This was Jensen Huang and his companion's first reaction after hearing Lin Lixin's request.
What the heck is this?
Is it for use on spaceships to defend against alien invasion?
"Uh... I can understand the idea of an external graphics card; the ISA bandwidth is indeed no longer sufficient for our needs, but this 128-bit bandwidth..."
What specifications are currently available in the market?
That was shortly after the 8-bit era ended, 16-bit was still dominating the civilian market, and 32-bit existed only in the high-end market.
Forget 128-bit, even if Gamenova could create a 64-bit graphics card, it would be enough to dominate the world.
As a result, Lin Lixin directly demanded 128 figures?!
Damn it, where are we going to find 128 bits?
Even if we could design it, we don't have the technology to manufacture it right now.
A 128-bit processor, using a 1-micron manufacturing process, would be about the size of a hollow brick. Is this for making graphics cards or building houses?
Just thinking about the difficulty of its wiring makes Jensen Huang feel a headache coming on.
Isn't this just ridiculous?
Ho Kwok Yuen also frowned, calculating the actual and reasonable performance requirements.
"If we want to compete with Intel, 32-bit should be more than enough, right? The i486 has almost no graphics performance; we can easily crush it."
"No, no, no, 128 bits refers to the memory bus width, not the graphics card itself. The graphics card is still a 32-bit card."
Lin Lixin waved his hand and patiently explained.
While this number may seem daunting, it's not actually impossible to achieve.
It's more accurate to say it was surprisingly simple.
"If one memory chip can't do it, why don't we connect multiple chips in parallel? Sixteen 8-bit memory chips connected in parallel will make 128 bits, right?"
Yes, although this approach looks very green, it is indeed a very modern practice.
Even after the turn of the millennium, when GDDR became prevalent, maximizing bandwidth remained a very mainstream practice. Graphics cards, being hardware inherently suited for parallel task processing, were practically created for this purpose.
"In the realm of 3D accelerator cards, Micronova truly reigns supreme, but we must not be arrogant. Looking at the entire graphics card market, Micronova's dominance isn't that overwhelming."
Lin Lixin said earnestly.
Despite being a pioneer and reaping the benefits of the times, Novaradeon may not be as fortunate as it seems.
But in this day and age, which hardware manufacturer is someone to be trifled with?
Although no one knows how or dares to make 3D cards, the field of 2D graphics cards has long been thriving.
Any one of them, picked at random, possesses terrifying dominance.
For example, s3p86c911.
The legendary card that once defeated Old He's ATI was just released this year.
With a whopping 1MB of video memory and a full 1280x1024-16 color graphics output, this thing swept the entire 2D market.
If you don't plan to play 3D games and only intend to use your PC for office work.
In fact, the S3 is a much more economical product than the Novaradeon. "In short, this is the minimum requirement. We can be more lenient with the memory; our reference design will have 4MB. Let the assembly plants figure out the other budget versions themselves."
"Cost control is a big problem; its price... will definitely be very high."
Ho Kwok Yuen made an assessment and was somewhat worried.
He wasn't worried about whether this thing could be made.
With the technical capabilities of the Micronova engineering team, it wouldn't be difficult for them to create a top-tier GPU by simply piling on the necessary components.
Even if they can't make it, Lin Lixin will be there to cover for them.
The real problem is cost management.
Even if you sell this at cost price, it'll still cost several hundred dollars.
Spending hundreds of dollars on a PC for gaming? Especially since it also requires the even more expensive Hermes laptop.
After going through all that, wouldn't you be bankrupt just to be able to play the game?
"Don't worry, the players will want to upgrade."
Lin Lixin smiled. Actually, the original Need for Speed didn't really require a very powerful graphics card.
This work was created back in 1994.
Back when EA was still considered a very high-quality game, EA Canada poured all its resources into creating this title.
Without it, 3do would probably have died even faster and in a much worse state.
Strictly speaking, if he can optimize it to the extreme, Hermes can actually run in full-health mode.
"We will offer multiple graphics settings for the game, corresponding to different hardware requirements. At the same time, Hermes will also launch new models natively equipped with the new graphics cards, providing different options for future consumers."
This whole process, while seemingly successful, won't convince those who wouldn't normally buy graphics cards to do so.
But it can help those who are still hesitant to make a decision.
Of course, the absolute core of this entire consumer chain is Need for Speed.
The fact that Need for Speed possesses an irresistible charm that no player can resist is the fundamental premise of everything.
Otherwise, it's all just castles in the air.
... Given the current hardware capabilities, there are actually quite a few racing games to choose from.
Sega's Virtua Racing, Namco's Ridge Racer, EA's Need for Speed...
For the United States, a "nation on the road" with an extremely developed and vibrant car culture, each model possesses a fatal attraction.
Cars, guns, and sports – perennial themes in the North America market.
However, upon careful consideration, Need for Speed is clearly the most suitable.
It just goes to show that United States really understand United States.
From a purely technical standpoint, Yu Suzuki's Virtua Racing is undoubtedly the most powerful of the three.
Real-time 3D racing, and it even runs at 60 frames per second!
Just by throwing out this parameter, you can forget about whether it's fun or not; isn't it just amazing?
Hmm... impressive, but it's definitely not very replayable.
This is a work that is very characteristic of Yu Suzuki's personal style.
Its high degree of engineering, ironically, makes it lack the spirit that video games should have. Hopefully, with the involvement of Yuji Naka and Kujo, Yu Suzuki can achieve a breakthrough in game design within this timeline.
As for Ridge Racer...
It is absolutely perfect.
Namco truly deserves praise for its game design.
Their thinking was exactly the opposite of Yu Suzuki's.
What kind of realism does racing need?
Wouldn't it be better to actually drive a real car?
Since everyone's playing video games, they naturally want to maximize the exaggerated sense of excitement and speed!
Drifting, music, camera movement, fast-paced arcade culture, pure exhilaration, and an extreme sense of speed...
But this is precisely what clashes with North America gaming culture.
In Asia, Ridge Racer is undoubtedly the undisputed masterpiece.
However, the stylized gameplay and the sacrifice of immersion for pure enjoyment didn't suit the tastes of North America players. And in response to this difference in market preferences, Need for Speed was born.
EA is smart; they've incorporated a lot of their early successes into this project.
We can sign sports stars to make sports games, but what about racing games?
Of course, you should buy a license for real vehicles and scan real roads.
Lamborghini Diablo VT, Mazda RX-7, Porsche 911 Carrera, Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1, Dodge Viper RT/10...
wtf?
Bro, I bet any car enthusiast wouldn't be stunned after seeing these real-life models.
Not to mention, EA even collaborated directly with car magazines, obtaining a large amount of real vehicle data and meticulously replicating various car models one-to-one.
Even the car's sound effects are directly sampled from a real car.
This level of immersion is unique in the world.
Especially the live-action racing scene at the beginning of the original Need for Speed.
This is absolutely incredible! It's the dream game of countless Western gamers, a masterpiece that hits the sweet spot perfectly.
After this analysis, it's not hard to see that if the target market is the Western market where people enjoy tinkering with PCs, then Need for Speed is clearly the most suitable choice... huh?
"Hiss... What the hell? Wait a minute, what am I even choosing from here?"
Lin Lixin slapped his forehead, almost laughing at his own anger.
After all that trouble, he suddenly realized that he seemed to have been doing something completely useless.
What the hell is there to choose from?
Sega, the developer of Virtua Racing, and Namco, the developer of Ridge Racer... aren't they practically family?
Need for Speed targets the European and American markets, while Ridge Racer targets the Japan arcade market.
Yu Suzuki was working on the R360 at the time, so having him use the new graphics card for technical verification would also take the visual performance of "g-loc" to the next level.
Isn't this perfect coverage of the entire upstream and downstream supply chain?
This also solves the problem of my display chip not having much use.
"Hello, President Nakayama, this is Lin Lixin. Contact Yu Suzuki Namco; we have a batch of top-quality products at our wafer fab. I'm sure you'll like them..." After hanging up, Lin Lixin thought for a moment, then dialed Sam.
" Sam, I need to buy some things in Singapore... No need, it's just a small company, around fifty million should be enough for complete control... Okay, that's all for now."
To achieve a fully-fledged version of Need for Speed, he also had to go to Singapore to get a little gadget that wasn't particularly noteworthy at the moment.
A company called Creative Technology.
The business is very simple, even monotonous.
That means designing sound cards and then finding OEM channels to resell them under their own brand.
They only have one main product.
Soundblaster sound effects card.
According to later generations' terminology, it was the legendary... " Sound Blaster ".
The sound cards they made in collaboration with Motorola were indeed excellent, but in terms of standardization, probably no one in the world could compare with this small company that still seems very insignificant today.
Sound Blaster's status in the hardware industry is practically on par with that of Qin Shi Huang.
He single-handedly ended the chaotic audio standards landscape of the PC industry. Looking back...
Forget about it; even now, if you want to play "Quake," you still need to choose the right sound card specifications first.
Before starting a PC game, you need to choose your preferred display and sound card specifications from a large list; this is common knowledge in this day and age.
Just as the VGA standard ended the division of display specifications.
The advent of the Sound Blaster completely ended the era of choosing a sound card.