Can you give us any indications as to the size of the hardware and software engineering resource within 3Dlabs currently? Given that the likes of NVIDIA and ATi have accrued something in the order of 900+ employee's dedicated to this area of their business (albeit, diversified over a wider range of graphics related products) can 3Dlabs sustain the same kind of development pace as these, or do you feel that Creative will provide the necessary backing and funding to increase resources as required?
3Dlabs has more than 300 employees worldwide with 80% in engineering roles. Further expansion of that team has not been determined at this time.
Where will the fabrication of the new chips be done, do you use UMC or TSMC or does Creative have its own? Can they secure enough production capacity given the competition?
We do not forsee production capacity to be a limiting factor. Creative has great purchasing power at a number of fabs. Plus, fab capacity is still widely available as most fabs are hungry for business.
Will 3Dlabs be providing all the driver support for the products? Currently your drivers are geared towards professional apps, which may not necessarily have the same focus as consumer apps (if the new chips are also to be geared towards the consumer market).
As a wholly-owned subsidiary, we will continue to do our own drivers. Driver development is one of our most noted strengths.
Do you know how the new products will be marketed? As Creative 3DBlaster products, or still as 3Dlabs products?
Consumer product branding is still to be discussed.
What will happen to 3Dlabs current product range? Will they still be marketed as 3Dlabs?
That is the plan. The Wildcat and Oxygen brands will remain as well.
3Dlabs Oxygen GVX420
How will this affect the development of OpenGL 2.0 that you are currently spearheading within the OpenGL ARB?
3Dlabs will continue it's efforts with OpenGL 2.0. Creative is very committed to this effort as well.
Presumably your upcoming technology will feature, in hardware, many / all of the principals you are putting forward for OpenGL 2.0, is this the case? If so do you think, given the recent acquisition and the new market focus it creates, you, and hence your OpenGL 2.0 proposals, may be met a little more guardedly from other members of the ARB such as NVIDIA and ATI?
So far, we have seen great acceptance for the standard from the ARB. There has been no evidence to indicate a change in attitude based on ongoing interactions - some of which have occurred since the announcement. OpenGL still remains the most important API for workstation graphics.
When can we expect to see this union come to fruition in terms of products (be it consumer or professional)?
The acquisition is set to be final in a couple of months. In the meatime, 3Dlabs will continue marketing and selling its existing products including the new Wildcat III. We have not announced dates of next-generation technologies. However, Creative has mentioned they'd like to have a consumer product on the shelves for Christmas.
As a consumer my initial reaction to this announcement of this deal could be pleased to see a new competitor enter the 3D market, would you view this as the correct reaction?
Yes, this is an exciting time to be in the graphics business and consumers should benefit from a new player in the market.
I'd like to thank Kim Stowe and 3Dlabs for taking the time to answer these questions. Hopefully we'll be hearing a lot more from them in the future...
