According to an ex-3dfx engineer, the situation wasn't that bad. It was a few (about 4) months to launch of new architecture (they had working silicon, there's a lot of in-game screenshots taken on it - something we can't say about another current unreleased product), UMC was willing to give them a loan and the only problem were stockholders which became scared and sank them.
- Status
It was worse than that, the company was flat out of money by late 2000 and no one wanted to threw money their way (a group of investers were supposedly close to infusing some capitol into them but Sellers apparently slipped on the phone with one of them that 3dfx was also courting other options and they ran away). From my understanding they had one or two buy-out offers that would've kept them operating, but the board and key shareholders went with NV's offer, which was a higher figure. NV picked up some more engineers and that was that.
Magnum_Force
Newcomer
Slackworth on the OCUK forums has just confirmed BFG are no more in Europe.
Damn shame
.
Damn shame
.
Jawed
Legend
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=15509344&postcount=81
Jawed
I don't know how long "a long time" is, but that seems to imply GT200b went EOL a while back, no?
Jawed
Silent_Buddha
Legend
Yep, mgmt of these AIBs need to stop being a one IHV trick pony.
http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/12/10/opti.tries.to.eke.more.cash.from.gpu.maker/
I think the original agreement is/was $3.75 million per quarter, not total.
Anyways, nV spent all its money hiring Cartoonists or what?
I think the original agreement is/was $3.75 million per quarter, not total.
Anyways, nV spent all its money hiring Cartoonists or what?
IIRC, NVIDIA opted for that deal instead of the cheaper one-time cash payment, and part of the contract was that they could stop paying if they managed to patch up their drivers to make sure the drivers no longer infringe the patent. They did that after just a few quarters, and Opti nearly instantly claimed the change was not sufficient. I didn't hear much of it in a long time, I'm surprised it suddenly popped up again.
I'm not sure if NV is trying to deceive everyone by pretending that SW fix was enough, or if Opti is truly pushing patent trolling to the limit. Either way, fun!
Groo The Wanderer
Regular
Actually, it was NV that tried (somewhat successfully) to force the whole one-make AIB thing. It was a really dumb idea, especially considering how cyclical the industry is, but that is marketing.
One-Make AIBs give the GPU maker HUGE leverage over the AIB as well, and that is not by chance. If the GPU maker you are partnered with has an up cycle, times are good. Down, well, sucks to be you.
Then again, most of the big ones are just a brand, not truly one make AIBs, but the smaller ones are going to suffer. See.... well.... BFG.
-Charlie
What's an AIB? A brand or a real, somewhat independent company?
Ok, that's not what i meant - I can type in AIB in google and i know some boardpartners from both Nvidia and AMD.
So let me rephrase the question from "A brand or a real, somewhat independent company?" into: "What's the difference between say, sapphire and zotac on the one hand and for example gigabyte on the other?"
I think the answer to this is quite important to the matter at hand.
Groo The Wanderer
Regular
One has more of an ability to tell NV to get bent when they come and ask for silly things perhaps?
Honestly though, I would suspect it was that some companies already had strong brands, like Asus and Gigabyte, so were not going to sub-brand just for NV. Newer ones were forced to pick sides.
NV does the same thing with SKUs, if you want to put out a PSU that is SLI certified, it can not have Crossfire certs, even if they were pre-existing. OEMs were forced to make a separate SKU for ATI and NV, even though the products were exactly the same. This is so that dealers have to decide on picking the NV or ATI version, or putting out shelf space for both. NV was banking on them picking only NV for the majority of situations.
-Charlie
Groo The Wanderer
Regular
what you do there is get sli cert, then get xfire cert as long as you dont change anything to get the xfire cert you should be good to go
NV won't allow it, or wouldn't allow it.
-Charlie
- Status
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