More than 32 years have passed since Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem founded their modern company together. It even took them some time to come up with a name, but they eventually settled on Nvidia. Yes, that miniature, independent, underdog company. The one that was worth $5 trillion in October. This level of fortune gives you plenty of opportunity to spend hours reminiscing about the past, present and future, which is exactly what Jensen Huang and Joe Rogan did recently.
This prompted Jensen to recall Nvidia’s early days as a miniature group of engineers in 1993: “We were trying to create this new approach to computing. The question is, which application is the killer? We wanted to create a new type of computing architecture, a new type of computer that could solve problems that a regular computer couldn’t solve.”
A noble goal, you might say. However, Huang hits the nail on the head with this idea. “Well, the applications that existed in the industry in 1993 were applications that normal computers could solve, because if normal computers couldn’t solve them, why would the application exist?
“So we had a company mission statement that had no chance of success, but I didn’t know that in 1993; it just sounded like a good idea, right?”
If you’re not familiar with Nvidia’s early history, the application it eventually settled on was 3D graphics rendering. More importantly, the type of rendering Sega was doing on its arcade units, e.g Virtua Warrior. I highly recommend downloading a copy The Nvidia Way: Jensen Huang and the Creation of a Technology Giantby Tae Kim because it is affluent in detail and details how Nvidia did more than just take inspiration from Sega.
Here’s the key passage: “During the trade show, the Nvidia team managed to make an introduction to representatives of Japanese video game and console manufacturer Sega. Sega, impressed by the NV1 demonstration, agreed to begin working with Nvidia to plan its next console. On December 11, 1994, Jensen and Curtis Priem flew to Tokyo to pitch a chip development deal to Sega management.”
“So he decided Jensen was a young man he liked and that was it.”
“The other technology, the technology that ultimately won, the technology we use today, has Z buffers. It was sorted automatically. We had an architecture with no Z buffers, the application had to sort it. So we chose several technology approaches, three main technology choices. All three choices were wrong.”
Sega’s console, the Dreamcast, never used the NV1. Instead, the company opted for British company VideoLogic (now Imagination Technologies) and its PowerVR graphics architecture. It looked like Nvidia had run out of steam, especially since Sega told it it wouldn’t employ the proposed NV2 in its next console.
Tae Kim explains how Nvidia cleverly got out of this situation: “Jensen cleverly inserted a clause into the initial contract that would provide for a $1 million payment from Sega if Nvidia could produce a working prototype of the chip that could be installed on a standalone motherboard that would be approximately the same size as the older Sega Genesis/Mega Drive motherboard.
This was crucial because the payout (and massive staff reduction) generated sufficient funds for research and development of NV3, also known as Riwa 128. This graphics chip was brisk, effective, and while the initial drivers were a bit iffy (what drivers weren’t in 1997?), the CPU’s sales were good enough to secure Nvidia’s future.
“We bet the farm on video games,” Huang told Rogan. “We narrowly focused on the problem statement so I could strip away all the other complexities, and we narrowed it down to one small focus and then added it to the players.” Considering that Nvidia currently controls 92% of the discrete GPU market, it’s a bet that has paid off in every respect.
Of course, Nvidia’s current focus is solely on AI, and that’s what most JRE podcasts are about. But I like to think back to the 90s, remembering the first graphics cards I bought: Rage Pro, Riva TNT, Voodoo. Ah, good times.
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