The Computer Has Lost Its Magic – Chief Executive of NVIDIA

[erek]

Personal computers to get new level of interactivity, thinks head of NVIDIA.

Jen-Hsen Huang, chief executive officer of Nvidia Corp., a leading supplier of graphics processors, believes that personal computers of today have lost their “magic”, they no longer cause admiration, but the increased complexity actually slowdowns further expansion of technology.

“The computer that we know of today has lost its magic in the sense that the technology has become rather mature and that is one of the reasons the PC has stopped amazing us,” said Mr. Huang in an interview with BBC.

Source: X-bit Labs

[traitoR]

He has a point, most innovation is simply incremental hardwarewise, the internet is where it's at right now.

Odd that he would say such a thing as Nvidia themselves seem more interested in creating a closed system, further slowing innovation, considering the shrinking number of heavy players in the industry.

[Targon]

Computers still amaze people, but the problem is that after the tech crash of 2000-2002(stock market with the reduction in venture capital money, followed by many tech companies merging and dissolving), there has been a fear by many to start a new company based on really innovative ideas.

This fear of risk has shown itself all over the place, including the games industry. You want to really push the edges of what computers can do, you go PC, but notice how many games are designed for cross platform, with the lowest common denominator being the target for all platforms? The key is that when the computer hardware is as capable as it is, the only thing limiting new and amazing applications is the imagination and desire of people to come up with new and innovative ideas.

Could it be that the CEO of NVIDIA is trying to downplay the potential for future "amazement" because THEY can't figure out how to do it themselves?

Now, for the maker of graphics chips to say that there is no magic, try showing what CAN be done with some effort? How about showing us some graphics applications that can FULLY render a scene with 30 people in it with 5 million polygons per person in 3D, where you can rotate and move around the scene in real time? That would be magic to people, but it is too bad they can't picture pushing graphics hardware to THAT level, right? How about some more work on AI where a simulation really DOES surprise people(without it being a bug) for how GOOD the responses are?

There are MANY other areas that can still bring a "wow" to people, but allowing for low-end computers is going to hold things back. Are we even at the point where a dual-core processor is a REQUIREMENT in more than a few games/applications?

[AMDme]

Translation, we have had a few rough quarters and are trying to shift our business focus, so we are just going to say we don't feel the same about the PC business any longer. If for some reason Fermi doesn't take the market by storm we are telegraphing our intentions to our most devoted fans.

Having a "mature" platform should unleash nVidia to do some amazing stuff, not hamper their creativity. Knowing that even a low end system has certain built in features and is likely stable and usable is a benefit. Just one more example of Jen-Hsen needing to engage his brain before his mouth. Our maybe they can bring back some of that early "Vista Magic"?