Forging the Next Standard
"Is the president of Nvidia named Jensen Huang?"
"Yes! How did you know? Mr. Huang's reputation seems quite well-known even in Silicon Valley."
Yoo Jae-won nodded at John Carmack's question. At the same time, several memories surfaced in his mind. In Korea, he was far more famous by the nickname "President Hwang" than by his formal name, Jensen Huang. The saying that "President Hwang's tricks come in pairs" often followed his name like an explanation. This stemmed from his product launch strategy—shortly after a high-end product released, an even higher-end new model would appear with far superior cost-performance. Even a few months after that high-end release, a superior "Titan" product would follow.
In 2010, he seized market leadership with 3D acceleration cards, and by around 2020, he had taken first place in the image processing and artificial intelligence neural network markets for autonomous vehicles. Nvidia's continued success afterward made it seem as though the technological singularity would be achieved by Nvidia, yet the company rapidly contracted in the 2030s. The same fate befell traditional powerhouses like Intel and AMD. A quantum computer—an immense device that refused comparison with silicon semiconductors—had suddenly emerged and overwhelmed the market. Thanks to general-purpose quantum computers, specialized chips for particular computations lost their utility. They handled images, sound, and logical operations uniformly while delivering performance hundreds of times better than dedicated chips. Of course, their enormous initial price prevented widespread adoption, but as prices fell rapidly over time, the history of non-memory semiconductor companies, including Nvidia, came to an end.
"Hmm, for 3DFX that would be President Ross Smith?"
"Yes! He's quite the tenacious guy. And technically skilled, too."
John nodded at Yoo Jae-won's question. Since he already knew Jensen Huang of Nvidia, he apparently assumed it was natural for Yoo Jae-won to know Ross Smith in advance. To Yoo Jae-won, however, 3DFX felt somewhat unfamiliar; the name Voodoo accelerator card felt more intimate. That was because the acceleration card model released by 3DFX was called Voodoo. This company had a much shorter history than Nvidia. Founded in the mid-1990s, it went bankrupt in 2002—only a quarter of Nvidia's lifespan. Yet the impact it left on 3D accelerator cards was significant. In the early days when 3D accelerator cards were emerging, it had released products with quite outstanding performance and possessed its own API called Glide. Moreover, the SLI technology that divided a single screen across multiple accelerator cards for acceleration was also created by 3DFX.
Even in Yoo Jae-won's gaming life that continued from his previous life, there had been connections to 3DFX. The first 3D accelerator card he purchased had been Voodoo 1, the very first card 3DFX announced. After playing games with crude graphics and slow frame rates through software rendering, installing Voodoo 1 completely transformed the game world. Games that supported the dedicated Glide API felt different from the very start. Before the game title even appeared, the 3DFX logo would show up, heightening the excitement. In particular, playing Diablo 2 allowed one to truly appreciate Voodoo's capabilities. Though the graphics seem simple now, the outstanding sense of depth and the performance that never slowed even when countless objects poured onto the screen left an unforgettable impression. It was undeniable that the name of Android OS's 3D library becoming Glide owed something to Voodoo's influence.
"Shall we take a look at what technologies the two companies have proposed?"
Yoo Jae-won's voice returned to normal after finishing his reminiscence. Both companies were ones from his memories. But the circumstances were quite different from what he remembered. Although computer technology development had advanced about three years ahead of the original timeline, it could not be said that every company had improved its technical capabilities accordingly. Since everyone else was moving first, Jensen Huang and Ross Smith must have started their businesses earlier as well, but whether their technical prowess matched previous levels remained uncertain.
"Well, Nvidia has come forward with technology related to texture processing called a texture mapping unit. It's a dedicated function for applying textures to polygons and a dedicated circuit supporting it. The speed is quite good."
Among the factors determining whether computer graphics are good or bad, textures occupy a considerable proportion. Only after applying textures to polygon lumps resembling clay does plausible graphics emerge. Therefore, a method to process textures quickly is necessary, and Nvidia has created dedicated circuits and libraries for this purpose. Yet from John Carmack's tone, while the speed is acceptable, the image quality appears inferior to existing methods.
"3DFX has proposed technology called anti-aliasing. By processing it directly in the graphics chip, it dramatically reduces the burden on the CPU."
As expected, 3DFX did not disappoint. Anti-aliasing was technology that reduced the stair-stepping phenomenon appearing when polygons were displayed on a monitor. Everything was calculated in 3D internally within the computer, but when displayed on screen it ultimately had to be shown in 2D. Consequently, object outlines emerged in abruptly angular forms, and this technology smoothed those expressions.
"That's good. But what's the justification existing companies are using to oppose it?"
"Right? Companies like S3, Matrox, and ATI are unanimously saying it's premature. They claim that rather than incorporating TMU or anti-aliasing, increasing clock speed and video memory is more urgent."
At first glance it seemed reasonable, but in reality it had nothing whatsoever to do with the 3D library Glide. A 3D library was something that bundled various functions together for efficient image processing inside the computer. The claims made by existing companies were matters that 3D card manufacturers should handle, and had no relation to Glide X.
"In other words, adopting these functions would require redesigning to support them, which becomes a burden."
John Carmack explained in more detail, thinking Yoo Jae-won might not have understood. Naturally, Yoo Jae-won was not unaware of this. It was a common phenomenon across all industries that established players with vested interests became conservative while latecomers developed diverse technologies to compete. But did existing VGA companies hold vested interests in Glide X? No. The copyright for Glide X clearly belonged to ID Technology. While cooperation with VGA companies was occurring in creating the functions included in Glide X, the largest investor remained ID Technology. John Carmack oversaw Glide X overall, and actual development was being carried out by a team of dozens of excellent minds led by James Augustine from MS Alpha Lab. Glide X, created through such investment of time and money, was being released for free. On the other hand, the pace of technology development by VGA companies did not satisfy Yoo Jae-won.
VGA companies had also been releasing new accelerator cards that received HPC certification for several months now. However, the architecture had not changed. They had merely applied the Coppermine process to increase the operating speed of acceleration chips and adopted HPC RAM as video memory. Through this, they had become approximately three times faster than existing models. Instead, the price had also doubled. It was completely thuggish behavior. Even with HPC applied, the cost increase factors were not particularly significant. The Coppermine process was technology that could be applied without changing existing production facilities as much as possible. Moreover, Yoo Jae-won had not set the technology license price high. Considering these points, a 10-15% increase would have been acceptable, yet they had demanded 100% relying solely on performance. Just a year ago, accelerator cards priced at $600 or more—the professional range—now numbered over ten models. There were even so-called "monster cards" priced at $999. Though such high prices should have reduced consumption, consumers were willingly opening their wallets. This was possible because American gamers were primarily economically capable men in their thirties, and as the economy of the world's leading economic power, the United States, gradually recovered, incomes were rising. In this situation, the behavior of existing VGA companies excluding latecomers did not appear favorable to Yoo Jae-won at all.
"We need to sound a warning here, don't we?"
At Yoo Jae-won's words, John Carmack let out a gasp. John had expected that if Yoo Jae-won came, he would smoothly reconcile the conflicting opinions of the companies. But a warning?
"Ultimately, the existing participants' argument is to delay incorporating new technology. If we accommodate such demands and then get overtaken by a consortium like OpenGL, we'll be eliminated in an instant. Glide X has always led new technology until now and must continue to do so in the future."
OpenGL was the 3D library led by Silicon Graphics. It was a library supporting diverse hardware from workstations to supercomputers, but it was more for industrial use than gaming. It was utilized from basic CAD programs to CG for movies or advertisements, and tools that converted numerical values into images in the scientific field. While Glide X and OpenGL currently had completely different purposes, OpenGL's powerful expandability meant it could instantly enter the gaming market as well.
"Then how do you plan to handle it? Will you hold something like a 3D technology conference like last time?"
Yoo Jae-won shook his head at John Carmack's question.
"Yes, but there's no need to forcibly invite people who don't want to come and cause hard feelings."
Yoo Jae-won was convinced that even if he gathered industry experts, they would only raise their voices claiming their own technology was superior without reaching unified opinions. Therefore, just as before, he would accept applications for technologies each company—existing or new—was researching without discrimination, have the Glide X development team organize the technologies to be included in the next Glide X themselves, and simply announce them. Of course, he would need to send developer versions to 3D accelerator card manufacturing companies in advance, but creating chips 100% compatible with the next Glide X depended on the manufacturers' capabilities. If they wanted to use their own independent technology, those manufacturers could release separate libraries and cooperate directly with game developers. Of course, it would not be easy. The game engines and libraries used in 3D games had already established Doom 2 Engine as the industry standard.
"Ah. I suppose I lacked decisiveness."
"No. Under normal circumstances, gathering opinions and proposing a mediation plan would be the conventional method."
This time as well, John Carmack spoke as though he had learned another lesson, and Yoo Jae-won shook his head. Continuing with such a dictatorial approach would be problematic, but when necessary, one had to act boldly. The same had been true of the ID Display first factory being built in Daejeon. Following Yoo Jae-won's instructions, all engineers who had come from Sharp packed their bags and returned to Japan. Naturally, Sharp Japan caused an uproar. Currently, no company purchased LCDs in greater quantities than ID Technology. Moreover, Sharp had been aiming to expand market share in the LCD market through ID Display. Yet because of the uncooperative attitude of the engineers sent for technical support, cooperation was on the verge of collapse. Sharp's response to this was an apology from the president. Machida Katsuhiko, Sharp's second president, personally brought the engineers who had returned to Japan and entered Korea. He apologized himself for the engineers' poor attitude, and the engineers who had engaged in work slowdowns also apologized directly. The apologies were received by Factory Manager Kang Chan-ho and Choi Kang-wook. President Machida had flown to America intending to apologize to Yoo Jae-won as well, but at Yoo Jae-won's words that such measures were unnecessary, the apology commotion concluded in Korea. Whether President Machida and the engineers' apologies were sincere or merely for show, Yoo Jae-won did not know. What mattered was that from that day forward, the engineers from Sharp accurately understood their position and conducted themselves accordingly. Their arrogant attitudes disappeared, and they no longer demanded entertainment. Furthermore, Sharp dispatched employees of Korean descent living in Japan to handle Korean communication.
Glide X was the same. There was no need to accommodate all the complaints of VGA manufacturers. If they would follow the roadmap Yoo Jae-won was drawing, they could follow; if not, they could quit. The final outcome would be determined by consumers' choices.
A few days later.
- ID Software Announces Glide X 3.0
- Focus on image processing and quality improvement, including texture processing unit support and anti-aliasing support.
The two pieces of news were reported briefly as short articles. They did not appear in general newspapers and could only be found in media primarily dealing with computers. John Carmack had been extremely cautious in his choice, but once the decision was made, he was the type to push forward boldly like Yoo Jae-won. Once the direction of Glide X 3.0 was set, he pushed ahead without looking back. It was natural that existing companies that had strongly expressed opinions while contacting ID Software were left stunned when the announcement came. Some companies even thought it was a misprint. However, when articles appeared through IT news and a small conference attended by Yoo Jae-won and John Carmack was simultaneously held in ID Software's main auditorium, they had no choice but to accept reality. Some companies attended the conference without hiding their discomfort. Instead, their empty seats were filled by newcomers such as 3DFX, Nvidia, Verite, and Number Nine, leaving no empty seats in the conference room. Later, even ATI, which had not attended, expressed that they viewed the design of the next Glide X positively. If they wanted to include the "100% Glide X Support" mark on their new product boxes, they would need to diligently research new architectures from now on.
Having successfully completed his work in Dallas, Yoo Jae-won began his return home. He got off the plane, boarded the prepared car, and sped along the Bayshore Freeway, crossing the Golden Gate Bridge. The house he was heading to now was not the hotel where he had been staying long-term for several weeks, but the real home where he would continue to live. Naturally, it was not the house in front of Stanford University, whose location was known throughout America, but the newly acquired house in the affluent northern San Francisco suburb of Sausalito. It was a house secretly obtained by President Remington and the intelligence team; the real estate agent had not known the buyer was Yoo Jae-won until just before signing the contract. Though the Sausalito area itself was cramped with no iron gates or large gardens or swimming pools, it was a newly built, state-of-the-art three-story house that felt like an enormous palace for Yoo Jae-won living alone. The decisive factor that made Yoo Jae-won sign easily was that it was only a three-minute drive from Tiffany's house. Though Yoo Jae-won had only visited a few times until now, this would be his first time staying overnight, so his excitement grew as he got closer to the house.
Ring ring.
The excitement was suddenly interrupted by the ringing of a phone. Kim Dae-seok, sitting in the adjacent seat, answered before the ringtone sounded twice. Yoo Jae-won also pretended to be uninterested and looked out the window, but focused his attention on his ears.
"Mr. Chairman!"
At Kim Dae-seok's use of "Mr. Chairman," Yoo Jae-won's gaze, which had been turned away pretending disinterest, immediately returned. The only person Kim Dae-seok called "Mr. Chairman" was Yoo Jae-won's father, Yoo Bong-man.
"Yes, he is right next to me. I'll hand him over."
"Father?"
- Yes! Is that Jae-won?
"Yes! What's the matter? Did something happen at home or in the village?"
Until now, Yoo Bong-man had very rarely called his son Yoo Jae-won first. While his mother called occasionally, his father would usually just receive the transferred call, exchange a few pleasantries about how they were doing, and then hand the phone back to his mother. If this father was calling first, Yoo Jae-won wondered if something major had happened at home. Had something happened to the main house, relatives, or the elderly principal?
- Ah, nothing like that. Fortunately, it seems nothing happened in that direction.
Letting out a sigh of relief, Yoo Jae-won briefly exchanged greetings and updates with his father before getting to the main point.
- Ah, well, it's like this. Lately there have been so many strange requests coming in.
"Requests?"
- They're asking me to take over an association.
"An association? What association?"
- The Handball Association. It seems they can't find anyone to be president.
Yoo Jae-won nodded at his father's words coming through the receiver. It made sense that finding a president for the Handball Association was difficult. While Korea had many unpopular sports, handball was among the foremost. The women's handball team had created great excitement with their dramatic gold medal comeback in the 88 Olympics, and they had won gold again just last year in 92, but the domestic league remained unpopular. Usually sports associations were led by corporate executives or chaebols, but since handball offered no marketing effect, they refused and it apparently reached ID Group. Yoo Jae-won was about to refuse when he hesitated. The fact that his father had called directly like this clearly meant he had some inclination to try it. Moreover, unlike other chaebols, he was not the type to consider only commercial aspects. Thinking about it briefly, there were more things to consider than expected. Furthermore, the master plan included quite a few projects related to the sports world.