3DFX
 |
|
| Industry | Semiconductors |
|---|---|
| Fate | Bankrupt, most assets bought by Nvidia, fate of remaining assets unknown. |
| Successor | Nvidia |
| Founded | 1994 |
| Defunct | 2002 |
| Headquarters | San Jose, California, USA |
|
Key people
|
Ross Smith, Scott Sellers, Gary Tarolli |
| Products | Voodoo Graphics Series |
| Website | 3dfx.com at the Wayback Machine (archived February 1, 2001) |
3dfx Interactive was a company headquartered in San Jose, California, founded in 1994, that specialized in the manufacturing of 3D graphics processing units and, later, graphics cards. It was a pioneer in the field from the late 1990s until 2000.
The company's flagship product was the Voodoo Graphics, an add-in card that accelerated 3D graphics. The hardware accelerated only 3D rendering, relying on the PC's current video card for 2D support. Despite this limitation, the Voodoo Graphics product and its follow-up, Voodoo2, were popular. It became standard for 3D games to offer support for the company's Glide API.
3dfx rapidly declined beginning in the late 1990s and was acquired by Nvidia mostly for intellectual property rights after going bankrupt in 2002.
Founded in 1994 by Ross Smith, Gary Tarolli and Scott Sellers (all former employees of Silicon Graphics Inc.) with backing from Gordie Campbell's TechFarm, 3dfx released its Voodoo Graphics chip in 1996. The company manufactured only the chips and some reference boards, and initially did not sell any product to consumers; rather, it acted as an OEM supplier for graphics card companies, which designed, manufactured, marketed, and sold their own graphics cards including the Voodoo chipset.
3dfx gained initial fame in the arcade market. The first arcade machine that 3Dfx Voodoo Graphics hardware was used in was ICE Home Run Derby, a game released in 1996. Later that year it was featured in more popular titles, such as Atari's San Francisco Rush and Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey.
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