PortalPlayer
{{short description|Former American semiconductor company}}
{{Infobox company
| name = PortalPlayer, Inc.
| logo = PortalPlayer logo.svg
| hq_location_city =
| hq_location_country =
| area_served = Worldwide
| industry = Semiconductors
| products = SoCs
| foundation = {{start date and age|1999}}
| defunct = 2007
| fate = Acquired by Nvidia
}}
PortalPlayer, Inc., founded in 1999, was a fabless semiconductor company that supplied system-on-a-chip semiconductors, firmware and software for personal media players. The company handled semiconductor design and firmware development, while subcontracting the actual semiconductor manufacturing to merchant foundries.
It gained recognition as the company with which Apple contracted for development of the original iPod.[https://www.wired.com/gadgets/mac/news/2004/07/64286 Inside Look at Birth of the IPod], by Leander Kahney, wired.com, 07/21/2004[http://www.designchain.com/coverstory.asp?issue=summer02 Inside the Apple iPod Design Triumph] {{webarchive|url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20101004075742/http%3A//www.designchain.com/coverstory.asp?issue%3Dsummer02 |date=2010-10-04 }}, by Erik Sherman, Electronics Design Chain magazine, Summer 2002 issue The company went public with an IPO in November 2004 and traded on the NASDAQ under ticker symbol PLAY.[http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/ipo-gains-ipod-supplier-portalplayer/story.aspx?guid=%7B02D6CA3B-3E7F-440C-A8F3-AEB41B501481%7D PortalPlayer IPO plays Friday], by Steve Gelsi, CBS.MarketWatch.com, 11/19/2004 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.[http://www.eetimes.com/news/semi/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=186100394 PortalPlayer dealt setback at Apple], by Mark LaPedus, EE Times, 4/19/2006
On January 5, 2007, Nvidia Corporation announced that it had acquired PortalPlayer, Inc. for about $357 million.{{cite web
|url= http://www.nvidia.com/object/portalplayer_acquisition.html
|url-status=dead
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929132148/http://www.nvidia.com/object/portalplayer_acquisition.html
|archive-date=2007-09-29
|title= Nvidia acquires PortalPlayer (Press release)
|date= January 5, 2007
|website= Nvidia
|access-date=2020-12-09
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, individual ARM7TDMI cores do not have coherent views of DRAM. Custom logic is used to introduce coherency into the SRAM.
Used by the following devices:
- iPod: Generations 1, 2 and 3{{cite web | url=http://www.ipodlinux.org/PP5002 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050829181744/http://www.ipodlinux.org/PP5002 | archive-date=2005-08-29 | title=PP5002 - WikiPodLinux }}{{cite web | url=http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/PortalPlayer | title=PortalPlayer < Main < Wiki }}
=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{{cite web | url=http://www.gizmodo.com/archives/ogg-on-ipod-why-the-ipod-may-not-have-the-horsepower-for-ogg-015607.php | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060813210834/http://www.gizmodo.com/archives/ogg-on-ipod-why-the-ipod-may-not-have-the-horsepower-for-ogg-015607.php | archive-date=2006-08-13 | title=OGG on iPod: Why the iPod May Not Have the Horsepower for OGG - Gizmodo }}
=PortalPlayer 5020=
System-on-a-chip containing two ARM CPU cores, each running at 75 MHz. Expanded SRAM to 4 banks (128KB) using a crossbar style switch.
Used by the following devices:
- iPod: Generation 4, iPod Photo, and first generation iPod Mini{{cite web | url=http://www.ipodlinux.org/PP5020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050828045346/http://www.ipodlinux.org/PP5020 | archive-date=2005-08-28 | title=PP5020 - WikiPodLinux }}{{cite web | url=http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/PortalPlayer | title=PortalPlayer < Main < Wiki }}
- Philips HDD100/120 (Unconfirmed)
- Tatung Elio M310 (system/pp5020.mi4 contains the string "PP5020AF-05.11-TG01-11.40-TG01-11.40-DT" and "Copyright(c) 1999 - 2003 PortalPlayer, Inc.")
- Virgin player 5GB{{cite web | url=http://www.virginelectronics.com/faq-player_5gb.htm | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060113021847/http://www.virginelectronics.com/faq-player_5gb.htm | archive-date=2006-01-13 | title=Virgin Electronics }}
- MSI Megaplayer 540, has firmware system/pp5020.mi4 including "PP5020AF..." string, in Germany it has been sold as Medion MD81034 by ALDI
- iriver H10, 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:
- iPod: First generation iPod Nano{{cite web | url=https://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/nano.ars/4 | title=IPod nano | date=12 September 2005 }} 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:
- iPod: Second generation iPod Mini{{cite web | url=http://www.ipodlinux.org/PP5022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050830032742/http://www.ipodlinux.org/PP5022 | archive-date=2005-08-30 | title=PP5022 - WikiPodLinux }}{{cite web | url=http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/PortalPlayer | title=PortalPlayer < Main < Wiki }}
- Philips: GoGear HDD1630/HDD6320/HDD6330 > PP 5022 + codec Wolfson WM8731L{{cite web | url=http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/GoGearHDD6330 | title=GoGearHDD6330 < Main < Wiki }}
=PortalPlayer 5024=
PP5022 with integrated Austria Microsystems AS3514 DAC and power management chip.
Used by the following devices:
- Sandisk Sansa e200 series{{cite web | url=http://www.anythingbutipod.com/archives/2006/03/sandisk-sansa-e200-series-review.php | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070113055028/http://www.anythingbutipod.com/archives/2006/03/sandisk-sansa-e200-series-review.php | archive-date=2007-01-13 | title=SanDisk Sansa e200 Series Review }}
- 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 mobile processors
References
External links
- [http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/PortalPlayer PortalPlayer Wiki] at Rockbox (Open Source firmware)
- [http://daniel.haxx.se/sansa/mi4.html mi4 file format] of the firmware that almost all (non-iPod) Portalplayer models use
Category:Fabless semiconductor companies
Category:Companies based in Santa Clara, California
Category:Electronics companies established in 1999
Category:Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq
Category:Defunct semiconductor companies of the United States
Category:2007 mergers and acquisitions
Category:1999 establishments in California