Matrox traces its origins to 1976 Montreal startup by Trottier and Matić
Lorne Trottier and Branko Matić founded Matrox in Dorval, Quebec in 1976, combining their surnames to name the company. Their first product, the MTX-1632 video RAM board, generated a 32x16 ASCII display and sold $20,000 worth of orders after a free listing in Electronics magazine, making the fledgling company profitable almost immediately. They quickly followed up with the MTX-256, a raster graphics unit offering 256 by 256 dot resolution.
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This early success illustrates how niche trade magazines served as the primary marketplace for hobbyist-era computer hardware startups before the internet existed. Matrox's rapid pivot from a simple video interface card to raster graphics hardware foreshadowed its later reputation as a serious player in professional graphics technology.
- Matrox was founded in 1976 in Dorval, Quebec by Lorne Trottier and Branko Matić.
- Their first product, the MTX-1632, became profitable through magazine advertising alone.
- The company quickly expanded into raster graphics with the MTX-256 board.
Matrox Mura or Matrox D-Series Multi-Display Graphics Card — Matrox still does exactly what Trottier and Matić set out to do in 1976: get CPUs talking to displays reliably. Their multi-display graphics cards drive several monitors from one workstation, which is why they remain a staple in digital signage, control rooms and trading desks.
See Matrox Mura or Matrox D-Series Multi-Display Graphics Card on Amazon → Affiliate link — we may earn a commission on purchases, at no extra cost to you. Product picked by AI based on this article; it is not a tested recommendation.Source: abortretry.fail — Bradford Morgan White, 2026-08-30
Published there as: “Matrox: Graphics for Professionals”
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