NeoMagic

NeoMagic Corporation

Type	Manufacturing
Founded	1993
Headquarters	Santa Clara, California
Products	Processors
Website	www.neomagic.com

NeoMagic Corporation NASDAQ: NMGC is a fabless semiconductor company and supplier of low-power audio and video integrated circuits for mobile use (MagicMedia). NeoMagic designs and delivers consumer electronic device solutions with semiconductors and software offering exciting new product functionality for Video, TV, Imaging, Graphics, and Audio.

MagicGraph / MagicMedia Products

Model	Chipset
MagicGraph 128	NM2070
MagicGraph 128V	NM2090
MagicGraph 128ZV	NM2093
MagicGraph 128ZV+	NM2097
MagicGraph 128XD	NM2160
MagicMedia 256AV	NM2200
MagicMedia 256AV+	NM2230
MagicMedia 256ZX	NM2360
MagicMedia 256XL+	NM2380

History

NeoMagic's first products pioneered the concept of integrating the major component parts of a computer video system (video memory, logic and analog circuitry such as a RAMDAC) into one integrated circuit package. This allowed notebook computer makers to design smaller and more space-efficient circuit boards for their computers. The company referred to this technology as MAGIC, an acronym that stood for Memory And loGIC.^[1]

Although NeoMagic's PC graphics solutions were inexpensive and popular in laptop and other small form factor computer configurations in the 1990s and early 2000s, their 3D performance was either abysmally poor or non-existent.^{[citation needed]} Specifically in regards to the MagicGraph 128XD, NeoMagic used to have incorrect information on their website, stating that the chip had Direct3D support when it definitely did not. This caused much confusion among users of the chip.^{[citation needed]} The incorrect information was eventually removed from their website due to consumer complaint, but no official statement was released by the company as to why the mistake occurred.

MagicGraph and MagicMedia chips were also known for poor 2D performance, resulting in slowdowns while using the Windows GUI and crashes during play of 2D games. As a result, PC graphics enthusiasts began referring to the company as "NeoTragic".^[2][3] This final nail in the coffin caused the company to pull out of the PC graphics market. Instead, they focused on developing graphics solutions for hand-held devices and other non-PC-related types of hardware.^[4]

References

1. ^ Information from http://web.archive.org/web/20000903001534/www.neomagic.com/about_background_main.html
2. ^ http://www.rage3d.com/board/archive/index.php?t-33740806.html
3. ^ http://lkml.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0201.0/0025.html
4. ^ http://www.neomagic.com/Product%20Center.html