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S3 Graphics
Type Public
Founded January 1989
Headquarters Fremont, California, United States
Key people Dado Banatao and Ronald Yara
Industry Computing
Products Graphics cards
Website www.s3graphics.com

S3 Graphics, Ltd is a company specializing in graphics chipsets. A public company usually refers to a company that is permitted to offer its registered securities ( Stock, bonds, etc Fremont (ˈfriːmɒnt is a city in California, USA that was incorporated on January 23, 1956, from the merger of five smaller communities Centerville The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Diosdado Banatao (born May 23, 1946, Iguig, Cagayan, Philippines) popularly known by his nickname Dado, is a well-known For other uses of this term see Industry (disambiguation An industry (from Latin industrius, "diligent industrious" Computing is usually defined like the activity of using and developing Computer technology Computer hardware and software. In Marketing, a product is anything that can be offered to a Market that might satisfy a want or need A video card, also known as a graphics accelerator card, display adapter, or graphics card, is a hardware component whose function is to A website (alternatively web site or Web site, a back-construction from the Proper noun World Wide Web) is a collection of Web pages

Contents

History

S3 was founded and incorporated in January 1989 by Dado Banatao and Ronald Yara. Year 1989 ( MCMLXXXIX) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link displays 1989 Gregorian calendar) Diosdado Banatao (born May 23, 1946, Iguig, Cagayan, Philippines) popularly known by his nickname Dado, is a well-known On March 5, 1993, S3 began an Initial Public Offering of 2,000,000 shares of common stock on Nasdaq. Year 1993 ( MCMXCIII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1993 Gregorian calendar) Initial public offering (IPO, also referred to simply as a "public offering" is when a company issues Common stock or shares to the public for the first A voting share (also called common stock or ordinary share) is a share of Stock giving the Stockholder the right to vote on matters The NASDAQ (acronym of National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American Stock exchange. After several profitable years as an independent startup company, struggling with the transition to integrated 3D cards, S3 remodeled itself as a consumer electronics company and sold off its core graphics division to a joint venture with VIA Technologies for $323 million. VIA Technologies ( is a Taiwanese manufacturer of Integrated circuits mainly Motherboard Chipsets CPUs, and memory, and The joint venture, S3 Graphics, continues to develop and market chipsets based on the S3 graphics technology.

The reformed company carried over a substantial cash pile from the profitable TRIO days and a successful investment in UMC, a Taiwanese semiconductor foundry. UMC ( United Microelectronics Corporation) was founded as Taiwan's first Semiconductor company in 1980 as a spin-off of the government-sponsored institute ITRI Taiwan ( Taiwanese: Tâi-oân/Tāi-oân (historically 大灣/台員/大員/台圓/大圓/台窩灣 is an Island in East Asia. In the Microelectronics industry a semiconductor fabrication plant (commonly called a fab) is a factory where devices such as Integrated circuits are manufactured On November 15, 2000, S3 changed its name to SONICBlue and its NASDAQ stock symbol to SBLU. The new business model focused on digital media and information appliance opportunities. ReplayTV, Rio, and GoVideo were some of the brands developed. On March 21, 2003 SONICBlue filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Chapter 11 is a chapter of the United States Bankruptcy Code, which permits reorganization under the Bankruptcy laws of the United States

Products

S3 produced graphics cards primarily for PCs. While the earlier products such as the TRIO range were 2D only, later 3D functionality was added with the ViRGE and then Savage cards. The S3 Virtual Reality Graphics Engine ( ViRGE) graphics Chipset was one of the first 2D / 3D accelerators designed for the mass market Savage was a product-line of PC graphics chipsets designed by S3. More recently S3 chipsets have been sold as integrated VIA north bridge parts. The northbridge, also known as the memory controller hub ( MCH) in Intel systems (AMD VIA SiS and others usually use 'northbridge' is traditionally one

Graphics controllers

Jaton VL41C/V2, an example of a card using the S3 805 chip
Jaton VL41C/V2, an example of a card using the S3 805 chip

Media chipsets

Market Trends

From formation in 1989 it took S3 two years to develop the world's first single-chip Graphical User Interface (GUI) accelerator. A phase-locked loop or phase lock loop (PLL is a Control system that generates a signal that has a fixed relation to the phase of a "reference" The Delta-Sigma ( ΔΣ; or sigma-delta, ΣΔ) modulation is a method for encoding high resolution signals into lower resolution signals using Pulse-density In Electronics, a digital-to-analog converter ( DAC or D-to-A) is a device for converting a digital (usually binary code to an Analog signal The Moving Picture Experts Group, commonly referred to as simply MPEG, is a Working group of ISO / IEC charged with the development of video and Year 1989 ( MCMLXXXIX) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link displays 1989 Gregorian calendar) Integrated functionality enabled attractive pricing, and solid features for competitive prices remained a hallmark of S3's strategy.

S3's most notable product range is the S3 TRIO 2D chipset. It remains one of the best selling graphics chipsets of all time. Updated in a number of timely revisions, each time S3 managed to keep the series one step ahead of the competition.

However, TRIO was a 2D range, and by the mid 1990s consumers and OEMs started to demand 3D functionality from graphics cards. Internally, S3 failed to recognise this transition quickly enough, and had to rush out the S3 ViRGE range of 3D cards. The S3 Virtual Reality Graphics Engine ( ViRGE) graphics Chipset was one of the first 2D / 3D accelerators designed for the mass market While cheap, and popular with some OEMs for this reason, performance and drivers were poor. Some enthusiasts even nicknamed them graphics decelerators.

The integrated modern style 3D feature produced by S3, was the Savage series of graphics cards. Savage was a product-line of PC graphics chipsets designed by S3. A video card, also known as a graphics accelerator card, display adapter, or graphics card, is a hardware component whose function is to Notably these pioneered S3TC under the proprietary METAL API, subsequently adopted by Microsoft under royalty, as an industry standard for texture compression in DirectX. S3 Texture Compression (S3TC (sometimes also called DXTn or DXTC) is a group of related Image compression Algorithms originally developed by Texture mapping is a method for adding detail surface texture or colour to a computer-generated graphic or 3D model. Microsoft DirectX is a collection of Application programming interfaces (APIs for handling tasks related to Multimedia, especially Game programming and

Savage also introduced an industry-leading motion compensation engine, a quality video scaler, as well as hardware alpha-blended sub-picture blending, a first. One method used by various video formats to reduce file size is motion compensation. In Computer graphics, alpha compositing is the process of combining an image with a background to create the appearance of partial transparency However, the 3D performance of the Savage cards was never quite enough to take significant market share. Poor yields meant actual clock speeds were 30% lower than had been projected during development, and the transform and lighting engine implementation was flawed. Transform clipping and lighting ( T&L or sometimes TCL) is a term used in Computer graphics.

It became apparent the excellence of S3's integrated 2D technology, was no longer enough to ensure the overall success of the chipset. While S3 could have continued development of the Savage cards, and most likely resolved the outstanding issues, instead in 2001 the S3 management decided to sell off the core business to VIA for $323 million.

Subsequently, Savage derived chips turned up in numerous VIA motherboard chipsets as an integrated north bridge solution, such as Twister and UniChrome. More recent discrete derivations have carried the brand names DeltaChrome and GammaChrome. In this manner, S3 derived chips have held onto about a 10% share of the overall PC graphics market.

SONICblue

SONICblue was an American consumer electronics company resulting from the 1999 merger between computer peripheral maker Diamond Multimedia and graphics chipset maker S3 Incorporated. Year 1999 ( MCMXCIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1999 Gregorian calendar) Diamond Multimedia is a company that specializes in many forms of multimedia technology

In November 2000, the combined company changed its name to SONICblue and changed its focus from graphics chipsets and computer peripherals to consumer electronics, such as the Rio line of MP3 players. 2000 ( MM) was a Leap year that started on Saturday of the Common Era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. Rio was the Brand name of a line of Digital audio players best known for producing the "Diamond Rio" model that was the impetus for a lawsuit In January 2001, the graphics chipset business was sold to a joint venture between SONICblue and VIA called S3 Graphics. Year 2001 ( MMI) was a Common year starting on Monday according to the Gregorian calendar. VIA Technologies ( is a Taiwanese manufacturer of Integrated circuits mainly Motherboard Chipsets CPUs, and memory, and Later that same year, the company bought ReplayTV, a maker of PVR systems, and Sensory Science Corporation, a company selling dual-deck DVD/VCR systems under the GoVideo brand name. ReplayTV is a brand of Digital video recorder (DVR a term synonymous with personal video recorder (PVR

On March 21, 2003, SONICblue filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and sold off its main product lines. Events 630 - Byzantine emperor Heraclius restores the True Cross to Jerusalem. Year 2003 ( MMIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. Chapter 11 is a chapter of the United States Bankruptcy Code, which permits reorganization under the Bankruptcy laws of the United States

On April 16, 2003, D&M Holdings, the parent company of Denon Ltd. Events 1178 BC - A Solar eclipse may have marked the return of Odysseus, legendary King of Ithaca, to his kingdom D&M Holdings ( is a Japanese Corporation that owns several audio and Video brands is a Japanese Electronics company that originated Digital Audio technology while specializing in manufacturing of High-fidelity professional and consumer and Marantz Japan Inc. Marantz is a company that develops and sells upper-mid range to High-end audio products purchased virtually all operating assets from SONICblue and now produces ReplayTV and Rio units under a new subsidiary, Digital Networks North America (DNNA), Inc. The last piece of the company was effectively sold in late 2003, when Best Data acquired the Diamond's Supra modem business along with rights to the Diamond Multimedia name for use in a new video card division.

In August 2005, that company said it would discontinue making MP3 players, after it had licensed its digital audio software technology to chipmaker SigmaTel the month before. Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a Digital audio encoding format using a form of Lossy data compression SigmaTel (SGTL delisted from NASDAQ after 2008 acquisition by Freescale Semiconductor) is an Electronics company located in Austin TX, which designs mixed [1]

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