Telepresence was science fiction in the 50s, a Disneyland attraction in the 60s, and eventually morphed into costly corporate “telepresence rooms” and other high-end systems, which relied on expensive dedicated communications lines.

Vidyo, a start-up company in New Jersey, says it has invented the next generation of teleconferencing that is cheaper and more portable, in part by using the Web to transmit, getting around the need for special communications lines and instead using the Web. It says that it will make teleconferencing available in offices, homes and hotels – and not just in boardrooms.

“Our product is a breakthrough to democratize telepresence and make it more affordable and portable,”  said Ofer Shapiro, chief executive of Vidyo.  Shapiro knows the earlier generation. He led the design team at Radvision in the 1990s that designed a key piece of equipment called a Multipoint Control Unit, or MCU, still in use today. Shapiro thinks it  obsolete.

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 16 (Reuters) – Russia’s Digital Sky Technologies, which has a stake in the Facebook social network, and other investors have bought $180 million of securities in social game company Zynga, Zynga’s CEO said on Wednesday.

Chief Executive Mark Pincus said the investment would alleviate pressure to take the company public.

He said revenue had grown at least as quickly as the number of employees, which more than tripled this year. A source familiar with the company said revenue was running at an annualized rate of more than $300 million.

Sources have previously put that “run rate” at $100 million in April and $200 million in October.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Fast-growing Zynga, whose games are a hit on Facebook and other social networks, plans to play alone for now, eschewing talks with suitors and holding back on any plans for going public, its chief executive said on Wednesday.

Privately held Zynga makes games for social networks and then profits by selling add-on tools. The fish-raising game FishVille, for instance, lets players purchase virtual food and goods with game cash — which can be bought with real world dollars.

The tiny “micropayments” for fish food add up quickly for Zynga, one of the stars in the nascent virtual goods industry, which has attracted Silicon Valley venture capitalists.

Industry watchers speculate that Zynga could raise $1 billion to $1.2 billion in an initial public offering in the near future if it chose to go that route.

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 24 (Reuters) – Graphics chip maker Nvidia Corp <NVDA.O> said on Tuesday the U.S. Patent Office has found that 17 patent claims asserted by chip designer Rambus Inc <RMBS.O> are invalid, one step in a dispute over whether Nvidia infringed Rambus technology.

Nvidia, which requested the review, will offer the findings to an International Trade Commission judge in Washington, D.C., which is weighing the validity of the Rambus claims against Nvidia.

The ITC judge, who is not bound by the Patent Office finding, is expected to make a decision in January that will serve as a recommendation to the full ITC. The ITC could bar imports from Nvidia’s overseas suppliers if it finds the imports to violate Rambus patents.

“This continues our string of victories against Rambus patents” in the U.S. Patent Office, David Shannon, NVIDIA executive vice president and general counsel, said in a statement.

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 24 (Reuters) – Graphics chip maker Nvidia Corp <NVDA.O> said on Tuesday the U.S. Patent Office has found that 17 patent claims asserted by chip designer Rambus Inc <RMBS.O> are invalid, one step in a dispute over whether Nvidia infringed Rambus technology.

Nvidia, which requested the review, will offer the findings to an International Trade Commission judge in Washington, D.C., which is weighing the validity of the Rambus claims against Nvidia.

The ITC judge, who is not bound by the Patent Office finding, is expected to make a decision in January that will serve as a recommendation to the full ITC. The ITC could bar imports from Nvidia’s overseas suppliers if it finds the imports to violate Rambus patents.

“This continues our string of victories against Rambus patents” in the U.S. Patent Office, David Shannon, NVIDIA executive vice president and general counsel, said in a statement.

HUNTINGTON BEACH, California (Reuters) – Animated 3-D movies will soon be made cheaper, faster and more vividly with a new generation of computer chips that can crunch huge amounts of data faster than ever, DreamWorks Animation SKG Chief Executive Jeffrey Katzenberg said this week.

Katzenberg, one of the first studio chiefs to embrace 3-D animation in films like “Monsters vs Aliens”, told Intel Capital’s CEO Summit in Huntington Beach, California that he is even more excited about the creative potential of this “scalable multi-core processing”.

“Ten years from now I think this will be a tipping point for how we view entertainment and how entertainment views the world,” he said of the chips, which are still in development.

Katzenberg gave attendees at the conference sneak peeks at footage from DreamWorks Animation’s upcoming 3-D films “How to Train Your Dragon” and “Shrek Forever After”.

, Nov 17 (Reuters) – Chief executives of start-up companies supported by Intel Corp <INTC.O> said on Tuesday they expect to offer more jobs, after a long drought during which they laid off people.

Venture capital-backed start-ups have long held out the promise of jobs and growth, but attendees at a conference of start-ups said their offerings are not enough to ignite a sputtering economy.

The chief executives of some of the more than 400 start-ups supported by Intel Capital, the venture capital arm of the world’s largest chipmaker, gathered at a luxury hotel on the California coast to talk about their futures.

Shortly after the National Venture Capital Association in Washington said 2,500 venture-backed start-ups have nearly 11,000 jobs available, Intel Capital President Arvind Sodhani held out the hope in a welcome speech here that innovation from start-ups will help rekindle prosperity.

, Nov 18 (Reuters) – Animated 3-D movies will soon be made cheaper, faster and more vividly with a new generation of computer chips that can crunch huge amounts of data faster than ever, DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc <DWA.O> Chief Executive Jeffrey Katzenberg said this week.

Katzenberg, one of the first studio chiefs to embrace 3-D animation in films like “Monsters vs Aliens”, told Intel Capital’s CEO Summit in Huntington Beach, California that he is even more excited about the creative potential of this “scalable multi-core processing”.

“Ten years from now I think this will be a tipping point for how we view entertainment and how entertainment views the world,” he said of the chips, which are still in development.

Katzenberg gave attendees at the three-day conference sneak peeks at footage from DreamWorks Animation’s upcoming 3-D films “How to Train Your Dragon” and “Shrek Forever After”.

, Nov 17 (Reuters) – Chief executives of start-up companies supported by Intel Corp <INTC.O> said on Tuesday they expect to offer more jobs, after a long drought during which they laid off people.

Venture capital-backed start-ups have long held out the promise of jobs and growth, but attendees at a conference of start-ups said their offerings are not enough to ignite a sputtering economy.

The chief executives of some of the more than 400 start-ups supported by Intel Capital, the venture capital arm of the world’s largest chipmaker, gathered at a luxury hotel on the California coast to talk about their futures.

Shortly after the National Venture Capital Association in Washington said 2,500 venture-backed start-ups have nearly 11,000 jobs available, Intel Capital President Arvind Sodhani held out the hope in a welcome speech here that innovation from start-ups will help rekindle prosperity.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Intel Corp will pay rival chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices Inc $1.25 billion to settle all outstanding legal disputes, in a move that can hasten the resolution of Intel’s antitrust troubles.

AMD, whose shares jumped 22 percent, agreed to withdraw essentially all its regulatory complaints and litigation against Intel, ending a global campaign that it has waged on the world’s largest chipmaker for 12 years.

Some analysts said the deal takes the steam out of a pending U.S. Federal Trade Commission investigation into Intel’s business practices.

But others said Intel has critics beyond AMD and its regulatory troubles are far from over. Among Intel’s adversaries are graphics chip maker Nvidia Corp and New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.