First Contact : XGI Volari
For a long time now, the graphics card market has been a two-horse race between ATi and NVIDIA. Now, new competitor XGI makes its entry onto the stage.
However, despite the new name, several old names in the graphics sector, have lent their secret sauces to the new company. XGI, in fact, was formed when SIS spun off its graphics division Xabre, which was then renamed XGI. Only a few months later, XGI acquired Trident's graphics subsidiary, thus adding Trident graphics technology to its portfolio. Rumor has it that several big investors also back the new name. One such candidate could possibly be UMC, the Taiwanese foundry giant that entered into a strategic alliance with SIS at the end of last year.
Of course, there are no official comments on who is pulling the strings, but it seems clear that XGI is on solid financial ground. This also explains the company's confidence in its plans. After all, XGI wants to begin turning a profit by 2005 and aims to be the worldwide market leader among the GPU makers by 2007. Whether or not XGI will actually be able to meet these goals remains to be seen. After all, this start-up is planning to compete with the two technology leaders ATi and NVIDIA on their home turf.
Lastly, let's not forget Intel, the current market leader in the graphics chip business, who has been a pain in its competitors' sides by sheer volume. Nonetheless, XGI is not planning to be an also-ran, challenging ATi and NVIDIA with a full line-up of desktop and mobile parts. Additionally, there are also plans for integrated graphics chips on motherboards.
