Intel specs up next-gen chipset GPU

Viiv friendly

By Tony Smith • Get more from this author

Posted in PC Builder, 27th February 2006 11:19 GMT

The successor to Intel's Graphics Media Acceletor 950 core will bring DirectX 9 Pixel Shader 3.0 and HDMI support, superior de-interlacing, and improved colour callibration to the integrated graphics engine family, which will be touted as supporting what Intel now calls its Clear Video Technology (CVT).

So suggest presentation slides purportedly from Intel and posted on Chinese-language website HKEPC last week. The slides claim CVT will incorporate "advanced" de-interlacing, MPEG 2 hardware acceleration, HDMI support, backing for Microsoft's WMV9b HD codec, full floating-point precision operations, and the ProcAMP brightness, contrast, saturation and hue calibration API, itself supported by DirectX's DirectShow component.

Intel's GMA 950 engine supports DirectX 9's Pixel Shader 2.0 and Vertex Shader 3.0 schemes - the new core will bring on board Pixel Shader 3.0 support. According to the slides, Shader Model 3.0 support is key to CVT. Quite a few of the functions listed as CVT features are already offered by the 950.

CVT is expected to be part of the latest GMA engine, itself a key component of the upcoming 'Broadwater' chipset family, including the G965. The chipsets are expected to launch next quarter ready for the introduction of 'Conroe', Intel's next-generation desktop processor. Conroe and the G965 will be important elements of the next incarnation of Intel's Viiv platform. ®

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