PortalPlayer, Inc., founded in 1999, was a

fabless semiconductor company Fabless manufacturing is the design and sale of hardware devices and semiconductor chips while outsourcing their fabrication (or ''fab'') to a specialized manufacturer called a semiconductor foundry. These foundries are typically, but not exclu ...

that supplied

system-on-a-chip A system on a chip (SoC) is an integrated circuit that combines most or all key components of a computer or electronic system onto a single microchip. Typically, an SoC includes a central processing unit (CPU) with memory, input/output, and dat ...

semiconductors, firmware and software for personal media players. The company handled

semiconductor A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator. Its conductivity can be modified by adding impurities (" doping") to its crystal structure. When two regions with different doping level ...

design and

firmware In computing Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computer, computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and the development of both computer hardware, h ...

development, while subcontracting the actual

semiconductor manufacturing Semiconductor device fabrication is the process used to manufacture semiconductor devices, typically integrated circuits (ICs) such as microprocessors, microcontrollers, and memories (such as Random-access memory, RAM and flash memory). It is a ...

to merchant

foundries A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals pr ...

. It gained recognition as the company with which

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

contracted for development of the original iPod. The company went

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

with an

IPO An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

in November 2004 and traded on the

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...

under

ticker symbol A ticker symbol or stock symbol is an abbreviation used to uniquely identify publicly traded Share (finance), shares of a particular stock or Security (finance), security on a particular stock exchange. Ticker symbols are arrangements of symbols ...

PLAY. Sales to Apple grew to 90% of the company's gross revenue, which ultimately hurt the company when Apple switched media processor chip vendors in its iPod lines. On January 5, 2007, Nvidia Corporation announced that it had acquired PortalPlayer, Inc. for about $357 million.

Products

PortalPlayer 5002

Dual ARM7TDMI cores with shared SRAM (3x 32KB banks). Errata in memory controller leads to halved data cache performance but fast SRAM. As the ARM7TDMI does not support

cache coherency In computer architecture, cache coherence is the uniformity of shared resource data that is stored in multiple local caches. In a cache coherent system, if multiple clients have a cached copy of the same region of a shared memory resource, all ...

, individual ARM7TDMI cores do not have coherent views of

DRAM Dram, DRAM, or drams may refer to: Technology and engineering * Dram (unit), a unit of mass and volume, and an informal name for a small amount of liquor, especially whisky or whiskey * Dynamic random-access memory, a type of electronic semicondu ...

. Custom logic is used to introduce coherency into the SRAM. Used by the following devices: *

iPod The iPod is a series of portable media players and multi-purpose mobile devices that were designed and marketed by Apple Inc. from 2001 to 2022. The iPod Classic#1st generation, first version was released on November 10, 2001, about mon ...

: Generations 1, 2 and 3

PortalPlayer 5003

System-on-a-chip containing two ARM7 CPU cores, each running at up to 90 MHz. Fixes 5002 cache bug greatly improving performance of DRAM. Used by the following devices: * Rio Karma

PortalPlayer 5020

System-on-a-chip containing two

ARM In human anatomy, the arm refers to the upper limb in common usage, although academically the term specifically means the upper arm between the glenohumeral joint (shoulder joint) and the elbow joint. The distal part of the upper limb between ...

CPU A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor, or just processor, is the primary processor in a given computer. Its electronic circuitry executes instructions of a computer program, such as arithmetic, log ...

cores, each running at 75 MHz. Expanded SRAM to 4 banks (128KB) using a crossbar style switch. Used by the following devices: *

: Generation 4,

iPod Photo The iPod Classic (stylized and marketed as iPod classic and originally simply iPod) is a discontinued portable media player created and formerly marketed by Apple Inc. There were six generations of the iPod Classic, as well as a spin-off (the ...

, and first generation iPod Mini * Philips HDD100/120 (Unconfirmed) * Tatung Elio M310 (system/pp5020.mi4 contains the

string String or strings may refer to: *String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...

"PP5020AF-05.11-TG01-11.40-TG01-11.40-DT" and "Copyright(c) 1999 - 2003 PortalPlayer, Inc.") * Virgin player 5GB * MSI Megaplayer 540, has firmware system/pp5020.mi4 including "PP5020AF..." string, in Germany it has been sold as Medion MD81034 by ALDI *

iriver H10 Micro-Hard Drive versions *5GB or 6GB capacities *2.2 x 0.6 x 3.8 inches (96 grams) *1.5 inch TFT screen (128 x 128, 260 000 colors) *Can view TXT and JPEG files *Supports MP3, WMA, WMA DRM, MPEG 1 Audio, MPEG 2 Audio, and MPEG 2. ...

, all variations, including the 5GB, 6GB, and 20GB models * Edirol R-1 (Unconfirmed rumor on what chip but unit displays "Powered by PortalPlay Inc. 1999-2004" * M-AUDIO Microtrack ver.1 " string pp5020d-tf" * Olympus m:robe MR-100

PortalPlayer 5021C-TDF

Used by the following devices: *

: First generation iPod Nano and fifth generation iPod with video

PortalPlayer 5022

SRAM is no longer partitioned into fast and slower banks; all have uniform access speed. Used by the following devices: *

: Second generation iPod Mini *

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), simply branded Philips, is a Dutch multinational health technology company that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, its world headquarters have been situated in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarter ...

: GoGear HDD1630/HDD6320/HDD6330 > PP 5022 + codec Wolfson WM8731L

PortalPlayer 5024

PP5022 with integrated Austria Microsystems AS3514 DAC and

power management Power management is a feature of some electrical appliances, especially copiers, computers, computer CPUs, computer GPUs and computer peripherals such as monitors and printers, that turns off the power or switches the system to a low-power ...

chip. Used by the following devices: * Sandisk Sansa e200 series * Philips GoGear SA9200{{cite web , url=http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/GoGearSA9200info , title=GoGearSA9200info < Main < Wiki

PortalPlayer APX

PortalPlayer's application processor series. Used by: * Microsoft Zune HD * The current generation NVIDIA

Tegra Tegra is a system on a chip (SoC) series developed by Nvidia for mobile devices such as smartphones, personal digital assistants, and mobile Internet devices. The Tegra integrates an ARM architecture central processing unit (CPU), graphics pr ...

mobile processors

References

External links

PortalPlayer Wiki
at Rockbox (Open Source firmware)

of the firmware that almost all (non-iPod) Portalplayer models use Fabless semiconductor companies Companies based in Santa Clara, California IPod software Electronics companies established in 1999 Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq Defunct semiconductor companies of the United States 2007 mergers and acquisitions Nvidia 1999 establishments in California Defunct computer companies of the United States Defunct computer hardware companies