F**king 128-bit!!!
F**king 128
Once Yuji Naka and his team were all present, the initial core of the project team was finally assembled.
Thus, a massive reorganization officially began.
Lin Lixin wanted more than just to create a custom development engine for Need for Speed.
Furthermore, they wanted to use this opportunity to spin off all of GAMENOVA's graphics business.
To make it a modern, formalized super-subsidiary.
The first step in this process was the establishment of NOVA-ENGINE (NE).
A wholly owned subsidiary of GAMENOVA, with Carmack serving as Vice President and Chief Technology Officer.
Its core businesses include engine development and graphics research.
Activision's lead technical artist, Ben Gorcy, and newly joined Michael Abrash have both been transferred to NE.
Technical Support like Yuji Naka, who were brought in from Sega, were given the title of remote consultants.
Bethesda Studios, which was originally a subsidiary studio, was also directly integrated into Night Elf.
The core business is fully retained, with the addition of a physics engine development component for NE.
However, this is only the beginning.
Compared to these seemingly harmless personnel transfers, the second step is much more extensive.
MicroNova's graphics chip business was spun off as an independent subsidiary under MicroNova.
Under its umbrella.
At the same time, the graphics card business unit established NOVA-GRAPHICS (NG) as a joint venture with NE.
Nova Image and Vision Research Center
It integrates various graphics-related businesses, including the Photosensitive Epilepsy research studio in collaboration with Cedars-Sinai, consumer-grade graphics card R&D, engineering card R&D, and cutting-edge graphics technology research.
MicroNova retains its manufacturing operations, while transferring all architecture development and subsequent development of the OpenGL graphics library to NG.
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This transfer involves a flow of funds approaching tens of billions of US dollars.
The entire Silicon Valley will tremble.
The affected sectors have long since extended beyond video games and semiconductors themselves.
The entire Hollywood was watching this grand reorganization.
The reason, of course, is that most of Hollywood's visual effects production currently relies on MicroNova's graphics card business.
Apart from Industrial Light & Magic, which is practically an insider, the other visual effects companies are in the same situation.
They either used graphics workstations manufactured by SGI, or they simply ordered engineering cards directly from MicroNova.
No matter which option you choose, you can't avoid MicroNova.
Of course, besides Hollywood, there is another group of people closely watching this reorganization.
General Motors in the automotive industry.
The scene described by Lin Lixin was so astonishing that President Russell couldn't help but fantasize about it.
The other companies that had received word of the situation were also closely monitoring the changes.
The bigger the commotion GAMENOVA makes, the more reliable the rumors seem.
Regardless, if the next generation of graphics cards is really going to be released, they will definitely want to be among the first to market.
Time is money!
The time allotted for purchasing, delivery, deployment, and familiarization is enough for others to gain a significant advantage, potentially by generations.
What used to take a month to complete can now be done in just one day with the new graphics card and software.
Any wasted time will widen the gap between them and other manufacturers to an almost insurmountable distance.
The reorganized NOVA-GRAPHICS didn't keep everyone in suspense for too long.
Just a few days later, the specifications of the new generation of consumer-grade graphics cards were revealed.
This parameter really startled everyone.
This also explains why GAMENOVA specifically integrated these businesses into an independent brand.
[Model Number]: [NovaRadeon-9000]
[Release Date]: [July 4, 1990 (tentative)]
As everyone knows, Independence Day is GAMENOVA's most important launch event of the year, second only to Christmas.
Depending on the circumstances, its importance is no less than that of Presidents' Day and Halloween.
The fact that this product was launched on this date speaks volumes about its importance.
Aluminum alloy cutting process and metal brushed casing.
With a casing craftsmanship similar to that of a music card, the quality is absolutely top-notch.
Even through photos on television and in magazines, you can tell its high-end feel.
exaggerate----
In this day and age, many people are still using their old PCs with only 512KB of RAM.
Even the lowest-spec version with 1MB of video memory is already at the level of a mid-range PC.
A core frequency of 25MHz doesn't seem too high at first glance.
Intel's i486 has completely outperformed it, and Gamenova's own Athena far surpasses that number.
but----
That's the core clock speed of a graphics card!
25MHz, placed on a chip that inherently supports massive parallel data processing, is really a bit of an exaggeration.
In order to support this level of usage and such high-specification video memory.
Its memory bus width is 128 bits!
WTF??
Bro, don't you want to look at what you're saying?
128 bits!
Seriously?
Did Gamenova successfully capture aliens?
Did they reverse engineer the semiconductor technology used in UFOs?
This is a product that both laymen and experts can enjoy.
Industry insiders are already exhausted by just looking at its numerous parameters.
Even a layman, a mere bystander simply watching the spectacle, could tell that it was definitely not an ordinary item.
Why?
Because it has a shell!
These days, which company is so kind as to include a case when making a graphics card?
It's only a few dollars more expensive.
But as long as it has this aluminum alloy shell, it's fucking high-end!
It even has heat dissipation fins on top!
Heat dissipation!
Do you know what heat dissipation is?
Only our top-of-the-line graphics cards require cooling.
Because other companies' products simply don't have the performance to push passive cooling to its limits.
Adding a metal pad for heat conduction is already considered an excellent design.
And what about the Nova Radeon 9000?
Encased in a full metal shell!
It comes with thermal pads and heat sinks, are you worried?
Well, sometimes that's just how products are.
Industrial design is paramount.
Having absorbed Sony's successful experience, Lin Lixin always pays special attention to this point when designing products.
Users of this era are still immersed in highly geeky Nerd-style products.
If something looks good, there will be plenty of customers willing to buy it.
In addition, it has the GAMENOVA name as an endorsement.
An excellent industrial design can have a surprisingly high commercial impact.
The only cost GAMENOVA had to pay was a few dollars more per copy.
As for the retail price----
The 1MB version of the dessert card is initially priced at $499.
The 2MB and 4MB versions cost extra for additional video memory on top of that.
Of course, if you can accept the reduced video memory speed, you can also choose to buy a non-reference 1MB version and install additional video memory yourself.
Honestly, this price is definitely not cheap.
For an average person, the price of this graphics card is enough to buy a cheap PC.
Various models such as Applell and C64 are available for selection.
But is it worth the price?
That was definitely worth it.
Anyone with even a basic understanding of hardware can easily see that this consumer card business doesn't seem to be very profitable.
Given this meager profit margin, the payback period is likely to be quite long.
The NR9000's true commercial focus appears to be on top-tier manufacturers who don't care about budget.
General Motors, Industrial Light & Magic, Lockheed
These are Micro-Nova Semiconductor's main customers.
Sage Lin seems more like—more like he's using these profits to subsidize the game cards.
Praise!
If you don't buy it at this price, then you're practically being unfilial.
As a devoted GAMENOVA fan, the first thing I need to do is place an order right now!
While the outside world was still engaged in a heated debate over this graphics card, Lin Lixin, who was at the center of the controversy, had already ended his work at the graphics studio and rushed back to the development department.
To be precise, we arrived at Hans Zimmer's sound studio.
The only piece of the puzzle is missing before Need for Speed is finally released.
This is the most easily overlooked, yet also the most crucial link.
Sound!
They are going to do something very important here today.
sampling.
Acceleration sound sampling was conducted on a closed high-speed ring road, including mechanical impact sounds, power interruption sounds, and backfire sounds.
Hans Zimmer's almost obsessive pursuit of audio quality made the entire sampling process exceptionally difficult.
The car was driven by a General Motors driver.
Multiple directional Mike arrays will be responsible for recording the sound throughout the entire process.
This is already an unknown number of laps this driver has completed.
These lunatics even made him keep drifting and push the car to its limits.
It might even intentionally cause the car to lose control, recording the sounds of tire slippage and ABS.
How are you feeling?
"Um--
Hans Zimmer, wearing monitoring headphones, repeatedly played certain segments of the audio. "It still needs to be combined with the static sound data from the testing center."
He shook his head.
To realize the next-generation racing game envisioned by Lin Lixin, he has already exhausted all his efforts.
According to Hans Zimmer's own plan, this audio will consist of three parts.
Electronic sounds achieved in a recording studio using synthesizers and effects processors.
Engine sounds at different RPMs in a static environment, recorded at General Motors ' test center.
And real sound recordings from the actual racetrack.
These sounds will be processed into a special format in the recording studio, where they will be modeled by Hans Zimmer's team.
Yes, for sound modeling.
Make it more flexible, more parameterized, and more dynamic.
Simply put, it means that audio can be changed by adjusting parameters.
As the input RPM parameter increases, the sound emitted by the engine will also change.
When the game tells it about different vehicle body states, the tire noise and wind noise will also be different.
The music is seamlessly integrated with the game itself.
Furthermore, Vorbis was used to highly compress the audio material, allowing it to be packed onto a single CD.
It's extremely complicated and troublesome.
This technology alone involves resources spanning various departments of General Motors and Gamenova.
Hans Zimmer was completely focused on making this work his way into the Hall of Fame; he was practically giving it his all.
And the result...
Lin Lixin put on his monitoring headphones and listened to a sample of Hans Zimmer's music that hadn't been post-processed yet. He nodded in satisfaction.
It was all worth it.