What carrot was used...

[JoshMST]

to get Neil over to NV?

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050706/sfw063.html?.v=17

I remember having a couple of long conversations with Neil about 3D Lab's P10 VPU. Smart fellow that one.

 

[Dave Baumann]

He's increasingly been more of a vocal activist on the Kronos group with a focus on OpenGL for mobile platforms. However, this partially represents the state that 3Dlabs is currently in - last I heard Egham were getting involved in non-3D projects and there has been suggestions that Creative may have been looking to sell the US end. The brain drain is already happening anyway.

 

[Evildeus]

3dLabs is dying....

 

[WaltC]

to get Neil over to NV?

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050706/sfw063.html?.v=17

I remember having a couple of long conversations with Neil about 3D Lab's P10 VPU. Smart fellow that one.

The desire for a regular paycheck has long been a powerful carrot industry wide... Man cannot live on rhetoric and PR alone, you know.

 

[AzBat]

I'm just surprised he stayed with 3Dlabs that long. They were a sinking ship a long time ago. I think NVIDIA should have bought them instead of Creative. Though I understand why Creative did it, I just never agreed with it. Anyway, good to hear Neil found a place to call home.

Tommy McClain

 

[Xigen]

Though I understand why Creative did it, I just never agreed with it.

Why did Creative do it??? I am unsure of the logic of a consumer focused company buying a professional focused company simply to not do anything with it and let all the talent go away. If Creative were going to use 3dlabs staff to compete in the consumer space with ATI and NV I could understand, but in the end all they did was more or less nothing. What was the point in the acquisition that I am missing?

 

[AzBat]

Though I understand why Creative did it, I just never agreed with it.

Why did Creative do it??? I am unsure of the logic of a consumer focused company buying a professional focused company simply to not do anything with it and let all the talent go away. If Creative were going to use 3dlabs staff to compete in the consumer space with ATI and NV I could understand, but in the end all they did was more or less nothing. What was the point in the acquisition that I am missing?

My understanding was that Creative already had a minority stake in the company a long time ago. They used that connection to build the GiGi chip found in the 3D Blaster VLB in 1995. Over the years since then they would build a few consumer products based on 3Dlabs chips. However, when they decided to quit using NVIDIA-based chips for their performance line they decided to finish their investment in 3Dlabs with the hope that 3Dlabs would help fill in the gap. Unfortunately for Creative the graphics board market fell through the floor and 3Dlabs was never able to create a product that could technically compete with the ATI and NVIDIA products. Had they made the decision a few years earlier 3Dlabs might be in a different position today. However, I still don't agree that Creative needs or ever did need a graphics chip/board company.

Tommy McClain

 

[Sxotty]

I thought they bought them so they could own the patents and sue anyone who infringed. That seems a likely and logical reason to do so.

 

[Sage]

OT but AzBat I just noticed that you were in Poteau, OK! What the heck are you doing in Poteau???

 

[Farid]

What carrot was used to get Neil over to NV?

I guess Nvidia just told him that they'll feed him three times a day and let him sleep under a desk.
In other words, they probably proposed him better working conditions than what he got over at 3DLabs.

 

[JoshMST]

Yes, after going several months without a real job, I too know the happiness involved with a steady income.