Veerle's blog

The company (Portal Player) that produces the chip that drives the Apple’s iPod is getting ready to be featured on the Stock Exchange. The main reason for this is that they are hoping to raise $75 Million for future investments. So why is this interesting you ask? Well, to be featured on the Stock Exchange they need to file all kind of documents about the company and that’s where it gets interesting.

Thanks to these documents we get a little more insight in what the future may hold for the iPod. Portal Player had to deliver a list that sums up all functionality of their current chips and it’s that list that revealed some interesting unknown facts. For starters Portal Player can produce chips that support Ethernet and Bluetooth. Another cool sounding functionality is the possibility to create a slide show which can be synchronized on the music’s tempo.

The most advanced chip (PP5020) that Portal Player produces has support for color LCD displays and TV viewing. This chip also has the technology to drive a printer directly and another is the connection to a digital camera. One striking missing feature is the possibility to play movies but we all know that Apple’s CEO doesn’t see any life in a video iPod and personally I think he’s right because I don’t see myself watching a movie on such a tiny screen. Video is totally a different beast then music. A good read about that is on Yellow Lane. Remember also that we are talking about Portal Players’ current chip line and not the ones that are secretly being developed. So who knows, maybe we’re just scratching the surface here.