XGI Technology
Encyclopedia
XGI Technology Inc. is based upon the old graphics division of SiS
spun off as a separate company, and the graphics assets of Trident Microsystems
.
, a graphics card with two GPUs. This was seen as part of a potentially successful attempt to become competitive with ATI Technologies
and Nvidia Corporation, which are the two largest GPU manufacturers in the world.
A few months after the announced release, XGI graphics cards were found by enthusiasts and hardware reviewers to be less than competitive with ATi and Nvidia cards. Some of the many performance and visualization problems were blamed on underdeveloped drivers
. Even so XGI cards received good reviews in the low priced/low performance video card market: XGI Volari V3 cards were judged by some reviewers to be competitive and even superior to equally priced video cards that were on the market, such as a Nvidia GeForce MX 4000 card. Many reviewers though were pessimistic of the possibility that XGI would competitive in the 3D graphic card market.
On March 6, 2006, ATI Technologies announced the acquisition of Shanghai-based MacroSynergy, a fabless chip designer and XGI Technology alliance company, as well as related personnel working out of XGI Technology's Santa Clara, California location.
On 2006-10-17, RealVision Inc. announced forming technology alliance with XGI Technology Inc. http://www.rvu-inc.com/news/pressrelease17-10-07E.pdf On 2006-10-23, RealVision Inc. announced VREngine/XMD-Advanced series video cards http://www.rvu-inc.com/news/pressrelease10-23-06E.pdf, which uses the previously cancelled Volari 8300 (named Volari XG47), for use in medical imaging. Mass production would begin on 2007Q1.
On 2010-05-27, SiS (Silicon Integrated Systems) Takes control of XGI Technology and inherits its iTV technology with a unveiling soon after. So far there is no product page/support page for any XGI products on www.SiS.com.
On 2010-10-01, Its official SiS state full buy out of XGI. XGI Technology is now EOL (end of line).
Its line of graphics cards included:
Cancelled products
Silicon Integrated Systems
Silicon Integrated Systems is a company that manufactures, among other things, motherboard chipsets. The company was founded in 1987 in Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan.-Business:...
spun off as a separate company, and the graphics assets of Trident Microsystems
Trident Microsystems
Trident Microsystems is a supplier of display-processors for flat panel displays . At one time, Trident was also a supplier of PC graphics chipsets and sound controllers.- History :...
.
History
Founded in June 2003 and headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan, In December 2003, XGI announced the Volari DuoVolari Duo
-History:On September 15, 2003 XGI Technology Inc introduced the Volari Duo V8 Ultra and the Volari Duo V5 Ultra. These dual GPU graphics cards while impressive looking failed to compete with the single core GPU cards put out by NVIDIA and ATI and have all but disappeared from the...
, a graphics card with two GPUs. This was seen as part of a potentially successful attempt to become competitive with ATI Technologies
ATI Technologies
ATI Technologies Inc. was a semiconductor technology corporation based in Markham, Ontario, Canada, that specialized in the development of graphics processing units and chipsets. Founded in 1985 as Array Technologies Inc., the company was listed publicly in 1993 and was acquired by Advanced Micro...
and Nvidia Corporation, which are the two largest GPU manufacturers in the world.
A few months after the announced release, XGI graphics cards were found by enthusiasts and hardware reviewers to be less than competitive with ATi and Nvidia cards. Some of the many performance and visualization problems were blamed on underdeveloped drivers
Device driver
In computing, a device driver or software driver is a computer program allowing higher-level computer programs to interact with a hardware device....
. Even so XGI cards received good reviews in the low priced/low performance video card market: XGI Volari V3 cards were judged by some reviewers to be competitive and even superior to equally priced video cards that were on the market, such as a Nvidia GeForce MX 4000 card. Many reviewers though were pessimistic of the possibility that XGI would competitive in the 3D graphic card market.
On March 6, 2006, ATI Technologies announced the acquisition of Shanghai-based MacroSynergy, a fabless chip designer and XGI Technology alliance company, as well as related personnel working out of XGI Technology's Santa Clara, California location.
On 2006-10-17, RealVision Inc. announced forming technology alliance with XGI Technology Inc. http://www.rvu-inc.com/news/pressrelease17-10-07E.pdf On 2006-10-23, RealVision Inc. announced VREngine/XMD-Advanced series video cards http://www.rvu-inc.com/news/pressrelease10-23-06E.pdf, which uses the previously cancelled Volari 8300 (named Volari XG47), for use in medical imaging. Mass production would begin on 2007Q1.
On 2010-05-27, SiS (Silicon Integrated Systems) Takes control of XGI Technology and inherits its iTV technology with a unveiling soon after. So far there is no product page/support page for any XGI products on www.SiS.com.
On 2010-10-01, Its official SiS state full buy out of XGI. XGI Technology is now EOL (end of line).
Chipset table
| Volari 8300 |
Volari Duo V8 Ultra |
Volari V8 Ultra |
Volari V5 Ultra |
|
| Chipset | XG47 | XG40 | XG40 | XG41 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Process (nm) | 130 | 130 | 130 | 130 |
| Transistors (millions) | 90? | 2(90) | 90 | 90? |
| Interface | PCIe | AGP | AGP | AGP |
| Vertex Pipelines | 2 | 2 × 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Vertex Shader Version | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 |
| Fragment Pipelines / TMU per Pipeline | 2 × 2 | 2(8 × 1) | 8 × 1 | 4 × 1 |
| Pixel Shader Units | 4 | 2(4) | 4 | 2 |
| Core Speed (MHz) | 300 | 350 | 350 | 350 |
| Fill Rate (MTexels/s) | 4800 | 11200 | 5600 | 2800 |
| Memory Bus Width (bits) | 64 | 256 | 128 | 128 |
Cards
Developed by SiS team
- Volari DuoVolari Duo-History:On September 15, 2003 XGI Technology Inc introduced the Volari Duo V8 Ultra and the Volari Duo V5 Ultra. These dual GPU graphics cards while impressive looking failed to compete with the single core GPU cards put out by NVIDIA and ATI and have all but disappeared from the...
- Volari V8, V8 Ultra
- Volari V5Volari V5History----On September 15, 2003 XGI Technology Inc introduced the Volari V5. The V5 is a mainstream video card and is available with an AGP X8 interface from Walton Chaintech Corporation of Taiwan...
, V5 Ultra - Volari V3 XT
- Volari V3 XE, V5 XE
- Volari Z7
- Volari Z9, Z9s
- Volari Z11
Cancelled products
- Volari V5 XT
- Volari 8600, 8600 Mobile, 8600XT
Developed by Trident team
- Volari V3Volari V3History----On September 15, 2003 XGI Technology Inc introduced the Volari V3. The V3 is a budget video card and is available with an AGP X8 interface from Walton Chaintech Corporation of Taiwan...
- Volari XP5, XP5m32, XP5m64
- Volari 8300 - Although product page is no longer available, and production of video cards using it are cancelled, the chips were made into production models of RealVision XMD Advanced series video cards.
- Volari 8300 Mobile/Volari XP10 - Originally titled Volari 8300 Mobile, it was renamed to Volari XP10 when it was finally available. XP10 added LVDS transmitter.