ApeXtreme turns out to be CES winner - Ars Technica Skip to content Ars Technica home Sections Forum Subscribe Search * AI * Biz & IT * Cars * Culture * Gaming * Health * Policy * Science * Security * Space * Tech * Feature * Reviews * AI * Biz & IT * Cars * Culture * Gaming * Health * Policy * Science * Security * Space * Tech Forum Subscribe Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only Learn more Pin to story Theme * HyperLight * Day & Night * Dark * System Search Sign In Uncategorized ApeXtreme turns out to be CES winner The ApeXtreme PGC has been chosen as the CES 2004 Innovation Award winner–an ... Ken Fisher – Jan 9, 2004 5:31 pm | 0 Text settings Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only Learn more Minimize to nav We’ve got a couple of CES items for you that we’ll be posting over the weekend. First up, a follow-up to our earlier story about the VIA-powered ApeXtreme Personal Gaming Console and DVD Player. The ApeXtreme PGC has been chosen as the CES 2004 Innovation Award winner –an award of dubious merit, but always one that says a little something about where we’re headed technologically. As with so many innovations, what makes the ApeXtreme interesting is its fusion of already available technologies into one product, aka, convergence (the holy word!). Based on the VIA Glory Personal Gaming Console platform, this console will use mostly common tech in order to deliver a “living room priced” level of entertainment. The S3 Graphics DeltaChrome’s powerful DirectX 9.0, Hi Precision programmable architecture featuring 8 Pixel Shader pipelines and 4 Vertex Shaders has positioned the ApeXtreme as the most powerful games console in existence, providing graphics features and performance far exceeding any current game console by an extreme margin. DeltaChrome’s Hi-Def native HDTV output enables users to experience richly textured and precision rendered PC game titles at 720p, 1080i or 1080p using YCbCr component video outputs, while the Chromotion programmable video engine brings features like per pixel adaptive de-interlacing to the big screen for a multitude of video media formats. While PC gamers will quibble over 4 FPS at 1600×1200, VIA has instead looked at the console market for direction. What matters most there is low-cost, portability, and excellent performance at standard TV resolutions. Then they turned to Microsoft’s Windows XP Embedded OS to give console owners access to the most popular APIs out there. VIA claims this gives the ApeXtreme 2,500 gaming titles already . DVD, VCD, and audio CD support is also included, but it still remains to be seen if this unit can also run any kind of TiVo-like PVR software. It remains to be seen how “open” the system is, but it sounds like it’s as open as any device running Windows XP Embedded would be. I think this is a pretty cool device, but I expect it to fail. There are a few reasons, and I’ll throw one out. Gaming on the PC is different from console gaming, but this device seeks to make PC gaming into a form of console gaming. One of the major differences between the two environments is that game developers who focus on the PC start with the PC, and then adapt those creations for consoles (of course, this happens in reverse for companies who instead focus on console games). The problem is that most PC gamers aren’t gaming on the same hardware that they bought three years ago . We incrementally upgrade–a sound card there, a video card here, a $100 CPU upgrade. We know that every year the hardware bar is going to be raised because it can be , and heck, we like it: I like the fact that my base system can be made to play Half-Life 2 (if it ever comes out) the way I want it to, provided I’m willing to make a few upgrades. Consoles are just the opposite: they’re stable, persistent environments. How attractive will the ApeXtreme be in two years when the “PC games” that it can run don’t look all that great on a system with a 1.4GHz CPU and DeltaChrome at 1080i/p because they were designed not for the ApeXtreme but for an ever-moving “generic hardware base” that the best games utterly ignore anyway? Ken Fisher Editor in Chief Ken Fisher Editor in Chief Ken is the founder & Editor-in-Chief of Ars Technica. A veteran of the IT industry and a scholar of antiquity, Ken studies the emergence of intellectual property regimes and their effects on culture and innovation. 0 Comments Comments are closed. Prev story Next story Most Read * 1. 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