Wednesday, April 16th 2008

S3 Graphics Announces Ultra Energy-Efficient Embedded Multimedia Graphics Processor

S3 Graphics today announced the S3 Graphics 4300E graphics processor for embedded markets, bringing the latest in HD video playback, graphics rendering, display connectivity, and power management to developers of gaming, digital signage and other multimedia intensive embedded applications.

Boasting an industry leading performance-per-watt ratio that outperforms competitor products by as much as 30%, the S3 Graphics 4300E is currently the only discrete high-performance HD video and graphics processor tailored specifically to cope with the rigid thermal requirements of the embedded industry. Developers can opt for maximum power-efficiency or for extreme multimedia performance, based on end-product requirements.

Designed for DirectX 10.1 and OpenGL 2.1 using the latest programmable unified shader architecture, system developers can now bring an immersive 3D experience to feature-rich product introductions. The S3 Graphics 4300E also incorporates a programmable video engine with media acceleration for H.264, VC-1, AVS, DivX, and MPEG-2 HD, plus the latest in display connectivity including HDMI with HDCP, dual channel LVDS, and dual-link DVI.

The new 4300E multimedia processor joins the already-shipping 2300E family, expanding S3 Graphics' portfolio of embedded graphics processors to a complete range of top-to-bottom solutions for multimedia intensive embedded applications, all with guaranteed supply longevity and support. An SDK and hardware development kit for the 2300E is available to developers now, while the 4300E development kit will be available in June 2008.

"With the fast evolving need for increasingly advanced digital multimedia technology in the embedded industry, we are extremely proud to offer a highly competitive product with the 4300E," said Dr. Ken Weng, GM for S3 Graphics. "S3 Graphics now offers a full range of products that can inspire embedded system developers to greater and greater heights."

About the S3 Graphics 4300E Multimedia Processor

The S3 Graphics 4300E processor uses proven low leakage 65nm process technology and features an energy efficient multimedia architecture that scales from 300MHz to 600MHz. The graphics and HD video cores can be coupled with the latest DDR2 and DDR3 memories supporting up to 256MB of local graphics memory. The multimedia processor also incorporates a high speed serial link PCI Express 2.0 compliant bus supporting x1, x4, x8, and x16 lane widths, in addition to PCI Express ASPM for further reducing operational power to allow astonishingly low heat, fanless configurations.

The 4300E uses an advanced high quality programmable video core that is fully compatible with Microsoft's DirectX VA 2.0 media acceleration interface and Blu-ray, supporting protected video playback from source to destination. Codec support includes WMV-9 HD, MPEG-2 HD, VC-1, H.264, DivX, and AVS.

The 4300E has built-in dual-link DVI/HDMI transmitters with HDCP and dual channel LVDS transmitters to interface to the latest high resolution standard and widescreen flat panels, in addition to two analog RAMDACS for CRT connectivity. Independent display rotation (900, 1800, 2700) with 2D, 3D, and HD media acceleration is also fully supported by the display pipeline.

The S3 Graphics 4300E is fully compatible with Windows XP, XPe, CE and is WHQL Certified for Windows Vista SP1.

For more information on the S3 Graphics 4300E, please see the S3 Graphics website at:
www.s3graphics.com/en/products/chrome_4300e/
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3 Comments on S3 Graphics Announces Ultra Energy-Efficient Embedded Multimedia Graphics Processor

#1
btarunr
Editor & Senior Moderator
With the recent announcements of NVidia 'working closely' with VIA on their so called 1 + 8 core design (1 CPU core + a IGP with 8 SP's), isn't NVidia already eating into S3's share of this segment? Wasn't all that an eye-wash as NVidia got 'closer' to VIA in its long-term plans of acquiring it?
Posted on Reply
#2
suraswami
hmm those companies who were quiet for a while started to work on new products. Good. More price reductions and more options. I would like to build a mac-mini size pc which should be capable of playing HD, recording HD and authoring video real fast without much heat and fan noise.
Posted on Reply
#3
CoreDuo
I didn't think that S3 was still active :)

Last S3 card i owned is the Trio 64 in my Pentium 166 :P
Posted on Reply
Jan 17th, 2025 17:48 EST change timezone

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