ArtX

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ArtX was a company formed in 1997 by a group of engineers from Silicon Graphics, Inc. that worked on the Nintendo 64's graphics chip. Focused on delivering a PC graphics chip that was both high performance and cost effective, they hoped to be able to instantly compete with the giants in the industry at that time, 3dfx and nVidia. David Orton, who was head of Silicon Graphics' advanced-graphics division, was appointed President of ArtX (he is now the CEO of ATI Technologies). They demonstrated their first integrated graphics chipset with built-in geometry engine at COMDEX in the fall of 1999, which was marketed by Acer Lab of Taiwan. ArtX was contracted to create the graphics processor (called the "Flipper chip") for Nintendo's fourth game console, the GameCube.

Soon afterward, it was acquired by ATI Technologies, Inc. in February 2000 for $400 million dollars in stock options. ArtX paved the way for the development of ATI's R300 graphics chipset, which formed the basis of ATI's consumer and professional products for three years afterward.