New PowerVR chips coming out - for Sega

[Vash]

According to Golem.de , a german news site, new PowerVR chips that everyone thought were shelved are indeed approaching the market and can be used "in Arcades, PCs and game consoles". It seems like Sega already licensed the products for use in future arcade cabinets and is thinking about using in in different markets - you know what this could mean. It is not confirmed however if they licensed it before the Sammy merger or if this statement is true or just a shoddy translation 😀

News source:

http://www.golem.de/0405/31473.html

 

[Alexvrb]

Who's everyone? There was already a news post on Sega using Series 5 in an arcade setup, and it it likely that cards for PCs will eventually follow. It happened before Sammy took them over altogether, so it looks like new arcade machines will be using this core. I don't know about consoles... but there are PowerVR MBX solutions coming out in the portable market.

 

[axelblazeadam]

More details here:

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=55637

 

[Vash]

A lot of people over here in Germany thought that the PowerVR designs where dead for good and that the rest of the company would probably never ever produce anything more meaningful than the Bitboys currently do.

But this announcement may change things a little, I just hope that if they release another PC graphics card it will not be overhyped like the Volari series which - as sad as it is - only qualifies as total crap or a nice heating for cold winter days (V8 Duo).

I still wonder if they are serious about using the technology in "different environments"... or whatever, mabye Sega is co-producing a gaming-enabled cellphone with some other company to show Nokia how it´s done properly?

 

[Alexvrb]

Vash, if you've followed the PVR MBX stuff, you'd know that a lot of big names already licensed it. Among them Intel and Hitachi to go side by side with their new mobile chips (Intel has new StrongARM-based stuff, and Hitachi has their SH-mobile). So I knew they were far from dead, because unlike Bitboys, they have people licensing and using their technology. Heck, Intel has already demoed an MBX-based chip called the 2700G. There are better MBX chips on the way too.

 

[Vash]

woopsie, couldn´t find anything about that on the news sites and in the magazines I regularly read - should switch to some more techie pages I think.

Still, I´m eager to see if/what will emerge on the desktop market or the console market respectively. 😎

 

[Alexvrb]

Yeah, most mainstream sources aren't going to cover it. The company isn't very well-known by the public, but obviously that doesn't stop other companies from realizing they have some very good technology. As I said before, I wouldn't jump the gun about consoles, but we'll probably see PC and arcade uses for Series 5, and lots of uses in the mobile market for MBX and its variants.

You know what is funny? I was at Game Exchange the other day, and the guy working there told me that Sega's next system would be backwards compatible with the DC. I was like "What next system?" and he said he could take preorders for it in 2 months. I think he was smoking more crack than usual, because he was totally unaware of the recent Sammy-buys-Sega events.