nVIDIA's plans for 3dfx technology

[miniMUNCH]

Let me first say I'm saddened to see 3dfx's goods go to nVIDIA.

That said, 3dfx user and gamers currently have little cause for sorrow. We, the public, do not why nVIDIA bought 3dfx's assets or what they intend for 3dfx's chip designs and technology. I believe nVIDIA bought 3dfx's tech. with the intent of implementing a large amount of it in their future chip designs. I say this for several reasons. nVIDIA, despite their PR, is a small company when viewed from a monetary perspective. 110 million is a tremendous cash layout for them (it's small change for IBM, Intel and Microsoft among others). nVIDIA must, and I say MUST, derive significant benefit the purchase and I believe they plan on doing just that. Secondly, nVIDIA NV20 transistor count is very high...and for what? The performance will double that of the NV15 for twice the transistor count? That's not so good... the price/cost ratio of these chips is oging to blow hard if nVIDIA wants these cards to retail under $500. Mosaic and other 3dfx technologies offers a different technology/design roadmap for nVIDIA to switch to without risking excessive loss in market share while making the switch. There would be a serious hic-up in the next product cycle if nVIDIA tired to do this on their own from scratch. Adopting Mosaic will give nVIDIA an opportunity to continue to offer performance improvements while also reducing chip cost (Mosaic is reported to have approximately 15-20 transistor to NV20's *what?* 40-50 transistors). Not to mention multi GPU architechure, which an excellent way to offer solutions to multiple market using the same chip. The last minor point is that I think nVIDIA was having problems find enough good engineers to drive their project timelines; that's why they were stripping people from Matrox, etc.

I think we will see FEAR/Mosaic/GP (whatever!) in Q1/2002 from nVIDIA. I'm just going to wait see.

I personally wish IBM would've scooped up 3dfx, but it just isn't their style. IBM RISC technology paired with FEAR/Mosaic/GP (whatever!) plus the best manufacturing processes and support in the industry. Can I get an, "OH YA"! But it wasn't to be...

Se la ve! (or however you spell "such is life" in french)

 

[Mem]

You are forgetting Nvidia had a lawsuit against 3dfx, that`s one of the main reasons why other companies would not buy them.

🙂

 

[miniMUNCH]

Hey Mem...I think it was the other way around. Check 3dfx's website; 3dfx was suing nVIDIA for patent infringment of some texturing and mip map dithering technology. Courts were leaning in 3dfx's favor I beieve.

But that's is still a point, certainly adds value to the deal for nVIDIA, apart from the technology.

With that in mind its a wonder RAMBUS, the Jonny Cochrane of silicon, didn't pick up 3dfx!😀😉

 

[Dark4ng3l]

Yep it was 3dfx lawsuit vs nvidia.

 

[Orbius]

Talk about bungling inept management, this whole thing is almost too screwed up to be true. 3dfx just recently bought Gigapixel for $168million. And now they're selling not only Gigapixel, but the whole of 3dfx for $110 million??? I guess we can thank the collapasing high-tech sector for this.

 

[miniMUNCH]

Tell me about it Orbius. My dad has worked in software for fifteen years, telecommunications before that, and business development and finance (software) before that. He was VP of west coast financial investment of BofA for awhile; now he consults and does strategic planing and product engineering/development/marketing. Anyway, he used to rant to me how dumb 3dfx was being when they bought STB and so on.

Steering a company for success is tough, but 3dfx's top dog's hit the iceberg. But when your steering blind and drunk, what da ya expect?! 😉😀

 

[Orbius]

I hear you munch this whole thing is odd, I mean these executives have obviously been given golden parachutes. #1, they've basically assured that the stockholders must approve this deal in lieu of any other potential deal that could have been put forward by stopping the companies operations while they continue to ring up debt, 3dfx is pulling their cards at Christmas time while they're running up more debt to pay employees salaries, etc. Bizarre, they claim to be out of cash yet pull their product at Christmas time, how convienent for Nvidia. Obviously that PR guy that jumped ship to Nvidia did so to set up this deal. Is that common practice in Business, seems a bit fishy to me.

 

[ctll]

i see what you mean

 

[RoboTECH]

all types of things stink about this deal

go check the stocks of BOTH companies the DAY BEFORE the buyout announcement. 3dfx dropped into the bucket, and nvidia shot through the roof. Can we say "insider trading" boys and girls?

nvidia sent trolls out all over the place to spread FUD about 3dfx in the hopes of lowering stock prices as low as possible, so they could purchase 3dfx as cheaply as possible.

At most, i see nvidia perhaps using some Gigapixel tech a few years down the road. They will probably use the Voodoo name somewhere.

However, everything else will be thrown into the toilet. The main reason they purchased 3dfx was to make the lawsuit (that they knew they would lose) go away. had 3dfx managed to stick around until May, they would've been seeing an award that would've given them royalties from both the TNT1 and TNT2 lines of video cards, and probably both NV20 and X-Box as well. nvidia didn't want that to happen.

Via was actually a major player in the bid to buy 3dfx, but everytime Via would up the ante, nvidia would counter. They did NOT want to go to court.

 

[bluemax]

That kind of "dirty pool" makes me want to cancel my Erazor X2 DDR order... :| It should arrive today or tommorow, though, so I could just send it back and order a CPU instead. Problem is, I need a video card and Radeons cost so much here in Canada! 🙁

Well, with the exception of those Toronto Engineering Samples which scare me... I don't want to pay $200 for something with no guarantee or warranty of any kind. 🙁

Anyone know any cheap Canadian Radeon deals? Maybe I can kiss up to ATI as a developer... worked for 3dfx right before they closed shop. :|:| I can't believe that... right as I managed to negotiate for a freebie- THIS happens! :| GAH! :|

 

[miniMUNCH]

I have to agree with Orbius and Robotech again...

Stock price activity was rather "strange". Hum...

3dfx top brass has been saying they believe this was the best way to maximize shareholder profit (read minimize loss due to our inept management). That's obviously a load of crap...it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out what will happen to stock prices when you sell out 40 million shares for 112 million dollars. Anyway you slice it, it's a big-time permanent loss. Selling to VIA or IBM (although they didn't seem interested) would have given 3dfx operating capital and 3dfx *would still be operating* instead of dead. That shows a total lack of balls; if you have the technology and the people to push it (which 3dfx did) let it ride. Get on your feet by any means necessary and make the changes that need to be made. Reverting to chip and ref. design only (no manufacture) was a step in the right direction. I say then look for partnerships, tech. sharing; again IBM would've been ideal

Even if VIA wanted to buy out 3dfx for only 80 million, it would've been a much better alternative to nVIDIA IMO, for 3dfx as a company and for shareholders. Shareholders never "profit" from a wholesale liquidation of assests; mind you 3dfx still has more stuff to sell.

I do think this has insider trading and/or similiar acts wirtten all over it. First, this happened very quickly. I did hear rumors that 3dfx was looking into chapter 11 a couple of weeks ago, but chapter 11 would've spelled their dooom anyway. The writing was on the wall back when 3dfx dropped the v5's MSRP dropped from $299.99 to $199.99 (or something like that). However, the sale/shut-down happened quickly, too quickly and very suddenly. A the PR between the two companies has been sickeningly sweet; it is just bizarre.

I really wish 3dfx would've ended up in IBM's hands...it's okay to dream, isn't it?

If you haven't already guessed, I think IBM is one of best companies in the world; in terms of strategic thinking, planning, and execution. Not to mention their amazing wharehouse of technology. They have their weaknesses...but who doesn't?