Was ATi's messiah ArtX?

[DClark]

I've seen the articles on ArtX and what they did previously (namely the graphics core for the Gamecube and the integrated video for the Alladdin7 for ALi), and I've read that ArtX was an offshoot of employees from Silicon Graphics Inc. and MIPS Technologies, but I think that the most important part of the deal was the principle people in the deal; namely Dave Orton and Tim Van Hook.

Dave Orton seems to be the management side of the deal, with senior management (the kind with "President" somewhere in the title) jobs at ArtX and Silicon Graphics Inc., and also previously employed with General Electric and Bell Laboratories.

Tim Van Hook seems to be a very important and so far silent man in this deal. He seems to be the guy on the technical (hardware and software) end of the deal. I've been able to find that he's an alumni of Ohio State University's Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design, and has helped in the design of the user interface for the ANIMA II animation system for the use of animated sequences to help teach language constructs to deaf children and for computer art.

In 1986, he authored a SIGGRAPH paper on "Real-time shaded NC milling display" (if you have a SIGGRAPH account, you can read the full text here). I can't read the article (I don't have a SIGGRAPH account), but judging by the references for the paper, it looks like he's one of the more important people in getting ATi's drivers up and running at peak efficiency. His article has since had citations in 8 other papers through the 1990s.

He also co-founded Trancept Systems in 1986, who's goal was to "develop a flexible, programmable, high performance graphics and imaging accelerator for computer workstations." Trancept was aquired by Sun Microsystems in 1987, after they developed the TAAC-1 for Sun Microsystems workstations (I guess Sun liked the TAAC-1 so much, they bought the company )

He also recently did a lecture on "Trends in Graphics Architecture" at Stanford University.


From what I've read, Dave Orton looks to be an excellent mind in the business end of the equation, while Tim Van Hook seems to be everything ATi needed in a hardware and software designer. I have little doubt that if these people are so impressive, the people they hired to fill out the ArtX staff are just as impressive, and eager to show their talents.

Adding ATi's previous staff (which produced some of the best quality graphics on the market today, and the innovative AIW solutions) into the mix, it looks like "...the future's so bright, I gotta wear shades"

Does anyone have any other information on Tim Van Hook's accolades through the 1990s? I've pretty much come up dry between 1987 and 1997.

[Ostsol]

The thing is that ArtX had nothing to do with the Radeon 8500's developement. I think that ATi could do well enough without the people at ArtX, but that their future certainly does have the possibility of being much brighter because of ArtX.

[Ratchet]

I think ArtX is knee deep in the R300 design and never touched anything else. It'll be interesting to see how it compares to past ATI cores

[DClark]

I know that ArtX didn't design the Radeon 8500; ATi's staff is highly qualified in their own right.

But with the interviews I've read from Orton, he seems to be a person who can encourage other companies towards his way of thinking; he just seems likeable. And Van Hook seems like an excellent mind to have behind hardware and software development.

Plus, being in Paolo Alto, they probably have quite a few important Californian connections in their respective black books. ArtX turned ATi from the Canadian outsider to a company who now seems much closer to all the Silicon Valley companies.

[Lakku]

ArtX designed the R300 from the beginning, beginning about a year and a half ago I believe, when ATi first aquired them. ArtX is ATi Team West, and ATi Cananda is ATi Team East. East is now working on integrated chipsets and the next card past R300 I believe.

[Sasquach]

When in doubt, MAXX it out.

[Ichneumon]

ArtX is not an individual design group within ATI. The engineers ATI got from aquiring ArtX have been integrated into the existing dev groups. ATI has had more than one design group since before they bought ArtX.

While the former ArtX engineers of course have had influence on the r300 they did not work on it exclusively. There is no "ArtX design team" at ATI... they have been integrated throughout ATI's design teams.

[mulciber]

i get the feeling that people think that ATI and nVidia must have had some pretty dumb engineers.
Everyone thinks that Artx and Gigapixel/3dfx are like some kind of graphics demigods or something.

[mulciber]

Originally posted by Ichneumon
ArtX is not an individual design group within ATI. The engineers ATI got from aquiring ArtX have been integrated into the existing dev groups. ATI has had more than one design group since before they bought ArtX.

While the former ArtX engineers of course have had influence on the r300 they did not work on it exclusively. There is no "ArtX design team" at ATI... they have been integrated throughout ATI's design teams.

THANK GOD someone finaly said it

ATI has had multiple design teams for years, just like nVidia

[DClark]

I know that ArtX has been integrated, but it's been said that Van Hook and the design team will still work out of Palo Alto, not out of Thornhill (according to this article, near the end of the article)

What I mean is that it seemed before in articles, etc. ATi was an "outsider" to Silicon Valley, and that hurt them in the area of making deals with Silicon Valley companies, a very important area with regards to the high tech industry. Now, ATi can be partially recognised as Dave Orton and Tim Van Hook, "those local ArtX guys that have been working here in Silicon Valley for several years".

If you were a company plunking down millions (or billions) on a deal, would you rather trust your money to a company from another country who you've heard about but don't really know the inner workings of that company, or would you rather trust a company that you have watched grow and prosper next door, and read about their growth in the local papers. It has to be remembered that even in big corporations, there are human emotions and feelings at the top of every decision; I believe that those human emotions and feeling will now work in ATi's favour, not against them.