Graphics chip manufacturer S3 Inc has claimed victory with its new Savage4 graphics chip. The Santa Clara, California-based company says that it has 36 new customers for the chip, which it projects will rake in $150m in revenue this year. Among the customers are three of the world’s top five OEMs, according to the company, although it won’t specify which three until the systems are announced by the manufacturers. In addition, S3 has secured orders from graphics board manufacturers such as Diamond Multimedia and Creative Labs. The new contracts should see S3 start to win back graphics chip market share from current leader ATI Technologies Inc.
An Intel Corp spokesperson refused to comment on suggestions that S3 was working on integrated CPU and graphics chip technology with Intel. The spokesperson said Intel does have a patent cross-license agreement with S3 that is for intellectual property across a broad range of technologies. The licensing agreement is not related to Intel’s graphics product plans. Intel has a low- cost integrated CPU and graphics chip on its roadmap, code-named ‘Whitney.’ The spokesperson refused to speculate on when such a chip would actually become commercially available.
