Who is Huang Renxun? What kind of past and future does NVIDIA have? What kind of picture will be drawn from this prestigious technology leader company founded by the Chinese people in Silicon Valley for many years?
In the past two years, this reporter has had a long-term contact with NVIDIA and has repeatedly listened to Huang Renxun, an IT industry elite known as the "fighter," who recalled the many parts of the entrepreneurial journey.
One is that NVIDIA, the global leader in programmable graphics processing technology, was originally born in a cafe next to the high-speed Silicon Valley. Before it started, it had a secret story.
Three entrepreneurs often come to discuss this, and one day, the cafe owner allowed them to enter a quieter box. They were very happy with this courtesy, and then they were silly: The walls were lined with bullet holes. “We Want to Be Safe!†cried one of the founders, but the host said that because the police often came to write reports in the box, please adapt to the bullets that the Mafia flew from time to time.
One day after 17 years, as a symbol of honor, the name of one of the above-mentioned young people was engraved on a new teaching building at Stanford University — October 6, San Francisco time. Huang Renxun, President and CEO of NVIDIA Corporation, The "Industrial College Center" was unveiled and invited friends and co-founder of Yahoo, Jerry Yang.
From the standpoint of Stanford University's rostrum, the two Chinese economic leaders have at least a few similarities: they have all become the names of Stanford’s teaching buildings and their names have been circulated; Taiwan was born, but they are not very likely to speak Chinese; Lonely childhood; has deep into the United States business circle, and anti-guest; they are the representatives of Silicon Valley in the pursuit of new things.
However, they still differ - Yang Dai has a pair of black-rimmed glasses, often wears a dark shirt, drives a dirty car, and speaks only in a familiar environment such as Silicon Valley. And Huang likes black leather clothes, often expressed in American blockbusters' "tough guys", and is happy to show off to the reporter the sharp engine of the top sports car Ferrari, who is the owner of California's first Ferrari's latest italia.
Because of Yahoo's portal, Yang was famous overseas at the beginning of the 21st century; because NVIDIA did not directly reach consumers, NVIDIA's reputation has so far been limited to the United States. Yang used a new idea to create a new era of network applications, it seems to lead to a vast new horizon of the sea, which also makes it in the early days of entrepreneurship rarely met with real competitors; NVIDIA is a very subtle The industry is taking the difficult and dangerous steps of steep mountains, not only face the cruel technical competition, but also need to set the standard in the turbulent business environment and even the courage of the independent leader.
The success of Huang Renxun’s founding of NVIDIA is a long-term test of physical strength and wisdom. The unpredictable factors of luck have been thrown aside. The “bullet hole†in the opening article is the best metaphor for this story.
In the past 17 years, Huang has experienced the ridicule of venture capitalists, the shortage of funds, the lack of interest in the first product, and the fierce defeat of the image of the technology pioneer; but strangely, “every bullet†has failed to Tough guys have shot down, but they have become more courageous.
In 1999, Huang Renxun launched the "GPU (graphics processor)" concept and the "Huang's Law" in the field of graphics chips, which is called "Moore's Law," and in 2000, the company he founded was named "Business Week" by the world's first semiconductor company. In 2006, he became the cover of "Fortune"; in 2007 the company's net profit increased by 78%, unified computer graphics hardware Jiangshan.
With the increasing strength of the GUP function, Huang gradually used it for purposes other than graphic computing, and stepped into the territory of “old neighbor†Intel Corporation. The experience convinced the tough guy that “the environment is not the most importantâ€, but Silicon Valley people believe that this “warrior style†benefits from his dangerous “childhood lessonâ€:
Due to financial constraints, Huang was sent to a rural boarding school by relatives at the beginning of his visit to the United States. This is a barbaric “juvenile institutionâ€. Legend has it that children go in and take out knives and tattoos, and Huang learned to smoke here. Climb the tree on the wall. In order to cope with the harsh environment, the isolated 9-year-old child has found a way to protect himself. That is to say, after class, he helps the school’s most aggressive and aggressive “big brother†tuition homework.
Prologue: On the day of the opening of the new teaching building on the 30th of October, there was also Mrs. Huang, the American woman who was the first lover of the fighter.
Employees said that Huang lived in a simple tradition and loved cooking and hilarious family trips. There weren’t many special hobby for science and technology, such as the revolver and yachts of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. Good heart. In fact, he has never left his family and he is not at the company or home.
Huang's son loves a variety of fun machines. Huang is the simplest user of electronic products. He will see it—inspired but not possessed. He only does it for himself. These arguments are consistent with those who have heard Huang's speech outside the office. They basically use one word to describe yellow, that is, "focus."
The dedication of this "fighter" is only experienced by the talents who accompany him throughout his career.
"He's the real deal!" said Dan Vivoli, vice president of Silicon Graphics, SGI, who later went to NVIDIA's market development business. He said this in 1997.
At this point, SGI is heading towards decline, but this company founded by the Silicon Valley wonder Jim Clark was one of Silicon Valley's greatest stars in the 1980s and early 1990s. Vivoli is considering where to go. He worked for SGI for 9 years and was responsible for the overall market. Now he has two options: either stay in a big company and get a steady salary, or risk taking a startup like NVIDIA.
Usually, Silicon Valley people will choose the latter, but for people like Vivori, this means first of all a series of "survey" jobs. He began frequent visits to the industry, chatted with a large number of people, and came to a conclusion - this company has "Core People", "Right Vision" and "Right Leader." In an environment such as Silicon Valley, "who follows" is a major criterion for choosing a career. Vivolli delineated Huang Renxun through the series elimination method.
But actually at this time, Huang is also trying to seize one of the most important opportunities in life.
The VCs gave Huang Renxun an ugly face. In 1993, when NVIDIA began to do video cards, the same category has been established, and some venture capitalists judged that "the market is basically saturated, and the prospects for setting up similar companies are not bright enough." Huang does not believe that he insisted on launching the first product two years later. As a result, the market also gave him a cold face.
One of the English slang words is "Skeleton in the closet," referring to "family scandals". This is one of the past stories that Huang had to bear. One of the common mistakes that engineers make is to make some great designs that will excite the technosphere, but it is not always possible for the market to save money. “NV1†is such a pity drama.
Although this product showed an unconventional style at the beginning of the 3D graphics entertainment industry, and was ambitious to become a full-scale PC platform entertainment dominator, but because performance does not have too many advantages over competitors, but also want to establish their own standards As a result of incompatibility with a variety of formats, NV1 sales were sluggish. NVIDIA is struggling to do this difficult, once operating funds can only maintain 30 days of operation.
In the meantime, NVIDIA may have already died if it wasn’t for Japan’s Sega company that gave an order in time. Because NV1 has integrated sound card function at the same time, Sega hopes NVIDIA can design a similar chip for it, later Scarlet realizes that the plan is not feasible and give up halfway, but still paid for the money, NVIDIA has escaped "30 days death and robbery".
Breakthrough: 22 months into new "graphics king"
Today, Huang Renxun occasionally hangs Thirty Days on his lips. This is NVIDIA's first lesson—teaching Huang to learn from the market and being humble enough—but in this class, Huang formed. An important piece of belief is also something that later became one of the company’s cultural norms. That is “correcting mistakes in time and never wasting time on hatredâ€.
In fact, at this time, the global PC graphics hardware market is like the Warring States, and there are many manufacturers based on R&D chips. Even the upstart 3dfx has even seized the opportunity to become the new leader in PC 3D entertainment. It released its first product, Voodoo, in 1995. Has won applause from the market - NVIDIA is still immature, an urgent need to make breakthroughs in new products.
Years ago, the isolated image of a 9-year-old child appeared in yellow again. There are at least a few meanings here. First, just like the bullet hole in the inner wall of a coffee bar, Huang Jian believes that the environment is not the most important; second, he It is necessary to find a "giant" in the environment as soon as possible and then stand on his shoulder.
Of course, there must also be a clever brain, which is "impeccable technology." Although "30 days of life and death" had given him a profound lesson, innovation is still the most precious quality of a technology company. These experiences later became NVIDIA's first corporate culture guidelines, that is, the true meaning of innovation - allowing "trial and error", but any "trial and error" must be the optimal choice under various factors at the time of synthesis. .
In 1997, AGP appeared as a PC platform graphics interface on the motherboard, specifically to meet the increasing demand for broadband 3D accelerator card, this technological change has become a NVIDIA rapid rise in a channel - the following year, when NVIDIA introduced the chip code For NV3's AGP 3D accelerator card, this cutting-edge "Riva 128" became the only 2D+3D AGP graphics card on the market with true 3D acceleration. Voodoo was a major threat to performance and price advantage.
In 1999, Huang completely left behind the past grayheads, NVIDIA shipments reached 10 million, he took the first pot of gold. Subsequently, NVIDIA succeeded in winning the 3D series performance crown and winning competitors in various fields.
When the classic product “Riva TNT2†arrived, NVIDIA’s market share exceeded 3dfx for the first time. In December 2000, NVIDIA acquired the latter and replaced it with a new "king of graphics cards," which took only 22 months.
Some people say that Huang Renxun is a person with "clear logic thinking", such as the on-site Q&A of NVIDIA's acquisition of 3dfx.
Like any company that has been acquired, taking into account its own fate in the future, 3dfx employees are nervous and waiting for Huang to arrive. Two female employees deliberately brought in two dogs that looked fiercely abnormal and sat down. first row. They asked Wong: "Can you bring your dog to work, and does your company have relevant policies?"
NVIDIA's people didn't expect to be asked such a question, but Huang said three sentences: We don’t have a policy; this is not a simple “yes†and “no†issue, if there is a policy, it means There is a trade-off, but the dog's problem is not that simple; if your dog is peaceful, you will certainly bring it to the office because it will not bother other people and increase your work efficiency.
Huang also owns dogs. Outsiders are at NVIDIA's office in Santa Clara and often see employees and pets playing in the garden.
The turning point: The pains and sorrows of the "father of GPU" from the failure of the first product to August 1999, Huang has been thinking about the "innovation" proposition. If NVIDIA had survived the first crisis, then now, it is its second critical period, Huang is brewing a revolution.
As graphics processors are becoming more and more important in modern computers (especially home systems, gaming enthusiasts), Huang felt that the computer industry began to need a dedicated graphics core processor. This is where GPUs come from, and it's a concept relative to traditional CPUs.
For outsiders in the professional field, understanding the principles of the GPU is a bit complicated. The model for constructing a game screen rendering is a triangle. Usually, the rendering is divided into two steps. The first step is to determine the position and color of the triangle vertices. This part of the work was previously performed on the CPU; the second step is to determine the interior of the triangle on the display chip. All points and colors.
The GPU has been able to free the rendering of triangle vertices from the CPU, instead of the display chip. In other words, the GPU started to enable the graphics card to share the CPU's geometric calculations in the 3D computer, so that the display chip is no longer just like the pixel filling machine and the triangle generator, thus reducing the dependence on the CPU.
But the revolution is very painful. Through case studies, the management guru Christensen once pointed out in the book “Innovator's Dilemmaâ€: Those truly important and breakthrough innovations are often rejected from the mainstream market at the beginning; at the same time, they have become large scale. The company must be on guard to concentrate only capital and technology on the products that currently have the most demand and the most profitability for the company. This will only ruin the company because it is overly concerned with the opinions of customers and does not seek new users for future products.
This is the deepest book in the depths of Huang's memory. It strikes his pain, but also guides hope. In fact, when NVIDIA was doing its first GPU product, it was quite risky, because no previous customer survey indicated that it wanted this item. Recalling these days, Huang is still guilty. He later said: "In fact, no one knows what they need. Because things are often like this. If you don't see a thing, you won't know if you need it."
Fortunately, Huang chose to persist because he thought that although he did not see the immediate market, he saw the direction of the customer.
In August 1999, NVIDIA launched the GeForce as the brand's first GPU product, the "NV10," or "GeForce256."
It has been proved afterwards that this is indeed a product that brings NVIDIA a turning point. Subsequently, Huang introduced the concept of GPU and "Huang's Law", which is called "Moore's Law". This first law in the field of graphics chips points out that the performance of the graphics chip is doubled every six months.
In other words, NVIDIA products are upgraded every six months and their functionality doubles. It is also in this fast product update frequency, so that the days after the opponents couldn't keep up with NVIDIA's rhythm.
After the first GPU product launch event, Vivoli was very excited. After coming over from SGI, he was responsible for NVIDIA's market. He was in charge of NVIDIA's "NV10" press conference. He felt that the event was a success. When he finished driving home, he called Huang. The phone is long and Vivoli is endless. This is a common practice when Americans are happy and proud.
“What else can be done better?†A long time later, a word came over the phone.
To be continued: During the same period in the long period of fighting, there was another battlefield in the chip field besides the GPU, that is, Intel and AMD were confronted in the CPU field, but compared to the latter, the battle in the industry in which Huang was engaged may have been even more cruel. The reason is that the players here include not only NVIDIA, ATI, but also some other manufacturers that can produce mid-to-low-end GPU products, such as Intel, because their products are not as good as the former, but they can meet user needs in many applications.
As a result, NVIDIA will only die if it is desperate to move forward. However, in addition to the success of technology and speed, Huang must always erase the veil of reality.
This is a very dangerous place for tech companies. You have to be vigilant about where the future is, or you can't judge where you are now, because you don't have enough lucid response ability and you will be thrown out of the court when you are cold.
In the late 1990s, almost the same time that Huang introduced the first GPU product, he was also facing a major decision.
At this point, most of the GPU vendors are using OpenGL or their own standards, such as 3dfx has its own API called "GLIDE"; at the same time, the software monopoly Microsoft has also launched its own standards for 2D and 3D - "DirectX ". Whether you want to choose whether to develop your own API or directly support Microsoft.
For the newcomers, having their own standards is usually a temptation, but in addition to delays caused by product failures, it can be said that 3dfx's own API is another important factor causing its death: Because 3dfx game program developed with its own standards must The direct result of DirectX being converted to Microsoft is that it can run better on Windows. The direct result is that it is not as efficient as a game developed directly with DirectX.
In fact, 3dfx before the failure has not been proved to be a major mistake using its own standards, NVIDIA has made a choice - to support Microsoft.
But God does not always favor Huang Renxun. Like any technology company, the image of NVIDIA's technology pioneer since 1998 has not been maintained. It has even plummeted.
Many people in Silicon Valley know that the NV30 released by NVIDIA in 2002 was a famous failure, but some unknown stories are that at the time, almost half of NVIDIA engineers were sent to do XBOX chips, because Microsoft's first generation XBOX uses NVIDIA. The chip is a big event; then, both parties have disputed the price of the XBOX chip.
At this time, Huang's biggest competitor, ATI, acquired a company, ArtX, and launched the R300. The launch of this product was earlier than the NV30, and its performance was superior to that of the NV30. NVIDIA was thus passive, and the stock price dropped rapidly along with the market share. When the NV40 was launched in 2004, market share was almost equal to ATI.
A serious product failure is terrible, but it may not be terrible. The important thing is how to deal with failure.
In early 2004, Huang Renxun once again seized the opportunity of the new interface standard PCI Express, relying on its Geforce 6800 Ultra to regain 3D performance top spot, and through the revolutionary Geforce 8800 GTX released at the end of 2006, setting its flagship 3D Entertainment card sales record.
From 1999 to 2006, ATI was acquired by AMD 7 years after the NVIDIA and ATI dual players. At the beginning of the merger, the industry is not optimistic about this "weak weak joint" of "CPU second child + graphics second child", but the industry's emergency meteor-like racing results far exceed the brand and other factors, customers will not take into account the height you have reached .
This is the most interesting place in the tech industry, and it is also a new examination in front of Huang. Four years ago, the results of the global computer graphics hardware industry seem to have become clear: NVIDIA officially became the emperor of the field, and it seems to have lost its wrestle. The target, and Intel will have to face a more powerful chaser; but four years later, things are far from simple. Huang is facing an increasingly integrated battlefield.
The fighter's road is still long.
In the past two years, this reporter has had a long-term contact with NVIDIA and has repeatedly listened to Huang Renxun, an IT industry elite known as the "fighter," who recalled the many parts of the entrepreneurial journey.
One is that NVIDIA, the global leader in programmable graphics processing technology, was originally born in a cafe next to the high-speed Silicon Valley. Before it started, it had a secret story.
Three entrepreneurs often come to discuss this, and one day, the cafe owner allowed them to enter a quieter box. They were very happy with this courtesy, and then they were silly: The walls were lined with bullet holes. “We Want to Be Safe!†cried one of the founders, but the host said that because the police often came to write reports in the box, please adapt to the bullets that the Mafia flew from time to time.
One day after 17 years, as a symbol of honor, the name of one of the above-mentioned young people was engraved on a new teaching building at Stanford University — October 6, San Francisco time. Huang Renxun, President and CEO of NVIDIA Corporation, The "Industrial College Center" was unveiled and invited friends and co-founder of Yahoo, Jerry Yang.
From the standpoint of Stanford University's rostrum, the two Chinese economic leaders have at least a few similarities: they have all become the names of Stanford’s teaching buildings and their names have been circulated; Taiwan was born, but they are not very likely to speak Chinese; Lonely childhood; has deep into the United States business circle, and anti-guest; they are the representatives of Silicon Valley in the pursuit of new things.
However, they still differ - Yang Dai has a pair of black-rimmed glasses, often wears a dark shirt, drives a dirty car, and speaks only in a familiar environment such as Silicon Valley. And Huang likes black leather clothes, often expressed in American blockbusters' "tough guys", and is happy to show off to the reporter the sharp engine of the top sports car Ferrari, who is the owner of California's first Ferrari's latest italia.
Because of Yahoo's portal, Yang was famous overseas at the beginning of the 21st century; because NVIDIA did not directly reach consumers, NVIDIA's reputation has so far been limited to the United States. Yang used a new idea to create a new era of network applications, it seems to lead to a vast new horizon of the sea, which also makes it in the early days of entrepreneurship rarely met with real competitors; NVIDIA is a very subtle The industry is taking the difficult and dangerous steps of steep mountains, not only face the cruel technical competition, but also need to set the standard in the turbulent business environment and even the courage of the independent leader.
The success of Huang Renxun’s founding of NVIDIA is a long-term test of physical strength and wisdom. The unpredictable factors of luck have been thrown aside. The “bullet hole†in the opening article is the best metaphor for this story.
In the past 17 years, Huang has experienced the ridicule of venture capitalists, the shortage of funds, the lack of interest in the first product, and the fierce defeat of the image of the technology pioneer; but strangely, “every bullet†has failed to Tough guys have shot down, but they have become more courageous.
In 1999, Huang Renxun launched the "GPU (graphics processor)" concept and the "Huang's Law" in the field of graphics chips, which is called "Moore's Law," and in 2000, the company he founded was named "Business Week" by the world's first semiconductor company. In 2006, he became the cover of "Fortune"; in 2007 the company's net profit increased by 78%, unified computer graphics hardware Jiangshan.
With the increasing strength of the GUP function, Huang gradually used it for purposes other than graphic computing, and stepped into the territory of “old neighbor†Intel Corporation. The experience convinced the tough guy that “the environment is not the most importantâ€, but Silicon Valley people believe that this “warrior style†benefits from his dangerous “childhood lessonâ€:
Due to financial constraints, Huang was sent to a rural boarding school by relatives at the beginning of his visit to the United States. This is a barbaric “juvenile institutionâ€. Legend has it that children go in and take out knives and tattoos, and Huang learned to smoke here. Climb the tree on the wall. In order to cope with the harsh environment, the isolated 9-year-old child has found a way to protect himself. That is to say, after class, he helps the school’s most aggressive and aggressive “big brother†tuition homework.
Prologue: On the day of the opening of the new teaching building on the 30th of October, there was also Mrs. Huang, the American woman who was the first lover of the fighter.
Employees said that Huang lived in a simple tradition and loved cooking and hilarious family trips. There weren’t many special hobby for science and technology, such as the revolver and yachts of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. Good heart. In fact, he has never left his family and he is not at the company or home.
Huang's son loves a variety of fun machines. Huang is the simplest user of electronic products. He will see it—inspired but not possessed. He only does it for himself. These arguments are consistent with those who have heard Huang's speech outside the office. They basically use one word to describe yellow, that is, "focus."
The dedication of this "fighter" is only experienced by the talents who accompany him throughout his career.
"He's the real deal!" said Dan Vivoli, vice president of Silicon Graphics, SGI, who later went to NVIDIA's market development business. He said this in 1997.
At this point, SGI is heading towards decline, but this company founded by the Silicon Valley wonder Jim Clark was one of Silicon Valley's greatest stars in the 1980s and early 1990s. Vivoli is considering where to go. He worked for SGI for 9 years and was responsible for the overall market. Now he has two options: either stay in a big company and get a steady salary, or risk taking a startup like NVIDIA.
Usually, Silicon Valley people will choose the latter, but for people like Vivori, this means first of all a series of "survey" jobs. He began frequent visits to the industry, chatted with a large number of people, and came to a conclusion - this company has "Core People", "Right Vision" and "Right Leader." In an environment such as Silicon Valley, "who follows" is a major criterion for choosing a career. Vivolli delineated Huang Renxun through the series elimination method.
But actually at this time, Huang is also trying to seize one of the most important opportunities in life.
The VCs gave Huang Renxun an ugly face. In 1993, when NVIDIA began to do video cards, the same category has been established, and some venture capitalists judged that "the market is basically saturated, and the prospects for setting up similar companies are not bright enough." Huang does not believe that he insisted on launching the first product two years later. As a result, the market also gave him a cold face.
One of the English slang words is "Skeleton in the closet," referring to "family scandals". This is one of the past stories that Huang had to bear. One of the common mistakes that engineers make is to make some great designs that will excite the technosphere, but it is not always possible for the market to save money. “NV1†is such a pity drama.
Although this product showed an unconventional style at the beginning of the 3D graphics entertainment industry, and was ambitious to become a full-scale PC platform entertainment dominator, but because performance does not have too many advantages over competitors, but also want to establish their own standards As a result of incompatibility with a variety of formats, NV1 sales were sluggish. NVIDIA is struggling to do this difficult, once operating funds can only maintain 30 days of operation.
In the meantime, NVIDIA may have already died if it wasn’t for Japan’s Sega company that gave an order in time. Because NV1 has integrated sound card function at the same time, Sega hopes NVIDIA can design a similar chip for it, later Scarlet realizes that the plan is not feasible and give up halfway, but still paid for the money, NVIDIA has escaped "30 days death and robbery".
Breakthrough: 22 months into new "graphics king"
Today, Huang Renxun occasionally hangs Thirty Days on his lips. This is NVIDIA's first lesson—teaching Huang to learn from the market and being humble enough—but in this class, Huang formed. An important piece of belief is also something that later became one of the company’s cultural norms. That is “correcting mistakes in time and never wasting time on hatredâ€.
In fact, at this time, the global PC graphics hardware market is like the Warring States, and there are many manufacturers based on R&D chips. Even the upstart 3dfx has even seized the opportunity to become the new leader in PC 3D entertainment. It released its first product, Voodoo, in 1995. Has won applause from the market - NVIDIA is still immature, an urgent need to make breakthroughs in new products.
Years ago, the isolated image of a 9-year-old child appeared in yellow again. There are at least a few meanings here. First, just like the bullet hole in the inner wall of a coffee bar, Huang Jian believes that the environment is not the most important; second, he It is necessary to find a "giant" in the environment as soon as possible and then stand on his shoulder.
Of course, there must also be a clever brain, which is "impeccable technology." Although "30 days of life and death" had given him a profound lesson, innovation is still the most precious quality of a technology company. These experiences later became NVIDIA's first corporate culture guidelines, that is, the true meaning of innovation - allowing "trial and error", but any "trial and error" must be the optimal choice under various factors at the time of synthesis. .
In 1997, AGP appeared as a PC platform graphics interface on the motherboard, specifically to meet the increasing demand for broadband 3D accelerator card, this technological change has become a NVIDIA rapid rise in a channel - the following year, when NVIDIA introduced the chip code For NV3's AGP 3D accelerator card, this cutting-edge "Riva 128" became the only 2D+3D AGP graphics card on the market with true 3D acceleration. Voodoo was a major threat to performance and price advantage.
In 1999, Huang completely left behind the past grayheads, NVIDIA shipments reached 10 million, he took the first pot of gold. Subsequently, NVIDIA succeeded in winning the 3D series performance crown and winning competitors in various fields.
When the classic product “Riva TNT2†arrived, NVIDIA’s market share exceeded 3dfx for the first time. In December 2000, NVIDIA acquired the latter and replaced it with a new "king of graphics cards," which took only 22 months.
Some people say that Huang Renxun is a person with "clear logic thinking", such as the on-site Q&A of NVIDIA's acquisition of 3dfx.
Like any company that has been acquired, taking into account its own fate in the future, 3dfx employees are nervous and waiting for Huang to arrive. Two female employees deliberately brought in two dogs that looked fiercely abnormal and sat down. first row. They asked Wong: "Can you bring your dog to work, and does your company have relevant policies?"
NVIDIA's people didn't expect to be asked such a question, but Huang said three sentences: We don’t have a policy; this is not a simple “yes†and “no†issue, if there is a policy, it means There is a trade-off, but the dog's problem is not that simple; if your dog is peaceful, you will certainly bring it to the office because it will not bother other people and increase your work efficiency.
Huang also owns dogs. Outsiders are at NVIDIA's office in Santa Clara and often see employees and pets playing in the garden.
The turning point: The pains and sorrows of the "father of GPU" from the failure of the first product to August 1999, Huang has been thinking about the "innovation" proposition. If NVIDIA had survived the first crisis, then now, it is its second critical period, Huang is brewing a revolution.
As graphics processors are becoming more and more important in modern computers (especially home systems, gaming enthusiasts), Huang felt that the computer industry began to need a dedicated graphics core processor. This is where GPUs come from, and it's a concept relative to traditional CPUs.
For outsiders in the professional field, understanding the principles of the GPU is a bit complicated. The model for constructing a game screen rendering is a triangle. Usually, the rendering is divided into two steps. The first step is to determine the position and color of the triangle vertices. This part of the work was previously performed on the CPU; the second step is to determine the interior of the triangle on the display chip. All points and colors.
The GPU has been able to free the rendering of triangle vertices from the CPU, instead of the display chip. In other words, the GPU started to enable the graphics card to share the CPU's geometric calculations in the 3D computer, so that the display chip is no longer just like the pixel filling machine and the triangle generator, thus reducing the dependence on the CPU.
But the revolution is very painful. Through case studies, the management guru Christensen once pointed out in the book “Innovator's Dilemmaâ€: Those truly important and breakthrough innovations are often rejected from the mainstream market at the beginning; at the same time, they have become large scale. The company must be on guard to concentrate only capital and technology on the products that currently have the most demand and the most profitability for the company. This will only ruin the company because it is overly concerned with the opinions of customers and does not seek new users for future products.
This is the deepest book in the depths of Huang's memory. It strikes his pain, but also guides hope. In fact, when NVIDIA was doing its first GPU product, it was quite risky, because no previous customer survey indicated that it wanted this item. Recalling these days, Huang is still guilty. He later said: "In fact, no one knows what they need. Because things are often like this. If you don't see a thing, you won't know if you need it."
Fortunately, Huang chose to persist because he thought that although he did not see the immediate market, he saw the direction of the customer.
In August 1999, NVIDIA launched the GeForce as the brand's first GPU product, the "NV10," or "GeForce256."
It has been proved afterwards that this is indeed a product that brings NVIDIA a turning point. Subsequently, Huang introduced the concept of GPU and "Huang's Law", which is called "Moore's Law". This first law in the field of graphics chips points out that the performance of the graphics chip is doubled every six months.
In other words, NVIDIA products are upgraded every six months and their functionality doubles. It is also in this fast product update frequency, so that the days after the opponents couldn't keep up with NVIDIA's rhythm.
After the first GPU product launch event, Vivoli was very excited. After coming over from SGI, he was responsible for NVIDIA's market. He was in charge of NVIDIA's "NV10" press conference. He felt that the event was a success. When he finished driving home, he called Huang. The phone is long and Vivoli is endless. This is a common practice when Americans are happy and proud.
“What else can be done better?†A long time later, a word came over the phone.
To be continued: During the same period in the long period of fighting, there was another battlefield in the chip field besides the GPU, that is, Intel and AMD were confronted in the CPU field, but compared to the latter, the battle in the industry in which Huang was engaged may have been even more cruel. The reason is that the players here include not only NVIDIA, ATI, but also some other manufacturers that can produce mid-to-low-end GPU products, such as Intel, because their products are not as good as the former, but they can meet user needs in many applications.
As a result, NVIDIA will only die if it is desperate to move forward. However, in addition to the success of technology and speed, Huang must always erase the veil of reality.
This is a very dangerous place for tech companies. You have to be vigilant about where the future is, or you can't judge where you are now, because you don't have enough lucid response ability and you will be thrown out of the court when you are cold.
In the late 1990s, almost the same time that Huang introduced the first GPU product, he was also facing a major decision.
At this point, most of the GPU vendors are using OpenGL or their own standards, such as 3dfx has its own API called "GLIDE"; at the same time, the software monopoly Microsoft has also launched its own standards for 2D and 3D - "DirectX ". Whether you want to choose whether to develop your own API or directly support Microsoft.
For the newcomers, having their own standards is usually a temptation, but in addition to delays caused by product failures, it can be said that 3dfx's own API is another important factor causing its death: Because 3dfx game program developed with its own standards must The direct result of DirectX being converted to Microsoft is that it can run better on Windows. The direct result is that it is not as efficient as a game developed directly with DirectX.
In fact, 3dfx before the failure has not been proved to be a major mistake using its own standards, NVIDIA has made a choice - to support Microsoft.
But God does not always favor Huang Renxun. Like any technology company, the image of NVIDIA's technology pioneer since 1998 has not been maintained. It has even plummeted.
Many people in Silicon Valley know that the NV30 released by NVIDIA in 2002 was a famous failure, but some unknown stories are that at the time, almost half of NVIDIA engineers were sent to do XBOX chips, because Microsoft's first generation XBOX uses NVIDIA. The chip is a big event; then, both parties have disputed the price of the XBOX chip.
At this time, Huang's biggest competitor, ATI, acquired a company, ArtX, and launched the R300. The launch of this product was earlier than the NV30, and its performance was superior to that of the NV30. NVIDIA was thus passive, and the stock price dropped rapidly along with the market share. When the NV40 was launched in 2004, market share was almost equal to ATI.
A serious product failure is terrible, but it may not be terrible. The important thing is how to deal with failure.
In early 2004, Huang Renxun once again seized the opportunity of the new interface standard PCI Express, relying on its Geforce 6800 Ultra to regain 3D performance top spot, and through the revolutionary Geforce 8800 GTX released at the end of 2006, setting its flagship 3D Entertainment card sales record.
From 1999 to 2006, ATI was acquired by AMD 7 years after the NVIDIA and ATI dual players. At the beginning of the merger, the industry is not optimistic about this "weak weak joint" of "CPU second child + graphics second child", but the industry's emergency meteor-like racing results far exceed the brand and other factors, customers will not take into account the height you have reached .
This is the most interesting place in the tech industry, and it is also a new examination in front of Huang. Four years ago, the results of the global computer graphics hardware industry seem to have become clear: NVIDIA officially became the emperor of the field, and it seems to have lost its wrestle. The target, and Intel will have to face a more powerful chaser; but four years later, things are far from simple. Huang is facing an increasingly integrated battlefield.
The fighter's road is still long.
E-Bike Battery,E-Bike Battery Pack,E-Bike Battery Chargers,E-Bike Battery Case
jgjgkgf , http://www.nnbattery.com