Matrox: Graphics for Professionals
This article details the founding and early history of Matrox, a graphics hardware company started by Lorne Trottier and Branko Matić in 1976. It highlights their early success in the nascent personal computing market through specialized video hardware.
Why it matters
It provides historical context on the evolution of the graphics hardware industry and the entrepreneurial spirit of the early computing era.
16 1 Share Lorne Trottier was born on the 15th of June in 1948 in Montréal. Trottier describes himself as a space and science geek, and he’s had a lifelong interest and passion in both space and electronics. In particular, Alan Shepard’s suborbital flight on the 5th of May in 1961 and Apollo 11 in July of 1969 made a lasting impact on him. He attended Baron Byng High School and McGill University. He attained his master’s in engineering in 1973. Realizing that there was a market to be had in interfacing CPUs and video output, Lorne had an idea for a company. He and his friend, Branko Matić, started working on some ideas in their spare time. Trottier had a second telephone line installed at his family home, his mother served as the receptionist, and he kept a day job.
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