VM Labs was a

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 ...

and platform company, founded in 1995 in Los Altos,

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

Products

The company's technology and NUON brand was used in DVD players from

Toshiba is a Japanese multinational electronics company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure systems, elevators and escalators, electronic components, semiconductors ...

Samsung Samsung Group (; stylised as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean Multinational corporation, multinational manufacturing Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in the Samsung Town office complex in Seoul. The group consists of numerous a ...

and

RCA RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded in 1919 as the Radio Corporation of America. It was initially a patent pool, patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westinghou ...

, as well as the Streamaster IP set-top box from

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois. It was founded by brothers Paul and Joseph Galvin in 1928 and had been named Motorola since 1947. Many of Motorola's products had been ...

. The Nuon platform was featured in the specialized media for the 3D video game titles it would bring to DVD players and set-top boxes, as well as for the features that were not available on other DVD players when playing standard DVD-formatted titles. Notable embedded features included Jeff Minter's Virtual Light Machine (VLM) for music, real-time zoom, gamma-correction and smooth reverse shuttle. Although Nuon DVD technology was initially supported by various Hollywood studios with plans to release several enhanced DVD titles, only four were ultimately released, including '' Bedazzled'' and ''

Planet of the Apes ''Planet of the Apes'' is a science fiction media franchise consisting of films, books, television series, comics, and other media about a Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, post-apocalyptic world in which humans and intelligent apes c ...

''.

History

The founder of VM Labs, Richard Miller, was a former vice president of

Atari Corporation Atari Corporation was an American manufacturer of Home computer, home computers and Video game console, video game consoles. It was founded by Jack Tramiel on May 17, 1984, as Tramel Technology, Ltd., but then took on the Atari name less than ...

, and several prominent VM Labs employees (including Jeff Minter and John Mathieson) were also associated with Atari Corporation. VM Labs was headquartered in

Los Altos, California Los Altos (; Spanish language, Spanish for "The Heights") is a city in Santa Clara County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 31,625 according to the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Most of the city's growth ...

. After critical funding collapsed shortly after September 11, 2001, VM Labs was sold to Genesis Microchip after a brief period in

Chapter 11 Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code ( Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, w ...

. Genesis Microchip planned to integrate the Nuon and Faroudja technologies for the DVD market, and ultimately used the NUON technology in

HDTV High-definition television (HDTV) describes a television or video system which provides a substantially higher image resolution than the previous generation of technologies. The term has been used since at least 1933; in more recent times, it ref ...

chipsets. As an expanded DVD format and video game platform, as of November 2004, there were no Nuon-enabled DVD players shipping and no new Nuon software titles.

Timeline

1995 – Company founded in Los Altos, CA. Seed financing and non-exclusive license agreement with Motorola for media processor design. 1996 – First Nuon Media Processor design delivered to

for layout 1997 – Prototype silicon received. Second silicon (Quad-core "Oz") delivered to customers. 1999 – Production shipments of quad-core "Aries-1" silicon, operating system and firmware to

and others. 2000 – "Aries-2" begins production 2001 – "Aries-3" silicon (first fully designed at VM Labs) begins production. This design was faster, lower cost, lower power and more highly integrated than the Motorola versions, and fabricated at TSMC. Feb 2002 – Genesis Microchip acquires VM Lab's assets and hires 50 remaining employees

References

External links

VM Labs homepage (ARCHIVED)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vm Labs Defunct semiconductor companies of the United States Technology companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area Defunct video game companies of the United States Companies based in Santa Clara County, California Los Altos, California Computer companies established in 1995 Video game companies established in 1995 Computer companies disestablished in 2002 Video game companies disestablished in 2002 1995 establishments in California 2002 disestablishments in California Defunct companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area Defunct computer companies of the United States Defunct computer hardware companies