14 DAY TRIAL // Ever heard of ZOTAC? In case you're thinking of an alien king which eats brains or something, you couldn't be more wrong. Actually ZOTAC Technology is a new IT brand (part of PC Partner Group) and their primary purpose is the integration of Nvidia GPUs into high performance PCBs. In a simpler manner, ZOTAC is a new Nvidia integrator set to take over the world (so it kind of resembles the alien king...).
And if you're new in the business, your best chance of promoting your image is to display a product with unique features. That can always be done through a press release but since Computex is on, why not make it a live release with the actual products being available in a mater of weeks? ZOTAC's new line of GeForce 8-series products features HDMI output and S/PDIF input. Due to the fact that only G84 and G86 have full HD-decoding support, the HDMI and SPDIF headers have only been integrated in the 8600, 8500 and 8400-series based graphics cards.
ZOTAC provides HDMI output but not directly from the PCB. Instead a DVI to HDMI adapter is provided. Evidently the DVI (and HDMI output) is HDCP compatible. The presence of the SPDIF interface is even more mind-troubling since the G8x series does not have integrated audio capabilities (the HD 2xxx Ati does!). As a result, if you also want audio to be sent through your HDMI connector you will need to connect the additional audio cable to the SPDIF out of your sound card. That will require an internal connection, so be careful not to plug in an analogical passthrough signal instead.
All in all, ZOTAC had a pretty good idea but I guess that their own DVI+SPDIF--> HDMI adapters can be used with other 8500/8600 cards too. So I guess that it's just a matter of time before a peripheral integrator will release this cable as a standalone product compatible with all G84/G84 cards. As for ZOTAC, you can find their products on sale worldwide from the end of June. The HDMI lineup contains both 8600GT and GTS models (which include the cable by default) but also slower 8500GT units (which can use this cable but it has to be purchased separately).
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