Bitboys
| Bitboys Oy
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| legal form | Oy (Finnish joint stock company) |
| founding | 1991 |
| resolution | Acquisition by ATI on May 2, 2006 |
| Seat |
Noormarkku , FIN
|
| Branch | microelectronics |
| Website | http://www.bitboys.com ( Memento from May 2, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) |
Bitboys Oy was a Finnish company based in Noormarkku that developed 3D graphics chips for the PC and mobile sectors ( PDAs , cell phones , etc.). The company was founded in 1991 and has since employed several members of the Future Crew . On May 2, 2006, the company was taken over by ATI for 44 million US dollars and should form the core of a new European development center for mobile chips.
Initially, Bitboys developed 3D graphics chips for the PC sector, but for various reasons they were not ready for series production. After these failures, the focus was on the mobile sector in 2000, but no product was brought to series production there either. Because of the many product announcements and rejections, Bitboys is the epitome of vaporware .
Company history
Pyramid3D
Bitboys Oy's first project was the Pyramid3D 3D chip , which was developed in 1996 for the Singapore- based company TriTech . The chip was very advanced for the time and should far outperform the market leader at the time, 3dfx and its Voodoo Graphics , in terms of both performance and functionality . The Pyramid3D already had programmable geometry and pixel units that were only integrated into their chips by other companies years later as pixel and vertex shaders . Although there were already working prototypes of the graphics chip and corresponding graphics cards, the chip did not come onto the market because TriTech found no buyers for chips and later went bankrupt.
First Glaze3D
The first version of the Glaze3D was announced on May 15th, 1998 for the end of 1999 and should be a graphics chip that should be significantly more powerful than corresponding competing products. The main goal was to achieve this through the use of Rambus memory with a multi-channel memory interface. The programming ability of the Pyramid3D was lost. Due to persistent delays in the development and market launch of the Nvidia GeForce in autumn 1999, Bitboys decided not to bring the chip onto the market and to offer a revised version instead.
Second Glaze3D
This second version was announced in October 1999 for the first half of 2000. The number of render pipelines has been doubled and the memory interface has been revised. In addition, the chip should be multi-GPU capable in order to compensate for certain performance disadvantages (cf. 3dfx VSA-100 ). The Glaze3D 1200 with one graphics chip, the Glaze3D 2400 with two graphics chips and the Glaze3D 4800 with four graphics chips were planned. In addition, there should be the programmable geometry chip Thor , which should give the Glaze3D T&L capability (and probably beyond). When memory interface wanted to with use of eDRAM new ways and described the whole thing as X treme B andwidth A rchitecture ( XBA ) . But the second version of the Glaze3D was never finished either, the dates were repeatedly postponed and due to name disputes the name Glaze3D was dropped.
Avalanche
The revised Glaze3D was known under the new name Avalanche in 2001 and announced for the beginning of 2002. In addition to the usual improvements (memory interface), the support of pixel and vertex shaders according to DirectX 8.1 has been integrated this time. And in contrast to the previous Glaze3D chips, this time there were even executable prototypes at the end of 2001. Nevertheless, the chip did not come onto the market, as manufacturing partner Infineon announced at the end of 2001 that it would withdraw from the lossy eDRAM production. And since Infineon was the only one to master this production, Bitboys no longer had any production partners and the Avalanche was also dropped.
Mobile chips
After these failures, it was announced that it would concentrate on the mobile sector and thus the development of 3D chips for PDAs , cell phones and similar devices. Although NEC was able to win a licensee for some designs, no finished product came onto the market either.
Model data
| Chip name | Number of graphics chips | Organization of the render pipelines & texture units |
DirectX version | Shader model | Memory interface | eDRAM | Others |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pyramid3D | One | 1x1 | - | - | 64-bit SDRAM | - | Developed for TriTech |
| First Glaze3D | One | 2x2 | 6th | - | Rambus (multi-channel) | - | Scheduled for the end of 1999 |
| Second Glaze3D | One to four | 4x2 | 7th | - | XBA | 9 MB | Scheduled for mid-2000 |
| Avalanche | unknown | 4x2 | 8.1 | Pixel & Vertex Shader 1.0 | XBA | 10 MB | Scheduled for early 2002 |
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dave Barron: A Look Inside Bitboys ( English ) Firingsquad. October 28, 2002. Retrieved January 9, 2011: “Bitboys has long been a mystery within the graphics industry. Many consider them a joke, few are loyal followers. "
- ↑ Fuad Abazovic: ATI acquires Bitboys (English) . In: The Inquirer , May 2, 2006. Retrieved January 11, 2011.
- ↑ Bitboys' 3D superchip schedule slips again? (English) . In: The Register , August 14, 2000. Retrieved March 29, 2008.
- ↑ Bitboys offers next-gen mobile 3D chips (English) . In: The Register , August 10, 2004. Retrieved March 29, 2008.
Web links
- Bitboys Oy website ( Memento from May 2, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
- Article about the developments of the bitboys