S3 Graphics

S3 Graphics, Ltd (commonly referred to as S3) is an American computer graphics company. The company is perhaps best known for its notoriously slow ViRGE and its much improved Savage 3D and Chrome series. Struggling against competition from 3dfx Interactive, ATI and Nvidia during the height of the 3D accelerator wars, the graphics portion of the company was spun off into a new joint effort with VIA Technologies. The new company focused on the mobile graphics market, and became a major player in this space. The company was purchased by HTC in 2011. Although primarily a mobile technology company, they still produce graphics accelerators for home computers under the "S3 Chrome" brand name.

History

S3 was founded and incorporated in January 1989 by Dado Banatao and Ronald Yara. On March 5, 1993, S3 began an Initial Public Offering of 2,000,000 shares of common stock on Nasdaq. After several profitable years as an independent startup company, struggling with the transition to integrated 3D cards, S3 remodeled itself as a consumer electronics company and sold off its core graphics division to a joint venture with VIA Technologies for $323 million. The joint venture, S3 Graphics, continues to develop and market chipsets based on the S3 graphics technology.

Sonicblue Airways

Sonicblue Airways was an airline based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with their headquarters in Richmond. SonicBlue offered both scheduled and charter services and would fly anywhere in North America. For maintenance failings (and following an accident) Transport Canada suspended Sonicblue's operating license and grounded the company's fleet in January 2006.

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History

It was operated by International Express Air Charter Ltd. and was formerly known as Regency Express.

On 23 January 2006 Transport Canada announced the suspension of International Express Aircharter Ltd.’s air operator certificate, effective immediately. The suspension was based on a "review of the company's record and concerns with the company’s ability to exercise operational control, including proper record keeping and aircraft maintenance".

On 22 March 2006 Transport Canada announced that International Express Aircharter Ltd. was fined $125,000 for failing to maintain their aircraft properly, and their air operator certificate was cancelled. The company was charged with failing to maintain five aircraft in violation of Canadian Aviation Regulations by not performing required aircraft maintenance inspections on schedule. In one case, a maintenance inspection was overdue by more than 270 hours.