NV1
Encyclopedia
Nvidia NV1, manufactured by SGS-THOMSON Microelectronics
under the model name STG2000, was a multimedia PCI
card released in 1995 and sold to retail as the Diamond
Edge 3D. It featured a complete 2D
/3D
graphics core based upon quadratic texture mapping, VRAM or FPM DRAM
memory, an integrated 32-channel 350 MIPS playback-only sound card, and a Sega Saturn
compatible joypad port. As such, it was intended to replace the 2D graphics card, Sound Blaster
-compatible audio solutions, and 15-pin joystick ports, then prevalent on IBM PC
compatibles.
Several Saturn games were converted to NV1 on the PC such as Panzer Dragoon
and Virtua Fighter Remix. However, the NV1 struggled in a market place full of several competing proprietary standards, and was marginalised by emerging polygon
-based 2D/3D accelerators such as the low-cost S3 Graphics ViRGE
, Matrox
Mystique, ATI Rage
, and Rendition Vérité V1000 among other early entrants.
NV1's biggest initial problem was its cost and overall quality. Although it offered credible 3D performance, its use of quadratic surfaces was anything but popular, and was quite different than typical polygon rendering. The audio portion of the card was of questionable quality, receiving ratings of merely acceptable quality in reviews, with the General MIDI
quality receiving lukewarm responses at best (a critical component at the time). The Sega Saturn console was a market failure compared to Sony's PlayStation
, and so the unique and somewhat limiting support of these gamepads was of limited benefit. Nvidia, by integrating all of these usually separate components, raised their costs considerably above what they would have been if the card had been designed solely for 3D acceleration.
During the NV1's release timeframe, the transition from VLB
/ISA
(486s) to PCI (Pentiums) was taking place, and games often used MIDI for music because PCs were still generally incapable of large-scale digital audio playback due to storage and processing power limitations. Reaching for the best music and sound quality, and flexibility with MS-DOS
audio standards, often required 2 sound cards be used, or a sound card with a MIDI daughtercard connector. Additionally, NV1's 2D speed and quality were not competitive with many of the high-end solutions available at the time, especially the then-critical-for-games DOS graphics speed. Many consumers were simply not interested in replacing their often-elaborate system setups with an expensive all-in-one board and so the heavy integration of NV1 hurt sales simply through inconvenience.
Market interest in the product quickly ended when Microsoft
announced the DirectX
specifications, based upon polygon rendering. This release by Microsoft of a major industry-backed API
that was generally incompatible with NV1 ended Nvidia's hopes of market leadership immediately. While demos of quadratic rendered round spheres looked good, experience had proved working with quadratic texture maps was extremely difficult. Even calculating simple routines such as collision detection
was problematic. Nvidia did manage to put together limited Direct3D support, but it was slow and buggy (software-based), and no match for the native polygon hardware on the market.
Subsequent NV1 quadratic-related development continued internally as the NV2
.
STMicroelectronics
STMicroelectronics is an Italian-French electronics and semiconductor manufacturer headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.While STMicroelectronics corporate headquarters and the headquarters for EMEA region are based in Geneva, the holding company, STMicroelectronics N.V. is registered in Amsterdam,...
under the model name STG2000, was a multimedia PCI
Peripheral Component Interconnect
Conventional PCI is a computer bus for attaching hardware devices in a computer...
card released in 1995 and sold to retail as the Diamond
Diamond Multimedia
Diamond Multimedia is a company that specializes in many forms of multimedia technology. They have produced graphics cards, motherboards, modems, sound cards and MP3 players, however the company began with the production of the TrackStar, a PC add-on card which emulated Apple II computers...
Edge 3D. It featured a complete 2D
2D computer graphics
2D computer graphics is the computer-based generation of digital images—mostly from two-dimensional models and by techniques specific to them...
/3D
3D computer graphics
3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...
graphics core based upon quadratic texture mapping, VRAM or FPM DRAM
Dram
Dram or DRAM may refer to:As a unit of measure:* Dram , an imperial unit of mass and volume* Armenian dram, a monetary unit* Dirham, a unit of currency in several Arab nationsOther uses:...
memory, an integrated 32-channel 350 MIPS playback-only sound card, and a Sega Saturn
Sega Saturn
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console that was first released by Sega on November 22, 1994 in Japan, May 11, 1995 in North America, and July 8, 1995 in Europe...
compatible joypad port. As such, it was intended to replace the 2D graphics card, Sound Blaster
Sound Blaster
The Sound Blaster family of sound cards was the de facto standard for consumer audio on the IBM PC compatible system platform, until the widespread transition to Microsoft Windows 95, which standardized the programming interface at application level , and the evolution in PC design led to onboard...
-compatible audio solutions, and 15-pin joystick ports, then prevalent on IBM PC
IBM PC
The IBM Personal Computer, commonly known as the IBM PC, is the original version and progenitor of the IBM PC compatible hardware platform. It is IBM model number 5150, and was introduced on August 12, 1981...
compatibles.
Several Saturn games were converted to NV1 on the PC such as Panzer Dragoon
Panzer Dragoon
is a rail shooter video game released for the Sega Saturn in 1995; and later released on PC, PlayStation 2, and as a bonus in its sequel Panzer Dragoon Orta for Xbox...
and Virtua Fighter Remix. However, the NV1 struggled in a market place full of several competing proprietary standards, and was marginalised by emerging polygon
Polygon (computer graphics)
Polygons are used in computer graphics to compose images that are three-dimensional in appearance. Usually triangular, polygons arise when an object's surface is modeled, vertices are selected, and the object is rendered in a wire frame model. This is quicker to display than a shaded model; thus...
-based 2D/3D accelerators such as the low-cost S3 Graphics ViRGE
Virge
A virge, from the Latin virga, is a type of rod, made of wood.Originally it was one or more branches used as an instrument for corporal punishment, or as a riding crop.It is presently best known as the ceremonial staff of the Anglican...
, Matrox
Matrox
Matrox is a producer of video card components and equipment for personal computers. Based in Dorval, Quebec, Canada it was founded by Lorne Trottier and Branko Matić....
Mystique, ATI Rage
ATI Rage
The ATI Rage is a series of graphics chipsets offering GUI 2D acceleration, video acceleration, and 3D acceleration. It is the successor to the Mach series of 2D accelerators.-3D RAGE :...
, and Rendition Vérité V1000 among other early entrants.
NV1's biggest initial problem was its cost and overall quality. Although it offered credible 3D performance, its use of quadratic surfaces was anything but popular, and was quite different than typical polygon rendering. The audio portion of the card was of questionable quality, receiving ratings of merely acceptable quality in reviews, with the General MIDI
General MIDI
General MIDI or GM is a standardized specification for music synthesizers that respond to MIDI messages. GM was developed by the MIDI Manufacturers Association and the Japan MIDI Standards Committee and first published in 1991...
quality receiving lukewarm responses at best (a critical component at the time). The Sega Saturn console was a market failure compared to Sony's PlayStation
PlayStation
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...
, and so the unique and somewhat limiting support of these gamepads was of limited benefit. Nvidia, by integrating all of these usually separate components, raised their costs considerably above what they would have been if the card had been designed solely for 3D acceleration.
During the NV1's release timeframe, the transition from VLB
VESA Local Bus
The VESA Local Bus was mostly used in personal computers. VESA Local Bus worked alongside the ISA bus; it acted as a high-speed conduit for memory-mapped I/O and DMA, while the ISA bus handled interrupts and port-mapped I/O.-Historical overview:In the early 1990s, the I/O bandwidth of...
/ISA
Industry Standard Architecture
Industry Standard Architecture is a computer bus standard for IBM PC compatible computers introduced with the IBM Personal Computer to support its Intel 8088 microprocessor's 8-bit external data bus and extended to 16 bits for the IBM Personal Computer/AT's Intel 80286 processor...
(486s) to PCI (Pentiums) was taking place, and games often used MIDI for music because PCs were still generally incapable of large-scale digital audio playback due to storage and processing power limitations. Reaching for the best music and sound quality, and flexibility with MS-DOS
MS-DOS
MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
audio standards, often required 2 sound cards be used, or a sound card with a MIDI daughtercard connector. Additionally, NV1's 2D speed and quality were not competitive with many of the high-end solutions available at the time, especially the then-critical-for-games DOS graphics speed. Many consumers were simply not interested in replacing their often-elaborate system setups with an expensive all-in-one board and so the heavy integration of NV1 hurt sales simply through inconvenience.
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
announced the DirectX
DirectX
Microsoft DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms. Originally, the names of these APIs all began with Direct, such as Direct3D, DirectDraw, DirectMusic, DirectPlay,...
specifications, based upon polygon rendering. This release by Microsoft of a major industry-backed API
Application programming interface
An application programming interface is a source code based specification intended to be used as an interface by software components to communicate with each other...
that was generally incompatible with NV1 ended Nvidia's hopes of market leadership immediately. While demos of quadratic rendered round spheres looked good, experience had proved working with quadratic texture maps was extremely difficult. Even calculating simple routines such as collision detection
Collision detection
Collision detection typically refers to the computational problem of detecting the intersection of two or more objects. While the topic is most often associated with its use in video games and other physical simulations, it also has applications in robotics...
was problematic. Nvidia did manage to put together limited Direct3D support, but it was slow and buggy (software-based), and no match for the native polygon hardware on the market.
Subsequent NV1 quadratic-related development continued internally as the NV2
NV2
NV2 was to be NVIDIA's second graphics processor designed for consumer PC 3D accelerator add-in boards. It was never completed.-Overview:The design was also part of Sega's early efforts for a successor to the Saturn, but was not actually used for Dreamcast because Dreamcast was designed later...
.
3D games that supported NV1
- Nascar RacingNASCAR video gamesNASCAR, the most popular motorsport in the United States, has worked with video game developers to design several video games. In 2003, EA Sports received an exclusive console license to produce NASCAR games, eliminating Papyrus and Hasbro Interactive as competitors. In May 2009, IRacing.com...
- Panzer DragoonPanzer Dragoonis a rail shooter video game released for the Sega Saturn in 1995; and later released on PC, PlayStation 2, and as a bonus in its sequel Panzer Dragoon Orta for Xbox...
- Virtua Fighter Remix
- Virtua CopVirtua CopVirtua Cop is a lightgun shooter arcade game created by Sega-AM2, and headed by Yu Suzuki. Its original incarnation was an arcade game in 1994 and it was later ported to the Sega Saturn in 1995, and Microsoft Windows in 1997...
Retail products
- Aztech
- 3D Galaxy
- Diamond MultimediaDiamond MultimediaDiamond Multimedia is a company that specializes in many forms of multimedia technology. They have produced graphics cards, motherboards, modems, sound cards and MP3 players, however the company began with the production of the TrackStar, a PC add-on card which emulated Apple II computers...
- EDGE 3D 2120
- EDGE 3D 2200
- EDGE 3D 3240
- EDGE 3D 3400
- Genoa Systems
- Stratos 3D
- Jazz Multimedia
- 3D Magic
- LeadtekLeadtekLeadtek Research, Inc. is a Taiwanese company, founded in 1986, which focuses on research and development that is specialized in the design and manufacture of graphics cards.- Products :...
- WinFast Proview 3D GD400
- WinFast Proview 3D GD500
- MediaForte
- Videoforte VF64-3DG-01
- Videoforte VF64-3DG-02
- YUAN
- JRS-3DS100
See also
- Comparison of Nvidia graphics processing unitsComparison of NVIDIA Graphics Processing UnitsThis page contains general information about Nvidia's GPUs and videocards based on official Nvidia specifications.-Direct X version note:Direct X version indicates which graphics acceleration operations the card supports.* DirectX 6.0 - Multitexturing...