Meet Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang, the man who plans to make the CPU obsolete - 2002

[stevem]

Hmmm, I had an Edge 3D 3000 and at the time really liked Panzer Dragoon. The Sega controllers were pretty good, sound was OK, but drivers were mediocre.

 

[_xxx_]

I'd rather say Samsung would do better than NV if both jumped into the CPU business.

Samsung do produce CPU's, though not for the PC. Well, rather huge-assed microcontrollers, but many of them will tear 486 DX100 a new one

 

[Megadrive1988]

Now that we've turned this into an NV1 thread. . . I'd like to hear more about this non-Diamond Edge3d NV1. . .I've heard there were others, but no details. . .

the non-Diamond EDGE 3D NV1 ..... the SGS-Thomson STG2000 ?

I don't know alot about it, but, google and I are good friends

http://www.st.com/stonline/press/news/year1996/496xp.htm

NVIDIA Corporation and SGS-THOMSON announce the NV1 and STG2000 Multimedia Accelerators


Breakthrough single-chip accelerators deliver unprecedented multimedia power to the consumer personal computer market

May 22, 1995-- NVIDIA Corporation and SGS-THOMSON Microelectronics, today announced the introduction of the NV1 and STG2000 Multimedia Accelerators. The first complete multimedia accelerators, the NV1 and STG2000 represent the culmination of a strategic partnership that began over a year ago.

The NV1 and STG2000 are the first complete Multimedia Accelerators to deliver the power of real-time photo-realistic 3D graphics, video based special effects, full-motion video acceleration, and concurrent high-fidelity audio, in a single chip. Providing immediate benefit to consumers, they enhance the quality and speed up the performance of today's PC multimedia applications. In addition, leading interactive entertainment developers are capitalizing on the powerful technologies of NV1 and STG2000 to create a new generation of applications that promise to completely transform the PC multimedia experience.

NVIDIA's President and co-founder, Jen-Hsun Huang said: "It is NVIDIA's objective to make our technology widely available to the PC consumer. We are presented with the opportunities of a very large market but the semiconductor industry is badly capacity-constrained. By combining SGS-THOMSON's global excellence in consumer and computer microelectronics with NVIDIA's architectural and design innovation, we are able to provide our customers with reliable, high volume delivery of leading edge technology."

Tim Chambers, Director of the Graphics Business Unit for SGS-THOMSON said : "The winning combination of SGS-THOMSON's submicron manufacturing and technology leadership with NVIDIA's architecture achieves a breakthrough in PC interactive multimedia. In combination with our leadership digital video compression, communications, audio and mixed signal technologies, SGS-THOMSON is now uniquely able to provide a growing range of affordable multimedia solutions - in volume."

Market coverage will be provided by two versions of the multimedia accelerator. NVIDIA will market and sell the NV1 (VRAM version) while SGS-THOMSON will market and sell the STG2000 (DRAM version). Both products are available with PCI and VL bus interfaces. The NV1 or STG2000 allow leading-edge adapter card and PC OEMs to offer a multimedia sub-system with dazzling 3D, wave-table audio, GUI acceleration, enhanced game port performance, and video acceleration -- on a single-card with a street price of around $200.

NVIDIA is a privately held company developing VLSI and software acceleration technology to transform the personal computer into the ultimate multimedia platform.

SGS-THOMSON is a global independent semiconductor supplier listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE:STM) and on the Bourse de Paris. It designs, develops, manufactures and markets a broad range of semiconductor integrated circuits (ICs) and discrete devices used in a wide variety of microelectronics applications, including telecommunications systems, computer systems, consumer products, automotive products and industrial automation and control systems.

http://www.firingsquad.com/features/nvidiahistory/page2.asp

January 1995: NV1 / STG2000
Launched in 1995, the NV1 and STG2000 were the first "complete" multimedia accelerators. The accelerators were otherwise identical except that the NV1 used high-performance VRAM while the STG2000 used DRAM.

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action/msg/523a5ad89030f31f?dmode=source&hl=en

Some clarification is in order. The NV1 and STG2000 are based on the
same architecutre, except the NV1 is meant to be paired with VRAM and
the STG2000 is meant to be paired with DRAM. That's it, and I don't
think there's any other functional difference. Why the large differences
in the name? Not sure, but I think the later was designed by SGS
Thomson(who's doing the fab production for Nvidia) based on the NV1
design(and when I mean NV1 from here on out, I'm refering to both the
NV1 and STG2000).

now as far as I know, the NV2 was mainly funded by SEGA, and it would've been used in a cartridge system for release around 1996, or as an upgrade to Saturn. IIRC, one of the versions of Sonic Xtreme was running on the NV2-based system. but I don't have details on that, other than what FiringSquad reported on NV2 in two of their articles.

ahhh..... the nebulous times for Nvidia between NV1 and Riva 128.

 

[Megadrive1988]

I know Riva was not their first GPU, but at least their first with triangle-based rendering

Did NV1 ever make it to the market? And NV2 was pretty much vapourware AFAICR, at least I can't remember seeing one anywhere in stores back then.

there's no question NV1 made it to market (Diamond EDGE 3D and STG2000) even though it was a failure. The question is, did NV2 ever make it to market?

most would say no, and NV2 certainly did not end up in any high-profile PC graphics card, or the console it was intended for.

It is possible the NV2 made it into one or more of Sega's low-end childrens products, the Pico, or rather, Pico's successor.

http://www.firingsquad.com/features/nv2/page3.asp

The End of the NV2

Just say no to triangles

Despite Sega of America's and the AM2 representative's best efforts, NVIDIA remained adamant on using quadratic texture maps and refused to concentrate on triangle primitives. In the end, our sources tell us that NVIDIA may have eventually agreed to support better acceleration for triangles, but by then, Sega of Japan had already begun to distance itself from NVIDIA, and Sega's US team was quietly told "not to worry about the NVIDIA thing anymore."

As a Japanese company, Sega could never kill a deal, for there was a need to maintain honor and face. These cultural elements can be seen today when top Japanese executives choose to demote themselves after poor earnings reports, or when disappointing employees are "transferred" to small offices and given no assignments rather than fired. The expectation is that the shame alone will lead the employee to quit himself.


Pico?
NVIDIA was relegated to this similar position. Sega told NVIDIA that they were still contracted to provide a chip for Sega, but that it was not going to be used in its next generation console. The plan was to use the chip in a less demanding multimedia consumer product, probably the next-generation Sega Pico.

The Sega Pico, as some of you may not know, was a kid's educational toy targeted for children, 2-8 years old. It was a stylus and tablet that connected to the TV and used cartridges as its media. The Pico had such great titles as "Magic Crayons", "Richard Scarry's Huckle Lowly's Busiest Day Ever", and even a few Disney titles. Basically, NVIDIA was most likely delegated to work on a glorified See 'n Say.

 

[_xxx_]

The NV1 and STG2000 are the first complete Multimedia Accelerators to deliver the power of real-time photo-realistic 3D graphics, video based special effects, full-motion video acceleration, and concurrent high-fidelity audio, in a single chip. Providing immediate benefit to consumers, they enhance the quality and speed up the performance of today's PC multimedia applications. In addition, leading interactive entertainment developers are capitalizing on the powerful technologies of NV1 and STG2000 to create a new generation of applications that promise to completely transform the PC multimedia experience.

Now where did I already read something like this? Oh wait, I know: in every announcement from every manufacturer ever since...

 

[Geo]

And don't forget the Sega Saturn joystick ports!

I have a NV1 at home, but it kicked the bucket years ago. It's not a Diamond either, so I have still held on to it. If they were a little faster at accelerating windows, they wouldn't be to bad. It's actually a good sound card.

I think you should start a thread over in 3D Graphics Cards for NV1 piccies, including your own. . .see who/what else we can flush out around here, NV1-wise. . .

 

[the maddman]

the non-Diamond EDGE 3D NV1 ..... the SGS-Thomson STG2000 ?

Yup, that's it. I have a STG2000 card somewhere at home. I'll try and get pics up for Geo here tonight. Sadly, it no longer seems to work.

 

[Geo]

Yup, that's it. I have a STG2000 card somewhere at home. I'll try and get pics up for Geo here tonight. Sadly, it no longer seems to work.

Not working? I'll still pay you the $5 I paid for a working (well, reportedly anyway!) Edge3d. . . :smile:

 

[Megadrive1988]

Sega should've gone with the Lockheed R3D/100 in 1996 instead of dittling around with Nvidia in 1995-1996 with NV2.


R3D/100 would've been a complete polygon processor with T&L




it was supposed to be available as a $180 graphics card, so assuming that, at the time, it could've also been used as an upgrade to Saturn or the basis of a whole new system, either to replace Saturn, or instead of Saturn altogether.

 

[_xxx_]

Sega should've gone with the Lockheed R3D/100 in 1996 instead of dittling around with Nvidia in 1995-1996 with NV2.


R3D/100 would've been a complete polygon processor with T&L




it was supposed to be available as a $180 graphics card, so assuming that, at the time, it could've also been used as an upgrade to Saturn or the basis of a whole new system, either to replace Saturn, or instead of Saturn altogether.

I thought it actually was available? And as far as I can remember it was crappy and slow as well.

 

[Megadrive1988]

I thought it actually was available? And as far as I can remember it was crappy and slow as well.

this was confusing back in 1995-1997, and it seems it still is today.

both were available. but one was mid-range professional chip (Real3D-100) not intended (but unfortunately clearly implied) for consumers. the other was a crappy consumer chip (Auburn aka i740)

Real3D-100 is the chip they're talking about, which was an awesome GPU/card for 1995-1996. the press releases, magazine and web articles of the day, including that Next Generation one, made it seem like the Real3D-100 would be this $180 ~ $200 graphics card for consumers and gamers -- to upgrade their Pentiums and even 486s to beyond Sega MODEL 2 graphical levels
(and beyond what 3Dfx was offering in 1996 with VoodooGraphics).

but it turned out Lockheeded pimped the midrange professional chipset (a GPU not just a rasterizer) while mentioning a low price that was actually meant for a totally different chip they would be working on, which came out later and was kinda crappy. the crappy chip as I said, was the i740, jointly developed with Intel for Intel's motherboard intergrated graphics, and also as the chip in Lockheed's consumer/gamer Starfighter cards.

i740 used in Intel's intergrated graphics and Lockheed Starfighter cards came out in late 1997 or early 1998. It was newer than the Real3D-100 but not as powerful and not a complete GPU since it was just a rasterizer like Voodoo, PowerVR, Riva128 and the dozens of other lowend 3D consumer-gamer PC rasterizers of the time. the older Real3D-100 was pretty powerful and very complete, with its own geometry processor (T&L unit). the newer i740 had no geometry processor and probably other shortcuts were taken to bring it out as a cheap consumer chip. less memory as well.

the original 740i came out when Voodoo2 was coming out, but 740i offered Voodoo1 or Voodoo1+ performance, not nearly as high as Voodoo2. although 740i had somewhat better image quality. both Voodoo1 and i740 were, in many ways, not as powerful in the realworld as the old Sega MODEL 2 board (paper specs don't mean much).
MODEL 2 was completed in 1993 (launched with Daytona USA in 1994). the Real3D-100, older than i740 but newer than Sega MODEL 2, was more powerful than MODEL 2 in every area, although not as powerful as MODEL 3 which used higher-end Real3D GPU(s).

think of 1995-96 era Real3D-100 as a low-clocked GeForce256 (NV10) with one pipeline. even in 1997-1998 it would've been competitive with Voodoo2 and NV4~TNT, since Real3D-100s modest fillrate and polygon performance
(by 1997-1998 standards) would not degrade as features are turned on, and no consumer 3D chip of that time had a geometry processor (T&L unit).


http://web.archive.org/web/20000915221208/www.hardcoregaming.com/spotlight/r3dint.htm

HGN: A while back the R3D/100 was announced as a consumer product, and then we kind of never heard anything else about it. Whatever happened to that product? Is it related in anyway to the i740?

R3D: The R3D/100 was a graphics chip designed for the high-end workstation markets such as CAD and 3D modeling. This product was not really related to the Intel740 because the i740 is targeted at the performance mainstream PC market. As a company, Real 3D has decided to focus its chip-design efforts in the mainstream PC market through our co-developments with Intel and our own designs (in addition to the custom work we do for Sega). The primary business model for Real 3D is as a board company. We are still involved in selected business opportunities with the R3D/100, but it is not a product we are actively marketing any longer.

 

[_xxx_]

Thanks Mega! Ok, so I confused those two. I can remember the name from retail and just had it in memory as rather, well, crappy.

 

[Megadrive1988]

no problemo ^__^


i'm definitally no expert on these chips. i just kinda remember things that i was interested it, and try to sort through things as best i can.


i'd like to hear more from people in the graphics field that worked with the Lockheed R3D-100
-what they thought of it vs i740 and other consumer-gamer 3D chip from 1995-1998.

 

[Urian]

I remember that at the end of 1995 the rumour of a SegaSaturn 2 with Lockhead Martin R3D/100 as the GPU and Model 3 with Dual R3D/1000 was floating around the net. Model 3 rumour finished to be true but the SegaSaturn 2 no, is curious that Sega jumped from LM to NEC in Naomi/Dreamcast.

And about Nvidia, I remember that their glory started with the idea that killed 3Dfx (making their own motherboards).

 

[Megadrive1988]

I remember that at the end of 1995 the rumour of a SegaSaturn 2 with Lockhead Martin R3D/100 as the GPU and Model 3 with Dual R3D/1000 was floating around the net. Model 3 rumour finished to be true but the SegaSaturn 2 no, is curious that Sega jumped from LM to NEC in Naomi/Dreamcast.

exactly. it was floating around the net, mainly because of the article in the November 1995 issue of Next Generation magazine (and probably the Sept or October issue of EDGE).


here you go.

 

[epicstruggle]

Forbes interviews JHH, here is something i wasnt expecting.
http://www.forbes.com/technology/2006/06/22/ps3-phone-nvidia_cx_ck_0622nvidia.html?partner=rss

You used to be a competitive table tennis player. Do you still get to play?
A year and a half ago, I felt I was increasingly out of shape. The coach of the U.S. junior team happens to be here in the Bay Area. So three times a week, I would sneak out and play table tennis with him, and it was really a lot of fun.


It’s a great sport because it's incredibly rigorous. You have to stay so focused that’s its hard to think of anything else. It's probably right up there with fencing and fly fishing.
It's hard to get me to not think about work, so firing a ball at me at 100 miles per hour is a good way to do it.


It's increasingly difficult just to organize our time so that the two of us can play, so I don’t do it anymore. I've changed to a completely different rhythm; now, I work out twice a week in the morning. That’s easier to do.

 

[Geo]

Thanks, ES. That was interesting.