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You think Matrox will be resurrected by a charitable buyer?
You think some miraculous advancement or new product will save their ass?
Think again.
You want to know why I've been cynical of Matrox and their Parhelia release? Because I saw Rendition suffering a similar fate in 1998. I watched in the front row as Rendition slowly dissappeared off the face of the earth.
History Lesson
Rendition was a privately owned company much like Matrox. Rendition, like Matrox, had a history of breaking new ground, including the first 2D/3D combo card with acceptable gaming performance ( the v1000 ), as well as the first 3D-accelerated version of Quake ported specifically for that card. They comfortably took 2nd place performance-wise to 3DFX by managing to undercut the price of the Voodoo Graphics cards by around $100.
But when the memory market crashed in '97, 3DFX no longer became a higher-priced alternative, there was suddenly little market separation, and 3DFX was the definitive performance winner. About the same time, Rendition's next-generation v2100 and v2200 chipsets were hitting delays, and in the end the silicon and drivers had such mind-blowing limitations that the NEXT-GENERATION v2200 STILL took 2nd-place to the original 3DFX Voodoo Graphics in many games. It was so bad that, after making only one card with Rendition, Diamond steadfastly refused to do future business with them.
The summer of 1998 left the spotlight glowing white-hot. Everyone and their dog was announcing "Voodoo Killers" ( TNT, PVRSG, Savage3D, and even Matrox announded and delivered their first 3D card, the G200 ). At Rendition, things were pretty quiet. Bug fixes for the many obvious flaws of the v2x00 series, both 2D and 3D, were slow if they made it out at all. Unbeknowest to the world, by this time Rendition was on the way to insolvency, and had cut about half their staff from the year before.
To distract people from the fact that Rendition wasn't really innovating, let alone even addressing the problems on their current chips, Rendition launched the "Conspiracy Project". Some of you may remember this, it was basicially a v2200 chip paired with a Fujitsu Pinolite geometry processor, an early attempt at consumer on-card T&L. Rendition also created a version of the v2200 graphics chip with embedded memory. These were both proof-of concept, but obviously they were about 6 months behind, as everyone was announcing cards while Rendition was in the early development stage of their next-gen part.
In the fall Rendition went into talks to merge with Micron Technologies. Micron, from the very beginning, intended to leverage Rendition's experience with embedded memory, and never promised to maintain the graphics business. Rendition attempted to force the issue on Micron by introducing their next-generation "Rendition Multimedia Accelerator" in a series of eye-grabbing "Fact Of The Week" articles.
Mirror of the original FOTW articles ( Rendition's site no longer exists )
The "RMA" <chuckle chuckle> was never released, and although it looked impressive on paper, it probably never would have met the claims, if the v2x00 was anything to judge by. They had a graphics chip ready to go, and a next-gen chip in the works, but they were faced with cooler heads. Micron absorbed the useful parts and put them back on track. End of story.
THE POINT IS CHILDREN
No matter who buys Matrox, they will probably not continue as normal. Companies go into insolvency because they have poor management and spread themselves too thin or become too dependent. Matrox has done the same as Rendition did, as a private company BOTH were entitled to not disclose their financials. But just like Rendition, we saw the signs.
Look at what Matrox REALLY has.
They have a Fab? Hmmmm, maybe Matrox is more worthless than I ever believed. Rendition was a fabless chip company, and they got ripped to shreds after the MT acquisition. There just wasn't anything worth keeping except the embedded memory expertise.
Other than that, they have nothing. Their R&D is a year behind, and from what I hear, even their legendary analog engineers ( responsible for the excellent timing and crisp output ) were fired over 2 years ago, before the G450.
No petition, no distraction tactics, no nothing will change this. Petitions don't create graphics chips. Just be happy, AT LEAST MATROX GOT TO RELEASE THEIR "VOODOO KILLER", as much a dissappointment as it's been. Rendition never even got the chance
The only good thing is, the one and only reason for Matrox's strong following is about to disappear. It's called DVI-D folks, and it will make high-quality on-card RAMDACs and filters obsolete. Flat-panels don't need them at all, and conceivably CRTs could use DVI to move the analog conversion closer to the tube, reducing outside interference. Most highend CRTs are already shipping with DVI-A interfaces, and it won't be long before they take the next step and make the graphics card just an ordinary pixel pusher.
Just thought I'd save you all months of whining and moaning. Flame me if you want, it's all utterly useless.
You think some miraculous advancement or new product will save their ass?
Think again.
You want to know why I've been cynical of Matrox and their Parhelia release? Because I saw Rendition suffering a similar fate in 1998. I watched in the front row as Rendition slowly dissappeared off the face of the earth.
History Lesson
Rendition was a privately owned company much like Matrox. Rendition, like Matrox, had a history of breaking new ground, including the first 2D/3D combo card with acceptable gaming performance ( the v1000 ), as well as the first 3D-accelerated version of Quake ported specifically for that card. They comfortably took 2nd place performance-wise to 3DFX by managing to undercut the price of the Voodoo Graphics cards by around $100.
But when the memory market crashed in '97, 3DFX no longer became a higher-priced alternative, there was suddenly little market separation, and 3DFX was the definitive performance winner. About the same time, Rendition's next-generation v2100 and v2200 chipsets were hitting delays, and in the end the silicon and drivers had such mind-blowing limitations that the NEXT-GENERATION v2200 STILL took 2nd-place to the original 3DFX Voodoo Graphics in many games. It was so bad that, after making only one card with Rendition, Diamond steadfastly refused to do future business with them.
The summer of 1998 left the spotlight glowing white-hot. Everyone and their dog was announcing "Voodoo Killers" ( TNT, PVRSG, Savage3D, and even Matrox announded and delivered their first 3D card, the G200 ). At Rendition, things were pretty quiet. Bug fixes for the many obvious flaws of the v2x00 series, both 2D and 3D, were slow if they made it out at all. Unbeknowest to the world, by this time Rendition was on the way to insolvency, and had cut about half their staff from the year before.
To distract people from the fact that Rendition wasn't really innovating, let alone even addressing the problems on their current chips, Rendition launched the "Conspiracy Project". Some of you may remember this, it was basicially a v2200 chip paired with a Fujitsu Pinolite geometry processor, an early attempt at consumer on-card T&L. Rendition also created a version of the v2200 graphics chip with embedded memory. These were both proof-of concept, but obviously they were about 6 months behind, as everyone was announcing cards while Rendition was in the early development stage of their next-gen part.
In the fall Rendition went into talks to merge with Micron Technologies. Micron, from the very beginning, intended to leverage Rendition's experience with embedded memory, and never promised to maintain the graphics business. Rendition attempted to force the issue on Micron by introducing their next-generation "Rendition Multimedia Accelerator" in a series of eye-grabbing "Fact Of The Week" articles.
Mirror of the original FOTW articles ( Rendition's site no longer exists )
The "RMA" <chuckle chuckle> was never released, and although it looked impressive on paper, it probably never would have met the claims, if the v2x00 was anything to judge by. They had a graphics chip ready to go, and a next-gen chip in the works, but they were faced with cooler heads. Micron absorbed the useful parts and put them back on track. End of story.
THE POINT IS CHILDREN
No matter who buys Matrox, they will probably not continue as normal. Companies go into insolvency because they have poor management and spread themselves too thin or become too dependent. Matrox has done the same as Rendition did, as a private company BOTH were entitled to not disclose their financials. But just like Rendition, we saw the signs.
Look at what Matrox REALLY has.
They have a Fab? Hmmmm, maybe Matrox is more worthless than I ever believed. Rendition was a fabless chip company, and they got ripped to shreds after the MT acquisition. There just wasn't anything worth keeping except the embedded memory expertise.
Other than that, they have nothing. Their R&D is a year behind, and from what I hear, even their legendary analog engineers ( responsible for the excellent timing and crisp output ) were fired over 2 years ago, before the G450.
No petition, no distraction tactics, no nothing will change this. Petitions don't create graphics chips. Just be happy, AT LEAST MATROX GOT TO RELEASE THEIR "VOODOO KILLER", as much a dissappointment as it's been. Rendition never even got the chance
The only good thing is, the one and only reason for Matrox's strong following is about to disappear. It's called DVI-D folks, and it will make high-quality on-card RAMDACs and filters obsolete. Flat-panels don't need them at all, and conceivably CRTs could use DVI to move the analog conversion closer to the tube, reducing outside interference. Most highend CRTs are already shipping with DVI-A interfaces, and it won't be long before they take the next step and make the graphics card just an ordinary pixel pusher.
Just thought I'd save you all months of whining and moaning. Flame me if you want, it's all utterly useless.
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