Well, here's something very interesting! One of our readers (didn't tell his/her name) sent in that ATI is buying FireGL. FireGL is a producer of high-end workstations! Is this an attempt to slap NVIDIA? WHo knows.. Here's a snip:
And if all that isn't strange enough FGL formerly a division of S3, which became Sonicblue not to be confused with S3 Graphics, a division of VIA, is being sold to ATI. These guys have been holding down their end of the workstation market against 3Dlabs, Intense 3D (which is not part of 3Dlabs), HP (which is getting out of the desktop graphics business) and E&S (which has gone back to the drawing board, but plans to come back just like Mr. Schwarzneggar). FGL has loyal customers in HP and loyal users, but their sales are a drop in the bucket to ATI. Do you suppose ATI is looking for another design team to add to its already large collection? We think its good, though, that a graphics company once again owns this company that happens to sell graphics boards. We were starting to wonder if a consumer electronics company knew very much about the workstation business. ATI President Dave Orton knows all about the workstation business having been at SGI for many of his formative years and ATI has been interested in taking a stab at the workstation market. If they can figure out how to market their products, they'll have a lineup that goes toe to toe with Nvidia.