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

thumb|A Nuon DVD player made by Samsung

thumb|A Nuon manufactured by [[Toshiba]]

Nuon was first unveiled under the codename "Project X", set for a release during the 1998 Christmas shopping season, and was featured in Electronic Gaming Monthlys 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. Manufacturing of the hardware was handled by several original equipment manufacturers.

When it was first announced, the Nuon's creators envisioned it as a competitor for the upcoming video game consoles from the leading manufacturers. By November 2004, there were no Nuon-enabled DVD players shipping and no new Nuon software titles released or in development.

Specification

thumb|The motherboard of a Toshiba SD-2300 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. Some report(s) 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

Peripherals for Nuon-enhanced DVD players included the following:

thumb|right|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

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

  • The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
  • Bedazzled (2000 remake)
  • Dr. Dolittle 2
  • Planet of the Apes (2001 film, Bug Free Version UPC - 024543028987)

Games

Only eight games were officially released for the Nuon:

  • Tempest 3000
  • Freefall 3050 A.D.
  • Merlin Racing (Later had a sequel entitled Miracle Space Race for the PlayStation), and an altered version called Rascal Racers; released for PlayStation in 2002.
  • Space Invaders X.L.
  • Iron Soldier 3 (later recalled due to incompatibility with some players)
  • Ballistic (only available with Samsung players)
  • The Next Tetris DLX (only available with Toshiba players)
  • Crayon Shin-chan 3 (Korean-only release)

Unreleased

  • aMaze
  • Atari's Greatest Hits
  • Battleship: Surface Thunder
  • Boggle
  • Breakout
  • Bugdom
  • Dragon's Lair
  • Hoyle Card Games
  • Jeopardy!
  • Knockout Kings
  • Madden NFL
  • Monopoly
  • Native II
  • Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit
  • New Scrabble
  • NUON Board Games
  • NUON Casino
  • NUON R.C. Racing
  • Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure
  • Pong: The Next Level
  • Power Shovel
  • Sorry!
  • Space Ace
  • Wheel of Fortune
  • Yahtzee
  • zCards