The Legacy of Nvidia and ATI by Martin Gamero Prieto - Book Review

I'm sorry it's been such a gap (four months) since my review of The Legacy of Oblivion. I had meant to get this latest tome from Kentinel Studios read and reviewed before the end of March but tax year end put paid to that idea, and then a whole different kettle of fish arrived in May. But here we are now with the Martin Gamero Prieto's history of Nvidia and ATI, the final two mainstream graphics card companies to survive "The Great Graphics Purge", albeit with the latter being purchased by AMD.

This is another hefty volume, coming in at over 530 pages, but as with the previous entries, the production values are reassuringly high. Text is neatly spaced, there's full colour for imagery, diagrams and the like, and for those who like stats and tables, you'll be in seventh heaven here. 

After a brief introduction, the first 240 pages or so provide a history of both companies from their initial foundations in the 1980's/90's to the culmination of the AMD purchase of ATI in 2006, as well as a run down of the various lawsuits that affected each company. There's clear descriptions of technical items, and as a history of how today's graphics card market developed, I have yet to read better. Each generation of card is covered in great detail, and both strengths and weaknesses are clearly noted with a fair and even hand. 

The use of the two company's technology is covered next, with arcade use and home consoles receiving a proper appraisal. This not only takes in the usual suspects of the early 2000's, but also the Indrema, which although only given a handful of pages, provides a really interesting snippet on a machine that never made it to market.

The professional sector and the prevalence of capture cards comes next, before we get to integrated solutions and the use of Nvidia/ATI tech in laptops. The various technologies used in computer graphics is given a lot of space to breathe after that, and if you weren't familiar with "transform and lighting", "shaders" and "PhysX" before, you will be after this section. 

The history and uses of the various connectors and buses takes up eighty-odd pages, and a highly informative inclusion it is too, before the various appendices, a bibliography (via QR code), and twenty or so pages of hardware titilation round off the book. 

As a singular volume on the subject, The Legacy of Nvidia and ATI is a superbly written and intellectually stimulating read. The period it covers not only defined the Windows PC's journey to being the graphical powerhouse it is now, but also howthe symbiotic relationship between the PC graphical realm and home consoles began, one that in firmly entrenched to this day. However, this book's true value lies in it being part of the complete series by Mr Prieto, a quartet that delivers the most highly researched, well presented history of personal computing graphics I believe is out there. I've said this before, and I'll say it again: if the topic appeals to you, you need to pick up a copy not only of this book, but also its predecessors. 

And to do so, check out Kentinel Studios here.

The Legacy of Oblivion by Martin Gamero Prieto - Book Review

This, gentle reader, is how you run a book campaign on Kickstarter! After the sublime Legacy of the Forgotten, Mr Prieto has let loose with a tome that wants, nay demands, that you take note of those companies that tried, and ultimately failed, to make their mark in the world of computer graphics card hardware. But do you know what the weird part is? Despite twenty plus years of AMD (nee ATI) and Nvidia (and occasionally Intel), reading through the many chapters present here brought back so many familiar names. Geez, I should have had a life in the 90's!

Jesting aside (honestly, I did more than play video games and read sci-fi!), what we have here is another tremendously researched history of the many entities that were, at one point or another, actual names a consumer would have seen when buying PC or gaming tech through the last two decades of the twentieth century. 

Cirrus Logic, SIS Corp, Trident Microsystems and NeoMagic Corporation are some of the more familiar inclusions, although for the life of me, Chromatic Research were a complete mystery until reading their chapter here. Company histories are detailed and where there is doubt or uncertainty, the author points this out clearly.

One of the most interesting chapters for me was that about Argonaut Software. I was aware of their work due to the FX chip so beloved of Nintendo, but there was much more to them than just that, filling in more than a few gaps in my knowledge. Also well worth reading were the near one hundred pages dedicated to "lesser companies." Therein lies a true education. 

This volume is very clearly laid out, with plenty of room for diagrams, artwork and tables. There are appendices detailing the various display standards used by the DOS/Windows PC format, as well as video interfaces, and a handy glossary. For those of a hardware bent, there are several pages of eye candy to finish off this volume - some lovingly taken photographs of the various cards and boards referenced throughout the book. 

As with The Legacy of 3dfx and The Legacy of the Forgotten, this is another essential reference for those with an interest in the admittedly rather niche subject of PC display technology. You can pick them up from the Kentinel Studios website here, and their prices are very reasonable. Shipping, as is the way of things, is something they cannot control.

There is, however, one more volume from Martin, this one taking a keen eye to the history of Nvidia and ATi. That wasn't funded as part of any Kickstarter, yet I would like to highlight just how good the campaign for Oblivion volume was run. When it came time to ship Oblivion, Martin contacted the backers and asked if they wanted a copy of his fourth book in order to save shipping costs - two volumes at the same time. To be honest, I'd missed his earlier email offering this and it was a nice touch to be asked so close to final shipping. I immediately paid the required amount and thus ended up receiving the two books. Throughout this and the prior campaign I'd backed, Martin's communication's were timely and reassuring. There will be a review of book four in due course.

In short, if Martin, via Kentinel, ever decide to crowdfund for another tome, and if the subject piques my interest, I can honestly say that I shall have no qualms about supporting him again. 

The Legacy of the Forgotten by Martin Gamero Prieto - Book Review

A few weeks back, I reviewed The Legacy of 3dfx, a highly informative tome that focused on the history and products of 3dfx, a company that for a brief period defined the PC graphics card industry. Of course, they were not the only company to address that market and, with only AMD (who purchased ATi in 2006), Nvidia and latterly Intel still in the consumer 3D graphics card market, there were once many names who, at one point or another, were familiar to potential consumers. This Kickstarter-funded volume takes a long and highly detailed look at those competitors who really should be remembered. 

Jazzy cover first this time.

This is another well produced volume, coming in at just over five hundred pages and matches the overall feel of the 3dfx book. As before, the dust jacket is fairly plain (aside from the colour) but it is the actual book cover that has the most striking imagery. 

The dust jacket is scarily orange. 

The author begins with coverage of the Bitboys, a group I honestly can't remember hearing about at the time they were prevalent. Following them is S3 Incorporated and S3 Graphics (the book explains this very clearly). My overriding memory of S3 (in whichever guise it was at the time as I didn't know of the difference) is that they were pretty naff for actual 3D work. Their inclusion here not only clarifies their products and the reasoning behind them, but also provides a huge dose of context for their policies, which was extremely informative for me.

Videologic comes next, and this was a company whose products had the potential to dominate the low and middle end of the market, so much so in fact that the inclusion of the Nvidia briefing slides in this book demonstrates a) how good Videologic were, b) how much of a threat they were seen as and c) how nasty Nvidia could be in the corporate battlefield. 

Matrox follows up and, whilst I remember them for their productivity cards, they tried their hand at 3D too. Finishing off the list is Number Nine, one of those competitors that always seemed to loiter in the background in group test reviews in contemporary magazines.

Each company entry follows the same format, with a brief run down of the corporate history, details of their products and explanations of their uses, the technology that powered their products, before closing with a personal opinion piece from the author. Each section is written with a definite sense of style and the author's voice is easy to discern. In addition, there are photographs, tables, diagrams and more to illustrate the products and their capabilities. 

The Legacy of the Forgotten is a well-written and interesting look at the companies that tried to compete in a sub-section of the personal computer bear pit (as well as other potential uses) but never reached the heady heights of market leader or managed to stay the course in that particular fight. That's not to say they all failed, as some are still around today (in much different guises), but their contribution to the PC graphics world should not be forgotten, and this book is the perfect way to ensure that their legacy lives on. 

You can pick up a copy of The Legacy of the Forgotten here, and follow the publisher on Twitter here. I for one am really looking forward to what they bring out next.