In an Email sent to various news organizations, NVIDIA provided some answers to the questions surrounding the merger of 3Dfx and STB.
Q:How does this impact NVIDIA's business?
A:We do not believe that this will affect our business, because OEMs choose our technology and then the board supplier. We are fortunate to have a number of board vendors working with NVIDIA that have the ability to sell to our OEM customers.
Q:What does this merger mean to NVIDIA's business in the short term?
A:NVIDIA's OEMs will demand that their business needs for the RIVA TNT graphic cards are met trough this transition. We don't expect a lot of near term change.
Q:What are 3Dfx's motives behind the merger?
A:3Dfx wants to get into the OEM market. We can only speculate that they believe that purchasing STB will help them. As we said, OEMs choose technology first, then supplier, so we don't understand this move.
Q:Is NVIDIA next to enter the graphic accelerator market?
A:Unlike 3Dfx, we don't have to change our business model in order to have success in this market. Right now we see absolutely no reason to enter the board market. NVIDIA is the latest viable, independent 3D processor supplier. We're excited to service the markets that 3Dfx just vacated.
Q:Do you think this will impact Glide?
A:Yes, we do think it will impact Glide. The broad industry base for the API is gone. What developer is going to do a special part for a single supplier?
So it would seem that NVIDIA is not too worried about this move by 3Dfx!
