Chapter 308 Leather Swordsman and the 3rd Generation Graphics Chip
The next morning, under the introduction of Yang Zhiyuan, Li Xiaofan went to Santa Clara to visit NVIDIA founder Huang Jenxun. This man changed the history of gaming, the founder of the graphics processor GPU, and the legendary "Leather Swordsman" ".
The temperature in California is cool in November, with a large temperature difference between morning and evening.
When I met Jen-Hsun Huang at NVIDIA at around ten o'clock in the morning, the legendary "leather-clad swordsman" was not wearing a leather jacket, but a simple POLO short-sleeved T-shirt.
Although Huang Renxun's ancestral home is Qingtian, Zhejiang, mainland China, and he was born in Taipei, he immigrated to the United States with his parents when he was 9 years old, so his Chinese is already very poor, and he communicated with Li Xiaofan in English throughout the process.
"Mr. Li, good morning! I heard that Jerry said that you are one of their investors in Yahoo. Do you have anything to do with me today?" Huang Renxun said straight to the point. He and most men in science and engineering are very logical and don't know how to do it. Roundabouts.
"Good morning, Jason!"
Li Xiaofan smiled and said, Huang Renxun’s English name is Jensen.
He continued: "As you just said, I am one of the earliest angel investors in the Yahoo project, and one of my current main jobs is venture capital. I heard that you are starting a business in the field of graphics chips, so I want to contact you Let’s take a look and see if there is any chance of being contrived?”
When Huang Shixun heard Li Xiaofan's request to learn about the graphics chip field he was most familiar with, he immediately became interested.
Huang Renxun's job after graduating from university was as a chip designer at AMD Advanced Semiconductor Company. Two years later, he moved to LSI Logic. Unlike AMD, Isahua Technology's main business is not CPU, but rather the graphics processing of the chip. After spending two years in the design department of LSI Logic, he became the general manager of the integrated chip department responsible for sales. He gradually learned how to integrate product design and development with the market.
"Speaking of the field of graphics chips, I can give you a detailed introduction to what NVIDIA has done. Two years ago, when our company started, we chose square imaging technology, which was not favored by others at the time. We launched the first This NV1 product attaches great importance to the multi-functionality of the chip and chose the idea of integrating multiple functions such as game controllers and sound cards..."
Having said this, Huang Renxun took a graphics card from the display stand behind him and introduced:
"This is the first-generation NVIDIA STG-2000X graphics card we launched on September 30 this year. It is manufactured using our company's first-generation NV1 architecture and authorized SGS-Thomson to produce it for us. Our NV1 chip not only supports 2D/3D at the same time deal with It also has the popular audio processing capabilities and a 350MIPS audio playback engine. But to be honest, I now reflect that the shortcoming of our first-generation graphics card is the lack of vertex shaders, so it does not have game performance... "
Huang Renxun continued: "The first-generation NVIDIA STG-2000X graphics card we launched in September was not ideal for the market. However, fortunately, Sega from Japan gave us a large order of US$7 million and asked us to help them develop SEGA. The display chip of the Saturn game console has allowed our company to finally survive the advent of the WIN95 era! Currently, we are currently developing the third generation NV3 product, which will fully support Microsoft's D3D API interface..."
Jen-Hsun Huang began his eloquent introduction.
Li Xiaofan secretly laughed in his heart. It was precisely because the "leather-clad swordsman" in front of him continued to insist on square drawing technology that the second-generation NV2 chip was abandoned by Sega of Japan before it was developed.
But at the moment, Huang Renxun’s choice to fully support Microsoft’s D3D API interface is very wise.
After the launch of WIN95, a new era of computer graphics has arrived. Display chips have become the focus of attention in PC systems, and the market demand has been unprecedentedly strong. At this important point in time, many graphics card companies on the market currently disagree with Microsoft's D3D API interface and insist on developing their own standard interfaces.
The main products of 3Dfx, which is currently in full swing, include Voodoo graphics card/3D chip and Glide application programming interface. Their Voodoo graphics cards currently occupy most of the market. The performance of 3Dfx's 3D accelerator cards and graphics cards are at the top level in the industry. Their free authorized dedicated application program interface Glide has tempted many game manufacturers and spawned games like Legendary games such as Quake, Tomb Raider, and Need for Speed.
But 3Dfx made a fatal mistake: they ignored the D3D API interface launched by Microsoft and developed their own set of standards.
In the previous life, a few years later, the once-powerful 3Dfx company lost its lawsuit to NVIDIA and was acquired by NVIDIA at a very low price. At that time, some people in the industry commented: This is the result of Microsoft and NVIDIA joining forces to strangle 3Dfx!
Li Xiaofan thought of this and asked: "Jason, when will the NV3 chip product you just mentioned that can fully support Microsoft's D3D API interface be available?"
Huang Renxun replied: "It's really hard to say at the moment. We are going all out and strive for next year!"
In the previous life, NVIDIA officially released the third-generation RIVA 128 chip, which was a milestone, in April 1997, and began its road to take-off!
"Does your company need investment now?" Li Xiaofan continued to ask.
Huang Renxun said loudly: "Of course, we really need investment. This chip industry is too expensive!"
Li Xiaofan then asked: "Jason, do you have a financing business plan? Have you estimated how much investment is needed for this third-generation NV3 chip product?"
After hearing this, Huang Renxun patted his head and said: "Recently, several of our partners have been busy with research and development, and this financing business plan has not been written. Mr. Li, are you interested in our third-generation NV3 chip project? Do you want to invest?"
Li Xiaofan nodded and said: "Yes, I am very interested!"
Huang Renxun said happily: "That's great! Mr. Li, anyway, I have your business card and contact information So, I will calculate the investment amount of our third-generation NV3 chip project in the next few days, and then discuss our financing plan with other partners. When our third-generation NV3 chip project financing business plan is mature, I will email you, can I? "
"No problem, Jason, then I will take my leave first. Then we will contact each other next time after receiving your email!"
...
After saying goodbye to Huang Renxun, on the way back to the hotel, Li Xiaofan thought of another booming sound card company in Singapore: Singapore CREATIVE TECHNOLOGY Innovation Technology Pte. Ltd.
In 1981, Sim Wangfu, a Singaporean from Fujian, founded Singapore Innovation Technology Pte. Ltd. In the summer of 1989, Sim Wangfu established Creative Labs in San Francisco.
In November 1990, Innovation Technology launched the milestone Sound Blaster sound card, a sound card that is truly suitable for personal computers. In 1992, Singapore's Innolux Corporation was successfully listed on the Nasdaq in the United States, making it the first Singaporean company to be listed on the Nasdaq in the United States.
However, the next day, Li Xiaofan did not visit Innolux, but came to the headquarters of Seagate in Scotts Valley, California.