After a run of rough years in the graphics chip-manufacturing business, Number Nine Visual Technology Corp, is to stop making its own chips. Phil Parker, a spokesperson for the Lexington, Massachusetts-based company said that developing chips for the high volume desktop graphics market, just wasn’t working out principally because Number Nine was not popular with gamers, who provide a lot of the impetus behind the desktop market. However, Number Nine won’t be laying off its 80-strong silicon development team. Parker said that the company was working on new application specific chips, not graphics chips. Parker wouldn’t be drawn on what these ASICs might be. The team will also continue work on optimizing Number Nine’s more successful graphics board range.
The company says it has just won an order from IBM Corp for its SR9 graphics accelerator board. IBM will be using the board in the 545 and 585 models of the Aptiva E series of consumer PCs. The board uses S3 Inc’s Savage 4 graphics chip. Parker was keen to stress that Number Nine still had a steady relationship with S3, despite the fact that S3 has just bought rival board manufacturer, Diamond Multimedia Systems Inc.
The SR9 board supports DVI, the digital video interface standard for connecting PCs to displays that is being pushed by Intel Corp and others in the industry. Parker said that features like this were what made IBM – one of the largest suppliers of LCD displays – chose the Number Nine board.
Number Nine, which started producing graphics accelerators in 1982, is going through a period of transition which extends to the board level. Parker said that the company would soon be announcing two new board members. He wouldn’t name them, but said that they were extremely well respected in the technology industry.
