Business Description

NeoMagic's best trick may be yet to come. The Santa Clara, California-based company developed graphics accelerators (MagicMedia and MagicGraph) for portable PCs, used by manufacturers to enable complex displays of graphics, video, and sound. NeoMagic, however, is following the lead of other graphics chip makers, shifting its efforts to making processors for Internet appliances and wireless communications devices. It hopes to extend its expertise at system-on-a-chip integration into wireless multimedia applications in products such as Internet cameras, cellular appliances, gaming consoles, and videoconferencing systems.

NeoMagic co-founder and chairman Kamran Elahian is the entrepreneurial brain behind Cirrus Logic and Internet software specialist Planetweb, among others. Co-founder and CEO Prakash Agarwal owns 5% of the company.

History
Startup wizard Kamran Elahian (NeoMagic chairman), who earlier had founded Cirrus Logic (niche market chips) and CAE Systems (engineering software, sold to Tektronix), started NeoMagic in 1993 with Prakash Agarwal (CEO) and Clement Leung and Deepraj Puar (VPs). All had previously held executive positions at Cirrus Logic.

NeoMagic shipped the MagicGraph128, the first single-chip graphics subsystem, in 1995. (Cirrus Logic promptly sued, charging misappropriation of trade secrets, among other things; the suit was settled.) The following year NeoMagic accelerators were chosen by several leading laptop makers, including Dell and NEC.

NeoMagic went public in 1997. That year it introduced versions of MagicGraph offering 3-D graphics and catering to entry-level notebooks. In 1998 the company introduced its MagicMedia 256-bit multimedia accelerator, which includes sound processing functions.

In 1999 NeoMagic bought its way beyond notebook markets into the consumer realm, purchasing UK-based Mitel Semiconductor's Optical Drive Development Group (specializing in mixed-signal analog design and DVD optical storage products) and Israel-based chip developer Associative Computers Ltd.

In early 2000, NeoMagic shifted strategy to making processors for wireless communications devices and Internet appliances, discontinuing its previous product line. As part of the shift, the company sold its DVD drive product line to LSI Logic and cut a third of its workforce later that year.

Management Team

Board of Director