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{{Short description|American technology company}} |
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'''InPhase Technologies''' was a technology company developing [[holographic memory|holographic storage]] devices and media, based in [[Longmont, Colorado]]. InPhase was spun out from [[Bell Labs]] in 2000 after roughly a decade of basic research in [[photopolymer]]s for storage combined with simultaneous research into developing a read/write mechanism for storing and reading out data. Their technology promises multiple [[terabyte]] storage; this in fact was achieved in 2009 when InPhase surpassed the density (bits/unit area) of then current magnetic storage media available in commercial markets. InPhase spent 2001-2004 in development to understand the engineering and manufacturing issues of getting a commercial product in a library involving a small number of reader/writers (e.g., 4), a large number of storage media (e.g., 1000) and a mechanical system that could retrieve any piece of storage media and place it in the appropriate reader/writer. At the start of 2005, InPhase investigated development of a [[rack mounted]] reader/writer; the CEO, Nelson Diaz, overruled this approach by partnering with StorageTek, a local established storage vendor, to put the InPhase reader/writer into a 5¼-inch [[Form factor (design)|form factor]], while the storage media could be stored as 5¼-inch disks; this decision led to significant technical risk for development of a highly reliable robust reader/writer in this form factor that would have been significantly ameliorated by a rack mounted drive. On top of this, Steven Socolof of New Venture Partners who was lead investor in InPhase, demanded that InPhase launch a commercially viable product within one year, and raised in conjunction with other investors sufficient money to do so; the engineering team was informed of this one year deadline, and wrote a memo to the [[Board of Directors]] stating that it would take three to five years to deliver a commercially viable product, not one year, based on hundreds of years of experience in the engineering and manufacturing team, and this was noted by the Board but then ignored, not once, but two more times. |
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{{POV|date=November 2017}} |
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| ⚫ | In May 2008,<ref>[http://www.heise.de/newsticker/Holografischer-Speicher-vor-der-Markteinfuehrung--/meldung/106746 Holografischer Speicher vor der Markteinführung] (German language). Retrieved on April 20, 2008.</ref> the company first reader, Tapestry 300r, offered customers a storage capacity of 300 [[gigabyte|GB]], with transfer rates of 20 [[megabyte|MB]]/s in read/write mode; the product roadmap would increase both these figures of merit by at least an order of magnitude over two generations of products. However, the company has failed several times to release the reader on schedule after previously setting release dates of late 2006, and then February 2007.<ref name="elreg">{{cite web|url=https://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/05/inphase_layoffs/|title=Holographic storage kingpin turns staff and product into an illusion|first=Austin |last=Modine|work=[[The Register]]|date=2008-06-05|df=mdy-all}}</ref> As a result of these delays, InPhase was forced to cut a number of its workforce; currently there is no release date for the drive and storage media visible.<ref name="elreg" /> |
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'''InPhase Technologies''' is a technology company developing [[holographic memory|holographic storage]] devices and media, based in [[Longmont, Colorado]]. InPhase was spun out from [[Bell Labs]] in 2000 after recruiting two storage industry veterans, Steve Kitrosser (Digital Equipment Corporation, Maxtor, Maxoptics, Quinta, and Seagate) joined as Chairman, and Nelson Diaz (Digital Equipment Corporation, Seagate, StorageTek), with very strong operating experience, in particular high volume magnetic disk drive and tape drive manufacturing with very high quality. Their technology promised multiple [[terabyte]] storage. InPhase concentrated on applied research from 2001 to 2004 to understand what issues had to be addressed and solved in order to be able to deliver high volume storage media and drives with high reliability and high manufacturing yield. During this time frame, Stephen Socolof joined the Board of Directors representing New Venture Partners, and in late 2004 pushed the Inphase management team to get a product (a working disk drive and storage media) within one year; a number of the InPhase staff were surprised by this, and wrote a white paper explaining that the staff had tens of decades of experience in bringing digital storage products to market, and that based on where InPhase was at in product development in early 2005, it would require three to five years of additional engineering effort, in particular in manufacturing processes for storage media and drives, before InPhase could commence to sell prototype product to customers. This warning was ignored, and the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer said they would try to get a product out in a year, without telling any other investors. Nelson Diaz asked Demetri Lignos for a product plan, and Demetri responded with a rack mounted drive that would allow all the optics and light transmission to lie in a single two dimensional plane, enormously simplifying the manufacturing of such a product; Nelson Diaz rejected this because he had been told that StorageTek, his former employer, had a library that held five and a quarter inch form factor drives (in fact there is no such thing as a specification for a five and a quarter inch disk drive), but Demetri Lignos and his team attempted to develop a disk drive product plan that would fit into a StorageTek library and were NOT able to make all the optics and electronics fit, even thought light was following paths in THREE dimensions to complicate manufacturing, and the total length of the drive was twenty six inches). With this as prolog, Demetri Lignos elected to retire from InPhase (after having brought many digital storage products to market from raw technology), and surprise surprise, at the end of 2005, InPhase received additional funding led by New Venture Partners to get a product out within a year, having failed to do so in 2005. At the end of 2006, InPhase received additional funding led by New Venture Partners to get a product out within a year, having failed to do sin 2006. At the end of 2007, InPhase received additional funding led by New Venture Partners to get a product out within a year, having failed to do so in 2007. In April 2008 InPhase was scheduled to have a product launch at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) trade show in Las Vegas, NV, and at the show in the middle of the launch InPhase announced it did not have a viable product to sell to customers. In 2008 Stephen Socolof elected to shop InPhase and its extensive patent portfolio, but to no avail, and in 2009-2010 went through a financial restructuring resulting in Steve Socolof leaving the Board and all of the New Venture Partners preferred stock was purchased by Signal Lake. |
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| ⚫ | In February 2008, InPhase Technologies was granted a joint [[patent]] with video game company [[Nintendo]] for a [[bending|flexure]]-based scanner for angle-based [[multiplexing]] in a holographic storage system.<ref>{{Cite patent |country= US |number= 7336409 |status= patent |title= Miniature flexure based scanners for angle multiplexing |pubdate= 2007-09-06 |gdate= 2008-02-26 |fdate= 2007-03-06 |pridate= 2006-03-06 |invent1= Bradley J. Sissom |assign1= InPhase Technologies |assign2=[[Nintendo]]}}</ref> |
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| ⚫ | |||
In 2011, a book entitled Holographic Data Storage: From Theory to Practical Systems, by Kevin Curtis, Lisa Dhar, Adrian Hill, William Wilson and Mark Ayres, was published by Wiley. This book is a technical summary of the design of a holographic storage system including storage media a writer/reader mechanism; it does not include a summary of how much work is required to be able to reliably manufacture storage media and writer/readers, and there are roughly 200 patents roughly half on the storage media and half on the writer/reader. One of the reasons InPhase was able to get so far was it had both components, media and writer/reader, so if problems arose in one area the other side could be modified to address this problem, in a manner of bootstrapping product development. |
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InPhase received over $58M in funding from New Venture Partners which controlled the Board from 2003 until 2010; InPhase received in aggregate over $100M in funding from strategic partners (Maxell, Hitachi LG Data Systems, Sanyo, Bayer Material Sciences, Imation) and other venture capital funds (Madison Dearborn, Signal Lake, Newton); Nelson Diaz as President and Steve Kitrosser as Chairman committed a major strategic blunder, driving InPhase to manufacture disk drives in high volume, when the target market was archival storage which required libraries with robots that shuttled large amounts of storage media between a relatively small number (e.g., two to four) of drives. An independent analysis in 2009 suggested that InPhase could reach positive cash flow with the sale of roughly one hundred libraries each containing four drives and two thousand pieces of storage media. This was the second time these two committed a strategic blunder, the first time being in 2005 when InPhase was on track to design, develop and manufacture a rack mounted drive, and instead of this design, Diaz and Kitrosser pushed for a 5 1/4 inch form factor drive that was physically impossible to achieve because the optics required more space than the form factor permitted, plus the drive required light to follow a three dimensional path while the rack mounted drive could handle all light transmission in a two dimensional plane making it far easier to manufacture and trouble shoot. InPhase was forced to cut a number of its workforce; currently there is no release date for the drive and storage media visible.<ref name="elreg" /> |
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| ⚫ | On March 16, 2010, Signal Lake Venture Capital acquired a majority equity stake in the remains of InPhase.<ref name=signallake>{{cite web |url= http://www.bcbr.com/article.asp?id=50671 |title= Signal Lake buys majority of InPhase |work= Boulder County Business Report |accessdate= 18 March 2010 |df= mdy-all }}</ref> In 2010, InPhase acquired digital holographic storage media manufacturing equipment from [[Hitachi Maxell]] in [[Tokyo]], Japan. In 2011, Signal Lake, on behalf of InPhase, acquired the assets of DSM AG in [[Westerstede]], Germany, so InPhase has rights for designing, developing, manufacturing, and supporting digital libraries (autoloaders that can hold one [[disk drive]] and fifteen disks with a robot that moves media between slots and disk drives, or libraries that can hold four disk drives and up to 2,140 disks) and a robot picker that moves media between slots and disk drives, to be bundled with sales of drives and media. |
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InPhase Technologies currently holds the record for "highest commercial data storage" by achieving 515 [[gigabit|Gbit]] per square inch<ref name=bbc>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4857306.stm Holographic advance aids storage]</ref> of media. Most recently the company broke the 1 [[terabyte]] benchmark.{{Citation needed|date=June 2008}} |
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On October 17, 2011, InPhase Technologies filed for [[bankrupt]]cy protection to reorganize under [[Chapter 11, Title 11, United States Code]]. Much of the blame for InPhase's bankruptcy was placed on Steven Socolof as lead investor who demanded that CEO Nelson Diaz produce a reliable product in one year three years in a row (and Steven Socolof demanded that the Board of Directors not tell this to the other investors in Phase, all of whom agreed not to do so, in particular Steven Kitrosser, Chairman of the Board). Both Steven Socolof and the Board of Directors ignored the engineers' warning that the product was not ready for market and would require another three to five years of development. Throughout this time, Nelson Diaz was on full pay while all other employees worked for minimum wage.<ref name=theregister>{{cite web |url= https://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/12/29/inphase_insider_story/ |title= How I watched a holographic storage company implode |work=[[The Register]] |accessdate= 29 December 2010 |df= mdy-all }}</ref> The main reason that InPhase Technologies failed to bring a product to market was internal management: the Board of Directors followed Steven Socolof in dictating how to get a product out, in the face of the engineering team arguing the schedule to get a full product out in one year was technically impossible, and this was proven in three successive years. |
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| ⚫ | In February 2008, InPhase Technologies was granted a joint patent with video game company [[Nintendo]] for a [[bending|flexure]]-based scanner for angle-based [[multiplexing]] in a holographic storage system.<ref>{{ |
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| ⚫ | All of the InPhase assets were sold at auction in March 2012. '''Akonia Holographics''' acquired the InPhase assets, including the critical equipment and know-how, and all of the [[intellectual property]]. Akonia Holographics, LLC was officially launched on August 10, 2012 after closing on a $10.8 million [[investment round]].<ref name=StorageNewsletter>{{cite web |url= http://www.storagenewsletter.com/news/startups/akonia-holographics/ |title= New Company Believes in Holographic Data Storage, Yes it Exists! |work= StorageNewsletter |accessdate= 11 December 2012 |df= mdy-all }}</ref> On August 30, 2018, [[Apple Inc.]] announced it was acquiring Akonia Holographics.<ref name=Register>{{cite web |url= https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/08/30/apple_sees_the_augmented_light_and_buys_holo_glass_tech_startup/ |accessdate= 30 August 2018 |title= Apple sees the (augmented) light, buys holo-glass tech startup |website= [[The Register]] |df= mdy-all }}</ref> |
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| ⚫ | On March 16, 2010, |
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On 17 October 2011, InPhase Technologies filed for protection to reorganize under [[Chapter 11, Title 11, United States Code]]. Much of the blame for InPhase's bankruptcy was placed on then CEO Nelson Diaz, who ignored the engineers warning that the product was not ready for market, as well as, allegedly, taking on full pay while all other employees worked for minimum wage.<ref name=theregister>{{cite web|url=https://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/12/29/inphase_insider_story/|title=How I watched a holographic storage company implode|work=The Register|accessdate=29 December 2010}}</ref> Diaz is now working as a full-time ski instructor in Colorado.{{Citation needed|date=August 2016}} |
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| ⚫ | All of the InPhase assets were sold at auction in March 2012. |
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== InPhase Technologies Group, Inc. == |
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InPhase shares its company name with a chiropractic [[Medical practice management software|practice management software]] company located in Rome, Georgia.<ref>http://www.inphasetech.com</ref> |
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== References == |
== References == |
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{{reflist}} |
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<references/> |
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==External links== |
==External links== |
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*[http://www.inphase-technologies.com/ |
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20090303134340/http://www.inphase-technologies.com/ inphase-technologies.com] |
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*[http://akoniaholographics.com/ akoniaholographics.com] |
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[[Category:2000 establishments in Colorado]] |
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[[Category:2012 disestablishments in Colorado]] |
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[[Category:American companies established in 2000]] |
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[[Category:American companies disestablished in 2012]] |
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[[Category:Apple Inc. acquisitions]] |
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[[Category:Computer companies established in 2000]] |
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[[Category:Computer companies disestablished in 2012]] |
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[[Category:Defunct computer companies of the United States]] |
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[[Category:Defunct computer hardware companies]] |
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[[Category:Holographic data storage]] |
[[Category:Holographic data storage]] |
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Latest revision as of 18:27, 17 October 2024
InPhase Technologies was a technology company developing holographic storage devices and media, based in Longmont, Colorado. InPhase was spun out from Bell Labs in 2000 after roughly a decade of basic research in photopolymers for storage combined with simultaneous research into developing a read/write mechanism for storing and reading out data. Their technology promises multiple terabyte storage; this in fact was achieved in 2009 when InPhase surpassed the density (bits/unit area) of then current magnetic storage media available in commercial markets. InPhase spent 2001-2004 in development to understand the engineering and manufacturing issues of getting a commercial product in a library involving a small number of reader/writers (e.g., 4), a large number of storage media (e.g., 1000) and a mechanical system that could retrieve any piece of storage media and place it in the appropriate reader/writer. At the start of 2005, InPhase investigated development of a rack mounted reader/writer; the CEO, Nelson Diaz, overruled this approach by partnering with StorageTek, a local established storage vendor, to put the InPhase reader/writer into a 5¼-inch form factor, while the storage media could be stored as 5¼-inch disks; this decision led to significant technical risk for development of a highly reliable robust reader/writer in this form factor that would have been significantly ameliorated by a rack mounted drive. On top of this, Steven Socolof of New Venture Partners who was lead investor in InPhase, demanded that InPhase launch a commercially viable product within one year, and raised in conjunction with other investors sufficient money to do so; the engineering team was informed of this one year deadline, and wrote a memo to the Board of Directors stating that it would take three to five years to deliver a commercially viable product, not one year, based on hundreds of years of experience in the engineering and manufacturing team, and this was noted by the Board but then ignored, not once, but two more times.
In May 2008,[1] the company first reader, Tapestry 300r, offered customers a storage capacity of 300 GB, with transfer rates of 20 MB/s in read/write mode; the product roadmap would increase both these figures of merit by at least an order of magnitude over two generations of products. However, the company has failed several times to release the reader on schedule after previously setting release dates of late 2006, and then February 2007.[2] As a result of these delays, InPhase was forced to cut a number of its workforce; currently there is no release date for the drive and storage media visible.[2]
In February 2008, InPhase Technologies was granted a joint patent with video game company Nintendo for a flexure-based scanner for angle-based multiplexing in a holographic storage system.[3]
In 2011, a book entitled Holographic Data Storage: From Theory to Practical Systems, by Kevin Curtis, Lisa Dhar, Adrian Hill, William Wilson and Mark Ayres, was published by Wiley. This book is a technical summary of the design of a holographic storage system including storage media a writer/reader mechanism; it does not include a summary of how much work is required to be able to reliably manufacture storage media and writer/readers, and there are roughly 200 patents roughly half on the storage media and half on the writer/reader. One of the reasons InPhase was able to get so far was it had both components, media and writer/reader, so if problems arose in one area the other side could be modified to address this problem, in a manner of bootstrapping product development.
On March 16, 2010, Signal Lake Venture Capital acquired a majority equity stake in the remains of InPhase.[4] In 2010, InPhase acquired digital holographic storage media manufacturing equipment from Hitachi Maxell in Tokyo, Japan. In 2011, Signal Lake, on behalf of InPhase, acquired the assets of DSM AG in Westerstede, Germany, so InPhase has rights for designing, developing, manufacturing, and supporting digital libraries (autoloaders that can hold one disk drive and fifteen disks with a robot that moves media between slots and disk drives, or libraries that can hold four disk drives and up to 2,140 disks) and a robot picker that moves media between slots and disk drives, to be bundled with sales of drives and media.
On October 17, 2011, InPhase Technologies filed for bankruptcy protection to reorganize under Chapter 11, Title 11, United States Code. Much of the blame for InPhase's bankruptcy was placed on Steven Socolof as lead investor who demanded that CEO Nelson Diaz produce a reliable product in one year three years in a row (and Steven Socolof demanded that the Board of Directors not tell this to the other investors in Phase, all of whom agreed not to do so, in particular Steven Kitrosser, Chairman of the Board). Both Steven Socolof and the Board of Directors ignored the engineers' warning that the product was not ready for market and would require another three to five years of development. Throughout this time, Nelson Diaz was on full pay while all other employees worked for minimum wage.[5] The main reason that InPhase Technologies failed to bring a product to market was internal management: the Board of Directors followed Steven Socolof in dictating how to get a product out, in the face of the engineering team arguing the schedule to get a full product out in one year was technically impossible, and this was proven in three successive years.
All of the InPhase assets were sold at auction in March 2012. Akonia Holographics acquired the InPhase assets, including the critical equipment and know-how, and all of the intellectual property. Akonia Holographics, LLC was officially launched on August 10, 2012 after closing on a $10.8 million investment round.[6] On August 30, 2018, Apple Inc. announced it was acquiring Akonia Holographics.[7]
References
[edit]- ^ Holografischer Speicher vor der Markteinführung (German language). Retrieved on April 20, 2008.
- ^ a b Modine, Austin (June 5, 2008). "Holographic storage kingpin turns staff and product into an illusion". The Register.
- ^ US patent 7336409, Bradley J. Sissom, "Miniature flexure based scanners for angle multiplexing", published 2007-09-06, issued 2008-02-26, assigned to InPhase Technologies and Nintendo
- ^ "Signal Lake buys majority of InPhase". Boulder County Business Report. Retrieved March 18, 2010.
- ^ "How I watched a holographic storage company implode". The Register. Retrieved December 29, 2010.
- ^ "New Company Believes in Holographic Data Storage, Yes it Exists!". StorageNewsletter. Retrieved December 11, 2012.
- ^ "Apple sees the (augmented) light, buys holo-glass tech startup". The Register. Retrieved August 30, 2018.
External links
[edit]- 2000 establishments in Colorado
- 2012 disestablishments in Colorado
- American companies established in 2000
- American companies disestablished in 2012
- Apple Inc. acquisitions
- Computer companies established in 2000
- Computer companies disestablished in 2012
- Defunct computer companies of the United States
- Defunct computer hardware companies
- Holographic data storage