PortalPlayer
Encyclopedia
PortalPlayer, 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
. The company went public
with an IPO in November 2004 and traded on the NASDAQ
under ticker symbol
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..
Used by the following devices:
CPU
cores, each running at 75 MHz.
Used by the following devices:
Used by the following devices:
Used by
Fabless semiconductor company
A fabless semiconductor company specializes in the design and sale of hardware devices and semiconductor chips while outsourcing the fabrication or "fab" of the devices to a specialized manufacturer called a semiconductor foundry...
that supplied system-on-a-chip
System-on-a-chip
A system on a chip or system on chip is an integrated circuit that integrates all components of a computer or other electronic system into a single chip. It may contain digital, analog, mixed-signal, and often radio-frequency functions—all on a single chip substrate...
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
Foundry (electronics)
In the microelectronics industry a semiconductor fabrication plant is a factory where devices such as integrated circuits are manufactured....
.
It gained recognition as the company with which Apple contracted for development of the original iPod
IPod
iPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle...
. The company went public
Public company
This is not the same as a Government-owned corporation.A public company or publicly traded company is a limited liability company that offers its securities for sale to the general public, typically through a stock exchange, or through market makers operating in over the counter markets...
with an IPO in November 2004 and traded on the NASDAQ
NASDAQ
The NASDAQ Stock Market, also known as the NASDAQ, is an American stock exchange. "NASDAQ" originally stood for "National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations". It is the second-largest stock exchange by market capitalization in the world, after the New York Stock Exchange. As of...
under ticker symbol
Ticker symbol
A stock symbol or ticker symbol is a short abbreviation used to uniquely identify publicly traded shares of a particular stock on a particular stock market. A stock symbol may consist of letters, numbers or a combination of both. "Ticker symbol" refers to the symbols that were printed on the ticker...
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
NVIDIA
Nvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles...
announced that it had acquired PortalPlayer, Inc. for about $357 million..
PortalPlayer 5002
Used by the following devices:- iPodIPodiPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle...
: Generations 1, 2 and 3 http://www.ipodlinux.org/PP5002 http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/PortalPlayer
PortalPlayer 5003
System-on-a-chip containing two ARM7 CPU cores, each running at up to 90 MHz.Used by the following devices:
- Rio KarmaRio KarmaThe Rio Karma is a digital audio player originally made by the now defunct Rio. It was released in August 2003. It measures 2.7 × 3 × 0.9 inches and weighs 5.5 ounces . It has a 20 gigabyte hard drive...
http://www.gizmodo.com/archives/ogg-on-ipod-why-the-ipod-may-not-have-the-horsepower-for-ogg-015607.php
PortalPlayer 5020
System-on-a-chip containing two ARMARM architecture
ARM is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by ARM Holdings. It was named the Advanced RISC Machine, and before that, the Acorn RISC Machine. The ARM architecture is the most widely used 32-bit ISA in numbers produced...
CPU
Central processing unit
The central processing unit is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program, to perform the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. The CPU plays a role somewhat analogous to the brain in the computer. The term has been in...
cores, each running at 75 MHz.
Used by the following devices:
- iPodIPodiPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle...
: Generation 4, iPod Photo, and first generation iPod Mini http://www.ipodlinux.org/PP5020 http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/PortalPlayer - 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 (According to http://www.virginelectronics.com/faq-player_5gb.htm)
- 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:robeOlympus m:robeOlympus m:robe is a range of MP3 players produced by Olympus Corporation.On October 13, 2004, Olympus released two MP3 players, the 5GB MR-100 with monochrome display and the 20GB MR-500i with colour display and built in camera. The MR-100’s release price was $249.99 , and the MR-500i’s release...
MR-100
PortalPlayer 5021C-TDF
Used by the following devices:- iPodIPodiPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle...
: First generation iPod Nano http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/nano.ars/4 and fifth generation iPod with video
PortalPlayer 5022
Used by the following devices:- iPodIPodiPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle...
: Second generation iPod Mini http://www.ipodlinux.org/PP5022 http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/PortalPlayer - PhilipsPhilipsKoninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. , more commonly known as Philips, is a multinational Dutch electronics company....
: GoGear HDD1630/HDD6320/HDD6330 > PP 5022 + codec Wolfson WM8731L http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/GoGearHDD6330
PortalPlayer 5024
The newest PortalPlayer audio chipset, which can be currently found on players.Used by the following devices:
- Sandisk Sansa e200 series http://www.anythingbutipod.com/archives/2006/03/sandisk-sansa-e200-series-review.php
- PhilipsPhilipsKoninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. , more commonly known as Philips, is a multinational Dutch electronics company....
GoGear SA9200 http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/GoGearSA9200info
PortalPlayer APX
PortalPlayer application processor series.Used by
- Microsoft Zune 3rd & 4th generation
- The guts of the current generation Nvidia Tegra mobile processors
External links
- PortalPlayer Wiki at Rockbox (Open Source firmware)
- mi4 file format of the firmware that almost all (non-iPod) Portalplayer models use