Kyro II nears end of the road

STMicroelectronics will withdraw from the PC graphics chip market, and is currently looking for a buyer for that part of its business, which produced and sold the Kyro and Kyro II graphics chips. Kyro II graphics cards were announced by ST and Hercules last spring and quickly gained some attention for providing a surprisingly high level of game performance at a low price point. The Kyro chips are based on an PowerVR's efficient tile-based architecture, which was also at the heart of the Dreamcast's graphics.

In North America, Hercules has been the primary producer of Kyro and Kyro II cards, which were marketed under the names 3D Prophet 4000 and 3D Prophet 4500. The company issued a statement assuring continuing supplies of the cards: "Hercules 4000 and 4500 series cards will continue to be available to you and your customers as we have secured ample inventory to fulfill everyone's needs. For the future, we will work with selected vendors in developing and marketing advanced, quality Hercules branded products."

Hercules went on to mention that there's an additional Kyro II product on the way, the 3D Prophet 4800, which would likely use stored- up supplies of the ST chip. We'll have information on this new card as it becomes available.