Top Tech Blunders: 10 Products that Massively Failed
Posted 05/20/09 at 10:45:00 AM by Norman Chan
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Intel i740 Graphics
How many of you knew that Intel had once designed and sold a discrete graphics card? In 1998, the CPU maker surprised everyone with the announcement and release of the Real3D Starfighter, a card based on their independently developed i740 GPU. i740 chips shook up the industry by being one of the first graphics cards to take advantage of the AGP slot at a time when market leader 3dfx was still using the PCI bus. Some analysts predicted that within a year, Intel could claim more than 20% of the 3D accelerator market.
How it Failed
Despite a big marketing push the i740 could never muster enough horsepower to compete with the best cards from Nvidia and 3dfx. The decision to use onboard memory exclusively for the frame buffer hurt performance, since the card had to use system memory to hold texture data. This meant using the AGP bus to access texture memory while competing with the CPU for system memory bandwidth. However, its reputable 2D speeds made it an ideal companion card for the 3D-only Voodoo 2s, and many OEMs bundled the i740 with Voodoos. Intel eventually decided to lower their sights to the budget-market, incorporating the i740's architecture into their GMA line of integrated graphics. And while the i740 remains a sore point in Intel's history, their upcoming Larrabee architecture -- due for release in 2010 -- will be their second attempt at competing in the discrete graphics market.
Iomega Zip Drive
Back when 3.5" floppy drives were the dominant portable media format, Iomega wowed the tech world in 1994 with its seemingly revolutionary Zip Drive. The promise of 100MB of storage in a rewritable format that was only slightly bigger than the floppy disk (which maxed out at 1.44MB) was almost irresistible, and consumers flocked to this new medium for backups. The relatively low cost of these drives and disks -- especially when compared to the radically expensive CD-R drives -- also helped it gain popularity. As prices dropped and other suppliers licensed Iomega's technology, Zip drives nearly became a ubiquitous storage format.
How it Failed
Unfortunately, Zip drives eventually faced obstacles from three fronts by the end of the 90s. First, the drop in price of CD burning hardware and media, which boasted more than six times the capacity of the smallest Zip disks, led consumers away from this proprietary format. The rise of the DVD didn't help, either. Additionally, hard drive capacity was also growing at an amazing rate, giving users gigabytes of storage on the cheap to facilitate their backup needs. Furthermore, a small percentage of Zip drives were plagued by a hardware defect that led to an famous "death click" condition when the drive's read head became misaligned. The click of death didn't just disabled the drives, but also ruined perfectly good Zip disks. Iomega also released a SCSI-interface Jaz drive that held 1GB of data and didn't suffer from the click of death, but these drives never sold as well as the original Zip.
MPEG-2 DVD Decoder Cards
Here's a technology that fell victim to the speed and versatility of CPUs. Back when DVD-Rom drives were first becoming popularized for PC use, software playback of movie DVDs paled in comparison to what could be achieved with a discrete decoder. MPEG-2 decoder cards from Sigma Designs and Creative Labs bore the load of processing DVD video playback and did a better job of it than CPUs. These cards let you play non-interlaced full-motion video in a resizable window at high resolutions, and also took care of Dolby surround sound processing.
How it Failed
Eventually, faster CPUs were released that could handle runing multiple tasks while decoding DVDs, and GPUs also started incorporating support for acclerated video decoding. Even MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 encoding is practical with today's multi-core CPUs.
3dfx Voodoo Rush/Banshee
From our GPU retrospective: As good as the Voodoo1 was at the time, 3dfx found out not everyone was willing to invest in a two-card solution for 2D and 3D graphics. To remedy the Voodoo1's shortcoming, 3dfx released the Voodoo Rush in 1997, which added a 2D chip to the original graphics board, either as an integrated chip or a daughtercard. Gamers no longer had to fiddle with daisy-chaining multiple videocards, but at the expense of performance. A kludgy solution at best, some estimates put the 3D performance hit at up to 20 percent, a direct result of sharing bandwidth between chips. Making matters worse, the Rush suffered from poor 2D performance and instability, making it one of the few unforgettable cards in 3dfx's storied history.
After the Voodoo Rush, 3dfx attempted to release a similar product based on the Voodoo 2 chip. Much less menacing than its name implies, the Voodoo Banshee was more about 3dfx proving to the public it could design a single-chip videocard capable of both 2D and 3D rendering, just like the competition had been doing. With faster clockrates than the Voodoo2, the 128-bit Banshee was poised to be the fastest, most flexible videocard on the market, and that presented a problem for 3dfx, who feared the Banshee would cut into sales of the Voodoo2 released just weeks earlier. To prevent that from happening, 3dfx designed the Banshee with only one texturing unit, taking away its ability to support multitexturing.
I bought zip250 in the year
Submitted by Bless on Mon, 05/25/2009 - 10:56pm
I bought zip250 in the year 2000 and believe it or not I'm still using it right now in 2009, in the year where they are able to create a 16 GB usb disk :) even I'm still Using the same zip disk that came with the hardware. Sure there are a couple of errors where I'm forced to delete that misfortune files, but considering how old it is, it's pretty understandable. I remembered how the zip disk saved my life many times, being able to copy and delete files where the CD-RW were still in the womb. Even until now I still prefer my zip disk compared to CD-RW hence you can copy and delete files instantly, not having to wait for that burn time is a bless for me.
Pfft, you can buy custom
Submitted by Xylogeist on Wed, 09/09/2009 - 9:06am
Pfft, you can buy custom made 64GB USB drives these days - they are over 250$ regularly though :P
All aboard the Failbus!!!
Submitted by 1mustdie on Sat, 05/23/2009 - 10:52pm
Wow!! I did own
Kenwood TrueX, Intel i740, Iomega Zip Drive, MPEG-2 DVD Decoder Card (Creative), Rambus, and the Prescott!!! Boy do I feel like a loser, but in the end it helped me learn through the years....
Yeah, my Prescott P4 EE
Submitted by dag1992 on Sat, 05/23/2009 - 2:18pm
Yeah, my Prescott P4 EE stills kicks ass at a stock 3.6 GHz.
Nunc est bibendum! I'd call
Submitted by Asterixx on Wed, 05/20/2009 - 5:40pm
Nunc est bibendum!
I'd call the LS-120 drive a bigger failure than the Zip. At least the Zip made it into the mainstream and stayed there several years.
I had one of the Kenwood 72X
Submitted by FrancesTheMute on Wed, 05/20/2009 - 1:08pm
I had one of the Kenwood 72X drives. I thought it was great, never had any problems with it and it did seem to read disks pretty fast. I guess I got lucky and got a good one.
Don't forget the Apple III
Submitted by Baer on Wed, 05/20/2009 - 12:30pm
Even Apple Fanbois have to admit that the Apple III was a dismal failure. It was quickly replaced by the Apple ][G.
Submitted by Five Rabbits on Wed, 05/20/2009 - 10:46am
I concur on the zip drives, they may have become obsolete but they weren't a techonological failure. They filled an important niche for 5-6 years in the computing world. Data had become too big for floppys and, as mentioned in the article, CD-Writers were too slow and the media too expensive, especially when you consider ZIP media was reusable. Yeah I know RWs existed but they were and remain a pain in the butt to use, whereas ZIP meida was as easy as click and drag. It wasn't until CD-Wrtiters became faster, the media dirt cheap and burning process more relaible that they were able to replace the ZIP (If CD-Writers hadn't done it USB drives eventually would). And I'd suggest it was their use in the sneaker-net that made ZIP drives a success and not their use as a backup medium.
Submitted by linux_dork on Wed, 05/20/2009 - 9:47am
Apple Newton! It was revolutionary, but a failure.
Submitted by mrvander on Wed, 05/20/2009 - 9:39am
Sadly, I had both the Kenwood drives and the IBM Deathstars.
Sadly #2, it was because MaxPC/Boot (whichever it was at the time) recommended both of them with glowing reviews and just quite possibly a Kick Ass award.
Submitted by LatiosXT on Wed, 05/20/2009 - 9:19am
This is a much better list than that "PC Authority" or whatever.
Submitted by bland on Wed, 05/20/2009 - 5:05am
How can the palm foleo not be on this list?
p4
Submitted by Yusonice on Wed, 05/20/2009 - 12:47am
Hello p4 brothers!
I have cedar-mill @ 3ghz. its the final version of p4!! Who doesnt desire better processor? Still it meets my need and dont really need upgrade
Submitted by kyleb2112 on Wed, 05/20/2009 - 12:30am
Iomega made bank on zip drives. Any tech that is a defacto standard for several years is hardly a failure. They were even pre-installed on systems--a situation any hardware vendor would kill for. You want a total fail, talk about the Iomega JAZ drives. Those literally failed. I ran a small business at the time and had the misfortune to purchase 5 Jaz drives at once. They all failed immediately and repeatedly until the warranty expired and Iomega said tough luck--even though they spent their whole lives at Iomega's repair shop and less than a collective week in my possesion. I've been rooting for that company's death ever since.
Submitted by Muerte on Wed, 05/20/2009 - 12:53pm
I'm pretty sure he was speaking specifically about the JAZ drives.
Since this is "tech"
Submitted by yogurt80 on Tue, 05/19/2009 - 11:22pm
Since this is "tech" failures and not just PC failures, I'll add two glaring exclusions- HD-DVD and MiniDisc.
I'm not too sure...
Submitted by Havok on Mon, 05/25/2009 - 8:25am
They make great coasters for both beer bottles AND shotglasses respectively!
OMGWTFBBQ
I'm using a Pentium D 830
Submitted by Blaze589 on Tue, 05/19/2009 - 9:38pm
I'm using a Pentium D 830 processor. Essentially it's two Pentium 4 processors [Prescott] glued together and of course is based on the NetBurst microarchitecture, one of the noteworthy failures mentioned in this article... It has served me well enough but its age is showing under certain circumstances. Thankfully my annual five year build is next year; I'm hoping to get my hands on a 6 core i7. Hopefully 5 years after that build there wouldn't be an updated article mentioning that a component of that build is a failure...
Submitted by Saiyan Monkey on Tue, 05/19/2009 - 8:00pm
Sadly, as I sit here typing this (completely devoid of any sogginess in my trousers), I'm still "rockin'" my Pentium 4 Prescott :-( . I didn't know any better back when I bought it, but MxPC has shown me the way...now if only there was anything in my wallet to do something about it...*sniff*
Submitted by GFC on Tue, 05/19/2009 - 9:58pm
Don't be so sad, I'm using my Pentium 4 (Northwood @ 2,66), so you're not alone. But I too wish I had the cash for a new build...
I just gave my old P4C 3Ghz
Submitted by Keith E. Whisman on Wed, 05/20/2009 - 12:53am
I just gave my old P4C 3Ghz Northwood CPU and DFI Lanparty 875Pro motherboard to a friend. The thing still runs and WinXPee is still just as speedy as ever. I had overclocked that CPU to 4ghz with ease. He is going to use it along with my trusty old EVGA Nvidia 6800GT video card and a gig of Corsair DDR 800 ram.
That Northwood CPU isn't all that old and they are still pretty speedy. Sure my Core 2 Duo E8400 is alot faster we are talking about a 3ghz CPU. That CPU was fast and is still pretty speedy for Windows XP and some games.
He is going to be playing WOW with my old hardware and WOW seems to run just fine with my old hardware. In fact back in the day I had a hard time finding games that were too much for my hardware. Doom 3 and HL2 ran great at high resolutions on that hardware.
Submitted by Saiyan Monkey on Wed, 05/20/2009 - 11:08pm
I forgot to also mention that my system is a Dell Dimension 3000 (seriously, I didn't know any better back then), so my upgrading options are severely limited (I mean, they (Dell) went so far as to remove the AGP port on the motherboard! Who f-ing does that??!? I can't solder, so I can't fix it (and, again, back then I didn't even know what an AGP port was *shame*) so I'm stuck with a PCI graphics card (Diablotek GeForce FX 5500...I still didn't know better, sorry). Still, the machine works quite well (I've never experienced a crash of any sort that wasn't my own doing), and I've been using it to learn more about PCs (I just love messing with shite in my tower) by exploring and upgrading what I can (maxing out the RAM, expanding storage from 80GB to 830GB, setting up a dual-boot with Windows 7 and XP(Home, not Pro *sniff*), and just generally experimenting as much as I can).
It wasn't until I bought a book put out my MxPC called something like: "How to Build Your Dream PC" (I think it's Will Smith that has the author credit) that I learned the folly of my thinking thinking my machine was remotely powerful (ignorance is bliss and all that). I got that book along with another put out by MxPC (which I'd sadly never heard of until I found these books at a bargain book store) that was a Buyers Guide for 2005 I think, which, though outdated at the time I bought it, was still supremely useful in teaching me what to look for in PC parts, all I ahd to do from there was keep up to speed on current gear (which MxPC is terribly helpful with).
All this means two simple things:
1. my computer sucks, but at least it's functional (and not too shabby in gaming, so long as I don't want to play anything too new (it rocks in Doom 3 though, and is at least playable in Far Cry).
2. MxPC has shown me the folly of my ways and my thinking and bestowed unto me Holy Geeky Spirit (at least enough for me to become an aspiring geek at least...hey, man, I'm poor, cut me some slack).
Oh, and they taught me how to do things with a simple USB flash drive that gets my trousers all soggy.
Submitted by Arkhon on Thu, 05/21/2009 - 4:21am
The first time I ever worked around inside a computer was about a month ago, and I was working without any knowledge on the subject. I took apart my computer (An Athlon XP build, with GeForce FX5600 DT or something, I'm not quite sure) completely, even disassembling the fan on the video card, and emptied a can of air trying to dust that thing out. I pulled a ring of dust and cat hair out of the CPU fan, and it remained intact until I threw it in the trash. I didn't have any problems putting the entire thing back together, either. Building a PC is really, really easy, if a 17-year-old with no knowledge on the subject can do it without problems. The hardest part is choosing the components, making sure they are compatible with each other. My friend, who has long claimed greater knowledge of the inner workings of computers than me, recently bought a PCIe x16 video card, but his Dell Inspiron 531s can't fit it. I laughed at his stupidity, and now I'm building my first computer from scratch in a few weeks to celebrate my graduation. I'll get one of my dad's old video cards (he had 2 8800 GTs in SLI, replaced them with a GTX 275), and lord it over my friend, because that's what we do to each other.
(personal story over)
I pick hardware based mainly on what I read here and on Tom's Hardware.
The Sony PSP...
Submitted by windbane on Tue, 05/19/2009 - 7:01pm
The Sony PSP...
RDRAM may have failed, but
Submitted by Cache on Tue, 05/19/2009 - 6:27pm
RDRAM may have failed, but the Rambus 'Sue everyone with a pulse' philosophy has paid off handsomely so far. Do they even have a business model that doesn't involve the court system?
Submitted by Keith E. Whisman on Wed, 05/20/2009 - 7:43am
US Court System=Fail. Well at least when it comes to the ease at which anyone can sue anyone for anything and have a good chance at wining.
Submitted by compro01 on Wed, 05/20/2009 - 9:42am
You don't even need to win or have a chance of winning. You just need to be able to drag it out, causing your oppenent to rack up legal fees, making a go-away settlement a more attractive proposition than fighting it in court, even if you're in the right.
Submitted by Havok on Tue, 05/19/2009 - 6:23pm
I totally expected to see the Intel i740 "graphics" card on this list.
Epic lols and fails.
OMGWTFBBQ
Submitted by HitmanHybrid on Tue, 05/19/2009 - 6:05pm
Where's the DVD Rewinder lol?
Submitted by JAMES SINR on Tue, 05/19/2009 - 6:42pm
http://www.dvguru.com/2006/10/03/the-dvd-rewinder/
OMG I THOUGHT U WERE SHITTIN US LMFAO HAHAHAHAAHA
Submitted by thefuzz4 on Tue, 05/19/2009 - 7:00pm
I think that I might need to get one of those for all those DVD's I need to rewind
Submitted by PhelanPKell on Tue, 05/19/2009 - 10:45pm
Ya think it works on dual-layer DVD's too? :P
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