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3dfx: So powerful it’s kind of ridiculous (abortretry.fail)

671 points by BirAdam · 1276 days ago · 374 comments on HN

Article summary

The article discusses the history of 3dfx Interactive, a company that produced powerful 3D graphics accelerators. 3dfx was spun off from Silicon Graphics and developed the IrisVision card, which was later replaced by the Voodoo card. The company's assets were acquired by NVIDIA in 2000 for $70 million and 1 million shares of common stock. The acquisition marked the end of 3dfx as a company, but its technology continued to influence the development of graphics processing units.

Main themes

  • 3dfx history
  • NVIDIA acquisition
  • GPU development
  • proprietary technology
  • innovation and competition
  • graphics rendering models
  • ecosystem participation
  • alternative technologies

What commenters say

  • The acquisition of 3dfx by NVIDIA was a significant event that marked the end of 3dfx as a company, but some commenters felt that shareholders were left with nothing.
  • NVIDIA's proprietary approach to technology, such as CUDA, has been both successful and limiting for the company and its competitors.
  • The development of graphics processing units has followed a logarithmic curve, with early innovations having a more significant impact on perceived performance.
  • Some commenters believe that NVIDIA's success is due to its ability to entrench its technology, while others argue that its competitors have failed to provide viable alternatives.
  • The use of NURBs as a rendering model was once considered promising, but ultimately lost out to polygons due to various technical and practical limitations.
  • The importance of ecosystem buy-in and participation in standards development is crucial for the success of technology companies, and NVIDIA's approach has been criticized as overly proprietary.
  • The development of alternative technologies, such as ROCm, is seen as important for promoting competition and innovation in the field of graphics processing.
  • The ease of use and portability of programming languages and APIs, such as CUDA, are critical factors in their adoption and success.