One area that would seem suitable for IMG tech is UMA graphics for low cost motherboard chipsets. There I can see an excellent fit for VIA. Of course, the liscensing costs can't be too high, that would defeat the entire purpose of integrated graphics. And if VIA has a track record of anything, it is one of not wanting to pay excessive liscensing fees.
But I hope a deal can be made for those kinds of products.
I'm less convinced as far as standalone graphics cards go. Regarding the comparison between the Zeotrope and Series 4, I'd say that the Zeotrope wins on features, and the Series 4 would win on effective fillrate. Columbia vs Series 5 would be complete speculation of course. The Series 5 would be expensive for VIA, as they already carry the costs for the in-house development of the Columbia, plus the would have to pay liscensing fees and silicon realization costs of the Series 5. They then have to produce and sell in sufficient numbers and with sufficient profit-margin to pay for it all. Carrying such excess cost and still make a profit seems like a stiff task in todays gfx business.
Taking a broader view, it doesn't make much sense to me for VIA to drive in-house graphics development and then turn around and liscense their gfx tech from IMG. In that case they should scrap their in-house development completely, cutting costs. If they go with IMG, they can either liscense tech, or buy the whole outfit similar to how they bought S3.
So I can possibly see VIA liscensing IMG tech for UMA motherboard graphics, where it offers compelling advantages. I'd guess that is where the smoke is coming from, particularly since Harold referred to chipset gfx specifically as promising.
http://www.powervr.org.uk/ I have a much harder time making sense of VIA liscensing and producing a Series 5 gfx chip for standalone gfx-cards. That would require the Series 5 to offer roughly R300/NV30 performance and features at a much lower cost, that is, offer something VIA doesn't already have (paid for) in the Columbia.
Entropy