| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Semiconductors |
| Founded | 2003 |
| Founder(s) | Dr. Quentin Stafford-Fraser, Martin King |
| Headquarters | Palo Alto, California, US |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Key people | Craig Ensley CEO |
| Products | USB Graphics chips |
| Employees | 100 (2008) |
| Website | DisplayLink.com |
DisplayLink (formerly Newnham Research) is a semiconductor and software startup company. DisplayLink USB graphics technology is designed to connect computers and displays using USB and Wireless USB, allowing multiple displays to be connected to a single PC. DisplayLink's primary customers are LCD monitor manufacturers (Samsung, LG, ASUS), notebook OEMs (HP, Toshiba, Sony, Lenovo), Thin Client OEMs (HP), and projector manufacturers (InFocus).[1] DisplayLink has seen rapid adoption of their USB graphics solutions and have shipped over two million USB graphics chips into the peripherals market.[2]
DisplayLink operates worldwide with offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, Poland, and Taiwan.[3] The company is privately funded and to date has raised $51 million in financing from venture capital organizations Atlas Venture, Balderton Capital, DAG Ventures and DFJ Esprit.[4]
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DisplayLink was founded in 2003 as Newnham Research by Dr. Quentin Stafford-Fraser and Martin King.[5] The Newnham Research team invented NIVO (Network In, Video Out) designed for low cost thin client computing over Ethernet networks.[6] The company referred to these thin-client computers as network displays.
In 2006, Newnham Research launched its first commercially-available product in partnership with the Kensington Computer Products Group: a USB 2.0 universal laptop docking station designed for the retail market.[7]
In November 2006, Newnham Research renamed itself to DisplayLink, a name that better described their display connection technology.[8]
DisplayLink launched its first semiconductor product family, the DL-120 and DL-160 USB 2.0 graphics devices, in January 2007[9], signaling an important change in the company's business plan from FPGA-based systems to semiconductors. The DL-120 and DL-160 allow up to six additional monitors to be added to a PC through USB 2.0.
In 2008, DisplayLink announced the first Wireless USB products powered by their technology. To date they have announced products or partnerships with Wireless USB technology vendors Alereon[10], Realtek[11], and WiQuest[12].
At the Intel Developer's Forum in August 2008, DisplayLink announced a partnership with Intel to accelerate DisplayLink USB graphics technology on the Intel GMA X4500 integrated graphics platform.[13]
In May 2009, DisplayLink launched its second semiconductor product family, the DL-125, DL-165, and DL-195 USB 2.0 graphics devices. This DL-1x5 family brings improved performance, an increase in maximum resolution to 2048x1152, and the integration of a DVI transmitter and video DAC. The first products to ship with the new DL-1x5 chips were the Samsung Lapfit LD190G and LD220G monitors.[14]
On November 17, 2009, DisplayLink announced their first Thin Client product based on their USB 2.0 virtual graphics technology, designed for Microsoft Windows MultiPoint Server.[15]. Thin client manufacturer HP was the first to announce a product based on DisplayLink USB Graphics technology with the launch of the t100 Thin Client.[16]
At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in 2010, DisplayLink became the first company to demonstrate video and graphics over a USB 3.0 "SuperSpeed USB" connection, showing substantial improvements in performance, resolution support, and video quality. DisplayLink intends to have SuperSpeed USB versions of its USB graphics products available by the end of 2010.[17]
The DisplayLink network graphics technology is composed of Virtual Graphics Card (VGC) software that is installed on a PC and a Hardware Rendering Engine (HRE) embedded or connected to a display device. The DisplayLink VGC software is based on a proprietary adaptive graphics technology. The VGC software runs on a Windows or Mac OS X host PC and takes information from the graphics adapter and compresses the changes to the display from the last update and sends it over any standard network including USB, Wireless USB, Ethernet, and Wi-Fi. After receiving the data, the HRE then transforms it back into pixels to be displayed on the monitor. While the basic network graphics technology can be used on a variety of network interfaces (Ethernet, and Wi-Fi), DisplayLink has to date only designed products around USB 2.0 and Wireless USB connectivity.[4]
Products with DisplayLink technology are supported on Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Mac OS X.[18] There is a DisplayLink-supported open source project called libdlo with the goal of bringing support to Linux and other platforms.[19] There are also unofficial reverse-engineered specifications available.[20]