Questions for Dr. Leupp

Open call for answers

In the next 30 minutes, the floor was left open for questions to be answered by the new CEO. Of course, we were all itching to find out more tidbits about the recently announced Voodoo4 and Voodoo5 VSA processors (and in a way hoping his newness and unfamiliarity with the situation would make him slip up a reveal a little more than should), but the purpose of the meeting was to see what Dr. Leupp had in mind in regards to a turnaround for 3dfx corporate strategy.

FiringSquad was particularly interested in any kind of internal reorganization that might occur, something that would directly or indirectly affect its on-shelf and OEM products, research and development efforts, and time to market with new products.

FiringSquad: Considering 3dfx's recent sales figures and quarterly loss statements, what do you think 3dfx does well, and what needs work?

Dr. Leupp: Well, technically the company looks exciting. We really need to look at are where our shortfalls lie, whether that's in long engineering times, low profit margins, or undue expenses. Currently, the earnings report for the next quarter looks to be in line with last quarter's loss, and that's something we're planning on resolving for 2000.

FiringSquad: As you mentioned earlier, 3dfx missed a window of opportunity with Voodoo4 and Voodoo5. Will you considering pushing up future technologies developed in parallel (which are not behind schedule) in order to make up for lost time, or will 3dfx accept the possibility of losing this round of the technology race?

Dr. Leupp: Currently, demand remains very strong for 3dfx's Voodoo products, and we're barely making enough to keep on the shelves. As for future technology, we'll have to further examine how to improve our practice of parallel development.

From the conversation, it looked like 3dfx was going to set Voodoo5 out into the market and see what comes out of the competition before readying any next-generation technology. Of course, to their benefit, refined engineering (and volume) of VSA-100 chips could conceivably lead to more powerful configurations (8-processor Voodoo5?) later on in development if a product such as NV15/20 or Project X makes its way into the market before Rampage is ready. In fact, the scalability of VSA-100 (and as stated, all future 3dfx chips) provides them a safety blanket - if someone is able to eek out a faster processor, they need only look to a Quantum3D configuration to release into the mainstream. Of course, this is pure conjecture, but a possibility nonetheless.