XGI Volari

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Volari is the name of a graphics chip family from the Taiwanese manufacturer XGI Technology . At the end of 2003 a graphics chip with the name Volari came onto the market for the first time.

Technical

Since XGI Technology mainly emerged from the graphics divisions of Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS) and Trident Microsystems , the members of the Volari family were developed by two completely different development teams with different approaches. The former SiS design ( Xabre II ) was first used for the desktop chips and then modified for the high-end versions of the embedded chips, while the Trident designs are predestined for the low-cost market and for the mobile - and embedded areas.

Desktops

Volari V8 (duo)

The Volari V8 was XGI's first graphics chip, launched in late 2003. It was a SiS design (Xabre II) and was intended for the high-end market. The chip had a 4x2 design, i.e. four pipelines with two TMUs each, and was clocked at 300 MHz. However, it is still uncertain whether a TMU could provide one bilinear sample per cycle or only less. Thanks to the flexible interconnection of the ROPs (rasterizer operators), even 8 color values ​​per cycle were possible with single texturing. In practice, however, this feature is not important. Since XGI launched the Volari V8 Duo , two Volari V8s connected to one graphics card using the multi-GPU technology BitFluent Protocol , one could have expected this combination to be an absolute high-end solution at the time. However, the Volari V8 Duo disappointed completely and was anything but a high-end solution. Since a single Volari V8 achieved almost the same performance in many applications (which was also far below an ATI Radeon 9700 Pro), it can be assumed that the BitFluent Protocol had some inadequacies, which was mainly due to the AFR mode used and its problems with render-to-texture . In any case, the Volari V8 Duo was a big flop and the single version Volari V8 did not generate any major sales either.

Volari V5 (Duo)

The Volari V5 is a direct descendant of the Volari V8 and was intended for the mid-range segment. This is why the chip only had 4 instead of 8 pipelines (4x1 design). Otherwise both chips were identical. But since the Volari V8 was already disappointing, hardly any Volari V5 were produced. Contrary to the original plan, the Volari V5 Duo variant with two coupled graphics chips was not brought onto the market at all.

Volari V3

The Volari V3 was a very interesting chip because it was based on the chip originally planned as Trident XP4 and is therefore a pure Trident design. With the chip, special emphasis was placed on the fewest possible transistors (and thus low production costs) and low power consumption (and thus low heat generation). This was mainly achieved by using many parts of these pipelines and the TMUs at the same time as possible in the case of the chip, which nominally had 4 pipelines, and thus only existed once instead of four times, for example. So you can't say that the chip is a 4x1 design, although Trident and later XGI have stated and advertised this. Since it is basically a design that is several years old, the chip only supports DirectX 8.1 and thus only offers Pixelshader 1.4 and Vertexshader 1.1. Of course, these savings in transistors meant that performance fell short of public expectations. Nevertheless, the goal of creating a cheap and energy-saving graphics chip was achieved and the Volari V3 was able to convince, especially as a notebook graphics chip.

Volari V3XT

Volari V3XT graphics card

Contrary to what the name suggests, the Volari V3XT is not based on the Volari V3, but is simply a renamed Volari V5 and was launched on the market some time after this for marketing reasons. Unlike the Volari V5 before, the Volari V3XT was often sold because of its low price and can still be bought on low-cost graphics cards.

Volari 8300

In November 2005, a new generation of entry-level graphics chips called the Volari 8300 was presented, which was developed by the former Trident team and is based on the Volari V3. Therefore it still has the economical pseudo-4x1 design of the Volari V3, but the chip has been significantly improved and now also has pixel and vertex shaders 2.0. Because of the decline of XGI, hardly any graphics cards with this chip were sold. However, the design was reused for the Volari XP10.

Volari 8600

Originally planned and expected for the end of 2005 / beginning of 2006, the further development of the Volari V8 in the form of the Volari 8600 (XT) was no longer available on the market due to the decline of XGI. The chip should, however, be equipped with pixel and vertex shader 3.0 and thus full support of DirectX 9.0c and was planned for the mid-range segment. For the first time, 8 pixel pipelines and a 192-bit DDR memory interface were to be used. It can be assumed that the design will later be used for the embedded area.

Notebooks

Volari XP5

As the name suggests, the Volari XP5 is the former Trident XP4 and therefore identical to the Volari V3. Since the chip was originally developed with a particular focus on the mobile segment and the low power dissipation required for it, it could be used in this segment.

Volari XP5m32

The Volari XP5m32 is a Volari XP5 with only 32-bit connected memory and therefore only suitable for absolute low-cost notebooks.

server

Volari Z7

The Volari Z7 is a pure 2D graphics chip that lacks any 3D functions. This graphic chip is therefore very inexpensive to manufacture on the one hand and on the other hand it is predestined for servers and other systems where 3D functionality is unimportant and corresponding drivers could lead to instabilities. Due to this consistent orientation, the Volari Z7 is very successful and is used by many server manufacturers.

Embedded

Volari Z9

The Volari Z9 is based on the Volari Z7 and, like this one, is a pure 2D graphics chip for the PCI bus. However, the chip has been optimized again for power dissipation and only requires 1.0 - 1.5 W during operation. It is therefore particularly suitable for set-top boxes and the like, where 3D functionality is not important.

Volari V3XE

Based on the Volari V3, the Volari V3XE is suitable for PCI and AGP and offers above all multimedia capabilities such as hardware-accelerated MPEG2 playback and HDTV support.

Volari V5XE

The Volari V5XE is based on the Volari V8 and, like this, offers an 8x1 design and pixel and vertex shaders 2.0. The chip is suitable for PCI and AGP and, according to XGI, should also be used in arcade systems .

Volari XP10

The Volari XP10 is a descendant of the Volari 8300 and offers its features. The chip is therefore suitable for PCI Express.

Volari Z11

The Volari Z11 is a descendant of the Volari Z9 and only differs from it in the slightly higher power loss of approx. 2W, but has a PCIe 1.1 connection.

Model data

Overview of XGI graphics chips
Code name Derivative of * Use in DirectX version Shader model interface Manufacturing process Others
XG40 SiS Xabre Volari V8, Volari V8 Duo, Volari V5, Volari V3XT, Volari V5XE 9 Pixel and Vertex Shader 2.0 AGP 8x 130 nm 8 or 4 pipelines
XG42 Trident XP4 Volari V3, Volari XP5, Volari V3XE 8.1 Pixel-Shader 1.4 and Vertex-Shader 1.1 AGP 8x 130 nm "4 pipelines"
XG45 XG40 Volari 8600, Volari 8600XT 9 Pixel and Vertex Shader 3.0 PCI Express 130 nm Originally planned for early 2006, no longer came on the market
XG47 XG42 Volari 8300, Volari XP10 9 Pixel and Vertex Shader 2.0 PCI Express 130 nm "4 pipelines", chip and memory clock: up to 300 MHz, maximum memory 128 Mbytes

See also

Web links