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List Of Defunct Graphics Chips And Card Companies
{{Unreferenced, date=June 2010 During the 1980s and 1990s a relatively large number of companies appeared selling primarily 2D graphics cards and later 3D. Most of those companies have subsequently disappeared, as the increasing complexity of GPUs substantially increased research and development costs. Many of these companies subsequently went bankrupt or were bought out. Intel and VIA Technologies remain as producers of primarily integrated solutions, while Matrox targets niche markets. Amongst the notable discrete graphics card vendors, ATI Technologies — acquired by AMD in 2006 and since renamed to AMD — and NVIDIA are the only ones that have lasted. Defunct graphics chip makers These companies designed graphics chips and cards. *3dfx Interactive - assets were acquired by NVIDIA during its Chapter 11 bankruptcy *3Dlabs - merged with Creative Labs' personal entertainment division to form ZiiLABS *Advanced Logic Research – acquired by Gateway Computers *Ark Logi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Graphics Card
A graphics card (also called a video card, display card, graphics adapter, VGA card/VGA, video adapter, display adapter, or mistakenly GPU) is an expansion card which generates a feed of output images to a display device, such as a computer monitor. Graphics cards are sometimes called discrete or dedicated graphics cards to emphasize their distinction to integrated graphics. A graphics processing unit that performs the necessary computations is the main component of a graphics card, but the acronym "GPU" is sometimes also used to refer to the graphics card as a whole. Most graphics cards are not limited to simple display output. The graphics processing unit can be used for additional processing, which reduces the load from the central processing unit. Additionally, computing platforms such as OpenCL and CUDA allow using graphics cards for general-purpose computing. Applications of general-purpose computing on graphics cards include AI training, cryptocurrency mining, and mo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BitBoys
Bitboys Oy was a hardware development and licensing company based in Finland, founded in 1991 and acquired by ATI Technologies for up to US$44M on May 2, 2006. Until the acquisition, Bitboys had focused on mobile phone gaming, and had developed a large vector graphics-related portfolio. Bitboys was formed by some of the members of the demogroup Future Crew. Bitboys became infamous after the 1999 announcement of their Glaze3D series of graphics cards, which later turned out to be vaporware. When Infineon Technologies shut down its embedded DRAM production line, Bitboys quickly transformed from PC desktop graphics chip business to mobile graphics IP business. They could not find another manufacturer capable of producing the part because of the high amount of embedded DRAM used. After the merger of ATI into the AMD Graphics Product Group, the entire BitBoys Oy team was acquired by Qualcomm on January 22, 2009, following the sale of AMD Imageon Imageon (previously ATI Imageo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zoran Corporation
Zoran Corporation was a multinational digital technology company, founded in 1981 and headquartered in Silicon Valley, that was predominantly focused on designing and selling SoC (System on a Chip) integrated circuits for consumer electronics applications. The name ''Zoran'' is derived from the Hebrew word for silicon. Zoran was incorporated in the state of Delaware and had offices in Canada, China, England, Germany, India, Israel, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and the US. Zoran had strong ties with Israel, with a strong R&D presence and being the beneficiary of incentives from organizations such as Israel's Ministry of Industry and Trade. After an early focus on filter and signal processors for military, industrial and medical applications, Zoran started focusing on data compression products for emerging multimedia applications and became better known in the late 1990s as a supplier of Motion JPEG codec chips used on PC add-in cards for video capture and video editing application ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oak Technology
Oak Technology was an American supplier of semiconductor chips for sound cards, graphics cards and optical storage devices such as CD-ROM, CD-RW and DVD. It achieved success with optical storage chips and its stock price increased substantially around the time of the tech bubble in 2000. After falling on hard times, in 2003 it was acquired by Zoran Corporation. Oak Technology helped develop the ATAPI standard and provided the ''oakcdrom.sys'' CD-ROM driver that was ubiquitous on DOS-based systems in the mid-1990s. History Oak Technology, Inc. was founded in 1987 and was based in Sunnyvale, California, United States. During the late 1980s through the early 1990s, Oak was a supplier of PC graphics (SVGA) chipsets and PCBs. Oak Technology also supplied motherboard chipsets – a PS/2-compatible chipset and the Oaknote chipset for notebooks. Oak enjoyed modest success in the value segment (low-end) of the market, but without an effective Windows accelerator, ultimately failed t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
S3 Graphics
S3 Graphics, Ltd (commonly referred to as S3) was an American computer graphics company. The company sold the Trio, ViRGE, Savage 3D, and Chrome series of graphics processors. Struggling against competition from 3dfx Interactive, ATI and Nvidia, it merged with hardware manufacturer Diamond Multimedia in 1999. The resulting company renamed itself to SONICblue Incorporated, and, two years later, the graphics portion was spun off into a new joint effort with VIA Technologies. The new company focused on the mobile graphics market. VIA Technologies' stake in S3 Graphics was purchased by HTC in 2011. History S3 was founded and incorporated in January 1989 by Dado Banatao and Ronald Yara. It was named S3 as it was Banatao's third startup company. The company's first products were among the earliest graphical user interface (GUI) accelerators. These chips were popular with video card manufacturers, and their followup designs, including the Trio64, made strong inroads with OEMs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Number Nine Visual Technology
Number Nine Visual Technology Corporation was a manufacturer of video graphics chips and cards from 1982 to 1999. Number Nine developed the first 128-bit graphics processor (the Imagine 128), as well as the first 256-color (8-bit) and 16.8 million color (24-bit) cards. The name of the company, as well as many of its products (e.g., Revolution, Imagine, Pepper, Ticket to Ride) refer to Beatles songs. At system boot up, Number Nine cards' video BIOS splash screens display short phrases from Beatles songs related to the cards' model names. Card model names were usually preceded by a "#9" moniker. History Number Nine was founded in 1982 by Andrew Najda and Stan Bialek as Number Nine Computer Corporation. The company was renamed Number Nine Visual Technology Corporation in the early 1990s. For most of its existence, Number Nine was based in Lexington, Massachusetts. Number Nine initially made an Apple II accelerator board, then later moved into the design and manufactur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Commodore International
Commodore International (other names include Commodore International Limited) was an American home computer and electronics manufacturer founded by Jack Tramiel. Commodore International (CI), along with its subsidiary Commodore Business Machines (CBM), was a significant participant in the development of the home personal computer industry in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s. The company developed and marketed the world's best-selling computer, the Commodore 64 (1982), and released its Amiga computer line in July 1985. With quarterly sales ending 1983 of $ (equivalent to $ in ), Commodore was one of the world's largest personal computer manufacturers. History Founding and early years Commodore co-founders Jack Tramiel and Manfred Kapp met in the early 1950s while both employed by the Ace Typewriter Repair Company in New York City. In 1954, they formed a partnership to sell used and reconditioned typewriters and used their profits to purchase the Singer Typewriter Company. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
MOS Technology
MOS Technology, Inc. ("MOS" being short for Metal Oxide Semiconductor), later known as CSG (Commodore Semiconductor Group) and GMT Microelectronics, was a semiconductor design and fabrication company based in Audubon, Pennsylvania. It is most famous for its 6502 microprocessor and various designs for Commodore International's range of home computers. History Three former General Instrument executives, John Paivinen, Mort Jaffe and Don McLaughlin, formed MOS Technology in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania in 1969. The Allen-Bradley Company was looking to provide a second source for electronic calculators and their chips designed by Texas Instruments (TI). In 1970 Allen-Bradley acquired a majority interest in MOS Technology. In the early 1970s, TI decided to release their own line of calculators, instead of selling just the chips inside them, and introduced them at a price that was lower than the price of the chipset alone. Many early chip companies were reliant on sales of cal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Macintosh Clone
A Macintosh clone, also known as a Clonintosh (a portmanteau of " Clone" and "Macintosh"), is a computer running the Mac OS operating system that was not produced by Apple Inc. The earliest Mac clones were based on emulators and reverse-engineered Macintosh ROMs. During Apple's short lived Mac OS 7 licensing program, authorized Mac clone makers were able to either purchase 100% compatible motherboards or build their own hardware using licensed Mac reference designs. Since Apple's switch to the Intel platform, many non-Apple Wintel/ PC computers are technologically so similar to Mac computers that they are able to boot the Mac operating system using a varying combination of community-developed patches and hacks. Such a Wintel/PC computer running macOS is more commonly referred to as a Hackintosh. Background The Apple II and IBM PC computer lines were "cloned" by other manufacturers who had reverse-engineered the minimal amount of firmware in the computers' ROM chips and subse ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Macintosh
The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software engineers. The current lineup includes the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro laptops, as well as the iMac, Mac Mini, Mac Studio and Mac Pro desktops. Macs run the macOS operating system. The first Mac was released in 1984, and was advertised with the highly-acclaimed "1984" ad. After a period of initial success, the Mac languished in the 1990s, until co-founder Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997. Jobs oversaw the release of many successful products, unveiled the modern Mac OS X, completed the 2005-06 Intel transition, and brought features from the iPhone back to the Mac. During Tim Cook's tenure as CEO, the Mac underwent a period of neglect, but was later reinvigorated with the introduction of popular high-end Macs and the ongoing Apple si ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Integrated Micro Solutions (company)
iXMicro, Inc., a privately held company, was a graphics chipset and video card manufacturer. The company was founded as Integrated Micro Solutions (IMS) in 1994 and ceased operations in 2000. The American actor Christopher Knight served as vice president of graphics marketing for iXMicro. Products Video cards * The Twin Turbo-128 PCI series, including the 128S and 128P2, came standard on the Power Macintosh 9600 and was a high-performance upgrade for the Power Macintosh 8600. * The TwinTurbo 128M8, a PCI video card, came with the Motorola StarMax 5000/300. This video card was also used in the Umax Pulsar 2500 (SuperMac S900/250). It has 8MB SGRAM. * The ix3D Dual Monitor was a dual-monitor video card for Mac and clones. * The ix3D Game Rocket was a 3D accelerator based on the 3dfx Voodoo Banshee chipset. * The ix3D Road Rocket was a 2D and 3D CardBus video accelerator for the Apple Macintosh PowerBook G3 series, with 4 MB SGRAM and support for an extended desktop at 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seiko Epson
Seiko Epson Corporation, or simply known as Epson, is a Japanese multinational electronics company and one of the world's largest manufacturers of computer printers and information- and imaging-related equipment. Headquartered in Suwa, Nagano, Japan, the company has numerous subsidiaries worldwide and manufactures inkjet, dot matrix, thermal and laser printers for consumer, business and industrial use, scanners, laptop and desktop computers, video projectors, watches, point of sale systems, robots and industrial automation equipment, semiconductor devices, crystal oscillators, sensing systems and other associated electronic components. The company has developed as one of manufacturing and research & development companies (formerly known as Seikosha) of the former Seiko Group, a name traditionally known for manufacturing Seiko timepieces since its founding. Seiko Epson was one of the major companies in the Seiko Group, but is neither a subsidiary nor an affiliate of Seiko ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
