第1章：三个朋友与一个‘图形梦想’ / Three Friends and a 'Graphics Dream'

1993年，美国加利福尼亚州桑尼维尔市的一个小车库里，三个年轻人围在一张旧桌子旁，桌上散落着电路板、设计图纸和几杯冷掉的咖啡。窗外，硅谷的阳光透过百叶窗洒进来，照亮了他们眼中的光芒。这是黄仁勋（Jensen Huang）、克里斯·马拉科夫斯基（Chris Malachowsky）和柯蒂斯·普里伯格（Curtis Priem）第一次正式聚在一起，讨论一个听起来有些“疯狂”的想法——成立一家专注于“图形计算”（Graphics Computing）的公司。那时，个人电脑刚刚开始进入家庭，游戏还停留在简单的像素点，电影特效也远未像今天这样炫目。但在这间小车库里，三个朋友却看到了一个别人尚未充分关注的未来：计算机图形，将不仅仅是游戏或电影的工具，而是改变整个世界的关键力量。

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车库里的火花：三个人的相遇

In that small garage, the air smelled of solder, old carpets, and ambition. Jensen, Chris, and Curtis had all met while working at Sun Microsystems, a tech company that was already making waves. But they kept asking themselves: *What’s next?* What would computers be capable of in ten years? Twenty years?

Jensen, with his sharp mind and relentless drive, had always been fascinated by how things worked. Born in Taiwan, he had spent his childhood taking apart radios and rebuilding them, dreaming of creating something new. Chris, an artist at heart with an engineering degree, saw the world in colors and shapes. He believed that computers could do more than crunch numbers—they could create beauty. Curtis, the quiet coding genius, had already written programs that made simple shapes move on screen. He knew that the hardware inside computers was too slow to handle complex images, and he thought, *Why not build a chip just for that?*

One afternoon, as they sipped coffee and stared at a crude 3D model rotating on a monitor, Jensen said, “Graphics isn’t just about games. It’s about giving computers a new way to see and understand the world.” Chris nodded, sketching a futuristic interface on a napkin. Curtis added, “Right now, the CPU does all the work—graphics, sound, everything. It’s like asking a chef to also be the farmer, the waiter, and the dishwasher. We need a specialist.”

That was the moment. They realized that while everyone was focused on making faster general-purpose chips, no one was building a dedicated engine for graphics. It was a gap—a hidden opportunity. They called their future company “NV” at first, short for “Next Version,” but later settled on “NVIDIA,” a play on the Latin word *invidia* (envy) and the idea of making something so good others would envy it. Their mission: to revolutionize how computers handle images, and eventually, to power the visual computing revolution.

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什么是图形计算？给电脑一双“眼睛”

Before we dive deeper, let’s understand what “graphics computing” means. Imagine you’re playing your favorite video game. The characters move smoothly, the explosions look real, and the world feels alive. All that visual magic happens because of a special processor called a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit). But in 1993, GPUs didn’t exist as we know them today. Computers used their main brain, the CPU (Central Processing Unit), to draw everything—which was like using a bicycle to deliver a truckload of bricks: slow and inefficient.

Graphics computing is all about making computers create and manipulate images, videos, and 3D models quickly and beautifully. It’s not just for fun and games; it’s used in:

• **Movies**: Think of *Toy Story* (1995), the first fully computer-animated film. Every frame took hours to render because the computers had to calculate light, shadows, and textures. Better graphics chips made those movies faster and more realistic.
• **Science**: Doctors use graphics to see 3D scans of your body. Scientists use it to simulate weather, galaxies, or molecules.
• **Everyday Life**: Your smartphone’s smooth scrolling, filters on photos, and even the animations when you swipe—all rely on graphics processing.

So when Jensen, Chris, and Curtis talked about “graphics computing,” they weren’t just thinking about better game graphics. They envisioned a future where every computer would need a dedicated graphics engine—just like every car needs a good engine. At the time, most people didn’t see that. They saw graphics as a niche for gamers and designers. But these three friends saw a wave coming—and they wanted to build the surfboard.

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🌟 小任务：观察你身边的“图形”

Look around you right now. Where do you see computer graphics in action?

• On your tablet: animated apps, game characters, video calls with filters.
• On TV: weather maps that move, cartoon shows, sports replays with slow-motion effects.
• In books: some children’s books have augmented reality (AR) where characters pop off the page when you scan with a phone.

思考一下：如果没有图形计算，这些会是什么样子？可能像老式电视一样，只有静态图片，或者像早期游戏那样，全是 blocky squares（方块）！

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为什么1993年是“对的时间”？

To understand why Jensen, Chris, and Curtis were so convinced, let’s travel back to the early 1990s:

1. The PC Boom: Personal computers were becoming common in homes and offices. Microsoft Windows 3.1 (1992) made computers more user-friendly with icons and windows—things that needed graphics. 2. Gaming’s Leap: Games like *Doom* (1993) and *Myst* (1993) showed that people wanted immersive visual experiences. But they were limited by the hardware. 3. Hollywood’s Dream: Pixar’s *Toy Story* was in production, proving that 3D animation was possible but extremely slow and expensive. 4. The CPU Bottleneck: The main computer chip (CPU) was doing too much. As graphics got more complex, the CPU slowed everything down. Engineers knew a separate processor for graphics was needed—but no company had made a affordable, powerful one yet.

Jensen, Chris, and Curtis had all worked at tech companies where they saw this problem daily. At Sun Microsystems, they dealt with high-performance workstations used for engineering and science. They noticed that even those expensive machines struggled with 3D modeling. “If the pros are having trouble,” Curtis thought, “imagine what will happen when every kid wants to play 3D games at home.”

They also saw that software was evolving. Microsoft was developing Windows 95, which would put graphics at the center of computing. If they could create a chip that made Windows run smoothly with rich visuals, they would be essential to the next generation of PCs.

It was a classic “identify a gap before others do” moment. They weren’t inventing the need for graphics—they were the first to fully commit to solving it with a dedicated chip.

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创始人的童年：好奇心的种子

Great ideas often start in childhood. Let’s peek into the early lives of our three friends to see how their unique passions planted the seeds for NVIDIA.

黄仁勋（Jensen Huang）：从拆收音机到芯片梦想

Jensen was born in 1963 in Taipei, Taiwan. His father was a chemical engineer, his mother a schoolteacher. From a young age, Jensen was obsessed with how things worked. At age 5, he took apart his family’s new radio—not to break it, but to see the wires and parts inside. His parents weren’t angry; they encouraged his curiosity. His mother said, “If you want to understand something, take it apart. Just remember to put it back together.”

At 9, he moved with his brother to Oregon, USA, to live with his aunt and uncle while his parents stayed in Taiwan for work. In a new country, with a new language, Jensen threw himself into math and science. He loved puzzles and logic games. In high school, he excelled in physics and electrical engineering classes, often staying after school to tinker with electronics.

One story Jensen loves to tell: when he was 15, he and a friend built a simple computer from a kit. They soldered every component themselves. When it finally booted up, they felt like wizards. “That moment,” he says, “taught me that you don’t have to wait for someone else to build the future—you can build it yourself.”

关键点：Jensen’s childhood taught him hands-on learning and persistence. Taking things apart and rebuilding them gave him a deep understanding of hardware—the physical side of computers. This would later help him design chips that were both powerful and efficient.

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克里斯·马拉科夫斯基（Chris Malachowsky）：艺术家与工程师的结合

Chris grew up in Florida, the son of a civil engineer and a nurse. While other kids played baseball, Chris was often found with a s