Introduction
After the launch of Napalm, I sat down to talk with Scott Sellers and Michael Howse in their suite at The Venetian.
There is plenty of information milling around the Web on 3dfx’s Napalm product launch at Comdex. I have included various pieces of literature from the company at the end of this article for those of you interested in more detail. My primary concern at this point is 3dfx strategy going forward. In light of the company’s recent announcement of a third quarter loss, I think a little bit of calm, objective analysis should be the dish of the day.
Michael Howse, Senior VP of Worldwide Marketing, 3dfx
Scott Sellers, Co-founder and Chief Technical Officer, 3dfx
The good news is that 3dfx is going back to its rootes. I remember one of my first meetings at 3dfx, prior to company even launching a product, and the emphasis at that time was on entertainment technologies. In fact, I reminded Scott that it was he himself that painted a vision of 3dfx as an entertainment company. Fortunately for 3dfx, it seems that the company is going back to its routes to focus on that original vision. Obviously, 3dfx is without a CEO right now, and in talking with Scott and Michael it became clear that whomever replaces Greg Ballard will have to be an operations kind of guy. Someone who can ensure the company delivers its products on time, and executes on its business plans.
This firmly puts Michael in the driving seat of the marketing, and I think, from what I can discern, that both Scott and Gary Tarolli are probably going to be happier to focus on the entertainment market rather than try and be both a game hardware addicts wet dream, and the kind of company that a PC OEM would hit on for pricing and DirectX specs. That gives 3dfx a sense of balance that they haven’t had since a little before their IPO. This is probably the most important thing to come out of the last few months at 3dfx. I think the company needed to get itself on an even keel, and to focus on what it does best. I was concerned about it’s continued ramblings in the OEM space, but I hope that now, it will stick to its guns, rather than try and live up to the demands of financial analysts.
VSA-100 isn’t ready yet
So, where’s the pressure going to come from now? First of all, the VSA-100 isn’t ready yet. 3dfx has yet to get first silicon so, the company has a long way to go before it can be competitive in terms of performance and features. On paper, it’s move towards a set of multi-chip high-end consumer boards is daring, but it could have a big payoff. If the company only manages to convince its existing fan base to upgrade to the Voodoo5 it will do very well in the coming eighteen months. On the other hand, the company is also betting that the gaming community is going to want to pay the price of its high-end offerings. The Voodoo5 6000 is going to cost greater than $500. It’s a very strong play for the enthusiast market, but if any company can pull it off, it’s 3dfx.
Michael Howse has other concerns. He wants to leverage the 3dfx brand, and distribution channels to bring in non-graphics hardware and technologies. Already, the relationship with InterAct has helped to create a 3dfx inspired game pad for the PC market. There may be more of the same kind of thing happening in the future. While I believe that 3dfx would do well to extend itself and its engineering expertise to incorporate other gaming peripherals, I do have some concern about the company becoming a label for other people’s technologies. Can a graphics company be an input company, or an audio company, or a communications company? In some cases, yes, but it is a very difficult transition technically, culturally, and most organizations find themselves stretched too thin. However, 3dfx seems to want to be an entertainment technology company so, in that regard, it has a better chance than most. A lot will depend on how it builds up its gaming product lines, beyond graphics, and whether the company can bring in an operation oriented CEO who can ensure that the company can be an effective manufacturer in the retail peripherals market.
My greatest concern for 3dfx has to do with content. I am entirely convinced that the company needs to have a content strategy that should, or could, involve the creation, as well as distribution, of gaming content. Scott and Michael assured me that they have an Internet strategies that addresses my content concerns. I am not sure what it is, but I think there is a chasm in front of 3dfx and that only an effective content strategy will help them to cross it. A few months ago that chasm was the gamers that love the company. 3dfx would either have to jettison them to get the OEM market it needed to compete in the full graphics arena, or it would have to embrace them completely. It seems that the company chosen to embrace them, and now, the chasm needs content to fill it. This just may make 3dfx fun again. I am eager to see how things turn out in the next six months. I have been consistent in my criticism of the company’s past business strategies and posturing. This is all or nothing time, and I’d like to think good things can come of it for the company.
Courtesy of 3dfx – The Voodoo4 and Voodoo5
There’s plenty more of this stuff at www.3dfx.com, and www.3dfxgamers.com. This is information taken verbatim from the 3dfx press kit. I don’t see any reason not to deliver it as is because, there is no silicon yet, and until the products are available for testing, it is pointless to speculate any further on their features. I’m just putting it here for easy reference.
The Voodoo4 family of products feature single-chip implementations of the VSA-100 architecture and are targeted to deliver great performance at mainstream prices. The Voodoo4 4500 will be available in both PCI and AGP versions, and will feature a single VSA-100 processor and 32 MB of graphics memory. The boards, which render two fully featured pixels per clock, will deliver between 333 and 367 megatexels/megapixels per second fill rates and are expected to be priced at $179.99 *.
The Voodoo5 family of products feature multi-chip implementations of the VSA-100 architecture including both dual-chip and quad-chip configurations. The multi-chip capabilities of the VSA-100 allow for the first time, true full-scene, hardware anti-aliasing at real-time frame rates. True full-scene anti-aliasing removes visual artifacts, such as “jaggies” and triangle “popping,” to create smooth images that create a substantially improved immersive experience for the viewer. Additionally, Voodoo5 products enable advanced T-Buffer(tm) digital cinematic effects including motion blur, programmable depth-of-field, soft shadows and soft reflections.
Dual and Quad VSA-100
The Voodoo5 5000 PCI will have dual VSA-100 processors and 32 MB of total graphics memory. The Voodoo5 5000 PCI board, rendering four fully featured pixels per clock, will deliver between 667 and 733 megatexels/megapixels per second fill rates and is expected to be priced at $229.99 *. The Voodoo5 5500 AGP will feature dual VSA-100 processors and 64 MB of total graphics memory. 64 MB of memory allows for higher resolutions and pixel depths with full-scene anti-aliasing and T-Buffer effects enabled, along with more memory available for texture storage. The board, which renders four fully featured pixels per clock, will deliver between 667 and 733 megatexels/megapixels per second fill rate and is expected to be priced at $299.99 *.
Voodoo5 6000 with power supply
The flagship product of the VSA-100 architecture, the Voodoo5 6000 AGP, will feature quad VSA-100 processors and 128 MB of graphics memory. It will be the first consumer graphics product to break the one billion pixel per second fill rate barrier. The Voodoo5 6000 AGP, which renders eight fully featured pixels per clock, will deliver between 1.33 and 1.47 gigatexels/gigapixels per second fill rate. It is expected to be priced at $599.99 *.
* Pricing and Availability
Voodoo4 and Voodoo5 products based on the VSA-100 are scheduled to be in volume production in the first quarter of 2000. Final board pricing and performance will depend on memory prices and will be announced in the early part of 2000.
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