SANTA CLARA, Calif.--The three-month-old S3-Via Inc. joint venture today announced full production of its first integrated chip with graphics and video technology from S3 Inc. and PC system logic from Via Technology Inc.
The new chip is part a joint-venture strategy to roll out highly integrated ICs for desktop and notebook PC platforms. Santa Clara-based S3 and Taiwan's Via Technologies Inc. announced the venture last year to expand on an alliance between the two companies (see Nov. 2 story).
The S3-Via joint said it has begun volume shipment of the first integrated device to one of the world's top five PC manufacturers, which was not identified. The new chip will be used in a yet-to-be-announced series of commercial personal computers, according to the joint venture.
"The joint venture is making significant headway and is aggressively positioned with a full family of integrated desktop and mobile chips," said Rick Bergman, vice president and general manager of S3-Via. "We're well on track to meeting our technology, market share and revenue goals for these products."
The joint venture said S3 and Via Technologies have secured design wins for the first integrated product with several top-tier PC makers, and they are now in "serious discussions" with many companies for follow-on notebook and desktop products, based on Athlon microprocessors from Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
