Intel also got burned by Itanium; though maybe if it had been a many-core design as well the payoff would have been worth it. (Looking (about a generation later, Itanium first released in 2001 and cell development started then) at the Cell processor the PS3 used, the idea was probably around at the time and didn't seem to pay off very well their either...)

Arguably one of the things that Nvidia really got right was learning from those past failures at other companies and making it easier for developers to utilize the platform starting from a standpoint that they were familiar with and helpfully nudging them towards what would run fast in parallel.