New Blood, New Life

Dr. Alex Leupp

Most likely, you've never heard of Dr. Leupp, or the significance his position and experience will bring to 3dfx. Here's a little background to get you started.

Dr. Alex Leupp

Dr. Leupp joined 3dfx's board of directors in October 1998, and has acted in that capacity until his recent acceptance of the CEO position this month. Prior to joining 3dfx. Dr. Leupp was the president and CEO of Chip Express Corp, a privately held semiconductor company. Prior to that he served as president and CEO at Siemens Microelectronics for 6 years, and has also held executive management positions at Hughes, Fairchild Semiconductor, and California Devices.

Dr. Leupp holds a Ph.D. in semiconductor physics, an MSEE from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, and a bachelors of arts degree in business administration from the University of Redlands, California.

What is brought to the table?

Dr. Leupp officially joins 3dfx as President and CEO on December 6th, 1999. With the title, he brings to the company considerable experience in the semiconductor industry, as well as the business acumen derived from long-time experience in the CEO seat.

Speaking with Dr. Leupp, it appeared that he saw 3dfx's current situation in a different light - the company's problems were not technical, but rather business-related. He stated that "technically, 3dfx looks exciting. The real challenge will be examine the business model, productization, margins, and expenses." This seems contrary to Greg Ballard's departing remarks, but it also paints a much brighter picture for the company's future products. The VSA-100 chips used in 3dfx's upcoming Voodoo4 and Voodoo5 chips certainly fit the bill, and rumors of their next scalable chip Rampage are drawing even more hushed whispers.

Examining 3dfx's recent market performance, I would have to agree with Dr. Leupp. For one, 3dfx has chosen to go the route of heavy fill rate, and though we have nothing to speak of yet, their specs indicate that they will have the number one product in that regard (note to self, are the Bitboys vaporware?). In acknowledging that T&L is the way of future 3D, it seems likely that their next product (presumably Rampage) will have some sort of hardware geometry acceleration.

It's a tough act to follow

Regardless of pure speculation however, with a six month product cycle, it's virtually impossible to change gears in the middle of development and still have a product ready in time. This means that there is very little to be done regarding hardware development, at least in the short term. Sales of Voodoo3 over this year have been tremendous, nearly three times that of last year's same quarter, but at the same time, the company reported a loss of $17.6 million, as opposed to a net income of $3.1 million last year.

Though much of this loss is attributed to the rising cost of memory, as well as the huge earthquake which shook Taiwan earlier in September, it still doesn't explain the whole story - that of dropping margins and stiff competition. These are the points that Dr. Alex Leupp hopes to address with his tenure as 3dfx CEO; in the short term to bring the company back to profitability, and in the long term, diversify so that the company is no longer at the mercy of simply one cutthroat market.