Trident, Acer aim integrated graphics/chip set device at notebooks

Trident, Acer aim integrated graphics/chip set device at notebooks
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Trident Microsystems Inc. and Acer Laboratories Inc. have teamed up to deliver the CyberBlade Aladdin i1, which they call the first integrated graphics and chip set component aimed at Slot 1- and Socket 370-based notebook computers.

The part will be fabbed at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd., and Acer (Taipei, Taiwan) will be responsible for the foundry arrangements. Trident and Acer will market and service the part jointly and will share the revenue.

"This part will work in a desktop system, if you use a different south bridge chip," said Gerry Liu, senior vice president of marketing for Trident (Mountain View, Calif.). "But we want to focus on the notebook space because there is no competition there right now."

Liu said that several companies supply integrated chip set and graphics components in the desktop area for both the Advanced Micro Devices Inc.-based Socket-7 infrastructure and the Intel Corp.-compatible Slot 1- and Socket-370 architectures. The low-cost notebook market has yet to fully migrate to integrated devices.

Trident and Acer have been developing the chip for about nine months but they began collaborating more than 18 months ago. Nancy Hartsoch, COO and vice president of marketing and sales for Acer, said they began to develop an integrated part for the AMD-compatible market, but never released that product. Trident instead pursued that market through an alliance with Acer rival Via Technologies Inc.

Trident's alliance with Via soured last year. It is pursuing a lawsuit alleging that Via has violated the terms of a marketing agreement that gave Trident sole right to market their jointly-developed part in notebooks, while Via was given sole permission to pursue the desktop segment.

Alan Yuen, senior director of mobile marketing for Trident, said that the current generation of graphics parts used in desktops cannot be used in notebooks. Not only do they lack the power-management technology that is crucial to the battery-powered notebooks, but they are designed to plot images on a monitor instead of a flat-panel display. As a result, Trident and Acer expect to keep their lead in the Intel-compatible graphics market for several months.

Intel Corp. may jump into that market this year, but Liu said that Via is unlikely to do so. Via is also locked in a legal dispute with Intel over licensing.

"We have a license from Intel so this part is blessed by Intel," said Hartsoch. "We have a policy that we never go to market with a part unless we have all the licensing agreements in place that we need."

The part is sampling and should ramp to production in May, with a volume price of $40 apiece.