The Diamond brand of graphics accelerators is being revived by Best Data Products. Best, a data communications company, said today that it had completed the acquisition of the Diamond Multimedia name and other assets from Sonicblue, Inc.

　　Sonicblue, which filed for bankruptcy in March of 2003, was formerly known as S3 Incorporated, and was the most-recent owner of the Diamond Multimedia brand and assets. The Diamond brand has been effectively non-existent since 2000 when S3 publicly stated its intention to sell off the Diamond division.

　　Best says its new lines of Diamond-branded accelerator cards will hit retailers in November. The Best strategy is to use the Diamond name to market graphics cards using chips from outside manufacturers ATI and Nvidia.

　　The company will market the Viper line to hardcore gamers, while the Stealth line will be marketed to a more value-conscious consumer. Diamond will be run as an independent division of Best Data, the company said.

　　Bruce Zaman, president and CEO of Best Data, summed up his company's strategy in a statement, stating, "We intend to leverage [Diamond's] brand equity and combine it with our channel expertise as a route to increase Best Data’s current communications and graphics market share and expand into emerging markets.”

　　Best is a 20-year-old privately held company whose catalog of products includes analog modems, broadband products, and wireless home networking products.