B usiness 2.0 has published an article that looks at PortalPlayer, the maker of the processor that powers Appleis iPod. PortalPlayer recently filed for an IPO, and Business 2.0 writer Paul R. La Monica suggests that because of the companyis relationship with Apple, that IPO may get more attention than some other IPOs have gotten in recent months. From the article:
PortalPlayeris processors are the brains and guts of Apple Computeri uber-popular music player. So in a sense, PortalPlayer is like the Intel?of the iPod.Whatis more, the companyis newest chip, the PP5020, is the first to feature photo-processing capabilities, in addition to audio. That could enable PortalPlayer to expand from the digital music device market into other hot areas of consumer electronics such as camera phones.
The PP5020 chips could possibly be used in some sort of camera or video version of the iPod as well, which has been the subject of a fair amount of speculation in tech circles. Apple was unavailable for comment about these rumors.
There is more in the two page article, which we recommend as an interesting read.