More NVIDIA

Market Position

Rich explained that NVIDIA is in a great position because the company has learned from the mistakes of other companies. At this point in the conversation, Rich glanced over at the 3dfx booth (which was right next to the NVIDIA booth) and went on to emphasize that one missed product cycle can really hurt a company.

Jen-Hsun's mantra has always been "we're only 30 days away from going out of business," and while NVIDIA may have a little breathing room now, the mantra still rings true. Of course, the success of the GeForce does change things slightly -in addition to being 30 days away from failure, NVIDIA now has a huge target on its back. One missed product cycle or one failed product, and NVIDIA will have to play catch-up. NVIDIA will soon have a larger product mix that will hopefully lessen the company's reliance on a single hit product.

According to Derek, NVIDIA currently has about 400 employees and 300 of them are engineers from companies such as Sun, SGI, S3, and even 3dfx. The company wants to have 800 employees by the end of the year, and we'll assume that NVIDIA wants to maintain the same ratio of engineers.

NVIDIA held a Rogue Spear and Q3 contest

Taking the lead

Frankly, it sounds like NVIDIA is more than able to maintain its dominant status in the industry. The company has plenty of engineers, a fat Microsoft X-Box contract, and momentum. Don't count 3dfx out just yet. NVIDIA is still in a precarious position. The company must deliver on the X-Box part next year, and the fall cycle is still a question. 3dfx's Rampage part is rumored to be very powerful, and 3dfx currently has plenty of cheap stock that could bring in more engineers.

We also have to see how this current generation shapes up. 3dfx is bringing in VSA-100, and ATI's new Rage 6 looks interesting. There's no question NVIDIA's in the driver's seat right now, but the future depends on the X-Box project, the strength of the NV15 and NV20, and execution.

Tired of hearing about 3D graphics companies? Bob will walk you through our visit with Epic. Let's take a look at Unreal Tournament on the PlayStation 2, and Epic's upcoming technology.