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3dfx Interview

L

Leon

Platinum Member
...with Scott Sellers.

Here

Pretty good one. It is nice that he is being honest.





<< TextI had a quick word with Keith Galocy [3dfx Developer relations] earlier to see how the developer situation was going. From a consumer point of view we hear a lot of talk about nVIDIA, with plenty of press releases along the line of Epic designing for nVIDIA hardware etc. and outwardly it seems that nVIDIA are where 3dfx were two or three years ago. What?s going on behind the scenes? Is it still that way with developers?

Well, Keith is the better person to ask about that. But I think much of what you are seeing now is indicative situation we are in now ? when you miss a cycle not only do you miss financial opportunities, developers pull you out of their systems, and late last year, I don?t want to argue, the best board to develop on was an nVIDIA-based board.

We believe the 5500 is a very powerful product, and the 6000 an extremely powerful product, but getting those nVIDIA based boards out of the developer systems and getting 3dfx back in takes time, but that?s exactly what we?ve been working on. With the 5500 and 6000 we're making progress, Rampage with is feature characteristics and performance characteristic, absolutely will take us to the next level, and then the roadmap just gets even better from there.


>>

 


<< Are we talking a GTS Ultra killer here?
Errrr, we?ll leave that one to the reviews! But we certainly feel very good about the product. >>


Hehe, at least they don't try to make bold claims that they will crush the competition 😉 Something that nVidia and 3dfx have been guilty of in recent times.


<< NVIDIA seems to be following the natural evolution of other successful PC graphics companies in terms of attempting to broaden their product portfolio. That has killed companies in the past, Cirrus Logic and S3 being two good examples of that, and you?ve gotta look at nVIDIA ? they missed nv20?s development cycle. Are nVIDIA starting to show that they are spreading their resources out too thin by doing two high end CAD chips, GTS and GTS Ultra, an MX chip, several integrated Northbridge products and the XBox all at the same time ? you don?t think that hurts them in terms of being able to have laser sighted focus on high end 3D performance? Absolutely it will. >>


WTF? Seems kinda hypocritical to be talking about delays in the NV20 after 3dfx DID THE SAME THING (just a few posts up with the delay of the 5500 and 4500). The NV20 may have been delayed, but at least they weren't left high and dry--they had something to fall back on. They have announced/released the GF2 Ultra (even though it is a high-priced piece of silicon:|). And surely they couldn't have forgotten about the delays in the 6000 which he just finished praising:Q They sucked up STB and now look at what has happened. OTOH, the acquistion of GigaPixel will do wonders for the Rampage. Whereas nVidia has its reputation, high stock prices, and fistfuls of dollars to back them up in their &quot;spreading out in the marketplace,&quot; 3dfx made a few wrong turns which could make THEM end up like Cirrus Logic and S3. Whereas nVidia reminds me of an young Intel in the making.

As for the comment about two CAD chips. I thought that the Quadro was the CAD and the GTS/GTS Ultra were the mainstream chips? 3dfx doesn't even have a CAD chip. And so what if they have the MX. It's no different than 3dfx's 6000-5500-4500 lineup.

I don't know, but it seems as though they are taking pop shots b/c nVidia is in the same position that they were in a few years ago:Q

*No flames intended*
 
Read this Glide fans





<< we took the decision that Glide doesn?t make sense anymore >>




I knew it all along 😀
 
NFS4,

The delays in the 5500 and 4500 were due to 3dfx being shorted by TSMC on their chip orders. Plus there was that minor bug that prompted 3dfx to halt production for about 1 week (tops). So most of the problem was beyond 3dfx' control. They are now currently evaluating other companies for a 2nd fab source to prevent this from happening again.

Unless nVidia has a 2nd source, the potential for them getting shorted on chips by TSMC is just as great as it is for 3dfx. TSMC is absolutely swamped/backordered. They bought 3 additional fabs and it hardly has made a dent in their backlog.
 
Nvidia is TSMCs biggest customer now. I think TSMC would set a few fabs aside just for Nvidia 🙂 Btw they got 0.13 micron onlinefor Q4 w00t 😀
 
showin a little bias ther nfs4???
hehehe (no offense!)
but yeah, i thought that interview was EXCELLENT....really honest...wow...when will pr people realize that that is the way they need to be.
 
This interview realy shows that the PR people at 3dfs shouldnt talk to anyone and they should let just about everyone else handle PR.
 
Hi Scott. Well I guess the first thing to ask is how?s the little one? It wasn?t that long ago that you had a new arrival.
10 months, she?s 10 months old now. And she?s great! Keeps her parents up all the time!

Congrats, Scott.

I?ve had the impression for a while now that previously the hardware vendors have pretty much been able to pick and choose which features they wish to choose, and they have been pushing the API development. It looks to me, that this time around, with the radical changes in DirectX8 its Microsoft that?s dictating what the hardware vendors need to support.
I would disagree with that; I actually say that Microsoft continues to work very closely with the hardware developers. 3dfx had a tremendous influence on DirectX8, from the vertex shading and pixel shading architecture, and I would say that between 3dfx and nVIDIA probably about 90% of what is in DirectX came from those two companies. We have both been lobbying heavily for quite some time to form the API, so we are quite pleased with the way DirectX8 came out. We?re really excited about DirectX9 because we have some features in Rampage and other leadership type products that will feature heavily in DirectX9.

Interesting questions. Anybody else catch this? It seems Rampage is shaping up to be a very feature-rich product.
 
czar - Ok, so we'll just have the CTOs and a bunch of the engineers from all the chip companies stop developing chips and spend their time doing PR. Of course, we'll only get new chips every 2-3 years, but we'll get more technical interviews being published ....

Michael

ps - The Glide quote isn't news, that's been known forever. When Glide first was invented, it really was the best API available for consumer use (openGL tools and drivers were fairly weak and DX was terrible). Now that DX and OpenGL are much stronger and better, there is no need for Glide anymore. Of course, Glide is now Open Source and very cross-platform (Windows/Linux/Mac OS), so there is still some use.
 


<< and late last year, I don?t want to argue, the best board to develop on was an nVIDIA-based board. >>



Scott Sellers boys and girls head 3dfx engineer admits!
 


<< showin a little bias ther nfs4???
hehehe (no offense!)
but yeah, i thought that interview was EXCELLENT....really honest...wow...when will pr people realize that that is the way they need to be. >>


I've tried to stay out of these 3dfx vs nVidia debates, but that paragraph I quoted just got to me 😉


<< The delays in the 5500 and 4500 were due to 3dfx being shorted by TSMC on their chip orders. Plus there was that minor bug that prompted 3dfx to halt production for about 1 week (tops). So most of the problem was beyond 3dfx' control. They are now currently evaluating other companies for a 2nd fab source to prevent this from happening again. >>


A delay is a delay no matter how you slice it---who care's who is at fault? Customers don't care who was a fault. All they want it is the product. The whole V4/V5 range was/is delayed. And now the NV20 is delayed. Simple as that.
 
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