BitBoys

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bitboys Oy is a hardware development and licensing company based in Finland, founded in 1991 and acquired by ATI Technologies for up to US$44M on May 2, 2006.[1] Until the acquisition, Bitboys had focused on mobile phone gaming, and had developed a large vector graphics-related portfolio.[2]

Bitboys became infamous after the 1999 announcement of their Glaze3D series of graphics cards,[3] which later turned out to be vaporware.[4] In reality, the Glaze3D graphics chip went into production, and two rounds of test chips (known as the Axe and the Hammer) were produced by Infineon Technologies, the silicon fabrication partner of Bitboys Oy.[5] When Infineon Technologies shut down its embedded DRAM production line, Bitboys quickly transformed from PC desktop graphics chip business to mobile graphics IP business.[6] They could not find another manufacturer capable of producing the part because of the high amount of embedded DRAM used.

[edit] References

  1. ^ "ATI acquires Bitboys", The Inquirer, 2006-05-02. Retrieved on 2008-03-29. 
  2. ^ "Bitboys offers tiny mobile graphics chips", The register, 2003-07-28. Retrieved on 2008-03-29. 
  3. ^ "BitBoys Is First With Embedded DRAM for Graphics", Computer Business Review, 1999-09-02. Retrieved on 2008-03-29. 
  4. ^ "Bitboys' 3D superchip schedule slips again?", The Register, 2000-08-14. Retrieved on 2008-03-29. 
  5. ^ "Troubled BitBoys Announces Mobile Graphics Core", eWeek, 2003-07-28. Retrieved on 2008-03-29. 
  6. ^ "Bitboys offers next-gen mobile 3D chips", The Register, 2004-08-10. Retrieved on 2008-03-29. 

[edit] External links

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