3dfx heeft bekend gemaakt dat het voor 186 miljoen dollar eigenaar wordt van GigaPixel. Dit bedrijf heeft op tiling technologie gebaseerde videochip in ontwikkeling, waarbij alleen zichtbare pixels worden gerenderd (de twee keer geflopte Videologic PowerVR doet dat ook). Op die manier kan veel geheugen bandbreedte bespaard worden. GigaPixel was een kandidaat voor de levering van de X-Box video chip, maar verloor deze deal (die ging zoals bekend naar nVidia). Afgaande op de press release lijkt het erop dat 3dfx nu ook van plan is om tiled rendering toe te passen:
3dfx Interactive® Inc. (Nasdaq: TDFX - news), a global leader in developing and marketing 3D technology for personal computers, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held GigaPixel Corporation of Santa Clara, CA for approximately $186 million, to be paid in approximately 15.6 million 3dfx common shares and options.GigaPixel, founded in 1997, specializes in the design, development and licensing of 3D core technology. Designed to dramatically reduce the memory bandwidth and high gate count designs traditionally required for 3D acceleration, the GigaPixel technology for the first time enables high quality 3D display capabilities in low power, cost sensitive environments.
[...] STRATEGIC BENEFITS OF ACQUISITION
``3dfx will benefit in three significant ways from this transaction,'' said Leupp. ``First of all, we gain very broad and specialized intellectual property and design expertise relating to unique techniques for performing 3D rendering. When combined with our existing 3D technology, we believe we will have substantial performance, feature, and visual quality advantages for our future offerings.''
- ``We view the GigaPixel technology as a disruptive capability in the 3D market,'' said Scott Sellers, founder and chief technology officer of 3dfx Interactive. ``By reducing memory bandwidth requirements by up to a factor of 10, we can now perform true 32-bit full-scene anti-aliased rendering at previously unseen performance levels. This technology is not theoretical -- it is real and exists in GigaPixel prototype silicon right now. Furthermore, we can now render in 3D at substantially reduced power requirements and cost points, thereby enabling a new class of 3D capable devices in the consumer electronics market.''
- ``The second key benefit of this transaction is an expansion of our target markets,'' Leupp said. ``With the GigaPixel technology and existing business relationships, we expect to be the leader in providing 3D cores and intellectual property to our partners leading the market with 3D capable consumer devices. These 3D capable consumer devices will usher in the era of three dimensional visual communications.''
- ``The third key benefit of this transaction is access to a team of over 40 engineers skilled in 3D design and algorithm expertise,'' he said. ``This will augment our existing engineering staff and allow us to produce highly innovative products on a rapid schedule. In many ways, this acquisition is about speed,'' Leupp continued. ``We will increase the speed we bring products to market by being able to leverage the talented GigaPixel engineering team and their state of the art design methodology. We will also increase the speed at which we increase the performance levels of our products by utilizing the unique GigaPixel 3D technology. And we will increase the speed at which we provide solutions for new emerging consumer electronics markets to augment our existing PC 3D accelerator business.''
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