History of Nvidia Graphics Cards
The NVIDIA Corporation was founded by Jen-Hsun Huang, Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem. NVIDIA could not manufacture integrated circuits for its graphics chips, so in 1994, it teamed with SGS-Thomson Microelectronics, which had manufacturing plants in France and Italy. Diamond Multimedia Systems also installed NVIDIA's chips into its multimedia accelerator boars.
As NVIDIA developed the NV1-NV3 chips and eventually moved into 3-D technology, the company grew in marketing potential, making a name and making many chips that were the "firsts" to establish a newer technology. Today, the NVIDIA Corporation is the world leader of graphics processors and its technology has branched out to include markets in video, audio, broadband connection, personal computers, game consoles and workstations.
Creation
In January of 1993, the company NVIDIA was created. Jen-Hsun Huang, the president and CEO of NVIDIA was a Director at Coreware, under LSI Logic. Chris Malachowsky was the vice president of Hardware Engineering and worked with Sun Microsystems, Inc. Curtis Priem also worked for Sun Microsystems, Inc. and developed the GX graphics chips. NVIDIA got into the business at a time when computers were becoming more of a household item. NVIDIA developed its first graphics chip with the help of the European company, SGS-Thomson Microelectronics.
NV1
In May of 1995, NVIDIA marketed its first graphics chip. This creation allowed personal computers to compete with gaming systems. NVIDIA's partnership with SGS-Thompson allowed NVIDIA to use SGS-Thompson's manufacturing plants to make its chips. The NV1 helped NVIDIA establish ties with Sequoia Capital and Sierra Ventures. Sega of America, Inc. also franchised some of its games to the personal computer to allow the NV1 to run them.
RIVA 128
The Real-time Interactive Video Animation 3-D graphics chip, or RIVA 128, was the result of NVIDIA's time working on 3-D graphics and architectures. NVIDIA handled US markets for releasing the chip while SGS-Thomson handled European and Asian markets. NVIDIA's RIVA 128 also had a lower cost and higher performance than the 3dfx Voodoo Graphics chip. Original equipment manufactures like Gateway, Dell and Micro used the RIVA 128 in their motherboards.
GeForce
The GeForce 256 was a step up from the RIVA 128. The GeForce 256 featured and new and improved processor with four-pixel pipelines at 120MHz, allowing a maximum fill rate of 480Mpixels/sec. This chipset was also the first to implement video acceleration to support High-Definition Television (HDTV) quality picture. Subsequent NIVIDA chips included the GeForce2 GTS, GeForce2 MX and the GeForce2 Go.
Microsoft's Xbox
While NVIDIA remained one of the top graphics chip suppliers, it announced that NVIDIA technology would be used in Microsoft's new emerging gaming platform, the Xbox. Microsoft decided that NVIDIA's chip technology not only qualified it as the winner in graphics design but also in the gaming platform's multimedia system. Microsoft awarded $200 million to NVIDIA to create the chips needed to power their Xbox. This graphics chip was the GeForce3.
