Guys This is Getting Silly

[superfly]

The problem with lawsuits is that they take too long to reach a decision(one way or the other)and end up costing huge amounts of money.

Look no further than other lawsuits that have been going on now for a couple of years(3dfx vs nvidia anyone).

I'm not saying that lawsuits aren't usefull,but don't hold your breath on a swift decision anytime soon.

[Greebe]

Now there's the understatement of the century!

[mj12]

Anyone have details on the corporate raiding that nvidia performed on matrox? If this is what is holding matrox back then that is sad. But then again matrox didn't ensure that their employees were so happy they would never leave. Things must not be so grand behind the scenes.

[DosFreak]

Oh please. Stop making excuses for Matrox. It's not like they were producing graphics cards every 6months before the Nvidia thing. Your just making excuses for Matrox. As far as I know no money has been taken from Matrox. It's not like the design teams are being pressured. Lawyers run the shows. Companies do not.

[Himself]

Unless those engineers were writing the drivers for Matrox then I wouldn't expect owning NVIDIA's cards to change much at all. Not sure why they needed extra engineers myself, seems they were doing fine as it is, it sounds more like a kill all competition deal.

[Pace]

So, for the people in the know (TM), what's going on with this trial? What happened?

Paul.

[paulcs]

NVIDIA, or so I'm told, has several teams of engineers working simultaneously on different generations of products. So the GeForce2 team is kept together, even after the product is released, while the NV20 team works on the upcoming GeForce3 (or whatever they'll call it).

In addition, they've recently expanded into the mobile, console, and motherboard chipset areas. They've experienced tremendous growth during the last couple of years, and there is a local manpower shortage.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[Greebe]

Dosfreak,

It's not like the design teams are being pressured.

If you lost a significant amount of engineering staff and were left to pick up the pieces, wouldn't you find it difficult to finish any project on time? Oh yah that's right, you're GOD and with a flick of your wrist "POOf" you created another miracle! Bwahahahahaa

Just because you know a thing or two about computers, doesn't mean you know caca about manufacturing or engineering or how to run a business.

[Ali]

I thinkthe reason the engineers went to Nvidia is because they were offered stock options.

Matrox is privately owned by two brothers, so there was never any possibility of stock options.

I can imagine their thinking. 'Im working hard and well making the bosses all this money, and my salery stays the same', then Nvidea comes along and offers them the same salery or more, and also stock options.

As for getting new engineers up to speed. That will be next to impossible. Only the top 1 or 2 engineers will have a full picture of the entire chip. All the others will know their areas well, and possibly a rough idea about the rest.

Imagine you are designing a car, and the head engineer dies or something. Do you get the guy designing the breaks to start work on the ECU instead? Possibly, but it will take him (or her) months to get up to speed.

Ive heard that 18 engineers left. Thats a huge %age of what they had. If they were only 'worker' engineers then its not a problem. If some of those 18 were the head engineers, or ones that had been there for a long time and picked bits up, then they are in DEEP trouble.

Ali

[Pace]

I don't think it matters if it was stock options, or cash, or whatever. It's the problem of 'stealing' the engineers!

So, am I right in saying the a lot of Matrox engineers left for NVIDIA in possibly illegal circumstances, and Matrox are now sueing for damages? Or something worse?

Paul.

[WetWilly]

I'm also kind of curious as to who and what they got from Matrox. After all, nVidia also supposedly raided nine engineers from the remains of Aureal and what did they do? They licensed Sensaura.

[PaulS]

Seriously they may have lost 18 engineers??? I wonder how accurate that figure is?

It takes a very special company to jerk that many important employees off.

Paul

[Snowfly]

I dont think it was stock options that lured those engineers away from Matrox it might have been the annoucement that the g450 will be their flag ship in 2001 meanwhile Nvidia is flexing their muscle and releasing these cards that push the limits of performance.
Personally I see Matrox like the rolls royce of graphics cards and nvidia like the ferrari sure the rolls royce is great but doesnt change much, then the ferrari is always pushing its limits, I guess engineers want to push their limits also, and if they cant wherever they are they will go to someplace where they can.

[paulcs]

Well, that would run up against the grain of the G800 being delayed because of a loss of key personnel. Cause and effect are reversed with Snowfly's argument.

I suspect NVIDIA offered *very* attractive compensation, maybe helped cover moving expenses, helped them find housing, guaranteed them nice weather. In January. It isn't easy to get good engineers around here. There are lots of them, maybe more than anywhere else, but they're all working and well-compensated. Also, Matrox's engineers have a proven track record. One can argue that they beat NVIDIA at their own game, OpenGL performance, with the G400 Max (vs. the TNT2 Ultra).

Let's see how they respond to the next big earthquake. I bet we'll see some of them crawl back to Montreal.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[This message has been edited by paulcs (edited 27 November 2000).]

[Himself]

Essentially, for the next year, Matrox is dead, 3DFX is dead, and anyone else would be facing an NVIDIA wall, it's up to ATi to keep NVIDIA away from total domination and crappy drivers everywhere.