• Source: Sonos

Sonos, Inc. is an American audio equipment manufacturer headquartered in Santa Barbara, California. The company was founded in 2002 by John MacFarlane, Craig Shelburne, Tom Cullen, and Trung Mai. Patrick Spence has been its CEO since 2017.
Sonos has partnered with over 100 companies that offer music services, including Pandora, iHeartRadio, SiriusXM, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, MOG, QQ Music, YouTube Music and Amazon Music. Sonos products work with the three major voice assistants: Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple Siri, although the last is currently only supported through Apple's Home app. In 2019 Sonos acquired Snips SAS, a privacy-focused AI voice platform for connected devices with the goal to bring a music-specific assistant to its devices.




History






= Corporate, financial, and marketing history

=
Sonos was founded as "Rincon Audio, Inc." in August 2002 by John MacFarlane, Craig Shelburne, Tom Cullen and Trung Mai, with MacFarlane wanting to create a wireless service. The company changed its name to "Sonos, Inc." in May 2004.
During 2004, MacFarlane brought prototypes of the first Sonos products to several industry events, including the June 2004 "D2: All Things Digital" conference in Carlsbad, California and the December 2004 Digital Music Summit. It's been reported that in D2 Steve Jobs told MacFarlane that the Sonos controller's scroll wheel might violate Apple patents related to the iPod.
Sonos aimed to begin shipping its products in the fourth quarter of 2004 but missed that deadline. The company first introduced its products to the market in January 2005 and first shipped them in either January or March 2005.
In May 2005, Sonos announced that its initial product line would go on sale in the United Kingdom in the following month. The company has continued to broaden its international sales, for example to Japan in 2018.
In May 2012, Sonos opened the Sonos Studio in Los Angeles, a studio and art gallery in which art was exhibited along with Sonos' products for free, and featured events with artists like Beck, The Lonely Island and Solange, and released a video about its development. The Los Angeles location was closed in 2018; a London location remains open.
In December 2013, the company was estimated to have raised $118 million in venture funding, including a $25 million round; its investors included Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Redpoint Ventures and Elevation Partners. In April 2014, Google and Sonos introduced deep integration features that allowed user to play and control Google Play Music through Sonos devices.
In January 2015, Sonos was rebranded by Bruce Mau Design, with a new visual identity and improved logotype that was created over the span of four years, from 2011 to 2014. There have been other brand refreshes, including one in 2019.
In February 2016 Sonos also released a study called Music Makes it Home Study.
In March 2016, CEO John MacFarlane announced the company's shift to focus on streaming music services and voice control instead of local playback, and laid off some employees.
In July 2016, the company opened its first Sonos Store in SoHo. Sonos announced the store's closure in June 2020.
In September 2016, the company announced that its products would become available at the Apple Store.
In January 2017, MacFarlane announced via the company's blog that he would be stepping down from his role as CEO, and that he would be succeeded in this position by former COO Patrick Spence.
In December 2017, IKEA and Sonos announced a collaboration to build Sonos' technology into furniture sold by IKEA.
In August 2018, Sonos went public, trading on the NASDAQ under the symbol SONO.
In November 2019, Sonos acquires Snips SAS, a privacy-focused AI voice platform for connected devices with the goal to bring a music-specific assistant to its devices.
In January 2020, Sonos sued Google over copyright infringement relating to several patents, including the ability to sync audio over multiple devices. In August 2021, a judge ruled in favor of Sonos. The International Trade Commission also ruled in favor of Sonos. As a result, Google was ordered to remove certain features from its devices, including group volume control.
Google was ordered to pay Sonos $32.5 million in damages. However, a judge tossed out the verdict in October and criticized Sonos for abusing the patent system. Following the verdict, Google redeployed the features it had previously removed.
In April 2020, Sonos revealed a new "sonic logo" composed by Philip Glass, featuring an ensemble of 21 musicians. The logo will be heard in the listening experience of Sonos Radio, an Internet radio streaming service that was unveiled by the company the same month.
In June 2020, Sonos announced plans to lay off 12% of its workforce, close its New York store and six of its offices, and cut its top executives' pay by 20% for three to six months, in response to the economic disruptions caused by the COVID pandemic.
In November 2020, Sonos launched "Sonos Radio HD", a paid ad-free tier of Sonos Radio.
In May 2023, Sonos reported a 24% drop in revenue. Sonos would then lay off 7% of its workforce—130 employees—in June.
In August 2024, Sonos laid off another 100 employees. Several of its customers support locations will also close, including one in Amsterdam.




= Product history

=

Products announced by Sonos (excluding several smaller or less-important ones) have been:

June 2004 – Sonos announced its first products—the Digital Music System consisting of two components, the ZonePlayer and the Controller (later renamed as the ZP100 and CR100, respectively)—then expected to be available in fall 2004. The products were introduced at the January 2005 Consumer Electronics Show. They first shipped either on January 27, 2005, or March 2005.
January 2006 – the unamplified ZonePlayer ZP80, with analog and digital input and output connections to link a user's Sonos system to their traditional amplifier.
August 2008 – the ZonePlayer120 (ZP120, later CONNECT:AMP), replacing the ZP100, and the ZonePlayer90 (ZP90, later CONNECT), replacing the ZP80.
October 2008 – a free Controller app for the iPhone and iPod Touch, reducing the need for Sonos' separate controllers. Controller apps were later released for other IOS devices and for Android.
July 2009 – the CR200, a second handheld controller to replace the CR100, with a touch screen rather than the CR100's scroll wheel. Sales of the CR200 were discontinued in 2012. Existing CR200 controllers continue to operate, however there are reports of touchscreen failures which cannot be repaired.
November 2009 – the ZonePlayer S5 (later PLAY:5), the first independent Sonos-connected amplified speaker.
July 2011 – the Play:3, a second, smaller, amplified speaker in its Play lineup of smart speakers.
May 2012 – the SUB wireless subwoofer.
February 2013 – the PLAYBAR soundbar speaker.
October 2013 – the Play:1, a third, compact, smart speaker.
February 2015 – Sonos announced the limited edition Blue Note Play:1, a collaboration with Blue Note Records, which went on sale in March. There have been other similar Sonos releases, available for limited times, such as a Beastie Boys PLAY:5 and a series of Sonos Ones in five new colors developed by the Danish design firm HAY.
September 2015 – A new ("2nd gen") Play:5 speaker was announced, and pre-orders began in October.
March 2017 – the PLAYBASE, a soundbase to go under a television.
October 2017 – the Sonos One, a small connected speaker with voice control. A key feature of whole house systems starting in 2017 was the adoption of Amazon's Alexa as a third-party voice controller.
April 2018 – production of the Play:3 was discontinued, effective July 31.
June 2018 – the Sonos Beam, a soundbar with voice control, was announced.
August 2018 – An updated version of the Sonos Amp was unveiled, with a planned limited release in December.
March 2019 – A second-generation Sonos One, with Bluetooth LE connectivity, a faster processor, and more memory.
August 2019 – The first two products resulting from the IKEA-Sonos collaboration, called SYMFONISK, a small bookshelf speaker and a combination table-lamp/speaker, became available from IKEA.
September 2019 – The introduction of the first battery operated Sonos speaker called Move. The speaker is portable and has the rating of IP56 making it humidity, heat, and cold resistant. It uses an indoor charging base and claims to play up to 10 hours on a full charge. Sonos also announced the One SL, a version of its One without voice control, replacing the Play:1, and the Port, an updated version of the Connect, to add Sonos functionality into an existing, wired stereo system.
March 2021 – The introduction of the smallest battery operated Sonos speaker called Roam. The speaker is a smaller version of the Move carrying over the features such as portable, IP56 rated and durable. In the box is just the Roam and a USB charging cable and claims to play up to 10 hours on a full charge. There is a charging bases available similar to the Move, but sold separately.
September 2022 – Sonos launched the Sub Mini wireless subwoofer. The Sub Mini is cylindrical and is available in matte black or white, it can be paired with AirPlay-enabled Sonos speakers.
March 2023 – Sonos launched the ERA 100 and ERA 300 speakers. The latter features a unique design and support for spatial audio.
May 2024 – a major update to its mobile app that was widely criticized (see Controversies section).




= History of outside services supported

=
In April 2005, Sonos announced that its products could play music from Rhapsody, the first of many music services that its products would support. Starting in September 2006 Sonos supported Rhapsody from its own Controller without use of a PC. Subsequently, added services include:

Sirius XM (February 2011)
MOG (May 2011)
Spotify (July 2011)
QQ Music, with collaboration from Tencent (May 2012)
Tidal (March 2015)
Amazon Music (October 2015)
Apple Music (February 2016)
Sonos devices support the Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant virtual assistants. Apple's Siri is supported, but only through the Home app.




= Logo history

=














The word is a palindrome and the logo a rotational ambigram.




Product line






= List of current and past products

=




= Automotive

=
The first automotive brand to partner with Sonos is Audi in the Audi Q4 e-tron. As of May 2024, Audi is the only partner.




Technical details






= Communication between Sonos products

=
Multiple Sonos devices in a single household are connected to each other wirelessly, through a wired Ethernet network, or a mixture of the two. The Sonos system creates a proprietary AES-encrypted peer-to-peer mesh network, known as SonosNet. This allows for each unit to play any chosen input and if desired share it as synchronized audio with one or more other chosen zones. The first versions of SonosNet required a single ZonePlayer or ZoneBridge to be wired to a network for access to LAN and Internet audio sources or when creating a 3.1/5.1 surround setup. SonosNet 2.0 integrated MIMO on 802.11n hardware, providing a more robust connection. Later, the company added support for connecting to an existing Wi-Fi network for internet connectivity, removing the wired network requirement.




= S1 and S2 operating systems

=
In 2020, Sonos released its S2 operating system. Its existing system was retroactively named "S1" to differentiate it from its new system. All products launched after May 2020 support S2 exclusively.




= Trueplay

=
In November 2015, a tuning feature called Trueplay was released in a software update. Trueplay tunes the output of Sonos smart speaker units to the acoustics of the room they are in. The initial tuning process requires the Sonos iOS app.




= Standby and Low power mode

=
Sonos devices generally do not have power buttons, and the company claims that each speaker consumes 4–8W in idle/standby. Its battery-powered lineup does have power buttons to turn them on and off.




Reception


In November 2004, the Sonos Digital Music System won the "Best of Audio" award at the 2005 CES Innovations Design and Engineering awards.
A February 2005 Macworld review of the first Sonos system explained its background, components and operation.




Controversies


Support for the CR100 ended in 2018 when Sonos sent out an update that intentionally caused the CR100 to cease to function, resulting in expressions of unhappiness from a number of long-time Sonos customers. Sonos later settled a class action lawsuit related to its decision to intentionally cause the CR100 to cease to function.
Sonos was criticized by media outlets in December 2019 for its "Recycle Mode", which bricks devices that users register into the company's trade-in program. Customers who participate in the program receive a 30 percent discount on a purchase of a new Sonos device, but the registration puts the device into Recycle Mode, which starts a timer that turns the device permanently non-functional in 21 days. An electronic waste recycler criticized the procedure on Twitter for being environmentally unfriendly, stating that it discourages reuse by preventing recyclers from reselling functional Sonos units. Sonos responded that Recycle Mode was intended to ensure that prospective customers purchase newer Sonos models instead of older secondhand models. In March 2020, Sonos discontinued the Recycle Mode and no longer requires customers to dispose of products submitted for its trade-in program.
On January 22, 2020, Sonos notified the end of support for speakers made before 2015, meaning that they eventually will lose functionality, something that sparked anger from their owners. Many of these speakers were purchased by customers after 2015, meaning that customers paid full price for equipment that will cease to be supported after two or three years. On January 23, 2020, following a widespread backlash and criticism of this announcement, Sonos reversed and clarified it, stating that it would continue to support its older equipment.
In May 2024, Sonos' update to its mobile app was panned for its visual design, poor accessibility support, and the removal of key features such as the alarm and sleep timer, removal of local music library support, fast draining of batteries, and inability to edit upcoming song queues and playlists. Sonos CEO Patrick Spence apologized for the update, referring to "issues", in what has been called "hilarious tone of wry British understatement". As of August 2024, the new app has a 1.3 point review average on Google Play.
In June 2024, Sonos updated its privacy policy in the United States, removing a clause that explicitly stated the company did not sell customer data. This change caused concern among users and privacy advocates, who interpreted it as a possible prelude to data sales.




Locations






= Headquarters

=
The headquarters are located in Santa Barbara, California.




= Stores

=
The first official Sonos Store was opened in New York City on July 12, 2016. It was closed in June 2020. A store opened on Seven Dials in London, in November 2017. A store opened in Berlin in April 2018.




= Offices

=
There are currently 12 offices operated by Sonos independently. These are located in Australia, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, United States, Sweden and the United Kingdom. An engineering office was present in Boston, US as of 2017.




Explanatory notes






References






External links


Official website
Business data for Sonos, Inc.:
Media related to Sonos at Wikimedia Commons
• Source: SONOS

SONOS, short for "silicon–oxide–nitride–oxide–silicon", more precisely, "polycrystalline silicon"—"silicon dioxide"—"silicon nitride"—"silicon dioxide"—"silicon",: 121 
is a cross sectional structure of MOSFET (metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor), realized by P.C.Y. Chen of Fairchild Camera and Instrument in 1977. This structure is often used for non-volatile memories, such as EEPROM and flash memories. It is sometimes used for TFT LCD displays.
It is one of CTF (charge trap flash) variants. It is distinguished from traditional non-volatile memory structures by the use of silicon nitride (Si3N4 or Si9N10) instead of "polysilicon-based FG (floating-gate)" for the charge storage material.: Fig. 1 
A further variant is "SHINOS" ("silicon"—"hi-k"—"nitride"—"oxide"—"silicon"), which is substituted top oxide layer with high-κ material. Another advanced variant is "MONOS" ("metal–oxide–nitride–oxide–silicon").: 137 : 66 
Companies offering SONOS-based products include Cypress Semiconductor, Macronix, Toshiba, United Microelectronics Corporation and Floadia Archived 2022-11-01 at the Wayback Machine.




Description



A SONOS memory cell is formed from a standard polysilicon N-channel MOSFET transistor with the addition of a small sliver of silicon nitride inserted inside the transistor's gate oxide. The sliver of nitride is non-conductive but contains a large number of charge trapping sites able to hold an electrostatic charge. The nitride layer is electrically isolated from the surrounding transistor, although charges stored on the nitride directly affect the conductivity of the underlying transistor channel. The oxide/nitride sandwich typically consists of a 2 nm thick oxide lower layer, a 5 nm thick silicon nitride middle layer, and a 5–10 nm oxide upper layer.
When the polysilicon control gate is biased positively, electrons from the transistor source and drain regions tunnel through the oxide layer and get trapped in the silicon nitride. This results in an energy barrier between the drain and the source, raising the threshold voltage Vt (the gate-source voltage necessary for current to flow through the transistor). The electrons can be removed again by applying a negative bias on the control gate.
A SONOS memory array is constructed by fabricating a grid of SONOS transistors which are connected by horizontal and vertical control lines (wordlines and bitlines) to peripheral circuitry such as address decoders and sense amplifiers. After storing or erasing the cell, the controller can measure the state of the cell by passing a small voltage across the source-drain nodes; if current flows the cell must be in the "no trapped electrons" state, which is considered a logical "1". If no current is seen the cell must be in the "trapped electrons" state, which is considered as "0" state. The needed voltages are normally about 2 V for the erased state, and around 4.5 V for the programmed state.




Comparison with Floating-Gate structure


Generally SONOS is very similar to traditional FG (floating gate) type memory cell,: 117 
but hypothetically offers higher quality storage. This is due to the smooth homogeneity of the Si3N4 film compared with polycrystalline film which has tiny irregularities. Flash requires the construction of a very high-performance insulating barrier on the gate leads of its transistors, often requiring as many as nine different steps, whereas the oxide layering in SONOS can be more easily produced on existing lines and more easily combined with CMOS logic.
Additionally, traditional flash is less tolerant of oxide defects because a single shorting defect will discharge the entire polysilicon floating gate. The nitride in the SONOS structure is non-conductive, so a short only disturbs a localized patch of charge. Even with the introduction of new insulator technologies this has a definite "lower limit" around 7 to 12 nm, which means it is difficult for flash devices to scale smaller than about 45 nm linewidths.
But, Intel-Micron group have realized 16 nm planar flash memory with traditional FG technology.: 13 
SONOS, on the other hand, requires a very thin layer of insulator in order to work, making the gate area smaller than flash. This allows SONOS to scale to smaller linewidth, with recent examples being produced on 40 nm fabs and claims that it will scale to 20 nm. The linewidth is directly related to the overall storage of the resulting device, and indirectly related to the cost; in theory, SONOS' better scalability will result in higher capacity devices at lower costs.
Additionally, the voltage needed to bias the gate during writing is much smaller than in traditional flash. In order to write flash, a high voltage is first built up in a separate circuit known as a charge pump, which increases the input voltage to between 9 V to 20 V. This process takes some time, meaning that writing to a flash cell is much slower than reading, often between 100 and 1000 times slower. The pulse of high power also degrades the cells slightly, meaning that flash devices can only be written to between 10,000 and 100,000 times, depending on the type. SONOS devices require much lower write voltages, typically 5–8 V, and do not degrade in the same way. SONOS does suffer from the converse problem however, where electrons become strongly trapped in the ONO layer and cannot be removed again. Over long usage this can eventually lead to enough trapped electrons to permanently set the cell to the "0" state, similar to the problems in flash. However, in SONOS this requires on the order of a 100 thousands write/erase cycles,
10 to 100 times worse compared with legacy FG memory cell.




History






= Background

=

In 1957, Frosch and Derick were able to manufacture the first silicon dioxide field effect transistors at Bell Labs, the first transistors in which drain and source were adjacent at the surface. Subsequently, Dawon Kahng led a paper demonstrating a working MOSFET with their Bell Labs team in 1960. Their team included E. E. LaBate and E. I. Povilonis who fabricated the device; M. O. Thurston, L. A. D’Asaro, and J. R. Ligenza who developed the diffusion processes, and H. K. Gummel and R. Lindner who characterized the device.
Later, Kahng went on to invent the floating-gate MOSFET with Simon Min Sze at Bell Labs, and they proposed its use as a floating-gate (FG) memory cell, in 1967. This was the first form of non-volatile memory based on the injection and storage of charges in a floating-gate MOSFET, which later became the basis for EPROM (erasable PROM), EEPROM (electrically erasable PROM) and flash memory technologies.
Charge trapping at the time was an issue in MNOS transistors, but John Szedon and Ting L. Chu revealed in June 1967 that this difficulty could be harnessed to produce a nonvolatile memory cell. Subsequently, in late 1967, a Sperry research team led by H.A. Richard Wegener invented the metal–nitride–oxide–semiconductor transistor (MNOS transistor), a type of MOSFET in which the oxide layer is replaced by a double layer of nitride and oxide. Nitride was used as a trapping layer instead of a floating gate, but its use was limited as it was considered inferior to a floating gate. Charge trap (CT) memory was introduced with MNOS devices in the late 1960s. It had a device structure and operating principles similar to floating-gate (FG) memory, but the main difference is that the charges are stored in a conducting material (typically a doped polysilicon layer) in FG memory, whereas CT memory stored charges in localized traps within a dielectric layer (typically made of silicon nitride).




= Development

=
SONOS was first conceptualized in the 1960s. MONOS is realized in 1968 by Westinghouse Electric Corporation.
In the early 1970s initial commercial devices were realized using PMOS transistors and a metal-nitride-oxide (MNOS) stack with a 45 nm nitride storage layer. These devices required up to 30V to operate.
In 1977, P.C.Y. Chen of Fairchild Camera and Instrument introduced a SONOS cross sectional structured MOSFET with tunnel silicon dioxide of 30 Ångström thickness for EEPROM. According to NCR Corporation's patent application in 1980, SONOS structure required +25 volts and −25 volts for writing and erasing, respectively.
It was improved to +12 V by PMOS-based MNOS (metal-nitride-oxide-semiconductor) structure.
By the early 1980s, polysilicon NMOS-based structures were in use with operating voltages under 20 V. By the late 1980s and early 1990s PMOS SONOS structures
were demonstrating program/erase voltages in the range of 5–12 volts. On the other hand, in 1980, Intel realized highly reliable EEPROM with double layered polysilicon structure, which is named FLOTOX, both for erase and write cycling endurance and for data retention term.
SONOS has been in the past produced by Philips Semiconductors, Spansion, Qimonda and Saifun Semiconductors.




= Recent efforts

=
In 2002, AMD and Fujitsu, formed as Spansion in 2003 and later merged with Cypress Semiconductor in 2014, developed a SONOS-like MirrorBit technology based on the license from Saifun Semiconductors, Ltd.'s NROM technology.
As of 2011 Cypress Semiconductor developed SONOS memories for multiple processes,
and started to sell them as IP to embed in other devices.
UMC has already used SONOS since 2006 and has licensed Cypress for 40 nm and other nodes. Shanghai Huali Microelectronics Corporation (HLMC) has also announced to be producing Cypress SONOS at 40 nm and 55 nm.
In 2006, Toshiba developed a new double tunneling layer technology with SONOS structure, which utilize Si9N10 silicon nitride.
Toshiba also researches MONOS ("Metal-Oxide-Nitride-Oxide-Silicon") structure for their 20 nm node NAND gate type flash memories.
Renesas Electronics uses MONOS structure in 40 nm node era.: 5 
which is the result of collaboration with TSMC.
While other companies still use FG (floating gate) structure.: 50 
For example, GlobalFoundries use floating-gate-based split-gate SuperFlash ESF3 cell for their 40 nm products.
Some new structure for FG (floating gate) type flash memories are still intensively studied.
In 2016, GlobalFoundries developed FG-based 2.5V Embedded flash macro.
In 2017, Fujitsu announced to license FG-based ESF3/FLOTOX structure,
which is originally developed by Intel in 1980, from Silicon Storage Technology for their embedded non-volatile memory solutions.
As of 2016, Intel-Micron group have disclosed that they stayed traditional FG technology in their 3-dimensional NAND flash memory.
They also use FG technology for 16 nm planar NAND flash.




See also


Polycrystalline silicon
Silicon dioxide
Silicon nitride
Silicon
MOSFET
Charge trap flash
Floating-gate MOSFET
EEPROM
Flash memory




References






External links


Chen, P.C.Y. (1977). "Threshold-alterable Si-gate MOS devices". IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices. 24 (5): 584–586. Bibcode:1977ITED...24..584C. doi:10.1109/T-ED.1977.18783. S2CID 25586393.
White, M.H.; Adams, D.A.; Murray, J.R.; Wrazien, S.; Yijie Zhao; Yu Wang; Khan, B.; Miller, W.; Mehrotra, R. (2004). "Characterization of scaled SONOS EEPROM memory devices for space and military systems". Proceedings. 2004 IEEE Computational Systems Bioinformatics Conference. pp. 51–59. doi:10.1109/NVMT.2004.1380804. ISBN 0-7803-8726-0. S2CID 3034615.
Gutmann (2001) papaer: "Data Remanence in Semiconductor Devices" | USENIX

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• YouTube Music
• Memori (komputer)
• Deezer
• HomePod
• AirPlay
• Videografi Mark Romanek
• Sonos
• SONOS
• Sonos One
• Sonos (disambiguation)
• Sono
• Eric Sono
• SóNós
• Play:1
• NvSRAM
• Sono Motors