Timeline of Major GPU Announcements (2001 - 2006)

by Marco Chiappetta — Wednesday, February 08, 2006, 11:00 AM EDT

The crew over at Accelenation.com has compiled a comprehensive list of major GPU announcements from the last half-decade or so. Lots of milestones in there, along with some interesting commentary and analysis. I can probably map the "highs" and "lows" of my tech. writing career based on this article. :) Make sure to scroll all the way to the bottom and check out the "Pre-Voodoo" and Late '90s stuff.

"Let us return to the beginning of 2001 and the release of the first programmable GPU - the GeForce 3 from NVIDIA. At this time ATI was lagging far behind with the very first Radeon 256 filly (first entered back in April 2000). This ATI entrant had been introduced in direct competition to the first GeForce showing from NVIDIA (introduced over six months earlier). In the mean time NVIDIA had released its all-conquering GeForce 2 stud, and despite having an extensive feature list, the poor little Radeon 256 never really got into the race. So when NVIDIA released "Shade" the GeForce 3 black stallion at the start of 2001, ATI was nowhere to be seen."

Tags: GPU, Men, Timeline, Time, TIM, eme, IM

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com