Sunnyvale-based nVidia Corp and SGS-Thomson Microelectronics NV have jointly developed the NV1 and STG2000 multimedia processors which handle audio and graphics on a single chip. SGS has licensed the NV technology and will market and sell the DRAM version, STG2000, for low-end multimedia applications. SGS-Thomson says it will ship the STG2000 chip on 1Mb boards using standard dynamic memory chips by Christmas for $200 as a cheaper and more efficient alternative to the wave table, graphics and audio boards home users currently use to run multimedia applications. NVidia is also targeting the home market and will market and sell the NVI Video RAM version. NVidia began operations in January 1993 when it first started developing the NV architecture used in the single chip multimedia accelerators. It is backed by a combination of venture and corporate technology cash totalling $10m (CI No 2,469).
