SiS, for example, already has both core-logic and 3D products and might be able to integrate the two functions relatively easily. High-end 3D chips are safe from Intel for the time being. Customers who use 3D for CAD applications can afford to pay top dollar for multichip sets that provide significantly better performance than mainstream devices. The same goes for PC and arcade games, which have become a larger market than CAD, at least in unit volume. Quake II alone will persuade tens of thousands of gamers to buy cards based on 3Dfx's Voodoo 2 chip set.
Notebook computers are another safe harbor, at least for a while.
It seems likely that Intel has already begun working on this technology, but it could be two years or more before the company can build it into graphics chips. Given Intel's powerful brand name and enormous resources, we expect the company to quickly become a leading graphics-chip vendor. There will always be opportunities for clever 3D-chip makers, but those that fail to innovate will perish beneath the treads of the Intel juggernaut.