SGI was a new company, but it was by no means a small-time operation. No company that managed to establish itself in Silicon Valley was an easy opponent, that said, it didn't mean SGI was without rivals in its own field.
"Mr. Clark, the Geometry Engine you created is truly a remarkable work of art."
Inside the reception room, the two sat facing one another. Having only recently escaped financial hardship thanks to SGI, Jim Clark was already beginning to carry the aura of an industry leader.
"You're giving me far too much credit, Mr. Hayes. I've studied your company's NovaWonder, and I learned a great deal from it."
Jim wasn't much of a businessman. More often than not, he still considered himself an engineer. Objectively speaking, NovaWonder's ingenious architecture and exceptional power efficiency were absolutely among the industry's finest.
"I never imagined such an incredible product would come from a game company."
He had studied the chip himself, and he also knew the history of GAMENOVA's rise. The company's research and development capabilities had genuinely amazed him.
"So, Ethan, did you come to SGI to discuss cooperation on graphics chips?"
"You could say that. We need to bring some technologies from the professional market down into the consumer market. I noticed that SGI's graphics workstations are excellent."
"It means a lot that someone like you took an interest in a startup like ours."
After the customary pleasantries, both sides had established a basic rapport. Ethan paused, studying the middle-aged genius who had achieved success later in life.
Jim Clark
Overall Evaluation: S (A Rising Silicon Valley Star)
Hardware Architecture: 143 (Growth Potential: S)
Graphics Technology: 131 (Growth Potential: S)
Graphic Design: 81 (Growth Potential: A+)
Administration & Finance: 103 (Growth Potential: A+)
He was an exceptionally talented technical leader with virtually no weaknesses. At the same time, he was a man with immense pride and unwavering convictions. So, money alone probably wouldn't be enough to convince him to bring SGI under GAMENOVA's banner.
A highly controlling and emotionally driven talent. Those labels reminded Ethan of Carmack.
"Jim..."
Ethan spoke slowly, considering the best way to approach the subject.
"Have you ever thought about entering the consumer market?"
"The consumer market? You mean the low-cost mass market?"
Jim immediately understood what he meant. SGI's current strategy was centered around absolute performance, so their target customers were major Hollywood studios and other high-end professional clients.
Their industry-leading 3D rendering performance had quickly turned the new company into the first choice for professionals who needed cutting-edge graphics capabilities.
"Someone else is already serving that market, so there's no reason for us to fight Sun Microsystems for market share."
Within the workstation industry, only three companies truly mattered: SGI, Sun Microsystems, and Apollo Computer.
Apollo Computer had been one of the pioneers of the workstation market. Founded back in 1980, it had built a mature customer base long before SGI ever appeared.
Its flagship DOMAIN series had been virtually unstoppable in the market. Combined with its proprietary DOMAIN/OS operating system, it had created an entirely self-contained ecosystem.
To compete against Apollo, Jim had chosen a different path. Rather than focusing on general-purpose computing performance, he concentrated entirely on graphics performance.
That differentiation was what had allowed SGI to survive.
Sun Microsystems, meanwhile, was an entirely different kind of competitor. Using Motorola's 68000 processor family, Sun's products were far cheaper than those of SGI and Apollo.
Although Sun had also been founded in 1982, its growth was astonishingly rapid, aggressively devouring market share.
Jim knew exactly what SGI's competitive advantage was, so he had no intention of recklessly picking a fight with Sun Microsystems. He couldn't win that nor was there any need to.
"Then what are your plans for the future?"
Ethan knew exactly how the futures of these three Silicon Valley veterans would unfold. Among them, SGI would ultimately fare the worst. By then, however, Jim would have long since left the company.
If history followed roughly the same course, Apollo Computer would gradually lose its competitiveness because of its closed operating system and would eventually be acquired by Hewlett-Packard in 1989.
As for Sun Microsystems, Ethan's eyes flickered. It would be the one left standing at the end.
"Jim, excellent as SGI's products are, they lack the kind of decisive technology that Sun possesses."
"What?"
Jim's expression changed. Ethan's statement was far too blunt. It was practically the same as saying SGI simply wasn't good enough.
"The SPARC processor architecture, the Solaris operating system, and the standardization of the TCP/IP networking protocol."
Sun had designed its workstations with considerable foresight regarding the future of the Internet. Combined with its unique architecture and exceptional price to performance ratio, Sun would become the undisputed king of the workstation industry throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
SGI, meanwhile, would only be able to continue growing the high-end graphics market while defending its existing territory.
None of that, however, was particularly important to Ethan. The real weapon that would allow Sun Microsystems to dominate the industry wouldn't appear until 1995. Its name was...
Java.
Who could have imagined that one of the greatest and most influential programming languages in computing history would be born inside a company that manufactured computer hardware?
After hearing Ethan's words, Jim swallowed the rebuttal that had reached his lips. After a long silence, he finally spoke again.
"Ethan, I know what you're trying to do."
"You want to put a top-tier graphics processor, one comparable to the graphics workstations built by SGI, into GAMENOVA's game consoles. But a game console that sells for less than three hundred dollars wouldn't even recover the research and development costs."
Developing a cutting edge graphics processor required an astronomical investment. Spread across each individual chip, the cost simply couldn't be justified for a low cost entertainment product aimed at the mass market.
"You're absolutely right, Jim." Ethan nodded. "I certainly don't want my game console to cost more than an arcade machine."
There was nothing to argue about there. A 3D graphics chip in this era was practically science fiction.
"But I have no intention of making a 3D chip."
"What I need is a 2D graphics accelerator, a graphics card capable of supporting more colors and higher resolutions."
"Jim, the next generation of consoles will sell in the tens of millions and compared to the limited workstation market, I'd much rather see SGI's technology enter every household."
"Sun Microsystems has focused all of its attention on the PC market. So, that's our opportunity."
As he listened to the grand vision Ethan was painting, Jim gradually realized that this meeting wasn't simply about jointly developing a new graphics chip. He looked up, meeting Ethan's eyes. A brilliant smile spread across Ethan's face.
"Jim, trust me."
"Funding is the easiest problem we'll ever have to solve."
If throwing money at a problem were enough to break through technological barriers, Ethan would have built the PlayStation a full decade ahead of schedule.
One after another, he removed several documents from his briefcase.
"What we're going to do is establish a standard."
"What I need isn't merely a graphics chip, I need a universal graphics accelerator."
"A dedicated coprocessor that operates independently of the CPU, running in parallel with it, designed specifically for massive matrix calculations and graphics processing."