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Nuon (DVD technology)

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NUON
The DVD-N2000 Nuon player made by Samsung with pack-in controller
DeveloperVM Labs
ManufacturerMotorola, RCA, Samsung, Toshiba
TypeHome video game console
GenerationSixth
Release dateJuly 2000[1]
Discontinued2003–2004
Websitewww.nuon-tech.com (archived)

Nuon (stylized as NUON) is a technology developed by VM Labs that adds features to a DVD player. In addition to viewing DVDs, one can play 3D video games and use enhanced DVD navigational tools such as zoom and smooth scanning of DVD playback. One could also play CDs while the Nuon graphics processor generates synchronized graphics on the screen. There were plans to provide Internet access capability in the next generation of Nuon-equipped DVD players.

History

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A Nuon DVD player made by Samsung

Nuon was first unveiled under the codename "Project X",[2][3] set for a release during the 1998 Christmas shopping season,[4] and was featured in Electronic Gaming Monthly's 1999 Video Game Buyer's Guide. One of the Nuon's main software developers was Jeff Minter, who created a version of Tempest titled Tempest 3000 for the system and the built-in VLM-2 audio visualizer.[5] Manufacturing of the hardware was handled by several original equipment manufacturers.[5]

The system's software development kit (SDK) was priced at roughly one-third of that of the PlayStation SDK, and following a strong showing at the 1998 Consumer Electronics Show, VM Labs shipped out several dozen SDKs to developers.[6]

When it was first announced, the Nuon's creators envisioned it as a competitor for the upcoming video game consoles from the leading manufacturers.[3] However, the Nuon platform was primarily marketed as an expanded DVD format. A large majority of Nuon players that were sold in fact resembled typical consumer DVD players with the only noticeable difference being a Nuon logo. Nuon players offered a number of features that were not available on other DVD players when playing standard DVD-formatted titles. These included very smooth forward and reverse functionality and the ability to smoothly zoom in and out of sections of the video image. In addition, Nuon provided a software platform to DVD authors to provide interactive software like features to their titles.

In North America, Nuon was used in the Samsung DVD-N501 and DVD-N2000 models; they also released several models in other parts of the world: DVD-N504 (Europe), DVD N505 (Europe), and DVD-N591 (Korea). Toshiba released the SD-2300 DVD player, and there are two RCA models, the DRC300N and DRC480N. The Nuon was also used in Motorola's Streamaster 5000 "Digital DNA" set-top box.

Nuon was created by VM Labs, whose assets were sold to Genesis Microchip in April 2002.[7] By November 2004, there were no Nuon-enabled DVD players shipping and no new Nuon software titles released or in development.

Specification

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The Inside of the Samsung N2000 player, showing the Nuon XCMMP-L3BZPDVD processor
  • Four 128-bit 54 MHz or 108 MHz Nuon MPE (Media Processing Element) very long instruction word processors supporting parallel operations on (at most) 32-bit scalars. An MPE's register file contains eight 128-bit registers, which can be used to store vectors of that size (composed of 4 scalars), or be partitioned down to offer thirty-two 32-bit (scalar) registers, or eight packets of 3 (pixel) or 4 ("small") 16-bit vectors. Each MPE operates on RAM that is local to itself, but MPEs 1 and 4 can directly operate on data located in system memory. Those same specific MPEs can use their memories as configurable caches, and have access to additional tag RAM for that purpose. MPEs have a hardware multiply unit, but no hardware division. There is no hardware support for floating point computation.[8] Some report(s)[by whom?] suggested that a certain model had sported a 333+ MHz clock frequency but it was never released widely.
  • MCS-251 microcontroller for background task
  • 32 MB 8-bit Fast Page DRAM at 33 MHz, 512 KB sound RAM and 24 KB programmable ROM
  • 2x 3d Media GL MPE with 8 MB 32-bit video RAM at 66 MHz.
  • 64~256 MB writable ROM and optional hard drive (up to 137 GB)
  • Optical drive support DVD or CD-R

Peripherals and accessories

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Peripherals for Nuon-enhanced DVD players included the following:

The Logitech gamepad
  • Logitech Gamepad
  • Pro-elite controller
  • AirPlay wireless controller
  • Stealth controller
  • Warrior Digital-D pad
  • controller extension cable
  • port replicator to move the Nuon ports to anywhere desired

Released movies

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Only four DVD releases utilized Nuon technology. All of them were released by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

Released games

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Only eight games were officially released for the Nuon:

Collections and samplers

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  • Interactive Sampler (three different versions)
  • Nuon Games + Demos (collection from Nuon-Dome)
  • Nuon-Dome PhillyClassic 5 Demo Disc (giveaway collection)

Proposed games

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Homebrew development

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In late 2001, VM Labs released an SDK which allowed developers to program apps/games for their Nuon system. Only the Samsung DVD-N501/​DVDN504/​DVDN505 and RCA DRC300N/​DRC480N can load homebrew games.

Some homebrew titles have been created for or ported to Nuon. They are not commercially available and require the user to burn the material to a Nuon-compatible CD-R.

Notes

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  • Moss, Richard (28 June 2015). "Remembering Nuon, the gaming chip that nearly changed the world—but didn't". Ars Technica. Condé Nast. Retrieved 3 January 2016.
  • Moss, Richard (2 June 2014). "Life after death: meet the people ensuring that yesterday's systems will never be forgotten". Edge Online. Future plc. Archived from the original on 5 June 2014. Retrieved 3 January 2016.

References

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  1. ^ "NUON Hardware page". nuon-tech.com. Archived from the original on 3 February 2002. Retrieved 2022-07-27.
  2. ^ "X Marks the Spot". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 103. Ziff Davis. February 1998. p. 26.
  3. ^ a b "Project X Confirmed for 1998". Next Generation. No. 37. Imagine Media. January 1998. pp. 18–19.
  4. ^ "The Project X Files". GamePro. No. 115. IDG. April 1998. p. 26.
  5. ^ a b "Fast, Cheap and Out of Control". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 105. Ziff Davis. April 1998. pp. 22–23.
  6. ^ "Project X Progresses". Next Generation. No. 40. Imagine Media. April 1998. p. 18.
  7. ^ "Genesis Microchip to buy assets of bankrupted DVD chip supplier". Eetimes.com. Retrieved 2011-09-20.
  8. ^ [1] "NUON Multi-Media Architecture Aries 3 Specifications, Full OEM Version", September 26th, 2001
  9. ^ Santulli, Joe (June 2002). "Collector's Closet: Collecting Nuon". Tips & Tricks. No. 88. Larry Flynt Publications. p. 93.
  10. ^ a b "VM Labs' Nuon Technology Endows Next Generation Of DVD Products With Interactivity" (PDF). VM Labs. January 6, 2000. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2024-03-16. Retrieved 2024-04-03.
  11. ^ a b Kennedy, Sam (April 26, 2000). "NUON Shows its Face at CES". GameSpot. CNET Networks. Archived from the original on 2024-03-16. Retrieved 2024-04-03.
  12. ^ a b c d "NUON Games". VM Labs. 2000. Archived from the original on 2002-01-23. Retrieved 2024-05-13.
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h i Mehta, Andrew J. (March 2001). "Nuon: Cambridge hits the USA; "Show me the Games!"". United Games Fanzine. Vol. 2, no. 2. United Games. pp. 25, 26–27.
  14. ^ a b "Technologies: M3DL". Miracle Designs. 2007. Archived from the original on 2014-03-11. Retrieved 2024-04-03.
  15. ^ a b c Day, Ashley (July 26, 2023). "Nuon, The DVD Player That Tried To Be A Games Console And Failed". Time Extension. Hookshot Media. Archived from the original on 2023-07-31. Retrieved 2024-04-03.
  16. ^ a b "VM Labs and Hasbro Interactive Ink Multi-Title Software Deal for NUON Interactive DVD Games". Business Wire. May 10, 2000. Archived from the original on 2001-02-10. Retrieved 2024-04-03.
  17. ^ Moss, Richard (June 28, 2015). "Remembering Nuon, the gaming chip that nearly changed the world—but didn't". Ars Technica. Condé Nast. Archived from the original on 2015-06-29. Retrieved 2024-09-28.
  18. ^ "News: Tempest in a Teapot? NUON Revealed at CES". Next Generation. No. 63. Imagine Media. March 2000. p. 10.
  19. ^ Raso, Domenic (V-SNES) (February 24, 2023). "Untold Nuon Tales: Native II…or is it Feuerland?". The Helper. Archived from the original on 2023-03-07. Retrieved 2024-04-03.
  20. ^ a b Mehta, Andrew J. (August 2001). "United World: Activision To Publish Nuon Games". Game eXtra Newsletter. No. 1. United Games. p. 19.
  21. ^ a b "Dossier — Nuon: quand les lecterus DVD deviennent des consoles!". Playbox (in French). No. 1. Posse Press [fr]. December 2000. p. 61. Archived from the original on 2024-04-02. Retrieved 2024-04-03.
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