IBM Corp has teamed up with Kings Langley, Hertfordshire-based VideoLogic Ltd on the joint development of high-volume, low-cost video graphics and multimedia products for the PS/2 and other OS/2 and Windows-based personal computers. The agreement does not involve any equity swapping or participation at board level. Products manufactured under the agreement, development for which is already underway, will be marketed by both companies. The partnership will cover two main areas – new high-speed processor chips will be used as the basis for low-cost modular adaptors for PS/2 and other personal computers with user-installable multimedia upgrade options; and system-level control software will be developed for integration with IBM’s OS/2 multimedia extension, Multimedia Presentation Manager/2, as well as Windows Multimedia Extensions. This is intended to enable independent software vendors to build support for animation, sound and video into mainstream personal computer applications using OS/2 and Windows programming interfaces. VideoLogic, owned by UKP20m-a-year London multimedia holding company Avesco Plc, is a UK company, with subsidiaries and resellers in 37 countries, including a US base in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a recently-established sales office in California. Its products include DVA-4000 digital video adaptors for PS/2, personal computers and Macintosh systems; Mediator, a computer graphics-to-video conversion system; MediaSpace, a video and audio compression system; Rapier 24, a workstation-class colour graphics processor for the personal computer; and Multimedia Interactive Control system software. Tony Maclaren, managing director of VideoLogic, describes the partnership with IBM as a very significant announcement, since the resulting video graphics-based products will embrace all current multimedia technologies. Potential customers, he says, still see multimedia as being very futuristic, while VideoLogic has 35,000 of its multimedia adaptors installed around the world. He notes that the two have been working together for some nine months already, but gives no word on when products might be available though IBM and VideoLogic will market exactly the same product which will likely be badged with both company names.
