What is the MATROX?

[DirtFarmer]

Anybody remember the interview with some Matrox Mucky-Muck in Maximum PC a couple of years back? Here are a some excerpts...

Maximum PC: Other 3D-card companies are intoducing new products every six months. How can Matrox remain competitive releasing products on an annual basis?

MMM: We've been introducing multiple products; however, some of the products have been targeted at businsess. At this point, we have more R&D resources working on next-generation chips than we've ever had, so I expect our intoduction of new products to be extremely competitive.

Yup, extrememely competitive at transferring rendered 3-D faces over IP.

Maximum PC: Sega uses the PC's PowerVR technology for its Dreamcast console. Is that the future for 3D chipset companies?

MMM: PowerVR-based technology will not make a resurgence back on the PC anytime soon. When you miss a couple of cycles it's really hard to get back in the game.

Maximum PC: That sounds a lot like Rendition.

MMM: We're all in a very competitive industry with a lot of money going into making the very best product. There are a lot of stages along the way where you can go wrong- but there's no room to go wrong. If you get anything wrong along the way, chances are that enough of your competitors won't, and you very quickly run out of money and lose your ability to compete. That's the danger existing in the market right now, and it's very important not to miss any design cycles.

Maximum PC: So, what would it take for Matrox to die?

MMM: The mistake that is most able to destroy a company is underestimating the technology requirements and missing design cycles. The amount of time you have to hold your breath, so th speak, is smaller for a company of Matrox's size.

If this guy had any significant part of Matrox's last couple of video card releases it's clear he should be encouraged to go work for one of the competitors. A rebaked G400 on a smaller die every 12 months is clearly underestimating technology requirements and missing design cycles. If Matrox can release a reasonable product any time this year all will be forgotten... for a short time.

PowerVR has made a comeback so there is hope for Matrox.

So how out of line is this thread???

[Indiana]

"Unfortunately noone can be told what the MATROX is..."

[DirtFarmer]

Nope, not Jason, and I sure hope he is not the MATROX.

[DirtFarmer]

In recent layoffs and cutbacks did the MATROX get rid of the dead 'wood'?

[Ant]

The interview in Maximum PC was with Dan Wood I believe, real nice bloke is Dan.

[Tempest]

Could you enlighten the little newbie MURCer about why these people repulse you ?
I don't know what caused those engineers to leave Matrox, but did it ever occur to you that this "business market" thing could have been because Matrox couldn't complete the G800 with their reduced engineering force? And maybe they had to start all over again because the old core was not up to the task anymore, and that's why all that remains of G800 is the G550...
Maybe they chose the not-so-hot business sector only because they had no choice and the people that many of us here accuse about it are as pissed off about it as we are. Or was it Dan Wood that made the engineers leave? If this is too hot a topic to discuss here, someone just drop me a mail about it 'cause I really want to know. I won't tell anyone...

Edit: A little "pre-quoting":

Originally posted by Ant
Who are your comments directed at?

The "repulse" part was mainly for DirtFarmer and M A, sorry 'bout that... Although anyone is free to comment, of course.

[Ant]

Who are your comments directed at?

[DirtFarmer]

Originally posted by Tempest
Could you enlighten the little newbie MURCer about why these people repulse you ?

Maybe you can help clarify this statement. Thanks to your prequote I am under the impression that I am one of these people by which you are repulsed??
If my postings repulse you so much, you would probably hate to see my unsightly, untidy, ungroomed protruding nosehairs.

and don't be calling me names or i will be forced to taunt you MANY TIMES.

Just in case you were thinking of a less than diplomatic response here is a brief sampling of the taunting which you will receive. (in some Outrageous French accent)

"ahhhhh your mother was a hamster and your father smells of elderberries" and the next taunting will definately include the waving of private parts, so be wary young Tempest.

Originally posted by Ant
The interview in Maximum PC was with Dan Wood I believe, real nice bloke is Dan.

Yes, sure, Dan Wood is a nice bloke. He probably doesn't deserve the heat that he has been receiving. Maybe its just bad timing, as he climbs the ladder, Matrox Graphics slowly slides down. It must be a bugger trying to hype and sell technology that you can't get to market.

Go Parhelia
Haig for President.

[Casey Jones]

Here is my idea on it:

some dead 'wood' was placed in management. That dead wood is what caused an environment of some unahppy fellows. Jason DeLasuckme found a good deal and was probably offered incentive for 'finding' new talent. Jason knew who the good people were, propositioned them and they left for greener pastures.


Ant, are you serious about being a 'good bloke'?

Casey

[Ant]

Well I can only comment on my own personel contact with these people , obviously I have never worked with them at Matrox so cannot comment on that side of things. I've met Dan Wood on a couple of occasions and would say he was a real nice bloke I got on very well with him, whether he felt the same way is another thing

Jason Della Rocca is one of the best, I don't know about the accusations being levelled at him, I know he left Matrox and certainly doesn't work for nVidia. Without Jason Della Rocca I would have closed down this site 3 or 4 years ago, Jason encouraged, supported and help me out greatly, supplying me with hardware to review out of his Devrel allocation when the rest of Matrox were saying that supporting web based reviews was a waste of time as there was no audience and it was just a brief fad. I still talk to Jason from time to time and hope that will continue. Speaking of Jason just reminds me of the time when Matrox were top of the heap producing high quality, highly respected products, expensive maybe but the best, lets hope they get back to being that sort of company ASAP.

[Tempest]

Originally posted by DirtFarmer
Maybe you can help clarify this statement. Thanks to your prequote I am under the impression that I am one of these people by which you are repulsed?

Whoops... Sorry, don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to start a flamewar or something here (although my father might smell a little like elderberries)...
What I meant to say was:
I'm newer to MURC than to Matrox products, so I don't necessarily know who these people (Wood, Rocca) are. But I would like to hear more about what they have done, since some of you (DirtFarmer, M A) seem to dislike these people.

I mentioned that I don't necessarily think it was in Matrox' plans to go for the business market, maybe their state of affairs just forced them to it. And maybe their last products have been less than impressing simply because they have dedicated most of their brainpower into the development of a future product.
I said this not because of this particular thread, but because some of the people on this forum seem to have the impression that the G550 and HeadCasting is the best Matrox can deliver and that we should blame some specific people for this. My opinion is that Matrox is capable of far more than that, and the Gx50:es were nothing but forced, quickly thrown together products to show that the company is still alive.

[Dr Mordrid]

IMHO they just targeted the wrong markets. By moving in to the low end markets, OEM and basic DD's, they limited their potential return on investment. All but abandoning the brick & mortar distribution channels probably didn't help the bottom line either.

The best thing they could do in this market is to reverse their direction by going back to their hey-day scenario: high value in a premium product line targeting graphics designers, 3D artists and multimedia. Getting their cards back into CompUSA and other major chains wouldn't hurt either.

Starting point: a high power card with a s***load of memory, high speed rendering engine and commercial grade OpenGL.

Add an even more advanced DualHead engine, say one with component and IEEE-1394 outputs in addition to the current composite and S-Video, and you have the basis of a very powerful multimedia authoring system.

Why component and IEEE-1394 outputs?

Component because these high quality interconnects are moving down from the top-end TV's & decks into lower end models.

IEEE-1394 because it's going to be an even higher quality interconnect between TV's and decks sooner than later. Philips and others are already cranking out the IEEE-1394 enabled TV and recordable DVD deck chipsets.

Might as well get ahead of the curve for once.

Dr. Mordrid

[DirtFarmer]

Originally posted by Ant
Speaking of Jason just reminds me of the time when Matrox were top of the heap producing high quality, highly respected products, expensive maybe but the best, lets hope they get back to being that sort of company ASAP.

I remember the email he sent out to the original MU mailing list asking for feedback on what we were looking for in the next Matrox product. That was shortly after the release of the m3D card (PowerVR chip).

Heres to HOPE. CHEERS.

Originally posted by Dr. Mordrid]
The best thing they could do in this market is to reverse their direction by going back to their hey-day scenario: high value in a premium product line targeting graphics designers, 3D artists and multimedia.

Starting point: a high power card with a s***load of memory, high speed rendering engine and commercial grade OpenGL.

Add an even more advanced DualHead engine, preferrably with component outputs in addition to the current composite and S-Video, and you have the basis of a very powerful multimedia authoring system.

I sure like this idea, but it seems matrox is still more interested in commercial grade DirectX.

[Ant]

I'm 100% behind the Doc, lets hope Matrox see sense and head back in that direction.

[[GDI]Raptor]

I hope the engineer behind HeadCasting starts @ nVidia to....

Matrox need a "killer" product to come out of the economical problem there in now! And it should be out before its to late....