San Jose, California-based Chips & Technologies Inc has announced a new family of VGA graphics display controllers that bring desktop computer graphics capabilities to notebook computers. Notebook computers equipped with one of these controllers can run graphics-intensive software programs including live video in a Windows environment, it says. The company claims its 65540 and 65545 are the world’s first flat-panel controllers to add video overlay capability. Chips & Technologies plans to market them to personal computer manufacturers looking to add multimedia capabilities to their products. Both devices, the first members of the Mustang family, represent compatible high-end additions to Chips & Technologies’ established Vampire line of flat panel controllers. Among Vampire’s customers are IBM Corp, AST Research Inc, Dell Computer Corp, Hewlett-Packard Corp, Gateway 2000 Inc and IBM subsidiary Ambra. The 65545 uses a hardware accelerator that multiplies the speed of data transfer to the display to offer desktop performance in notebook display systems. The 65540 is designed for mainstream applications that don’t require hardware acceleration, but still need high-speed performance. Both models are available in 5V and the new energy conserving 3.3V Green PC versions. Both also feature power down modes. Both come equipped with VGA-compatible BIOS, and high performance drivers for Windows, Windows NT and OS/2 at different reofferings and colour depths are available. Samples and production quantities of the 65540 are available now. The price, in 10,000 unit quantities, is $24.00. The 65545 will sample in July; production quantities will be available in September with pricing of $31.00 when you order 10,000 or more.
