thumb|underside view of idt r4700 package with the die exposed. thumb|underside view of qed rm5230 package with the die exposed thumb|underside view of qed rm7000 package with the die exposed quantum effect devices (qed) was a microprocessor design company incorporated in 1991 as quantum effect design. the three founders, tom riordan, earl killian and ray kunita, were senior managers at mips computer systems inc.. they left mips at a time when the company was having a difficult time selling entire computer systems (mips magnum) instead of concentrating on building microprocessor chips which was mips' original mission. soon after, sgi purchased mips. idt was a major funder and customer for the initial qed design. the original product plan for qed was to build a mips microprocessor for a laptop computer. this was during the ace initiative from microsoft to support multiple risc architectures for their new windows nt operating system. system companies like deskstation technology and board companies like shablamm! computer were building products in the hope that risc-based personal computers would become mainstream. while that market never materialized, the first product, the r4600 "orion" microprocessor, proved to be successful in several embedded markets such as networking routers and arcade games. subsequent projects were designed for companies such as toshiba and idt (r4700), idt & nkk (r4650), sgi and nec (r5000). the powerpc 603q was a powerpc microprocessor designed for motorola, meant for apple computer's home pc and game machine designs. neither of these designs were productized, so the powerpc 603q never reached full production. several years later, in an attempt to increase product revenue, the company transformed itself to a product company selling its own line of mips microprocessors. at that time, the company changed its name to quantum effect devices. after successful products introductions like the rm5200 and the rm7000, under its own "riscmark" label, the company had its ipo on 1 february 2000. the initial stock price of $16 jumped to $56.50 on the first day of trading.{{cite news |title= 3 technology issues surge on debut day |publisher= the new york times: business day |quote= quantum effect devices, a company that develops embedded microprocessors for routers, network computers, set-top boxes and other equipment, closed at $56.50, compared with an offering price of $16. |date= february 2, 2000 |url= http://www.nytimes.com/2000/02/02/business/3-technology-issues-surge-on-debut-day.html?ref=sequenom-inc |accessdate= 20
Companies_disestablished_in_2000 Companies_established_in_1991 Defunct_semiconductor_companies_of_the_United_States