Feature List
High-Performance Integrated 2D/3D Graphics and Video Accelerators
- 64-bit 2D/3D graphics engine
- Integrated 170 MHz RAMDAC and clock synthesizer
- S3® Streams ProcessorTM technology
- Pin and software compatible solutions
- ViRGE/GXTM accelerator supports SDRAM/ SGRAM/EDO DRAM memory. ViRGE/DXTM accelerator supports EDO DRAM memory
Improved S3dTM Graphics Engine Performance
- High performance 2D acceleration
- Flat and Gouraud shading for 3D
- High quality 3D texture mapping
- Perspective correction with a parallel processing perspective engine
- Bi-linear and tri-linear texture filtering using S3뭩 new SmartFilterTM technology
- MIP-Mapping
- Depth cueing, fogging, alpha blending
- Video texture mapping
- Z-buffering
Improved S3 Streams Processor Features
- Supports on-the-fly stretching and blending of primary RGB stream and RGB or YUV (video) secondary stream
- Each stream can have different color depths
- High-quality video playback with horizontal and vertical interpolation
- Support for IndeoTM , CinepakTM , and software and hardware-accelerated MPEG-1 video
- Brightness, hue, saturation controls
Glueless PCI 2.1 Local Bus Support
PCI Bus Mastering for Display List Processing and Video Capture Support
High-Performance Memory Support
- 64-bit 1-cycle EDO DRAM & SDRAM/SGRAM memory interface
- 1-, 2- and 4-MByte EDO DRAM and SDRAM/SGRAM video memory
Improved S3 Scenic HighwayTM Interface
- Industry standard video digitizers and S3 Scenic/MX2TM MPEG-1 audio/video decoder
- Odd/even field detection
- Improved horizontal decimation
Other Multimedia Support Hooks
- I2C serial communications bus
- 8-bit bi-directional feature connector
Non-x86 CPU Support
- Big endian/little endian byte ordering
- Relocatable addressing
Full Software Support
- Drivers for major operating systems and APIs: [Windows® 95, Windows 3.11, Windows NTTM , OS/2® 2.1 and 3.0 (WarpTM ), Direct 3DTM , BRenderTM , RenderWareTM , OpenGLTM ]
- Popular games supported with 3D acceleration
- ISV and marketing programs to ensure abundant title support
- Software fully backwards compatible with ViRGE. Enhanced software available for enhanced ViRGE/DX & GX features.
Green PC/Monitor Plug and Play Support
- Full hardware and BIOS support for VESA Display Power Management Signaling (DPMS) monitor power savings modes
- DDC monitor communications
Extensive Static/Dynamic Power Management
Industry-Standard 208-pin PQFP package
Product Description
The S3 ViRGE/DX & GX integrated 3D video/ graphics accelerators enable development of compelling interactive entertainment, education, and presentation applications for the mainstream personal computing world.
Enhancements to the Popular ViRGETM Accelerator
- 170 MHz integrated RAMDAC
- Synchronous memory support in the ViRGE/GX
- Improved S3d Engine performance
- Streams Processor provides improved video playback quality with vertical interpolation
- Improved video input features and decimation
64-bit S3d Engine
The enhanced S3d Engine provides improved 2D acceleration for excellent Windows applications performance and a full-featured high-performance 3D rendering engine for realistic user experience in games and other interactive 3D applications.
Advanced features of the S3d Engine include S3뭩 high performance parallel processing perspective engine, enhanced triangle processing and the new SmartFilter technology for high quality, adaptive textures. These new features provide excellent quality scenes at high frame rates to expand the boundaries of games and desktop applications.
Streams Processor
The S3 Streams Processor technology provides the stretching and YUV color space conversion features required for full screen video playback with both software CODECs and hardware MPEG-1 sources.
The Streams Processor allows simultaneous display of graphics and video of different color depths. For example, it is possible to display 24 bpp-equivalent video on top of an 8-bit graphics background. This saves memory bandwidth and storage capacity while permitting higher frame rates.
The ViRGE/DX & GX Streams Processor supports enhanced features such as vertical interpolation for high quality video playback and color controls.
S3 Scenic Highway
The S3 Scenic Highway allows lowest cost direct connection to S3뭩 Scenic/MX2TM MPEG-1 audio and video decoder as well as industry-standard video digitizers such as the Philips® SAA7110/SAA7111.
High Screen Resolution (Non-interlaced) Support
|
|
DRAM/SDRAM/SGRAM Size |
|
Resolutions Supported |
1
MB |
2
MB |
4
MB |
|
640X480X4 |
O |
O |
O |
|
640X480X8 |
O |
O |
O |
|
640X480X16 |
O |
O |
O |
|
640X480X24 |
O |
O |
O |
|
640X480X32 |
|
O |
O |
|
800X600X4 |
O |
O |
O |
|
800X600X8 |
O |
O |
O |
|
800X600X16 |
O |
O |
O |
|
800X600X24/32 |
|
O |
O |
|
1024X768X4 |
O |
O |
O |
|
1024X768X8 |
O |
O |
O |
|
1024X768X16 |
|
O |
O |
|
1024X768X24 (IL) |
|
|
O |
|
1280X1024X4 |
|
O |
O |
|
1280X1024X8 |
|
O |
O |
|
1280X1024X16 (IL) |
|
|
O |
|
1600X1200X4 |
|
O |
O |
|
1600X1200X8 |
|
O |
O |
|
Memory Support |
DX |
GX |
|
256Kx16 EDO DRAM |
O |
O |
|
256Kx16 SDRAM |
|
O |
|
256Kx32 SDRAM/SGRAM |
|
O |
|
Pin Compatibility |
DX |
GX |
|
S3 Trio64V+TM and S3 ViRGE accelerators |
O |
|
|
S3 Trio64V2/DXTM accelerator |
O |
|
|
S3 Trio64V2/GXTM accelerator |
|
O |
|
