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

To: stock talk who wrote (10803)	5/4/1998 9:10:00 AM
From: g.w. barnard	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14577

st, attached is todays article in wsj interactive: gw S3 to Introduce a New Chip For Rendering 3-D Graphics By a WALL STREET JOURNAL Staff Reporter SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- S3 Inc. will introduce a chip Monday that the company hopes will trigger a financial turnaround in the second half of the year. The semiconductor maker's new chip helps personal computers display three-dimensional graphics and is targeted at the high end of the PC gaming market, where S3 has lost ground to competitors. The Savage3D chip will be available in large quantities in the third quarter at a wholesale price of $35 and is expected to be used in $199 circuit boards used to boost PC graphic performance. Scott Tandy, S3's director of marketing, said the new product is S3's most important in three years. The company, once No. 1 in the 3-D category, has been losing money lately because of competitive pressures and other problems. Return to top of page

To: stock talk who wrote (10803)	5/4/1998 2:57:00 PM
From: Synapsid	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14577

What should one make of this: "Santa Clara, Calif., S3 said its Savage3D graphics accelerator will target the high-end of the PC gaming market. It is to begin shipping in small volumes in the third quarter, and production will increase to original equipment manufacturer volumes in next year's first quarter." 0.25 micron is new process technology. One could interpret the above as saying that high volumes will only start shipping in 1999. However, another source talked about high volume shipments in Q3. It sounds like a good mainstream chip for 1999, and seems to establish S3 as being capable of delivering high-performance 3D (although no benchmark or testing results have been published, no 3D Winbench numbers quoted in the press release). However, it doesn't yet appear to be a killer in terms of market share and revenues in the short term (1998). I wonder whether S3 will come up with a mid-range product in the next few months, or will it focus on bringing the Savage3D product to the mainstream as early as possible (early 1999)?