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The deep learning boom caught almost everyone by surprise

(www.understandingai.org)
251 points slyall | 2 comments | 06 Nov 24 04:05 UTC | HN request time: 0.42s | source
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teknover ◴[06 Nov 24 07:09 UTC] No.42057746[source]▶
“Nvidia invented the GPU in 1999” wrong on many fronts.

Arguably the November 1996 launch of 3dfx kickstarted GPU interest and OpenGL.

After reading that, it’s hard to take author seriously on the rest of the claims.

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1. binarybits ◴[06 Nov 24 14:02 UTC] No.42062422[source]▶
Defining who "really" invented something is often tricky. For example I mentioned in the article that there is some dispute about who discovered backpropagation. A

According to Wikipedia, Nvidia released its first product, the RV1, in November 1995, the same month 3dfx released its first Voodoo Graphics 3D chip. Is there reason to think the 3dfx card was more of a "true" GPU than the RV1? If not, I'd say Nvidia has as good a claim to inventing the GPU as 3dfx does.

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2. in3d ◴[06 Nov 24 16:07 UTC] No.42064399[source]▶
NV1, not RV1.

3dfx Voodoo cards were initially more successful, but I don’t think anything not actually used for deep learning should count.