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Technology Stocks : 3DFX -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Michael Linov who wrote (9567)	12/13/1998 11:37:00 AM
From: Joe C.	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 16960

I've been thinking about one of my two cents points in my last post - Making the .25 silicon will be cheaper and faster to build. I seem to recall enough people saying this to be true that I believe it as a fact. But why - .25 is smaller and I would have thought smaller is harder i.e. more expensive and maybe slower to build. I guess the material cost of a smaller chip would be less and maybe that's why the cost would be lower - why would it be faster to build. Has the process re-design that was developed made it faster to build. I'm hoping they can crank out at least 1 million V3's per month to capture some serious OEM market share figuring the top OEM's sell 1 million boxes per quarter. Looking into the future, I'm thinking that if set top boxes really work out - which I think will be the next killer ap for 3D interactive entertainment coupled with the internet- their production rates are going to need to support # of TV's sold type production levels. How's that for positive thinking. Joe C.

To: Michael Linov who wrote (9567)	12/13/1998 2:09:00 PM
From: Chip Anderson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 16960

Good post Michael - lots of stuff to think about. Re: 128-bit color - The next step along the incremental improvement path IMHO should be anti-aliasing (full-screen or otherwise). The difference in perceived picture quality is significant - probably even more noticeable than going from 16-bit to 32-bit color. Probably the biggest visual issue with today's 3D games are the "jaggy sharp edges" that abound - sheesh, most rectangular objects look as if they'll slice a chunk out of you if you run into them at an angle. Anti-aliasing technology will eliminate most of that problem in addition to smoothing over other undesirable visual artifacts. I became a believer in this when I saw Gigapixel's demo at Comdex. gigapixel.com gigapixel.com (Again, screenshots don't fully convey the effect.) Very impressive but generating it at 60+fps is the trick... Chip "Is anyone _pro_-aliasing?" Anderson

To: Michael Linov who wrote (9567)	12/13/1998 6:54:00 PM
From: Patrick Grinsell	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 16960

Now, here's a suggestion for 3dfx... why stick to 32 bit color, when you could make a card with 128 Bit color, and 4 TMU's :) Now, before you all think I'm crazy, think of doing all your matrix math using Multi-texturing in 3-4 cycles. Or maybe 2 Parallel V3's , with each supplying half bit's, providing true 30 bit color, by adding a little external circuitry. Wouldn't be too hard, and wouldn't run any slower either. Okay, my interest is peaked. Please explain how this could be done in further detail please. Pat P.S. I believe Voodoo2 was announced at Comdex last year (mid nov.) and shipped in February.