and Curtis Priem, who was previously a senior staff engineer and graphics chip designer at IBM and Sun Microsystems. In late 1992, the three men agreed to start the company in a meeting at a Denny's roadside diner on Berryessa Road in East San Jose.

At the time, Malachowsky and Priem were frustrated with Sun's management and were looking to leave, but Huang was on "firmer ground", in that