Graphics specialist Videologic Group Plc has neither confirmed nor denied speculation that the customer for its new specialist 3D graphics chip, for the console games market, may be Sega Enterprises Ltd. Sega terminated an agreement with Videologic rival 3Dfx Interactive Inc last July, and incurred a high court injunction to return the company’s trade secrets (CI No 3,336). Videologic revealed details of its new chip at the launch of its second generation PowerVR 3D graphics technology. The company is still not saying that the customer will be Sega, but the impetus of rumors and lack of denial are making it increasingly apparent that there should be some formal announcement of an agreement between the two by the year end, and hopefully by the summer. Hidden behind the console chip announcement was the news that the Kings Langley, UK based company is also working with an unnamed partner to develop a PowerVR chip for the set-top box market. Videologic will initially have five PowerVR chips in the next 12 months; three for the personal computer and one each for the arcade and games console markets. The set-top offering will not arrive until 1999. This is the first foray for Videologic into the console and set-top market, but it denies that it is overstretching itself because it has the backing of major Japanese partner NEC Corp. The company admitted that it will face strong competition from the Intel Corp i740 graphics chip earlier this month as well as continuing competition from 3Dfx Interactive Inc, from whom Intel is pulling its investment (see separate story), which although not its biggest competitor, does have a higher market profile and stronger marketing clout. Videologic hopes the new PowerVR technology will beat the competition on price performance, although prices are not available yet. As for performance, Videologic says it can offer more than 1 million polygons per second throughput and a fill rate of 120 megapixels per second which it claims compares favorably with a fill rate of 90 megapixels per second from its nearest competitor, the 3Dfx Voodoo. It can render at resolutions up to 1600 by 1200 at 24-bit true color. The technology supports both DirectX 6.0 and OpenGL and includes more texture formats and special effects. It uses 0.25 micron silicon. The first graphics boards using second generation PowerVR will be out in the summer in Videologic’s own products.
