Description:

Based on a Shared Memory Architecture (SMA), S3's Plato/PXTM Integrated Platform AcceleratorTM integrates a PC's system controller and multimedia accelerator onto a single chip -- offering high performance while reducing the system's overall chip count and motherboard real estate. The Plato/PX accelerator not only eliminates the need for a separate graphics sub-system, but also improves entry-level graphics and video capabilities while delivering competitive system performance. The Plato/PX accelerator, with a volume price of $30, replaces a PC's graphics subsystem and system controller, which costs about $65 today, representing over a 50% savings. This cost savings will be a significant contribution toward enabling the PC manufacturer or system integrator to build a PC system in the $500-$1500 range while still providing optimum functionality.

SMA enhances graphics performance by avoiding the PCI bus and directly connecting to the faster processor bus. Moving the connection point from the 32-bit 33 MHz PCI bus to the 64-bit 66 MHz processor bus quadruples the bandwidth for the CPU-graphics interface. Furthermore, by connecting directly to the processor bus, the graphics commands and data are removed from the PCI bus ?improving overall system performance.

S3's Plato/PX Integrated Platform Accelerator offers the flexibility of dynamically configuring the frame buffer size from 0.5 MB to 4MB out of the system memory depending on the choice of display resolution and color depth. This flexibility contributes to optimal system performance as only the necessary amount of memory is allocated, freeing up the rest of the main memory to handle other system functions.

The Plato/PX accelerator also delivers a new level of multimedia capabilities for the entry-level PC, combining high-performance graphics and high-quality video features with the ability to directly interface to live video and MPEG peripherals.