Interview with Derek Perez, Public Relations Manager

RS: NVIDIA is more and more the superior company on the graphics market. What’s the story behind that? Was it luck or pure business calculation? Where’s the limit? (MCP-chipsets)

Derek Perez: Any place where you find a pixel on the screen, NVIDIA wants to make the technology thatīs behind it. 1993, the founder of NVIDIA, Jen-Hsun Huang and the co-founders of NVIDIA had the vision to be the #1 graphics chip company. We become that more and more now. When we look back... sometimes we had a bit luck, but the most important is how Jen-Hsun decited to run his business. I remember of different things of what heīs done. He employed some of the worlds best 3D architecture engineers. That helped us in our policy to develop and release new products every 6 months. We are now able to use one product core for three different market needs, like Quaddro for Workstation needs, GeForce 2 for the consumer part and MX for Mainstream, comercial or business graphics part.

The next step for NVIDIA is, I think, to take that top-to-bottom approach and drive it into other markets. NVIDIA is primarily been known as a desktop 3D graphics processor chip company. We are able to take that now and go into the mobile market. And we take our technology and go into the game console with the X-Box. We are also going forward to drive our knowledge into new technologies and areas.

So I donīt think there is any limit for NVIDIA. The good thing about 3D graphics is, that itīs boundless. If you built a model and you look at it, youīll always think that itīs can be done better. When you look at Movies like Jurassic Park, you think "... yeah, good... Dinosaurs are great, but it can be done better..". We want to take that technology and drive it into the internet. So you will sometime be able to download 3D images of the car you want to buy and watch it in real 3D graphics on your PC. Itīs a whole new Market segment. There are many different mediums to use 3D graphics. Itīs boundless and NVIDIA is in a very good position today.

RS: NVIDIA is now entering the mobile computer market with GeForce 2 GO. What users do you target at and what difficulties did you have developing a solution for the mobile platform. How far away is it from a standard MX?

Derek Perez: The #1 thing is power and battery consumption. Thatīs one of the top concerns for mobile users and OEMīs. We were able to take the GeForce 2 MX technology and modifying it for mobile needs by adding some power saving features. In idle mode, GeForce 2 GO only needs 0,8 watts and max. 2.8 in intense graphics applications. Thatīs right on top of the market.

The possibility to play Q3 on your Toshiba Laptop in an airplane has now become a reality! And you can drive desktop 3D graphics for presentations etc on your notebook. You couldīnt do that seroiusly before.

RS: How long can you play on your notebook until the batteries are empty?

Derek Perez: It depends on your battery. A two hour battery will go a bout 1 hour 45 minutes. A six hour battery about 5 and a halfe. Thatīs the normal battery life.

RS: Direct X 8.0 was released a few days ago. What do you think about that new API. What specific benefits will the gamer have with DX8?

Derek Perez: Yes, DX8 was released a few days ago. Actually it looks like a really great API. A number of new specs in DX8 which are really exciting. You can now create a bunch of pixel shading effects which can be done very fine on GeForce2īs NSR (Note: NVIDIA Shading Rasterizer). There are a number of other effects which I think everybody will benefit of. The ability to do some charakter animation or doing realistic surfaces and materials like hair or skin.

Now with DX8 developers have the ability to make their games more realistic.

RS: Speaking about future. Actual 3D hardware like GeForce 2 GTS or Ultra is pretty fast. Why should users upgrade to a new NV20 card and why is NV20 coming that late?

Derek Perez: Youīll have to wait and see. At this time I cannot explain details of an unannounced product. Our next gerneration architecture will kick-ass... thatīs all I can say.

RS: Todays 3D cards are primarily memory bandwith limited. High Polygon and Texture games are not released yet. Will this finally change now? Can you tell me one title where you will absolutely need a HW T&L card?

Derek Perez: Itī just a matter of time before a solid base of such games will be available. Iīm currently very impressed about Sacrifice. Thatīs the game for you if you want to see what T&L can do for you.

RS: NV20 and NV2A for the X-Box. Are the specs of the X-Box chip close to NV20 or is it a totaly different, specialized solution? Will there be a release date bonus for X-Box?

Derek Perez: Again, I canīt say anything about unannounced products. But for sure: X-Box is gonna be fun. I donīt know anything about the release plans. We only produce chips for the X-Box... two of three to be exact.

RS: What do you think about the future of the PC as a gaming platform? There are more and more all-in-one mainboard soulutions for mainstream and PC based consoles for gamers. Is the modular PC system going to die?

Derek Perez: I think you are not gonna see a split. You will see the two system staying together. A PC can do much more than a console. Consoles are very different. The guts are almost the same: You have a CPU, a graphics processor, sound.... they are coming a bit more together. But people will still play games on a PC, because they like the interactivity of a PC, playing games with your friens over the internet. Also I think PC games are different from console games. You canīt upgrade it. You canīt do anything new to it. So itīs deceloped very different from a PC game. But you can do this with a PC game. PC will still have a PC in their home so they will still play their games on their PC. I know I will. I will have both!