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Technology Stocks : S3 (A LONGER TERM PERSPECTIVE) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jan A. Van Hummel who wrote (10729)	4/29/1998 12:42:00 AM
From: John Nasser	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14577

From Mark's post raises a interesting question.... I wonder what price range will the new GX3 chips be in? They call it HIGH END, but I doubt as high end as that $3000 board Mark posted. Any thoughts? John Nasser

To: Jan A. Van Hummel who wrote (10729)	4/29/1998 8:58:00 AM
From: stock talk	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14577

S3 moving higher in premarket :-) Wednesday April 29, 8:30 am Eastern Time Company Press Release SOURCE: S3 Incorporated S3 Selected by IBM for Newest Commercial Desktop PC S3's Trio3D Graphics and Video Accelerator Powers Pentium II-based IBM PC 300PL SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 29 /PRNewswire/ -- S3(R) Incorporated (Nasdaq: SIII - news) announced today that IBM(R) (NYSE: IBM - news) has selected S3's Trio(R) 3D accelerator to power the graphics and video capabilities of the IBM PC 300PL. A powerful, network ready, highly managed, commercial desktop PC, the IBM PC 300PL is the first IBM PC based on Intel's BX core chip set. ''Combining industry leading 2D graphics acceleration with advanced video capabilities and business-ready 3D graphics technology, S3's Trio3D accelerator was designed for the commercial desktop PC market,'' said Dan Karr, vice president of Worldwide Sales, S3 Incorporated. ''IBM's selection of the Trio3D for its latest commercial desktop PC validates these design efforts and highlights S3's ability to deliver a range of optimized solutions for the home, business and mobile PC markets.'' IBM's PC 300PL The IBM PC 300PL features the Intel Pentium(R) II processor and is available in 266, 300, 333 or the new 350 and 400 MHz versions. The new system is based on Intel's BX core chip set with 100 MHz front side bus speed and comes standard with up to 64 MB SDRAM. The PC 300PL comes with an integrated S3 Trio3D graphics accelerator which features 4MB standard 100 MHz SGRAM and an AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) connector slot for expansion. S3's Trio3D Business Multimedia Accelerator Tailored to the needs of corporate and SOHO PC users, S3's Trio3D accelerator delivers: * Industry Leading 2D Graphics Acceleration: Designed to meet the needs of tomorrow's productivity applications, S3's Trio3D features a newly developed 2D graphics engine that delivers lightning-fast 2D graphics performance to the mainstream PC market. Key features of the Trio3D's 2D engine include a 128-bit pipelined architecture, support for 100MHz SGRAM memory and S3's BCI(TM) (Burst Command Interface) -- a proprietary protocol technology that works in conjunction with either the PCI or AGP bus to increase the command and data efficiency of the Trio3D architecture. * Advanced Video Capabilities: With features such as high quality video manipulation (blending/stretching/scaling) and the ability to simultaneously accelerate dual video windows, S3's Trio3D provides an optimal hardware platform for the emergence of advanced video conferencing and video training applications on mainstream business PCs. Additionally, the Trio3D is the first accelerator to fully implement the industry standard Video Interface Port (VIP) bus allowing for a low- cost, easy-to-implement interface to third party multimedia peripherals such as video cameras, TV-tuners and MPEG-2 decoders. * "Business-Ready" 3D Graphics: Trio3D's "business-ready" 3D feature set delivers the right mix of 3D performance and quality needed for emerging mainstream 3D productivity applications. Based on S3's widely adopted S3d architecture, the Trio3D's rendering features include MIP mapping, tri-linear filtering and perspective correction of textures to deliver images that are free of visual artifacts such as "sparkle" and "jaggies." Other features include transparency for enabling realistic renderig of glass, water and plastic objects; depth cueing to enable the rendering of real-world environments; and Z-buffering to speed the removal of hidden surfaces for improved performance and visual quality. S3's Trio3D also provides support for Intel's Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) standard to enable higher levels of visual realism while helping to contain solution costs for memory intensive 3D applications. About S3 Incorporated S3 Incorporated, founded in 1989 with headquarters in Santa Clara, California, is the world's largest supplier of multimedia acceleration hardware and its associated software. S3 is committed to applying its expertise in audio, video, graphics and platform acceleration to create innovative and affordable products for the home, desktop and mobile markets. Except for historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this press release are forward-looking statements that are subject to risk and uncertainties, including the impact of competitive products and pricing and of alternative technological advances, market acceptance of the company's and its customers' new products, and other risks detailed from time to time in S3's SEC reports, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 1997. NOTE: S3 and Trio are registered trademarks of S3 Incorporated. The S3 corporate logo and BCI are trademarks of S3 Incorporated. Other marks referenced herein are the property of their respective owners. All third party quotes and product information are furnished by the respective companies. Source: Mercury Research (Scottsdale, AZ) SOURCE: S3 Incorporated

To: Jan A. Van Hummel who wrote (10729)	5/1/1998 12:42:00 PM
From: Bill Lin	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 14577

Hey Jan, I've been watching STBI fall like S3 and it seems that ATI's low end stuff is killing them. Either Nvidia will lower its chip price, or S3 has to come out with SDRAM based Trio chips. I looks like the market is divided into 5 segments now: $29-49 PCI boards for Socket 7 Motherboards $59-99 AGP boards for Celeron/P2 boards (Trid/S3/ATI) $118-$169 AGP boards for P2 (nvidia/ATI) $159-$259 PCI 3D add on boards (3dfx) $1k-$3k professional boards (3dlabs) Of course Matrox and other usual suspects will play in their niches. But the move from expensive WRAM to cheaper SDRAM (cheaper than SGRAM because of volume?) points to the need for integrated (iRAM) like the MX has. If I were S3, I'd work on a Trio chip with integrated 4mb of ram, and a 3D geometry setup engine to give it "average" nvidia type performance selling at $12 (like Trio). This GX3/3.5/4 thing sounds ok, but they won't sell more than 5mm of these, unless its a MONSTER. Their compressed texture technology should allow a 2MB integrated texture ram to run efficiently, but I think the 4mb max configuration will be desired by the market. I think people want to play games in 1024x768 mode, not vga anymore. For that you need a fast DAC and good 3D stuff. JMO bill ps S3 seems poised for a series of good news. Unfortunately, I'm reading lots of fears about a coming correction, which will wipe out any advantage S3 might have on a product announcement. normal, eh?