Cyrix Jumps Into Home Electronics

The 3D graphics accelerator market is about to jump into a new battle as NEC announced that Cyrix would be incorporating NEC's PowerVR 3D acceleration technology into the motherboard of the new Media Center demonstration product that it will be debuting at COMDEX next week.

For gamers, the stockpile of supported games includes WipeOut, Tomb Raider, MDK, GLQuake, Hexen II, and many others.

Media Center is a new platform reference design (basically a blueprint for manufacturers to follow) that pushes Cyrix into a category in home electronics. Why? Cyrix talks about having a PC-like device that controls entertainment, productivity, and information all from the same place. In the special Windows software, MediaSmart, there are applications that will control a DVD/CD-ROM, VCR, TV, the Internet, and communications devices such as telephones.

"Our goal for PowerVR has been to establish it as the leading 3D graphics technology for PCs, game consoles, and arcade systems. The Media Center represents a breakthrough hybrid for two of these platforms, PCs and game consoles," said Trevor Wing, executive vice president of marketing at VideoLogic. "We're excited to be part of this innovative product."

Will this be the first step in the merging of consoles and PCs? With the latest PC accelerator cards, consoles have started to look almost second class to some of the top PC titles so it could happen. One thing is for certain, NEC is set to power the upcoming next-generation Sega system (tentatively called the Dural). Rumors have been wildly flying around that NEC may take over Sega's hardware production while Sega sticks to arcades and building software.