S3 Inc has partnered with PC core logic design house VIA Technologies Inc to design and market a family of products to support both Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc processors. The product, codenamed SavageNB and aimed at the mainstream and low-end PC market, is expected to be available in the second half of 1999.
S3 said it expected the joint S3/VIA chipsets to provide substantial performance improvements and cost savings over existing solutions but said it would continue with its existing roadmap of graphics-only solutions, in order to have a suite of products for multiple market segments, including high-volume OEMs, add-in-card and motherboard manufacturers. Fremont, California-based VIA said the addition of a high-performance 3D graphics engine would expand its own chipset line to include every segment of the mainstream PC market.
SavageNB will combine S3’s Savage4 graphics engine with VIA’s Apollo Pro core logic design. The integrated chipset will replace three existing components, North Bridge, the graphics controller and the frame buffer, into a single chip configuration. In high-end systems, where multiple frame buffers are required, system chip count can be reduced by up to nine chips. Aside from reduced costs and higher performance, the combined chipset will be suitable for use in systems with smaller form factors. The exact nature of the partnership is still under negotiation.
