industry reflects this.

 

[Ailuros]

I mean they could always do a Matrox (i.e. disappear for ~2 years and then come back with a (hopefully) amazing new product.

Hmmmm 2 years? All they need is an "aggressive" licencee when the next one will be ready and I wouldn´t think that there will be that many complaints about features this time.

If IMR's do run out of steam at some point, then the large IMR companies named above will need to develop alternative solutions. Assuming they go down the TBR with HSR route, they have the choice to either attempt to develop it on their own, or license the technology off PowerVR.

I´m not sure if Matrox holds any TBR patents but the other two companies do already (ArtX, Gigapixel).

Frankly I don´t see IMR´s running out of steam any time soon, especially when there are more than one alternatives (like edram) that haven´t been utilized yet. Not to speak that companies with an aggressive and set roadmap like ATI or NVIDIA are highly unlikely to jump that easy to a different architecture.

What is really a shame is that all this years there hasn´t been one high end Tiler, to really show the benefits the rendering approach holds. Right now after PowerVR managed to gain - even limited - ground with the KYRO II, the time would have been ideal for a high end product.

 

[ActionNews]

Thank you for your replies .

So all i can do is wait and hope ?

CU ActionNews

 

[Ailuros]

Depends what your needs are. When I feel I need an upgrade I just opt for one of the sollutions available on shelves. I don't see much light in the tunnel for what you're waiting for, but that's just me

 

[MfA]

"Creating IP" costs money too, their shareholders wont tolerate consistent failure in a given area forever ... if they dont get a new partner soon they wont be "creating IP" for PCs for much longer IMO.

 

[ParkLife]

My point was that they no longer need to rely on the PC segment to create the money. They have other products in other segments bringing the cash in.

 

[Daemon_UK]

My point was that they no longer need to rely on the PC segment to create the money. They have other products in other segments bringing the cash in.

I think the general "user" feeling, is that who cares about the company, but who cares about the product.

Alot of people are looking for the KYRO as a cheap alternative to the other manufacturers, whilst having good performance.

However, judging by what SiS is releasing with the Xabre Series, and with Nvidia and ATi announcing their Rv250 and NV18? soon for the low to mainstream markets.

Whats the point of Kyro? Give it 6 months, it'll soon be forgotten bar the Hard-Core Kyrots.

 

[Ailuros]

"Creating IP" costs money too, their shareholders wont tolerate consistent failure in a given area forever ... if they dont get a new partner soon they wont be "creating IP" for PCs for much longer IMO.

The PowerVR segment of ImgTec doesn´t develop IP for the PC only. MBX does belong to the Series3 family with a few additions of the Series4 (as in VPE afaik).

ImgTec share values dropped last year according to analysts because of Sega dropping Dreamcast, and they didn´t foresee shares to jump back into place before next year. I don´t think it´s coincidental that MBX will launch next year either.

And "failure" is a wee bit harsh considering ST Micro dropped the PC products, but is still in the race with MBX. Of course the public doesn´t care how and why anything happens, but Series4 cannot be released anymore without buying the licence off of ST Micro´s hand.

I don´t know the exact specifics of the business relation between ST and ImgTec, but I don´t see how the latter could do anything (outside of releasing the product itself, which I doubt they have the resources for).

Just my personal opinion.