S3 Inc claims that over 500,000 of its Scenic/MX2 MPEG-1 decoders have been sold since initial production shipments began in autumn last year. Featuring full-screen, television quality, 30 frames per second MPEG-1 playback, the Scenic/MX2 MPEG made its first ripple when S3 announced a controversial deal with Compaq Computer Corp in which the latter was to install the three-chip multimedia set, Trio64V+ (CI No 2,686). Questions quickly arose over whether video standards would remain steady enough for multimedia chips to be placed on the motherboard, but analysts now back the firm’s leadership. The personal computer MPEG hardware market surged in 1995, said Mike Feibus, principal of Mercury Research Inc, a personal computer components research firm in Scottsdale, Arizona. Based on our preliminary estimates, S3 shipped more than half a million MPEG decoders, giving S3 a leadership position in the personal computer hardware MPEG decoder market. As industry leaders such as Microsof t Corp deliver MPEG to the masses, Gary Johnson, S3’s senior vice-president of multimedia products, sees volume shipments of MPEG playback hardware in general and the Scenic/MX2 in particular, exceeding industry expectations. Santa Clara, California-based S3’s first licenses in the fall gave rise to the Voyager Movie Player from Boca Research Inc (CI No 2,838), and a decoder upgrade from Diamond Multimedia Systems Inc and STB Systems Inc (CI No 2,752).
