Gone for good, or just getting interesting?

The KYRO series of video chipsets follow a different model of development to the big guns of NVIDIA and ATI. Imagination Technologies subsidiary PowerVR can be thought of as the research and development branch, whilst the majority of the chip making

The KYRO series of video chipsets follow a different model of development to the big guns of NVIDIA and ATI. Imagination Technologies subsidiary PowerVR can be thought of as the research and development branch, whilst the majority of the chip making and design is done by STMicroelectronics. Or at least it was until today.

Geneva, February 8, 2002 - STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM) has announced that it is withdrawing from the PC Graphics Accelerator IC market and is currently seeking a buyer for the related assets and activities of its PC Graphics business, which accounted for approximately $15 million of ST's $6.36 billion revenues in 2001.

This press release signifies a rocky road ahead for the KYRO series of chipsets. Somewhat hampered over the past year by a lack of hardware transform and lighting support, the series has sofar been faster iterations of the same chipset.

This is set to change with the rumoured KYRO III, which will hopefully push the innovative tile based renderer back into the spotlight, and while it may not threaten the NVIDIA/ATI high end, the nature of the card's design means that more performance can be squeezed from cheaper cards. Of course the future of this chipset is now hanging in the air.

This will have big implications for companies like Hercules, which uses the KYRO II as it's low end card and now ATI's RADEON 8500 at the high end. With a period of uncertainty ahead, it will be interesting to see how long board manufacturers keep the faith.

This may not be a bad thing though. As long as it does not become a simple case of being swallowed by a bigger graphics fish, it could be the kick-start that the notoriously slow division needs to get competitive quicker.

- John Gillooly