balls.gif
Click the polyhedron. Discover the lore.

balls.gif - A little piece of 1996

28 FRAMES · 108 × 108 · 134 KB

A file called balls.gif sat in the banner of NVIDIA's 1996 “NVelope Your Senses” games page: a tiny animated dodecahedron, spinning through 28 frames.

Hidden inside its GIF comment was a maker's signature:
GifBuilder 0.2 by Yves Piguet

GifBuilder was Macintosh freeware. That signature points to a wonderfully humble origin: an early NVIDIA website animation made on a Mac with a hobbyist tool.

The quiet joke? A file named balls.gif, on a site whose hero graphic was a wireframe hemisphere resolving into a smooth sphere, was actually a polyhedron. Flat faces - the very thing NV1's curved-surface architecture was designed to move beyond.

One little animation. A whole universe of lore.

Wayback Machine



Corporate Fact Sheet

BUSINESS FACTS
Model: Model: NVIDIA designs, develops, markets, and sells highly integrated multimedia accelerator chips for the home PC market using a fab-less semiconductor model.
Founded: January 1993
Corporate mission: Deliver standards compliant acceleration integrated circuits (ICs) to create an incredible multimedia experience on a PC. NVIDIA's unique architecture incorporates a number of core technologies including 2D and 3D graphics, video, advanced audio, and input, accelerating an array of Windows 95 multimedia applications from interactive entertainment to education and productivity applications.
Target markets include, but are not limited to: interactive entertainment, educational software, edutainment, and internet-based multimedia applications.
STRATEGIC ALLIANCES
Sega: Sega and NVIDIA are working closely to enhance Sega's PC titles to deliver an immersive game experience when used in conjunction with NVIDIA's multimedia accelerators. The result of the alliance will move the next generation game console experience to the Windows 95 multimedia PC.
SGS-Thomson (ST): SGS-THOMSON is an architectural licensee of NVIDIA's innovative multimedia architecture. The partnership leverages NVIDIA's core competency in multimedia technology with SGS-THOMSON's strengths in high volume, low cost silicon manufacturing. Additionally, the two companies combine strengths by offering complementary base multimedia technologies.
SGS Thomson manufactures, markets and sells an ST supported multimedia accelerator product, the STG 2000. The STG2000 is a DRAM version of the popular NV1 VRAM accelerator.
Lexicon: NVIDIA and Lexicon have entered into a technology partnership to bring Lexicon's world famous audio technology to the PC. By incorporating the "Lexicon Sound" in NVIDIA's next generation multimedia accelerator, PCs will deliver audio fidelity and effects that rival the sound quality found in most advanced home theaters.

MANAGEMENT TEAM
Jen-Hsun HuangPresident, CEO/founder
Chris MalachowskyVice President Engineering/founder
Curtis PriemChief Technology Officer/founder
Marcel GaniChief Financial Officer
Jeff FisherVice President Sales
Rick WhitacreVice President Operations
David Schmenk Director Software Engineering
Michael HaraDirector Marketing
Lee MonctonDirector Product Engineering
Board members: Tench CoxePartner, Sutter Hill Ventures
Jen-Hsun HuangPresident/CEO, NVIDIA Corp.
Harvey JonesFormer Chairman,Synopsys Corp.
Bill MillerFormer Chairman/CEO, QuantumCorp.
Mark StevensPartner, Sequoia Capital
Employees:50
Financial: NVIDIA is a privately held company with venture financing.
Investors: Sutter Hill Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Jafco Ventures, and Itochu Corporation.



For more information email: info@nvidia.com.


HomePage | Product NVormation | Dear NV FAQ
NVenting with Nvidia | NVelope Your Senses | NterViews