History 2005: Calimetrics Ceases Ops

Alameda, CA-based Calimetrics has ceased operations.

Founded in 1994, it got up to $50 million in founding with investors including Ahead Software, Iomega, Mitsubishi Chemical, MKE, Philips, Sanyo, Texas Instruments and above all TDK to develop patented high-capacity multilevel optical CD and DVD disc technology.

Here is what president and CEO Ken Campbell, had to say about the company before its closure: “Calimetrics’ expertise is extensive. We possess over 200 years of collective experience in high-precision laser measurement techniques, encoding/decoding optical signals, system integration and development. This manifests itself in over 80 issued patents and patents pending as well as 100-plus additional invention disclosures and extensive trade secrets. We created ML technology and have a lock on this field.”

Now it’s the company that’s locked (up).

This story just goes to show that it’s virtually impossible to impose a new standard in the optical sector without help from the largest Japanese players like Sony, Toshiba, etc., and the support of the entertainment industry.

This article is an abstract of news published on issue 205 on January 2005 from the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter.