Very cool. Was Bali going to be the next high-end architecture after InfiniteReality? (I think IR was code-named “Kona” so the tropical codenames fit)
Why did they cancel it, money running out? It’s sad to think they were close to a new architecture but then just kept selling IR for years (and even sold a FireGL-based “Onyx” by the end).
Also was it a separate team working on the lower-end graphics like VPro/Odyssey?
Yes Bali was the next gen architecture and incredibly scalable. It consisted of many different chips connected together in a network that could scale. The R chip was so big existing tools couldn't handle it and ppl were writing their own tools. As a result it was very expensive to tape out so many hefty chips and I think that's why when it came time, and with a financial crisis, upper management pulled the plug.
Yes there were separate teams working on the lower-end graphics.
Why did they cancel it, money running out? It’s sad to think they were close to a new architecture but then just kept selling IR for years (and even sold a FireGL-based “Onyx” by the end).
Also was it a separate team working on the lower-end graphics like VPro/Odyssey?