ARK Logic
2D GPU designer with design wins from Western Digital, Hercules, Diamond.
ARK Logic, Inc.—commonly shortened to ARK, which stood for Advanced Rendering Kernels—was an American company that made computer graphics hardware. It operated from 1993 to 2002 and was based in San Jose, California. The firm created several 2D graphics processing units, most of which used the PCI bus, and these chips saw modest use in aftermarket graphics cards for PCs during the 1990s. The company was founded in 1993 in Santa Clara, California, primarily by Ruey "Ray" Lu. Lewis Eggebrecht, who had been the chief designer of the IBM Personal Computer, joined as chief scientific officer. ARK's first products hit the market in October 1994: two GUI accelerators designed in-house. The ARK1000PV was a 32-bit accelerator, while the ARK2000PV was a 64-bit version. Both used DRAM and a host interface unit that worked with both PCI and VESA Local Bus (VLB). This interface included built-in intelligent cache to support sustained burst transactions over PCI and zero-wait-state transactions over both PCI and VLB. ARK's first design win came in November 1994, when Western Digital's Paradise subsidiary chose the 32-bit ARK1000PV for its low-cost Bali 32 graphics accelerator card. In April 1995, Integrated Circuit Systems (ICS), a Pennsylvania-based maker of clock generators and RAMDACs, announced it had bought a 51 percent stake in ARK Logic for $7.3 million. The deal allowed ICS to acquire the remaining 49 percent after 18 months at fair market value. ARK then moved its headquarters from Santa Clara to San Jose. ICS had taken a majority stake in Turtle Beach Corporation two years earlier, and the purchases of both Turtle Beach and ARK marked ICS's push into multimedia products—a move that proved short-lived. ARK earned its second design win with Hercules Computer Technology, which used the 64-bit ARK2000PV in its Stingray 64 graphics card. In August 1995, Diamond Multimedia also chose the ARK2000PV for its popular Stealth64 card. In December 1995, ARK released the ARK2000MI, a follow-up that included an ICS RAMDAC and an MPEG-1 decoder chip for full-screen video acceleration. In August 1996, ARK introduced the ARK2000MT, which swapped the generic RAMDAC for ICS's ICS5342 GENDAC (a combined clock generator and RAMDAC) and upgraded the video accelerator to decode MPEG-2 video at 30 frames per second.
Quick Facts
- Founded
- in Santa Clara, California, United States
- Hq Location
- San Jose, California (1995–2002)
- Founders
- Ray Lu · Lewis Eggebrecht
- Defunct
- 2002
- Fate
- Dissolution
- Owner
- Integrated Circuit Systems (1995–1997, 51%)
- Parent
- Vision 2000 Ventures (1997–2002)
- Products
- Computer graphics hardware
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
ARK Logic was principally founded by Ruey 'Ray' Lu in 1993 in Santa Clara, California. Lewis Eggebrecht, the chief designer of the IBM Personal Computer, was hired as the chief scientific officer. The company released its first products in October 1994: the ARK1000PV (32-bit GUI accelerator) and ARK2000PV (64-bit GUI accelerator), both using DRAM and a host interface unit compatible with PCI and VESA Local Bus. ARK's first design win was with Western Digital's Paradise subsidiary, which used the ARK1000PV for its low-cost Bali 32 graphics card in November 1994. Integrated Circuit Systems (ICS) acquired a majority stake (51 percent) in ARK in April 1995 for $7.3 million, later moving ARK's headquarters to San Jose. ARK earned design wins with Hercules (Stingray 64) and Diamond Multimedia (Stealth64) in 1995. Subsequent chips included the ARK2000MI (with MPEG-1 decoder) and ARK2000MT (with MPEG-2 decoder and ICS GENDAC). The ARK2000MI+, branded Quadro64, introduced the ARK Peripheral Expansion Bus (APEX), a semi-proprietary bus based on VESA's Video Module Interface proposal. Sales slowed at the end of 1996. In January 1997, Lu stepped down as CEO, replaced by Allan Havemose. In July 1997, ICS sold 80 percent of its stake to Vision 2000 Ventures, a Cayman Islands holding company. ARK announced its first 3D accelerator, the Tiger 3D, in May 1998, and the Ark 8800 Cougar 3D in February 1999, but industry analysts doubted its competitiveness. The company's website went dark in September 2002.
Reader's Guide
ARK Logic's significance lies in its role as a 2D GPU designer during the mid-1990s, securing design wins with major graphics card vendors such as Western Digital, Hercules, and Diamond Multimedia. Its chips, particularly the ARK2000PV, powered popular cards like the Diamond Stealth64. The company's acquisition by ICS in 1995 was part of ICS's short-lived pivot to multimedia products, which also included Turtle Beach. ARK's later attempts to enter the 3D accelerator market with the Tiger 3D and Cougar 3D were met with skepticism from analysts, as competing chips were already aging. Despite the company's GPUs languishing in obscurity, the X.Org Foundation still maintains 2D graphics drivers for ARK GPUs for X.Org Server as of February 2023, indicating a lasting, if niche, legacy in open-source graphics support.
Did You Know?
- Lewis Eggebrecht, chief designer of the IBM Personal Computer, served as ARK's chief scientific officer.
- The ARK2000MI+ (Quadro64) introduced the ARK Peripheral Expansion Bus (APEX), based on VESA's Video Module Interface proposal.
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