Synaptics
Encyclopedia
Synaptics develops human interface solutions for many major consumer electronics companies, such as Apple Inc., Asus
, Acer
, Dell
, Gateway, HP
, HTC
, Lenovo, LG
, Logitech
, Nokia
, Samsung
, Sony
, Sony Ericsson
, Toshiba
and several others. The products include touchpads and touchscreens for a variety of devices including notebook PCs, PC peripherals, mobile phones, digital music players, and remote controls .
research company in 1986 by Federico Faggin
(co-inventor of the microprocessor
) and Carver Mead
(VLSI pioneer). The company began to apply semiconductor hardware design techniques to a computing technology known as neural networks.
The company started shipping commercial products in 1995, with its flagship TouchPad interface for notebook PCs. The TouchPad is a touch-sensitive pad for notebooks or keyboards that senses the position of a user’s finger(s) on the surface to provide screen navigation, cursor movement, application control, and a platform for interactive input.
Synaptics went public in 2002 and is currently listed on the NASDAQ
exchange. The IPO of 5 million common stock shares at a price of $11.00 per share received a 57% return at the close of Q1 2002.
technology. Capacitive touch sensing works by sensing the electrical properties of the finger(s) touching the sensor. Whereas the resistive touchscreen
senses direct pressure between two clear electrical layers that are separated by a small space, requiring an amount of force. Capacitive touch sensing solutions are solid state making them more robust than resistive solutions.
is integrated into the majority of today's notebook computers. Synaptics' share for TouchPads in the notebook PC market is in the 65-70% range.
Some of Synaptics' products are listed below:
ASUS
ASUSTeK Computer Incorporated is a multinational computer technology and consumer electronics product manufacturer headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan. Its product range includes motherboards, desktops, laptops, monitors, tablet PCs, servers and mobile phones...
, Acer
Acer (company)
Acer Incorporated is a multinational information technology and electronics corporation headquartered in Xizhi, New Taipei City, Taiwan. Acer's products include desktop and laptop PCs, tablet computers, servers, storage devices, displays, smartphones and peripherals...
, Dell
Dell
Dell, Inc. is an American multinational information technology corporation based in 1 Dell Way, Round Rock, Texas, United States, that develops, sells and supports computers and related products and services. Bearing the name of its founder, Michael Dell, the company is one of the largest...
, Gateway, HP
Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...
, HTC
HTC
-Companies:*HTC Corporation, a Taiwanese manufacturer of handheld devices*Harrisonville Telephone Company, a telephone company in Waterloo, Illinois*Horry Telephone Cooperative, a telephone cooperative in Horry County, South Carolina...
, Lenovo, LG
LG
LG may refer to:*LG Corp., a South Korean electronics and petrochemicals conglomerate*LG Electronics, an affiliate of the South Korean LG Group which produces electronic products* Lawrence Graham, a London headquartered firm of business lawyers...
, Logitech
Logitech
Logitech International S.A. is a global provider of personal peripherals for computers and other digital platforms headquartered in Romanel-sur-Morges, Switzerland. The company develops and markets products like peripheral devices for PCs, including keyboards, mice, microphones, game controllers...
, Nokia
Nokia
Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications corporation that is headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighbouring Finland's capital Helsinki...
, Samsung
Samsung
The Samsung Group is a South Korean multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea...
, Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
, Sony Ericsson
Sony Ericsson
Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB is a joint venture established on October 1, 2001 by the Japanese consumer electronics company Sony Corporation and the Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson to manufacture mobile phones....
, Toshiba
Toshiba
is a multinational electronics and electrical equipment corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is a diversified manufacturer and marketer of electrical products, spanning information & communications equipment and systems, Internet-based solutions and services, electronic components and...
and several others. The products include touchpads and touchscreens for a variety of devices including notebook PCs, PC peripherals, mobile phones, digital music players, and remote controls .
History
Synaptics was originally founded as a neural networkNeural network
The term neural network was traditionally used to refer to a network or circuit of biological neurons. The modern usage of the term often refers to artificial neural networks, which are composed of artificial neurons or nodes...
research company in 1986 by Federico Faggin
Federico Faggin
Federico Faggin , who received in 2010 the National Medal of Technology and Innovation by Barack Obama, the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on scientists, engineers, and inventors, at the White House in Washington, is an Italian-born and naturalized U.S...
(co-inventor of the microprocessor
Microprocessor
A microprocessor incorporates the functions of a computer's central processing unit on a single integrated circuit, or at most a few integrated circuits. It is a multipurpose, programmable device that accepts digital data as input, processes it according to instructions stored in its memory, and...
) and Carver Mead
Carver Mead
Carver Andress Mead is a US computer scientist. He currently holds the position of Gordon and Betty Moore Professor Emeritus of Engineering and Applied Science at the California Institute of Technology , having taught there for over 40 years.Mead studied electrical engineering at Caltech, getting...
(VLSI pioneer). The company began to apply semiconductor hardware design techniques to a computing technology known as neural networks.
The company started shipping commercial products in 1995, with its flagship TouchPad interface for notebook PCs. The TouchPad is a touch-sensitive pad for notebooks or keyboards that senses the position of a user’s finger(s) on the surface to provide screen navigation, cursor movement, application control, and a platform for interactive input.
Synaptics went public in 2002 and is currently listed on the NASDAQ
NASDAQ
The NASDAQ Stock Market, also known as the NASDAQ, is an American stock exchange. "NASDAQ" originally stood for "National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations". It is the second-largest stock exchange by market capitalization in the world, after the New York Stock Exchange. As of...
exchange. The IPO of 5 million common stock shares at a price of $11.00 per share received a 57% return at the close of Q1 2002.
Technology
Synaptics products are based on capacitive sensingCapacitive sensing
In electrical engineering, capacitive sensing is a technology based on capacitive coupling that is used in many different types of sensors, including those to detect and measure: proximity, position or displacement, humidity, fluid level, and acceleration...
technology. Capacitive touch sensing works by sensing the electrical properties of the finger(s) touching the sensor. Whereas the resistive touchscreen
Resistive touchscreen
In electrical engineering, resistive touchscreens are touch-sensitive computer displays composed of two flexible sheets coated with a resistive material and separated by an air gap or microdots. There are two different types of metallic layers. The first one is Matrix, which is a striped electrodes...
senses direct pressure between two clear electrical layers that are separated by a small space, requiring an amount of force. Capacitive touch sensing solutions are solid state making them more robust than resistive solutions.
Products
A TouchpadTouchpad
A touchpad is a pointing device featuring a tactile sensor, a specialized surface that can translate the motion and position of a user's fingers to a relative position on screen. Touch pads are a common feature of laptop computers, and they are also used as a substitute for a mouse where desk...
is integrated into the majority of today's notebook computers. Synaptics' share for TouchPads in the notebook PC market is in the 65-70% range.
Some of Synaptics' products are listed below:
- Synaptics ClickPad – The ClickPad allows users to press down on the TouchPad itself to perform a left or right click.
- Synaptics ClearPad - The ClearPad was the world's first clear capacitive touchscreen sensor for mobile devices. Synaptics' customer, LG Electronics, was the first to offer a mobile phone using such sensor with the LG Prada (KE850)LG Prada (KE850)The LG KE850, also known as the LG Prada, is a touchscreen mobile phone made by LG Electronics. It was first announced on December 12, 2006. Images of the device appeared on websites such as Engadget Mobile on December 15, 2006. An official press release showing an image of the device appeared on...
in December 2006.
- Synaptics Gesture Suite (SGS) - SGS provides Synaptics TouchPad users a variety of gestures for cursor commands. It is available for Windows. A feature of this Suite are the Scrybe gesture workflows, which was announced in January 2010. Users launch the gesture window by tapping three fingers on the touchpad. Once the gesture window is open, the user can e.g. trace a question mark gesture directly on the touchpad to open the browser or draw an “@” sign to open a predefined email application. Or instead of having to cut and paste text from a document into a browser-based search engine box, through Scrybe users can simply highlight the term and draw a question mark with their finger to trigger an automatic web search on the query..