Their experience traces its way back to the Project Apollo Visual Docking Simulator, the first full-color 3D computer generated image system.

[1] GE sold similar systems of increasing complexity through the 1970s, but were never as large as other companies in the simulator space, like Singer Corporation or CAE.

When Jack Welch took over General Electric in 1981 he demanded that every division in the company be 1st or 2nd in its industry, or face being sold off.

This project became a showcase for the Accelerated Graphics Port system being introduced by Intel, which led to several design decisions that hampered the resulting products.

[5] By this point, nVidia had acquired all of SGI's graphics development resources, which included a 10% share in Real3D.