Power VR Series 5 "specs"

Well it all depends to the competition doesn't it? If Nv and Ati makes their move to be competitive on the MBX's markets, what is the future of PowerVr?

 

Well, I'd expect that it would really depend on how competitive in performance and features all the chips were.

It seems obvious to me that a low-transistor deferred renderer such as MBX ought to have great advantages compared to IMRs in the mobile sector. MBX was demoed playing Quake 3 quite a while back, I believe, whereas the latest ATI competitor was only recently demoed playing the original Quake - quite a difference in capabilities!

 

At present, just in terms of the markets they operate in ATI and NVIDIA aren’t close to MBX’s 3D functionality and MBX is inherently better at answering a number of the more heavy usage markets (an not necessarily the traditional ones – Mitsubishi have licensed it for use in car displays).

However, the business model also needs to be factored in to these small device markets. Presently ATI and NVIDIA are still operating along the “semicon†model and selling their own discrete ASIC’s which means that anyone that adopts it will need to have, at least, both a CPU and graphics chip in their device – the model MBX is using means that either it can operate as a standalone alone part, or (as it is more frequently seen) or integrated within the CPU core requiring just one chip for CPU / video functionality. At present I think there is enough of a need for both of these types of solutions and PowerVR is the only one of these vendors to have a solution for single chips – either ATI and NVIDIA will need to change their business model and start IP licensing to all and sundry, or they will need to offer CPU capabilities as well (and then they start competing with a whole bunch of other people).

 

Err... so you think the pattern of hyping and boasting and then not delivering is better ?

And interviews are not "years" ago :

http://www.beyond3d.com/interviews/pvrmbx/

<shrug>

K-

 

That doesn't count, that's no desktop chip interview

 

Simon, remember the Rampage specs leak? I believe most people agreed it probably was authentic; but the list was even more impressively big than this one
There, I found the link after some minutes of searching: http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3122&highlight=rampage+bicubic

So hey, if you guys managed to get some of the 3DFX PR guys, it'd all make sense, all of a sudden


Uttar

P.S.: I gotta agree with Kristof and say their current strategy is perfectly fine, marketing-wise. The last thing they need is being considered Bitboy's successor, if that's even possible...

 

Me? Not my place to say. Besides, I only know a small part of the specs anyway.

"What kind of dump"? I would say that it's the sort that you don't talk about in polite circles

Oh my! :?

 

Did I say that?

Anyway, a pattern of NOT boasting and not delivering is HARDLY an improvement.

I mean, for frig's sakes, there are SPY organizations that are more known than you are... Oh ah, I have it! MI5 went public a couple years ago, except they DIDN'T, instead they quietly took over a small company in the semiconductor business to use as a front-end...

So MBX is aimed at the desktop market too now is it?

And Uttar, I'm sure if you don't want your products to sell, or even get released, keeping a profile as prepostrously low as ImgTech does is a splendid idea.

There IS a nice middle-ground inbetween nobody giving a damn about who you are and what you do on one hand, and BitBoys on the other you know. And, vaporware is vaporware even if you don't constantly brag about it, and series 4 and 5 both qualify for that. They've qualified for years now in fact and the only reason nobody's ridiculing IT for it is because people in general don't friggin know who they are!

 

For the record those supposed specs most likely were a bad copy/paste job from this fake thing here:

http://users.otenet.gr/~ailuros/Fake.jpg

Guden Oden,

Is is just me or is there just a touch too much agony in your posts?

If they release something - yes preferably on time - then fine, if not I don't see at least my world going under for one.

I also don't understand why some dumb fake has blown up everyone's skirts all of the sudden heh.

 

Ironically come to think of it, Bitboys saw their first piece of hardware on it's way to the market, once they started a "put up or shut up" alike strategy. I don't recall any big smoke or fumes about Acceleon personally.

 

Both paths are wrong Kristof.

In the desktop space, unless you guys are landing an impressive Naomi 3 deal with Sammy-Sega there is not much chance that you can enter after such a long hiatus and gain a valuable position in the market.

I am not trying to depress you guys down, I like PowerVR products... I like all products that show clear engineering and architectural brilliance, but I am looking at the fact that the last series of chip released was at the end pre DirectX 7.0 ( although Naomi 2 is completely withing the real of functionality of DirectX 7 with the addition of Elan ) and you would be trying to launch a DirectX 9.0c part which is is a big jump.

 

Arcade and PC are two entirely different markets; honest question: where's the connection exactly in that?

 

I've still got an Apocalypse 3DX in an old Pentium 233MHz box here and, sad to say, I still think some of the tech demos look quite impressive.

I have to admit though that I have relegated the PVR series to the realms of Fortea... Rains of frogs, the Yeti, Bigfoot et al.

Nice to think they exist but the chances of ever seeing one in the flesh is pratically zero.

But I think the reason this has blown some peoples skirts up is that there are a few die hards who really want to see a new part. And it's just dissappointing when it all turns out to be nothing as usual.

 

*COUGH* Crazy taxi *COUGH*

edit: Not feeling very sure anymore after a bit of googling, but I read from a finnish gaming magazine a long time ago that Crazy taxi hardware was basically just pretty regular PC.

 

To be the man, you have got to beat the man. --Ric Flair



( edit: I had to post his picture )

The connection would be showing a part with very performance and graphics beyond what R350 and NV35 can do while not costing $800 per chip or using ridiculous amounts of VRAM ( 1 GB or so ) at ridiculously high speeds.

People would get interested.

People buy your cheaper parts ( which is where most companies seem to really make the money on ) when they get wowed by your family of cards, gain trust in a potential winner and buy the card the card you make that they can afford.

People did not respect AMD until it made the first Athlon ( which kicked ass ) and re-gained once again respect of AMD when they launched the Opteron/Athlon 64 which is another top performer.

To win the battle of the cheap/value market you need, most of the times ( let's exclude integrated solutions coming with the motherboards ), to win the high-end space.

How many more sales were driven in the ATI field when they clearly passsed nVIDIA in both performance and quality with the R3xx family of chips compared to their R2xx days ?

 

at least PowerVR has *some* credibility, unlike BitBoys.

 

Understood. It's just that in this case it's about a bad tasted joke. The shot I posted above is months old and I was actually rolling on the floor laughing when I first saw it.

Panajev,

I understand your points; trouble is that the volumes in the Arcade markets are usually low and can be hardly compared to the PC desktop market. I'm not saying that an arcade deal wouldn't be a positive aspect, I just fail to see how it would aid in any way gaining a PC license.

Naomi2 boards are AFAIK two series2 boards + Elan. IMG is obviously aiming according to their interim results for the PC/arcade/console markets with Series5; whether, where and when they'll succeed only they know for the time being and I doubt they're willing to say much about it either. I doubt they'd push anything into arcade apart from 5, could be wrong though too.

 

On the subject of PowerVR technology, you may like to look at this:


http://l2.espacenet.com/espacenet/viewer?PN=GB2388507&CY=gb&LG=en&DB=EPD

 

Panajev2001a,

Off topic, but I remember the AMD 486DX2 80MHz (40x2). I was able to run it as a DX2 100MHz (50x2). I respected the speed for cost at the time. =)

Dr. Ffreeze

PS. Heck I remember when Cyrix made the fasted math coprocessors around. =) (or so I remember)

 

No problem Simon, just tell us what you know
We'll get Kristof to say what he knows too, and in the end we'll have something better than rumors...

What I really would like to have, is an official statement from PowerVR telling us where they are in the desktop market, if they are still in, out, whether they have plans to get Series5 on the shelves...