New Lowcost/Performance Card

fahad · Aug 10, 2002

Trident Graphics
DX8.1/9 compliance with 128MB of 700MHz DDR for under $100.00? Say hi to Trident XP4.

August 08, 2002 - Trident Microsystems, Inc. will soon be unveiling its desktop XP4 3D graphics family. The line is intended to set a "new price/performance standard" for Microsoft DX8.1/9.0-compliant graphics cards. Not only will the cards cost less than $100, but will also come packed with 128MB of up to 700MHz DDR memory. Yeah, I'd call that cost-effective.
"This is just the beginning of what will be a relentless drive to provide high-end graphics performance for mainstream PC end-users," said Le Nguyen, assistant vice president of marketing for Trident. "Whereas the $300 high-end graphics card segment represents less than three percent of the total market, our focus is in the mainstream and value segments where the volume is 25 times greater. The desktop XP4 product family brings high-end 3D graphics experience to all PC end-users with photo-finish image quality and movie-class special effects at such affordable price points never before made possible."

"Our company actually started out in desktop PC graphics 15 years ago," said Frank Lin, president and CEO of Trident. "The XP4 will take us back to the future where only a few other credible graphics chip suppliers can remain. We intend to hasten the pace of competition with even higher performance products and solidify our leadership in price/performance."

XP4 Desktop Product Family

The XP4 desktop product family is available in three versions:

XP4 T3 supporting 128MB of up to 700MHz DDR memory with 128-bit bus
XP4 T2 supporting 64MB of 500MHz DDR memory with 128-bit bus
XP4 T1 supporting 64MBs of 500MHz DDR memory with 64-bit bus
The XP4 T3 tops the performance chart with a 300MHz graphics engine and enables PC OEMs plus card makers to deliver advanced DX8.1/9.0 graphics card with 128MB memory for less than $99 (suggested retail price) to the end-users. The 128-bit Double-Data-Rate (DDR) memory system reaches a bandwidth of up to 11.2 Gbytes/sec and the 3D graphics engine achieves a peak performance of 1.2 billion pixels/sec.

The XP4 T3 offers a maximum power dissipation of less than four watts. This corresponds to only a fraction of competing alternatives, improving chip reliability in typical consumer-oriented operating environments where overheating could be the cause of system failure.

The XP4 T2 provides mainstream DX8.1/9.0 performance with a 250MHz graphics engine and reduces the end-user price of 64MB graphics card to less than $79 (suggested retail price). XP4 T2 memory bandwidth peaks at 8.0 Gbytes/sec and 3D graphics performance hits 1 billion pixels/sec, rivaling other high-end, competitive products.

The XP4 T1 brings entry-level DX8.1/9.0 graphics card to a rock-bottom price of less than $69 (suggested retail price) also with a 250MHz graphics engine but in a 64-bit memory bus for lowest cost. The XP4 T1 memory bandwidth reaches 4.0 Gbytes/sec.

XP4 Core Technology Summary

The XP4 desktop family is based on UMC's 0.13 CMOS technology that uses only 30 million transistors, which is less than half the number of transistors of the nearest competitive equivalent, to deliver top-of-the-line DX8.1/9.0 features and performance.

Other key capabilities of the XP4 family include:

BrightPixel rendering engine with hardware vertex and pixel shaders
SmartTile memory architecture for optimal memory bandwidth utilization
CoolPower for low power management
Multiview with CRT, DVI and TV out
Resolution up to QXGA (2048x1536) with 420MHz RAMDAC
DXVA hardware support with both IDCT and Motion Compensation
Advanced de-interlacing for highest-quality DVD movies
AGP-4X bus interface
Expect to see reviews of these low-cost animals in the near future.

-- M. Wiley
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New Lowcost/Performance Card

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