iXBT Labs brengt ons de specificaties van de Trident Blade XP videochip, die twee dagen geleden werd aangekondigd. Hoewel Trident geen al te beste reputatie heeft, ziet de Blade XP er toch veelbelovend uit: 256-bit processor (4 pixels per clock?) op 200MHz met dual memory bus. Massa produktie zal in het derde kwartaal van start gaan, maar samples zijn inmiddels al beschikbaar:
Trident announced the new Blade XP family of 256-bit graphics processors for. The new desktop products family includes 200MHz Blade XP and the 150MHz Blade XP version. Blade XP family has seven major technical advances : DirectX 7.0 Cubic Mapping, 256-bit pixel processing, dual memory bus architecture, AGP-4X bus interface, video de-interlacing, high-resolution flat panel and only 2.8watt power consumption at a 200MHz clock rate. Besides supporting the CRT with a 350MHz RAMDAC, Blade XP also supports a simultaneous flat panel which interfaces to a 12-bit, 170MHz data bus with a standard external TMDS driver enabling up to the UXGA resolution (1600x1280).The chips are produced with .18 process which provides ultra low power consumption of 2.1 watts at 150 MHz (or 2.8 watts at 200 MHz) . The samples are available now with mass production in Q3'2000. In 10,000 unit quantities, the 150 MHz Blade XP and 200 MHz Blade XP are priced at $27 and $32 each, respectively