3dfx is kicking some major ass ! ;-)

[Dogbert]

From AcesHardware:

Thanks to Jochem for letting me know about this press release from 3DFX indicating the company has received a favorable ruling regarding the scope of its patents in a lawsuit against NVIDIA, which was filed back in 1998. The court has rejected NVIDIA's interpretations of 3DFX's patent claims and accepted most of 3DFX's proposals. 3DFX's patents pertain to single-pass multitexturing and level-of-detail mipmap dithering. 3DFX insists its patents have been infringed upon by NVIDIA in products from the TNT to the company's upcoming accelerator for the X-Box.

"We see these rulings as a very positive sign that we are winning the battle to protect our valuable intellectual property for our shareholders," said Alex Leupp, president and CEO, 3dfx Interactive. "Our desire is for a quick resolution to this infringement through summary adjudication, which could ultimately lead to monetary damages paid by nVIDIA or even an injunction that prohibits them from selling their infringing products."
In the rulings issued September 29, 2000, the court addressed 3dfx patents related to multi-texturing technology and level-of-detail mipmap dithering. These types of rulings, often called claim construction, or "Markman," orders construe the scope of asserted patent claims and, thus, provide the parameters of what would be considered infringing conduct. In the orders construing the 3dfx patents, the court rejected all of nVIDIA's proposed claim constructions and adopted the majority of those proposed by 3dfx.

While this ruling is certainly a victory for 3DFX, the court must still determine whether or not NVIDIA has infringed upon 3DFX's intellectual property given the parameters and interpretations of that intellectual property established by this ruling. If 3DFX ultimately wins, it could mean fines and other penalties for NVIDIA, or perhaps even a restriction preventing the company from selling its infringing products. Perhaps the larger ramifications of the case, however, will be to the industry as a whole, considering single-pass multitexturing is widely implemented in 3D video products from Matrox, ATI, and others.
http://www.aceshardware.com

This post has to do with Matrox, or rather, the whole inustry.

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I like to con people, but I also like to insult them. What if I could combine the two, I would call it - Consult !

[This message has been edited by Dogbert (edited 19 October 2000).]