The next-gen Game Boy: Isn't it of strategic importance to ATI?

Xenos is Ati's name. No one at Ati calls it C1.

 

ATI's already significant presence in 3D-capable cellphones will only be getting larger as Qualcomm's MSM 7xxx series chipsets will soon integrate Imageon technology into highend handhelds from many suppliers. And those profit margins are currently the company's highest after DTV (~40%). Qualcomm deal will be royalties like Xenos.

Considering the cozy relationship with both Nintendo and MSFT, Orton would be nuts not to go after both upcoming handheld console platforms. Anyone know when MSFT will announce theirs, by the way?

P.S. If ARM collects only 8 cents per CPU sold, then that must be on a royalty basis (100% profit margin) and doesn't reflect the actual cost of the CPU, so it can't be compared to ATI's current business model for supplying Imageon chipsets.

 

C1 is the development name, "Xenos" is the name tacked on at the end.

 

No. C1 was the code name before there was a contract. Xenos is the development name.

 

Orton just spoke about embedded memory specifically when addressing the next generation Imageon, so it looks like a built in Framebuffer may be on the cards.

 

I thought xenos' design was wholly owned by MS....

 

Applying tiling and a unified shading model to a portable processor would be a carryover of concept and learned lessons from a settop part more than any copying of specific design.

 

Nope. No company in their right mind would give away a design like that and not still be able to use it themselves.

 

I think they just own the rights to that implementation of it (so they can take the fabbing wherever they please). I think ATI probably still holds the patents/rights to many of the ideas in it (as I imagine there will be gpus in the future very similar to Xenos).

Maybe not though... who knows?

 

What company provided the DS's graphics? Nintendo went without ATI previously, there's no reason they couldn't look elseware again. (a gamecube based portable in 2007/2008 wouldn't be bad though and would seem like a missed opportunity for easy ports if nintendo doesn't do it)

 

While I don't disagree, it does also count who gets there first with working prototypes.

 

We've been busy in a good kind of way. 8) Pretty confident about the future too.

BTW: If you listened throught the last conf call one interesting piece of information about handheld is that during this year ATI has shipped more than 80 million media processors for mobile phones. This is pretty impressive IMHO. Company also expects to ship more than 80 million media processors for mobile phones during 1H 2006, which is even more impressive. You can check out which phones ATI has done from here:
http://www.ati.com/products/handheld/onboard.html

Cheers,

AJ

 

Hey AJ, Happy Christmas.

I did listen to the CC, but we're not interested in what has happened, such as how many you've sold, but more interested in whats coming up! I note from the CC the next part would appear to have embedded RAM and DVB-H capabilities - given the comments from Richard this appears to sound more like a mini Xenos on the 3D side. Any other details you can fill us in on?

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to UK too,

Yeah, I know that the past is only so exiting. I just thought the 80 million figure was a good one to point out because it indicates that ATI is gaining rather positive momentum in this space. It also indicates that there's a serious market for multimedia processors in handheld environements.

Looking forward it's still a tad early to spill the beans. But we've been busy so keep watching this space...

 

Couldn't Nintendo go with Bitboys?

 

I would prefer PowerVR...

Going with ATI would be easy, but having only one partner would also be a problem (might want too much of the cake), so having another one on the handheld market might be a good idea.

 

LOL! I just found out last night that Bob Felstien, formerly the VP of Engineering heading up the Xbox project is now the head of engineering for handheld devices...

 

in MS itself?

 

Nope, that would be within ATI.

 

Let me guess, a velcro wrist strap for the Virtual Boy relaunch?