OK folks, Tom's big and bouncy article/review of all the latest 2D/3D cards went up yesterday and you all read it I assume? If not then leave now and come back again when you've done so. Here again? Good.

So it looks as though Tom digs 3Dfx's Voodoo Banshee and Matrox's G200. As for S3's texture compressing Savage 3D? Well they couldn't quite 'salvage' his original thoughts on the Savage S3 (careful where you put those 'L's now OK?) nor quite allow for a cross hair in Quake 2. S3 are still shooting in the dark you could say with regard to Quake2. Just try playing without a cross hair, it's about as easy as urinating against the wind (that said things should improve with the Savage 3D as it does have promise and may yet pull through- see I love it really).

But after the dust has settled is there anything left to say? No not really, except did you folks notice an obvious absentee from the chipset line-up. Did you notice a chipset that went AWOL?

The answer is NEC/VideoLogic's PowerVR Second-Generation technology (PVRSG). The question is, where in the life of old Auntie Ethel is it? Take a trip with me down memory lane to CeBit and back again to the present, as I'll bring you up to date on the current rumblings on PVRSG. Instead of urinating against the wind myself, I went up to NECs plush (they've all got $5000 chairs!) Santa Clara offices recently to talk shop and get the low-down. The official line is that PVRSG is alive and kicking.

My reason for this trek is plain and simple. I figured I should at least follow up on PVRSG after having raved about the technology on various radio shows/ web sites with Tom after CeBIT '98. What we saw was NOT a product but merely impressive and promising technology at the time. The trouble is (here we go) that much of the press assumed what they saw was a product, which it clearly wasn't. Even so Tom and I were not the only ones impressed by NEC/VideoLogic's showpiece. In development for some two years, PVRSG brought out strong and positive statements from both Creative Labs and Diamond who were also keeping close tabs on it. In fact, back then the 'big-boys' were openly telling us that they were ready to buy up as many PVRSG chipsets as their various teams could carry back from CeBIT. They were basically contemplating 'bump mapping' Voodoo Banshee.

It must have and did indeed worry 3Dfx (ok just a little bit) that their major OEM partners were openly opting to use NEC/VideoLogic's technology at that stage. Again that was then and this is now. Having recently spoken to various representatives at Creative Labs (no I won't name them), it became quite evident that they were still keen on the PVRSG technology but just couldn't strike up a deal due to the fact that another player had entered the fray. Someone bigger than Diamond and Creative Labs in terms of both marketing and financial clout.