Trident Microsystems

As the PC graphics market shifted from simple framebuffer displays (basic VGA color monitor and later multi-resolution SVGA output) to more advanced 2D hardware acceleration such a BitBLT engine and color-space conversion (not to be confused with 3D hardware-acceleration), Trident continued its strategy of selling modestly performing chips at compelling price points.

Meanwhile, in the laptop market, Trident was an early pioneer of embedded DRAM, a semiconductor manufacturing technique which combines a graphics-controller and framebuffer memory on a single chip.

The resulting combo-chip saved precious board-space by eliminating several RAM chips normally required for framebuffer storage as well as providing other advantages, offset by a higher manufacturing cost-per-bit.

Although Trident enjoyed some success with its 3DImage and Blade3D product-lines, the entry of Intel into PC graphics signaled the end of the bottom-end, graphics-chip market.

Faced with a contracting market and rising research and development costs (due to the increasing sophistication of 3D-graphics rendering), Trident announced a substantial restructuring of the company in June 2003.

[9] The primary competitors taking away market share from Trident at the time were MediaTek, MStar Semiconductor, Zoran Corporation and in-house chip design at Samsung and other LCD TV manufacturers, while ST Microelectronics (who had acquired Genesis) remained a significant player.

[10] Under new management, in May 2009 Trident completed the acquisition of selected assets of the frame rate converter (FRC), demodulator and audio product lines from TDK-Micronas.

[13] The Micronas and NXP acquisitions involved a substantial and diverse product portfolio and a large number of employees in widely dispersed operations in the U.S., Europe, Asia, and other locations.

[15] On January 4, 2012, Trident filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection appointing Entropic Communications as the stalking horse bidder.

[7] The stock split two-for-one on 21 November 2005[20] and reached a high of $31.07 on 19 April 2006,[20] representing a market capitalization of approximately $1.9 billion.

As part of the settlement, the former CEO agreed to be barred for five years from serving as an officer or director of any company registered with the SEC and to pay a $350,000 penalty and a disgorgement (representing the benefit gained from the back-dating of stock options) of $817,500 payable to Trident.

Die shot of a TVGA8900 chipset
A ISA port, Trident SVGA card with TVGA9000B chip
Video card with Trident TGUI9440AGi
Video card with Trident TGUI9680 (Daytona 64T), manufactured by Palit Microsystems
Trident TGUI9680
AGP video card with Trident 3DImage9750 chipset
Cyber 9525DVD from laptop - Lifetec LT9303