We have almost got used to the idea that the market for consumer graphics solutions divided between the two companies: AMD, and NVIDIA. At the very least, such an arrangement is in force segment of discrete graphics solutions. Perhaps this will soon destroy duopoliyu company Intel, which is going to return to the discrete graphics market in 2009-2010.

Nevertheless, under the wing of the company VIA S3 Graphics image continues to develop solutions that the level of functionality is not inferior to competing products from AMD and NVIDIA. An example is yesterday's announcement family videochipov S3 Chrome 400, which support such key features as 10.1 DirectX 2.0 and PCI Express. In terms of support for the latest version of DirectX company S3 even ahead of NVIDIA, which is skeptical of the API evaluates demand.

At the current level of support interfaces Chrome 400 series chips are not inferior to competitors. In addition to classical DVI, HDMI and D-Sub DisplayPort will be maintained. As in the case of AMD products, the transfer of sound through the interface does not require the use HDMI input on the graphics card. Playing protected content is made possible through the support HDCP. Videochipy Chrome 400 support and HDMI version 1.2.
The engine ChromotionHD 2.0 provides hardware acceleration decoding H.264, VC-1, MPEG2-HD, WMV-HD, MPEG-4 and AVS. AcceleRAM technology is designed to utilize a portion of system memory for graphics subsystem needs. Energy-efficient PowerWise technology should provide good ratio of productivity and performance, and ultimately it would create passively cooled graphics solutions. Chrome 400 series chips will be used in mobile products.

Production of 65 nm chips Chrome 400 series will deal with Fujitsu company. With characteristic memory interface will be fairly narrow (64-bit), so it is unlikely to be a high level of productivity. In the family are two videochipa: Chrome Chrome 430 and 440. The first mass-produced chips will be available by the end of this month.