ST Microelectronics Plans for the PowerVR Series4 and Series5

Imagination Technologies Group announced that it will be working with STMicroelectronics to develop and manufacture a range of high performance PC graphics and video accelerators based on PowerVR Series4 and Series5 technology. This move follows the success of ST's KYRO and KYRO II graphics accelerators, which are based on PowerVR Series3. The partnership agreement between ST and Imagination Technologies was forged in April 1999 and combines Imagination Technologies' acclaimed PowerVR tile based rendering technology with ST's digital video know-how, process technology expertise, and manufacturing capability. PowerVR takes a different algorithmic approach to 3D, aiming to eliminate redundant processing and avoid memory bottlenecks. By doing only what is absolutely necessary, and by keeping as much 3D processing as possible on-chip, PowerVR uses its combination of Tile Based Rendering, 32-bit True Color, 8 Layer Multitexturing and Hidden Surface Removal to extract greater performance from the available memory bandwidth.