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S3 Graphics Licenses Rambus RaSer Cell Technology for PCI Express Applications

Posted on: Monday, 27 October 2003, 06:00 CST

LOS ALTOS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 27, 2003--Rambus Inc. (Nasdaq:RMBS), the leading provider of chip-to-chip interface products and services, and S3 Graphics Inc., a leading supplier to the 3D graphics accelerator market, today announced that S3 has licensed Rambus's RaSer(TM) cell for PCI Express(TM) connectivity in their line of high-performance graphics processors for desktop and mobile personal computers. S3 Graphics' PCI Express-enabled product family, planned for production in the second quarter of 2004, will provide value-added products for the high-end, mainstream and value segments of the 3D accelerated graphics processor unit (GPU) market. These new products will add exciting new capabilities utilizing the expanded bandwidth capabilities of the emerging PCI Express standard.

"The new PCI Express-based graphics products will use improved design and test techniques to increase product yield and reduce production costs," said Michael Shiuan, vice president of engineering at S3 Graphics, Inc. "The proven Rambus PHY cell for PCI Express applications will allow us to hit the market window we need. The small size and low power of the Rambus cell fit our design goals which will help our product to outpace our competition's price/performance ratio."

"The momentum for the PCI Express architecture continues to grow, and Rambus's PHY cells are available now to meet the needs of graphics applications that require a high-performance, narrow 16-lane PCI Express interface that fits within the area of an AGP8X interface," said Kevin Donnelly, vice president of the Logic Interface Division at Rambus. "Through this partnership, S3's PCI Express-based products and its PC OEM customers will benefit from our comprehensive design support and extensive experience of enabling high speed interfaces for high-volume applications."

The Rambus PCI Express PHY design has been proven in PCI Express-based systems, which were recently demonstrated at the Intel Developer Forum in September 2003. Additionally, Rambus provides engineering services to its customers for chip integration, package, board and system characterization, as well as test, in order to ensure success in the development and bring up of PCI Express-based chips and boards.

About S3 Graphics, Inc.

S3 Graphics, Inc., a VIA Technologies joint venture company, is a leading supplier to the 3D enabled PC graphics market it pioneered. Today, S3 Graphics ships low power, high performance, Commercial Grade 3D graphics sub-systems to top tier notebook manufacturers. In addition, S3 Graphics integrates market-leading chipset technology from VIA Technologies, Inc. into shared memory architecture products for the high volume, value PC market. Headquartered in Fremont, California, S3 Graphics has a long-term commitment to top performance, quality and state-of-the-art features for desktop and mobile applications. Additional information can be found at the company's website at www.s3graphics.com.

About Rambus Inc.

Rambus is one of the world's leading providers of chip-to-chip interface products and services. The company's breakthrough technology and engineering expertise have helped leading chip and system companies to solve their challenging I/O problems and bring industry-leading products to market. Rambus' interface solutions can be found in numerous computing, consumer electronic and networking products. Additional information is available at www.rambus.com.

Rambus is a registered trademark and RaSer is a trademark of Rambus Inc. PCI Express is a trademark of PCI-SIG. Other trademarks that may be mentioned in this release are the intellectual property of their respective owners.

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