A New Graphics Kid on the Block: XGI Volari

Product Overview, Continued

The middle-class chip Volari V5 sports the same characteristics as the bigger V8. However, the number of pixel-pipelines was halved from eight down to four. Also, the smaller chip has to make do with only two pixel shader 2.0 units instead of four. The core and memory frequencies, on the other hand, remain unchanged from the V8.

Volari V5 single chip solutions:

• Volari V5 Ultra: 4 pixel pipes, core frequency: 350 MHz, memory frequency: 375 MHz with DDR, 500 MHz with DDR2
• Volari V5: 4 pixel pipes, core frequency: 300 MHz, memory frequency: 325 MHz with DDR, 450 MHz withDDR2

Aimed at the low-cost market, the Volari V3's architecture is very different from that of its bigger siblings. The chip is based on Trident's designs and is technologically equivalent to the Trident XP4, a chip that was announced at last year's Comdex in November. The chip supports DirectX 8.1 and is designed as a tile-based renderer. This part, too, is produced on a 130-nanometer process and requires only 25 million transistors. Since Trident had given a transistor count of 30 million upon the introduction of the XP4, it stands to reason that the V3 differs from the XP4 in certain details. The Volari V3 features two pixel pipelines, a 128 bit DDR memory interface and runs at a clock speed of 300/300 MHz (core/mem).

XGI value products:

• Volari V3: 2 pixel pipes, core frequency: 300 MHz, memory frequency: 300 MHz

XGI's mobile graphics chips are based on the V3 design, formerly known as the Trident XP4. The top-of-the-line model will be called the XP5 and will run at 250/250 MHz. So far, no information is available on the other Versions, the XP5m32 and XP5m64.

The specifications of the products announced so far by XGI can be found here .