***Quantum3D Leads with Independence
(October 30)
by John Latta
Quantum3D has morphed its business models many times. At the WAVE
Report we have known Ross Smith, EVP for Marketing and Business
Development, since the early days of 3Dfx and then when he formed
Quantum3D. This company was built on using the 3Dfx chips and
focused early on in the arcade and simulator markets. Once 3Dfx
tanked they had to move to nVidia. Now the nVidia-based Quantum3D
simulators are surfacing. At the recent Army conference and
exhibition in Washington, DC, Quantum 3D announced Independence.
The WAVE Report went to see Ross and his new products.
There are three dynamics in the simulator business: technology,
buyers and history. History includes some 30 years of development
into 3D rendering technology. Beginning with Ivan Sutherland's
Sketchpad at MIT, the generation of 3D objects and scenes, in
both hardware and software, has had a long evolution. Many of the
companies that pioneered in this work have disappeared. Two stand
out: General Electric and Evans and Sutherland, with E&S the last
remaining player. In large part the history dynamic is only
relevant in the patent holdings, and both Intel and nVidia have
done a superb job of grabbing most of the relevant IP.
The technology side of the business, which might better be
described as its disruptive technology, runs at a pace that is
frantic by historical standards. It appeared that the competitors
in this race had necked to just nVidia, and now ATI has new life.
3D has gotten interesting again. But the technology side of the
business, moving at PC speeds with new products every 6 - 9
months, makes life very difficult in the more traditional
simulator markets. This is the buyer side of the business. There
are two buyer segments in the simulator business: commercial
aircraft and military. With the technology from the PC entering
the simulator business, the buyers want to take advantage of
lower prices but with no compromises in quality.
The buzz word is COTS--for commercial off the shelf technology.
Making COTS work in the traditional simulator market is one of
the market dynamics that Ross deals with. How can you have
stable, extensible and adaptable products for the simulator
markets when the core technology changes every 6 months? It has
been Quantum3D's experience that it takes 2 years to design one
of the high-end cards that multiplexes the output from multiple
3D chips in order to meet the performance requirements. This is
also required to do the full scene antialiasing demanded by these
simulator buyers. The answer that Quantum3D has to these market
forces is Independence.
The architecture is based on multiplexing of the digital outputs
from independent rendering engines. This is done with a 1RU
design that uses multiple DVI connector outputs. The advantage of
this approach is that Quantum3D can decouple the chip from the
implementation in Independence. Thus, the integration of chips
into new designs can be much more rapid. Independence can support
up to 32 synchronized channels. Performance claims go to 16
subpixel samples for full screen antialising that will go to 2.6
Gpixels/s, 9.6m independent textured triangles/s and 1Gtexels/s.
Ross continues to press the technology into historical markets
while capturing market share. A hard but rewarding business.
Wave Issue 0239 10/31/02 Article 4-01