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7) If you had to pick one
specific feature of the DeltaChrome architecture to
evangelize to the enthusiast community, what would it be?
Nadeem: Hi-Def DirectX-9 has
been our Tag line for the DeltaChrome family of products and
it really does live up to that statement! Enjoying some of
today?s hot games on a big screen TV with surround sound is
an amazing experience. DeltaChrome?s eight pipelines work
even more efficiently when resolution is increased which is
important when using 720p and even 1080p resolutions.
8) Does S3 plan to implement some sort of mechanism for
users of your products to report bugs, or request new
features? Something along the lines of ATi?s ?Catalyst Crew?
program.
John: Currently we are working
with our ISV partners on reporting any bugs or issues with
our current and legacy hardware. We are in discussion on an
option to use our current Partner's Portal (FTP) to allow
our OEM customers to report bugs to us. I think it not
unlikely that this feature will make it in some form to end
users via our website.
9) What is S3?s stance on application specific driver
optimizations?
Nadeem: We do not support or
endorse any benchmark optimizations which do not benefit
other applications. If we find that we can improve the
performance for real applications or game engines with some
specific optimization we will certainly roll those changes
into our general releases ? as long as there is no negative
impact on general quality or compatibility.
10) Does S3 plan to support
Linux or 64-Bit versions of Windows in the future?
John: We already have a working
64-bit driver that is being tested internally in our Q&A
test group. There is already limited Linux driver support
for some of our legacy GPU product family such as Savage4
(394-398), Twister (380, 381, 387) & Savage/MX-/IX (290-299)
on our driver page at
http://www.s3graphics.com/Drivers.html. Support for Linux
drivers on DeltaChrome and future S3 Graphics products will
be announced in near future.
11) With the High Definition
output and image processing capabilities of the Delta
Chrome, it seems like a natural for a combination HD TV
Tuner/3D Gaming card, similar to ATi?s All In Wonder product
line. Are any products like these planned on your roadmap
and if so, will we see a High Def DTV tuner integrated a
product like this?
Nadeem: We have announced the
OmniChrome which is a full DirectX9 multimedia solution
based on DeltaChrome S4 Nitro. It features the same HDTV
output and also component input for video capture. The
OmniChrome also features a NTSC or PAL TV tuner. We?re
pretty exciting about this since it does mark the start of a
whole range of products which will compete with ATI?s AIW
line.
12) What?s on the horizon for S3, in terms of enthusiast
3D Graphics? Are there any NV40 or R420 killers planned or
is S3 targeting more main-stream mid range products?
Nadeem: Its always very
desirable to make super high end chips ? and I can tell you
our engineers are always pushing for us to support such
projects ? we can make monster chips just as good as the
next guy. So the problem is not one of technical
capabilities as much as strategy. We want to make products
which are affordable and provide high value ? if we had made
a monster-GPU we would have had to amortize its R&D costs
over the rest of product line. I suspect most folks who are
buying mainstream products don?t know that they are
subsidizing the price of those huge fans with graphics board
attached.
Thanks for your time Nadeem
and John! We appreciate the insight you?ve given us
here. Best of luck to you and S3 in the months ahead!
Nadeem & John: Thank you for
hosting questions which we're sure many of your viewers'
have voiced in the last review.
We'll keep you posted on future
developments and product launches with S3 Graphics,
DeltaChrome and beyond. Stay tuned here for details in
the months ahead.
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