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Someday it may be "3dfx AND nVidia"Nov 21 '00 (Updated Dec 19 '00) Write an essay on this topic.NVIDIA TO ACQUIRE 3DFX INTERACTIVE Nvidia Purchases Controlling Interest in Former Rival SANTA CLARA, Calif. --(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 21, 2001--NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq:NVDA) today announced they have completed their takeover of former graphics rival 3dfx Interactive (Nasdaq:TDFX) in a move that just twelve months ago would have been considered tantamount to Intel buying AMD. With the acquisition, 3dfx agrees to drop all pending litigation against nVidia, including several lawsuits alleging patent infringement of 3dfx intellectual property. nVidia has also acquired the rights to all 3dfx patents and technology, including their entire Voodoo 5 line of 3D accelerators, their next-generation "Mosaic" technology, and 3dfx subsidiary GigaPixel. The acquisition is considered by industry analysts to be a stunning reversal of fortune for one-time industry leader 3dfx, who pioneered the 3D accelerator market with the their Voodoo Graphics product in 1996. nVidia entered the 3D graphics market nearly two years later, initially considered a "3dfx imitator" with their Riva 128 line of graphics cards. Yet during 1997-2000, nVidia managed to take the leadership position in the market, finally capturing a majority share in 3D accelerators in October 2000. During this time 3dfx struggled with several product delays and an inability to maintain profitability, as their stock dropped from an all-time high of 32 in 1998 to a low of 2 1/8 in October 2000, while nVidia's stock rose from 9 to 88 1/8 during this same period. When asked how nVidia intends to incorporate the 3dfx product line into their existing Geforce 3 line of cards, nVidia VP of Hardware Engineering Chris Malachowsky responded, "We have not yet finished assessing the current state of 3dfx's product line and have not finalized any product plans." Malachowski also wouldn't comment on how nVidia plans to use the technologies of GigaPixel, who was acquired by 3dfx just last year. It is widely speculated that nVidia intends to use GigaPixel's low-cost, bandwidth-enhancing technologies to enter the mobile PDA market, and bring 3D accelerated graphics to hand-held devices such as the Palm Pilot and Handspring Visor. "We feel this will ultimately be very beneficial to both companies," said Jen-Hsun Huang, President and CEO of nVidia. "After several years of intense competition, we look forward to mutual cooperation with our former rivals." NOTE TO READER: Much in the same way that the above press release was 100% fiction (although not entirely implausible), the following are NOT actual press releases, but are 100% original content written by myself, written in "press release format." Although the dates are not exact, they chronologically correspond with real-world events from April 2000 to November 2000, and contain information on the current graphics cards offered by 3dfx and nVidia while illustrating the real-life chain of events (such as the ill-fated demise of the Voodoo 5 6000) that may, in time, lead to the fictional situation above becoming a reality. ONE YEAR EARLIER... 3DFX ANNOUNCES RELEASE OF THE VOODOO 5 5500 Former 3D Graphics Leader Hopes To Regain Leadership Position SAN JOSE, Calif. --(ASSOCIATED PRESS)--April 15, 2000--3dfx Corporation (Nasdaq:TDFX) has finally released the much-anticipated Voodoo 5 5500 graphics accelerator, which is expected to reach store shelves on April 21, 2000. The Voodoo 5 was originally slated for a Christmas 1999 release, but was delayed due to difficulties in getting the final design fully operational. The Voodoo 5 5500 features two VSA-100 chips operating in tandem, with 32 megabytes of 166 mhz SDRAM dedicated to each chip for a total of 64 megs. The two chips provide enough performance for the world's first true implementation of "full-screen anti-aliasing" (FSAA) which eliminates "jaggies", "pixel-popping," and other undesired artifacts common to prior cards, greatly increasing the visual quality of all 3D accelerated games. FSAA is fully compatible with all current and older 3D games and applications, providing immediate and noticeable benefits to the end user. With the release of the Voodoo 5, 3dfx hopes to get back-on-track to reclaim their former leadership position in the 3D accelerator market. During the Voodoo 5 delay, nVidia's October '99 release of the Geforce had left nVidia to claim the lead in the high-end 3D card market, with no true competitor for several months throughout the '99 holiday season. Not even the disappointing two-chip ATI Rage Fury MAXX was able to compete with the incredible performance of the Geforce, which boasted the world's first on-board "T&L (transform & lighting) engine" in a consumer level graphics card. With the dual-chip Voodoo 5 5500, 3dfx has a card that can compete with, and even surpass the Geforce in most industry benchmarks and applications. Expect nVidia to counter with the Geforce 2 GTS, which they will unveil later this month, while 3dfx will be releasing their flagship product, the quad-chip Voodoo 5 6000, later in the summer of 2000 at an expected retail price of $599. The Voodoo 5 6000 is expected to be the world's first graphics card to surpass 1 billion texels per second (one "gigatexel") in "fill-rate," a measure of a graphics card's maximum theoretical performance. The Voodoo 5 5500 will be available for an MSRP of $299 at stores across America this Friday, April 21 2000. 9 MONTHS EARLIER... NVIDIA ANNOUNCES THE RELEASE OF THE GEFORCE 2 GTS ULTRA Nvidia Further Establishes Performance Lead With the World's Fastest 3D Accelerator. SANTA CLARA, Calif. --(REUTERS)--August 22, 2000--nVidia Corporation (Nasdaq:NVDA) has today announced the Geforce 2 GTS Ultra 3D graphics accelerator. Available in 32 or 64 meg configurations from graphics card manufacturers such as Creative Labs and Asus, the Geforce 2 GTS Ultra builds upon the industry-leading Geforce 2 GTS line of cards by incorporating extremely high-speed 250 mhz DDR (double data rate) SDRAM, the fastest RAM ever incorporated in a graphics card. It is also the world's first graphics card to exceed one gigatexel in rendering speed, achieved through the use of the Geforce 2's four simultaneous rendering pipelines in conjunction with its ultra-fast RAM. With today's graphics technology, high-speed RAM is crucial to achieving extreme levels of performance. Since all of today's 3D cards are "bottlenecked" by the speed of the RAM, using DDR SDRAM (especially of the 250 mhz variety) is the single most effective way to directly increase performance for intensive 3D applications such as the latest 3D games. Although the 3dfx Voodoo 5 6000, featuring four VSA-100 processors and 128 megabytes of RAM, was originally expected to be the first card to break the "gigatexel barrier" earlier this summer, nVidia has already achieved that milestone, while the Voodoo 5 6000's release may slip past the end of this summer and into the Fall of 2000. The Geforce 2 GTS Ultra complements the other offerings in nVidia's product line, including the original Geforce 2 GTS featuring DDR SDRAM at speeds of 166 mhz to 200 mhz, and the budget-minded Geforce 2 MX, with 166 mhz SDR (single data rate) SDRAM and two rendering pipelines instead of four. The Geforce 2 GTS Ultra is available in stores immediately with an MSRP of $499. 4 MONTHS EARLIER 3DFX CANCELS RELEASE OF VOODOO 5 6000, PULLS PLUG ON GRAPHICS CARD MANUFACTURING BUSINESS 3dfx Outsources Production of Flagship Product and Decides to Return to Their Roots SAN JOSE, Calif. --(BUSINESS WIRE)--November 5, 2000--3dfx Corporation (Nasdaq:TDFX) has officially cancelled the retail release of their premium graphics card, the quad-chip Voodoo 5 6000. Originally projected as an early-summer release, the Voodoo 5 6000 was originally expected to leapfrog the latest offerings from nVidia, 3dfx's primary competitor, while becoming the world's first "gigatexel" graphics card. However, things did not happen as 3dfx had planned. After already being delayed by over four months, the Voodoo 5 line had begun showing its age earlier this year as nVidia released faster "Ultra" versions of its Geforce 2 card with speeds of up to 250 mhz DDR SDRAM (the equivalent to 500 mhz SDR RAM) becoming the first to claim the "gigatexel" crown. Even former low-end 3D card company ATI Technologies has surpassed 3dfx's best offerings, with high-performance "Radeon" graphics cards in the Geforce 2 performance range, also incorporating DDR RAM. The Voodoo 5 has so far been limited to 166 mhz of the older SDR RAM, although the Voodoo 5's "dual chip" architecture allows for two channels to RAM instead of just one, giving it the "virtual" performance of 333 mhz SDR RAM. Nonetheless, even with its dual-chip design, the Voodoo 5 is no longer considered a candidate for the top-performing graphics cards today. Now, instead of releasing the Voodoo 5 6000 into retail channels, 3dfx has decided to license the rights to the technology to former 3dfx subsidiary Quantum, for manufacture in workstation-class graphics cards. The cards will not be available to the general public. In an even more significant move, 3dfx has also decided to sell its Mexico manufacturing plant, which was acquired just two years earlier as part of the acquisition of graphics card manufacturer STB Systems. It is part of a plan to return to 3dfx's "roots" when they designed the graphics chipsets used in graphics boards, but outsourced the manufacture of those boards to companies such as Diamond Multimedia and STB Systems. Competitors such as nVidia have always used such a business model to avoid the difficulties that come with manufacturing graphics cards. Since STB acquisition, 3dfx's financials have been abysmal. Prior to 3dfx's foray into manufacturing, their stock had reached an all-time high of 32 3/4. As of this writing, 3dfx stock closed at 4 1/4 during the previous trading day, in large part due to the additional expenses involved in operating the plant. Alex Leupp, 3dfx's president and CEO, said the move was being made to reduce the company's costs. "We're trying to be more fiscally responsible. Basically, we're reinventing ourselves." Unfortunately, at this time it is unclear if 3dfx will succeed at re-establishing their former business model. When it acquired STB Systems, 3dfx essentially severed all ties with their previous partners such as Creative Labs (Nasdaq:CREAF) and Guillemot, going from a partner to a competitor overnight. Taking 3dfx's place as their primary supplier was nVidia, with almost all major graphics board manufacturers producing nVidia graphics cards today. Only time will tell if 3dfx's former partners will welcome back 3dfx with open arms 3 MONTHS EARLIER NVIDIA TO BUY 3DFX? Recent Business Week Report Suggests a Buyout May Be Pending SANTA CLARA, Calif. --(ASSOCIATED PRESS)--December 17, 2000--A recent Business Week report cites an un-named source who claims nVidia (Nasdaq:NVDA) is preparing to buy its arch-rival, 3dfx Interactive (Nasdaq:TDFX). The source cites the recent ruling against nVidia in 3dfx's lawsuit alleging patent infringement, and claims that nVidia would prefer to buy 3dfx outright than pay for the damages which are rumored to be in the $20-30 million range. Such a move would end several years of intense competition between the two companies, each of which has at one time or another been the market leader in 3D graphics accelerators. Other analysts were skeptical of the report. "I think it's absurd, frankly," said Gartner Group analyst Mic Mokry. "If there really were a 3dfx buyout pending, there would be more than an 'un-named source' to back that up. Don't forget the Sun/AMD buyout rumors we heard all throughout last year. I don't see it happening any time soon." By the way, that "Business Week report" is not entirely fictional. There actually was such a report, and it was actually published in an October issue of Business week. A report on the article can be found at The Register, here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/14146.html The rest of the information above was also quite real, with the obvious exception of the first press release. Speaking of which, thanks to Maximum PC for a recent story on the acquisition of Aureal by Creative Labs, elements of which I "borrowed" (that Chris Malachowsky quote was actually uttered by Creative Labs executive Craig McHugh, referring to Aureal's product line). The first line about "Intel buying AMD" was also inspired by the Maximum PC article. *************UPDATE 12-15-00************* 3dfx has JUST announced that they have indeed approved the sale of 3dfx technology and assets to nVidia, pending shareholder approval. 3dfx will then be dissolved shortly thereafter, with nVidia owning the 3dfx and Voodoo names. Crazy stuff! See the official press release for all the details: http://www.voodooextreme.com/articles/nvidiatakesover3dfx.html There is also a good article at Maximum PC: http://www.maximumpc.com/content/2000/12/15/12382 And an interview with nVidia's head of PR, Brian Burke (who ironically, used to be the head of PR at 3dfx): http://www.gamersdepot.com/interviews/nvidia/3dfx_acquisition/001.htm And be sure to check out the excellent articles by clburdette, brian_igo, and artic00cat below: http://www.epinions.com/cmd-review-1F9E-1A48C542-3A3FCDF3-prod4 http://www.epinions.com/cmd-review-11E0-195B25B8-3A3D6DA7-prod4 http://www.epinions.com/cmd-review-7045-19F5745E-3A3EF8AB-prod4 Thanks for reading, -vicwang  |
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