Stopping by and talking to both Hitachi and Videologic about the PowerVR Series 2 revealed some interesting things about this upcoming video card.

First off, the Sega Dreamcast kicks some serious ass. It really is the first product to bridge the gap between PCs and consoles, and it does it with traditional Sega style. We saw several Dreamcast units running the upcoming Sonic Adventure that's being developed for it, and were amazed at how the console world will be rocked by this explosive part. We're talking a built in modem, VGA-Out, Hitachi SH-4 200MHz CPU, and other PC-esque stats that will help the Dreamcast become the next "in" console to own. Did we mention as well that the Dreamcast runs Windows CE, has a bus I/O port to add a possible hard drive on its right side, and with the addition of a mouse and keyboard could jump right up to the level of those WinCE HPC/Pro devices you've been reading about? Tasty indeed.

Behind the beautiful graphics coming from the Dreamcast is a modified version of the PowerVR Series 2 chipset. This chipset was originally shown in its PC clothing at E3 for the first time in a 66MHz .35 micron version. Back then it looked fairly sharp, with good overall speed and visual quality.

At Comdex however, the PowerVR Series 2 part was shrunk to its true .25 mu goodness, and jacked up to an estimated 100 to 125MHz core/memory speed. Needless to say the various Quake2 and other demos that were running in the PowerVR booth were very smooth and fluid. Visual quality was sharp, but nothing that users haven't seen from either a TNT or Voodoo2/Banshee by now. We weren't allowed to run any Timedemos on the card, but it looked at least as fast as a single Voodoo2 or TNT card is when running at 800 x 600 (60+ fps).

This news bodes well for those who have been waiting for the PowerVR Series 2 cards to finally ship, and it looks like that could occur in early December. I wish I had all the stats and goodies for you on the card, but the reality is that they've been very tightlipped about the whole thing and haven't put the card's features into a media-approved press kit yet.

Our man Alex (Sharky) and his Queen (Joan) -Hey not that kind of Queen- will be looking very closely at the PowerVR Series 2 in the Sharky Extreme Test Lab soon in order to give SE readers the full exclusive on it right before it ships.

Overall the part seems hot, and with its tile-based rendering system it could actually be faster in certain circumstances than even a mighty Voodoo3… That should get your juices flowing… We'll know more in two weeks.