DisplayLink: Silicon Valley's Next Billion Dollar Company? Start-Up Touts USB Display Everywhere (video)
Story posted on: July 21, 2008
DisplayLink has been around for 6 years raising so far $54 million in hope of building "the next billion dollar company". Farzaneh plans to raise one more round and expects to reach profitability by 2009.
More videos of the interview coming up shortly... after the jump!
How does it work?
In a nutshell, DisplayLink's proprietary "virtual" display technology lets users connect easily via wired USB up to 6 monitors to a Windows and MacOS computer. A wireless USB version is expected to ship by the end of this year and Linux drivers are on the works for next year. Up until now, adding 2 or more monitors to a PC, let alone a laptop, was the exclusive territory of experts and techies, which often required installing additional high-end graphic cards. With DisplayLink, the rest of us can do it too!
What I liked about DisplayLink's technology is its ease of use (it's just USB!) and its "green" factor (it requires less power than a multi-display high-end card from Nvidia or ATI for example). ASUS, LG, Samsung, Kensington, Toshiba and many more have already adopted DisplayLink's technology for their LCD monitors, VGA/DVI adapters and/or docking stations.
The Future is Now!
Before year's end, Farzaneh sees the sprout of $99 personal USB mini- displays that would connect to a PC, using DisplayLink technology of course, to display "widgets", clocks and all kinds of personal accessories. Farzaneh also foresees DisplayLink-enabled smartphones by 2010 - imagine the iPhone with a keyboard/mouse/display all connected to its USB port or the iPhone as an external display for your PC!
Finally, imagine a wireless USB-enabled TV on which you can project your laptop screen. Well all this, and more, will be possible because as Farzaneh explains: the future is now!
DisplayLink CEO office set-up: a Sony sub-notebook, a Toshiba universal docking stations and 4 external displays!
User Comments
#0, alex , le 23/07/08 12:29 PM
video over usb, why haven\'t i heard of this before?? especially impressed with ability to connect iphone to periperals and any monitor via usb port. wow!
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