Mountain Biking - Parellelogram type Suspension fork?

I came across this is a magazine the other day, it was some different type of suspension, i think they use it on motorcycles, and it was just a whole lot of metal, like a spring up the top of a rigid fork. It was called Parrellelogram suspension and I was wondering if anyone had heard of it before, and what is the point of it. Dont know if they still use it but I've never seen it on a bike before? Sorry no pics...

Is it anything like the Noleen stuff?http://images.auctionworks.com/hi/56/55673/2231.jpg

This concept for mtb use is not new. They were somewhat popular in the early 90's.

Yeah, well I havn't seen any on bike before so I thought they might have been an old design or something. I managed to scan a pic of what it looks like:

it reminds me of the whyte design

From an engineering standpoint the "Linkage forks" or parrallelogram are superior to the conventional telescopic types by leaps and bounds. As an example: the fork on the Whyte bike was designed to be of similar charachteristics of a race car front end arm. Difference being the way the wheel rolls. They are made to reduce or eliminate bob and brake dive while iproving traction and control through a constant steering feel. This steering feel is due to the fork changing its effective head angle through its stroke, as opposed to the telescoping fork's tendency to lower steering stability during compression.

They had distinct limitations however. Mostly from the era they were developed in initially. It is hard to make one work propperly in longer travel settings, due to the extra room needed above the headset. They have a higher tendency to wear out, since they have a larger ammount of bearings(which will be more durable nowdays). The last one is that they look "cluttered" to most people. That is not my take, but I will agree a telescoping for looks simpler astheticly.

With the new generation of damping technology in telescoping forks it is a much stiffer competition than it was then, but there are still some cool designs out there.

well, it just seemed to be that unique suspension designs just never seem to take flight.

http://www.bikepro.com/products/forks/jpgs/amp_side_det_15.jpg

its an older company called AMP research.