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Trident's New 3D Graphics Processor Delivers Industry's Highest DX8.1 Performance With Lowest-Power Breakthrough for Notebooks
Desktop Performance for Notebooks at Less Than Three Watts (max.)
WinHEC, SEATTLE, April 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Trident Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: TRID - news), is now sampling the XP4(TM), the industry's first 3D graphics processor for notebooks in 0.13um CMOS technology with a full-fledged DirectX 8.1 implementation in hardware. The XP4 achieves the highest 3D graphics performance at 1 billion pixels/sec with the lowest power dissipation at less than three watts (max). The resulting performance-per-watt is more than twice that of NVidia and ATI.
``The XP4 raises the bar in 3D graphics capabilities and performance for notebooks and is optimized for high-end, mainstream and thin/light portable applications,'' said Le Nguyen, assistant vice president of marketing for Trident. ``This processor is the result of our relentless drive in bringing high-end desktop performance to low-power notebooks at affordable price points.''
The XP4 is just one member of a family that includes the discrete 250 MHz XP4 with a 128-bit memory interface of up to 666 MHz DDR clock. There are also the XP4m16 and XP4m32, both of which are multi-chip-modules (MCM) containing XP4 silicon die with 16/32 Mbytes of FBGA frame buffer memory in a similar 31x31mm package for thin/light notebooks where the smallest footprint is required.
The XP4 delivers full DirectX 8.1 visual quality and image sophistication while using only 30 million transistors. This is less than half the number of transistors of the nearest desktop equivalent. The half number of transistors directly translates to half the power consumption as well as half the manufacturing cost and is made possible by proprietary 3D graphics algorithms coupled with fully-optimized hardware pipelines.
``The graphics industry is always increasing chip complexity and greater power consumption in order to attain higher 3D graphics performance. Our design philosophy, however, follows that of Albert Einstein who said, '''Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler,'`` said Frank Lin, president and CEO of Trident. ''This strategy results in a much more balanced design, where performance, feature set, power and cost are all optimized in order to meet the needs of our customers.``
The XP4 offers three significant technical benefits in performance graphics to notebook PCs:
Lowest power consumption at less than three watts (max) with CoolPower(TM) management
Full DirectX 8.1 hardware with BrightPixel(TM) rendering engine delivering the highest 3D performance at 1 billion pixels/sec and 8 billion texels/sec.
High-efficiency memory interface with SmartTile(TM) architecture enabling a peak system bandwidth of 10.4 Gbytes/sec.
CoolPower(TM) is Trident's latest power management technology designed to maximize battery life while still meeting the performance requirement of the graphics applications. CoolPower(TM) employs a combination of software and hardware methods such as dynamic clock gating, frequency scaling, workload balancing, etc ... to deliver the lowest power consumption possible within the visual quality and performance requirements. CoolPower(TM) enables both longer battery life and thinner notebook due to smaller thermal envelope of the notebook physical design.
XP4 BrightPixel(TM) is Trident's state-of-the-art 3D graphics rendering engine which implements in hardware all features of the Microsoft's latest DirectX 8.1 graphics standard for Windows operating systems. XP4 BrightPixel(TM) engine includes both fully programmable Vertex Shader and Pixel Shader, enabling 3D graphics programmers to individually color each pixel uniquely at maximum performance. This programmable capability provides unlimited flexibility needed to render 3D objects in the most photo-realistic fashion. Another key architectural advance in XP4 BrightPixel(TM) engine is how the pixels are drawn: instead of drawing consecutive pixels organized in standard scan lines, XP4 draws groups of pixels organized as rectangular tiles. This advanced method of rectangular pixel tiling greatly improves memory bandwidth efficiency and results in higher 3D graphics performance.
Operating at 250MHz clock, XP4 BrightPixel(TM) engine delivers the highest 3D graphics performance for notebooks at 1 billion pixels/sec rendering rate. To generate the best possible photo-finish image quality, XP4 BrightPixel(TM) engine can employ up to 8 textures per pixel, corresponding to a texture performance of up to 8 billion texels/sec processing rate.
XP4 SmartTile(TM) memory architecture supports either 64-bit or 128-bit memory bus interface with Double-Data Rate (DDR) DRAM at clock up to 666MHz DDR, corresponding to a peak memory bandwidth of 10.4 Gbytes/sec. As graphics performance is often limited by memory bandwidth, the 10.4 Gbytes memory throughput rivals even the top-of-the-line desktop memory system available today.
Continuing Trident's long experience in multi-view display technology since 1998, the XP4 also supports four simultaneous output displays: TFT, DVI, CRT and TV out. The TFT interface can directly drive any standard LCD panel through the internal Dual-Channel LVDS driver whereas the DVI panel interface can drive any standard DVI panel through the internal TMDS driver. For the most demanding graphics applications, the XP4 can support a screen resolution of up to QXGA (2048x1536) and the TV out display can support up to SXGA (1024x768).
XP4 video support includes interface to Microsoft's DirectX VA with both Motion Compensation (MC) and IDCT (Inverse Discrete Cosine Transform) in hardware, which in turn can reduce CPU utilization to below 15% during DVD playback. XP4 advanced de-interlacing logic on-chip enables high-quality display of DVD's interlaced video output on standard progressive VGA computer monitors with clarity and minimum artifacts.
The XP4 interfaces to the host CPU bus through the standard AGP-4X bus with a peak bandwidth of 1.04 Gbytes/sec. The same interface can also support PCI 2.2.
Trident's New 3D Graphics Processor Delivers Industry's Highest DX8.1 Performance With Lowest-Power Breakthrough for Notebooks
Desktop Performance for Notebooks at Less Than Three Watts (max.)
WinHEC, SEATTLE, April 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Trident Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: TRID - news), is now sampling the XP4(TM), the industry's first 3D graphics processor for notebooks in 0.13um CMOS technology with a full-fledged DirectX 8.1 implementation in hardware. The XP4 achieves the highest 3D graphics performance at 1 billion pixels/sec with the lowest power dissipation at less than three watts (max). The resulting performance-per-watt is more than twice that of NVidia and ATI.
``The XP4 raises the bar in 3D graphics capabilities and performance for notebooks and is optimized for high-end, mainstream and thin/light portable applications,'' said Le Nguyen, assistant vice president of marketing for Trident. ``This processor is the result of our relentless drive in bringing high-end desktop performance to low-power notebooks at affordable price points.''
The XP4 is just one member of a family that includes the discrete 250 MHz XP4 with a 128-bit memory interface of up to 666 MHz DDR clock. There are also the XP4m16 and XP4m32, both of which are multi-chip-modules (MCM) containing XP4 silicon die with 16/32 Mbytes of FBGA frame buffer memory in a similar 31x31mm package for thin/light notebooks where the smallest footprint is required.
The XP4 delivers full DirectX 8.1 visual quality and image sophistication while using only 30 million transistors. This is less than half the number of transistors of the nearest desktop equivalent. The half number of transistors directly translates to half the power consumption as well as half the manufacturing cost and is made possible by proprietary 3D graphics algorithms coupled with fully-optimized hardware pipelines.
``The graphics industry is always increasing chip complexity and greater power consumption in order to attain higher 3D graphics performance. Our design philosophy, however, follows that of Albert Einstein who said, '''Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler,'`` said Frank Lin, president and CEO of Trident. ''This strategy results in a much more balanced design, where performance, feature set, power and cost are all optimized in order to meet the needs of our customers.``
The XP4 offers three significant technical benefits in performance graphics to notebook PCs:
Lowest power consumption at less than three watts (max) with CoolPower(TM) management
Full DirectX 8.1 hardware with BrightPixel(TM) rendering engine delivering the highest 3D performance at 1 billion pixels/sec and 8 billion texels/sec.
High-efficiency memory interface with SmartTile(TM) architecture enabling a peak system bandwidth of 10.4 Gbytes/sec.
CoolPower(TM) is Trident's latest power management technology designed to maximize battery life while still meeting the performance requirement of the graphics applications. CoolPower(TM) employs a combination of software and hardware methods such as dynamic clock gating, frequency scaling, workload balancing, etc ... to deliver the lowest power consumption possible within the visual quality and performance requirements. CoolPower(TM) enables both longer battery life and thinner notebook due to smaller thermal envelope of the notebook physical design.
XP4 BrightPixel(TM) is Trident's state-of-the-art 3D graphics rendering engine which implements in hardware all features of the Microsoft's latest DirectX 8.1 graphics standard for Windows operating systems. XP4 BrightPixel(TM) engine includes both fully programmable Vertex Shader and Pixel Shader, enabling 3D graphics programmers to individually color each pixel uniquely at maximum performance. This programmable capability provides unlimited flexibility needed to render 3D objects in the most photo-realistic fashion. Another key architectural advance in XP4 BrightPixel(TM) engine is how the pixels are drawn: instead of drawing consecutive pixels organized in standard scan lines, XP4 draws groups of pixels organized as rectangular tiles. This advanced method of rectangular pixel tiling greatly improves memory bandwidth efficiency and results in higher 3D graphics performance.
Operating at 250MHz clock, XP4 BrightPixel(TM) engine delivers the highest 3D graphics performance for notebooks at 1 billion pixels/sec rendering rate. To generate the best possible photo-finish image quality, XP4 BrightPixel(TM) engine can employ up to 8 textures per pixel, corresponding to a texture performance of up to 8 billion texels/sec processing rate.
XP4 SmartTile(TM) memory architecture supports either 64-bit or 128-bit memory bus interface with Double-Data Rate (DDR) DRAM at clock up to 666MHz DDR, corresponding to a peak memory bandwidth of 10.4 Gbytes/sec. As graphics performance is often limited by memory bandwidth, the 10.4 Gbytes memory throughput rivals even the top-of-the-line desktop memory system available today.
Continuing Trident's long experience in multi-view display technology since 1998, the XP4 also supports four simultaneous output displays: TFT, DVI, CRT and TV out. The TFT interface can directly drive any standard LCD panel through the internal Dual-Channel LVDS driver whereas the DVI panel interface can drive any standard DVI panel through the internal TMDS driver. For the most demanding graphics applications, the XP4 can support a screen resolution of up to QXGA (2048x1536) and the TV out display can support up to SXGA (1024x768).
XP4 video support includes interface to Microsoft's DirectX VA with both Motion Compensation (MC) and IDCT (Inverse Discrete Cosine Transform) in hardware, which in turn can reduce CPU utilization to below 15% during DVD playback. XP4 advanced de-interlacing logic on-chip enables high-quality display of DVD's interlaced video output on standard progressive VGA computer monitors with clarity and minimum artifacts.
The XP4 interfaces to the host CPU bus through the standard AGP-4X bus with a peak bandwidth of 1.04 Gbytes/sec. The same interface can also support PCI 2.2.
