SANTA CLARA, Calif.--S3 Inc. and Via Technologies Inc. today announced a fully integrated core logic chip set supporting the Athlon and Duron microprocessors from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. The ProSavage KM133 chip set, aimed at the "value PC" market segment, is coming from a joint venture being set up by S3 and Via in Taiwan.
The two partners said the new offering combines Via's Apollo KT133 chip set functions and S3's Savage4 3-D and Savage2000 2-D graphics engines.
"The Via Apollo KT133 chip set maximizes the full performance of AMD's Duron and Athlon Socket A processors," said Wen-Chi Chen, president and CEO of Taiwan-based Via Technologies.
Last month, S3 and Via submitted a revised business plan for Taiwan's approval of their joint venture after government officials rejected the initial proposal (see March 1 story). Santa Clara-based S3 is transferring its graphics chip business to the Taiwan venture so that it can completely transform itself into a supplier of handheld digital audio players, home networking products, and information appliances.
AMD of Sunnyvale is excited about the new ProSavage chip set, which is expected to help boost the company's Athlon and Duron chip sales in low-cost PCs. "When placed next to the rich video features of the integrated S3 Savage4 AGP 4X graphics core, which includes advanced 3D texturing technology, hardware DVD support and multiple display options, you are left with a low-priced machine with high-performance power," declared Richard Heye, vice president and general manager, AMD's Texas Microprocessor Division in Austin.
The ProSavage KM133 is a shared memory architecture (SMA) chip set. It supports a 200-MHz front side bus and up to 2 gigabyte of PC133 SDRAM and VC133 DRAM. Samples of the chip set are available now with volume production set to begin in the fourth quarter of 2000.
In OEM quantities, the chip set is priced at $40 each.
