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Quantum Effect Devices was a company originally named Quantum Effect Design, incorporated in 1991.
The three founders 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 instead of concentrating on building microprocessor chips which was MIPS' original mission. Soon after, SGI purchased MIPS. QED was started as a
microprocessor design house. 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. The first product,
the R4600 microprocessor, proved to be successful in several embedded markets such as
networking routers and arcade games and as CPU in SGI's Indy workstations.
Subsequent projects were designed for companies such as NEC, Toshiba and SGI.
Several years later the company transformed itself to a product company selling its own line of MIPS microprocessors. At that time, Quantum Effect Design changed its' name
to Quantum Effect Devices. After successful products like the RM5200 and the RM7000, the company went IPO on February 01, 2000.
QED was acquired by PMC-Sierra in October 2000 and became the Microprocessor Products Division of PMC.
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