Asus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (November 2007) |
| ASUSTeK Computer Incorporated. | |
|---|---|
| Image:ASUS.svg | |
| Type | Public (LSE: ASKD; TSEC:2357) |
| Founded | 1989 |
| Headquarters | Taipei, Taiwan |
| Key people | Jonney Shih, CEO and Chairman; TH Tung, VP and founder; Ted Hsu, VP and founder |
| Industry | Computer hardware Electronics |
| Products | Motherboards, graphics cards, notebooks, PDAs and others (see complete list of categories) |
| Revenue | Image:Green Arrow Up Darker.svg NT$541.8 Billion (新台幣5,418億)(2006) (US$16.5 Billion)[1] |
| Employees | 97,000 |
| Slogan | Rock solid, Heart touching |
| Website | www.asus.com |
ASUSTeK Computer Incorporated (Asus) (traditional Chinese: 華碩電腦股份有限公司) is a Taiwan-based company that produces motherboards, graphics cards, optical drives, PDAs, notebook computers, servers, networking products, mobile phones, computer cases, computer components and computer cooling systems. Commonly called by their brand name Asus (pronounced ˈʌsʊs ), it is listed on London Stock Exchange and Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Contents |
[edit] History
Asus was founded in 1989 in the Republic of China by TH Tung, Ted Hsu, Wayne Hsieh and MT Liao - all four were computer engineers from Acer. The current CEO and Chairman of Asus, Jonney Shih, joined the company in 1994. According to the Asus sales manager, Alexander Kim, the name Asus originated from Pegasus, the winged horse of Greek mythology.[2] The first three letters of the word were dropped to give the resulting name a high position in alphabetical listings.
In 2004, Asus was reported to sell more motherboards than three other leading companies combined,[3] reaching 30 million. This number, however, includes rebranding contracts.
In 2005, shipments from Asus, ECS, Gigabyte, and MSI totaled 104.86 million units. Asus led with about 52 million units, followed by ECS with 20 million, MSI with 18 million and Gigabyte with 16.6 million. MSI revised its motherboard shipments from an estimate of 16.7 million units to 18 million, according to the company.
Asus also produces components for other corporations, including Sony (PlayStation 2), Apple Inc. (iPod, iPod Shuffle, MacBook), Alienware, Falcon Northwest, HP and Compaq.
[edit] Corporate Restructuring
Asus is currently in the process of restructuring its operations. The company will be split into three distinct operational units: ASUS, Pegatron, and Unihan. The Asus brand will be used solely for first party branded computers. Pegatron will handle motherboard, component, and OEM manufacturing. Unihan will focus on non-PC manufacturing such as cases and molding. In the process of restructuring, the highly criticized pension plan restructuring effectively zeroed out the current pension balances. Previous employee contributions were returned. [4]
[edit] Relationship with Intel
In the early 1990s, Taiwanese motherboard manufacturers had not yet established their leading positions in the computer hardware business. Any new Intel processors would have been supplied to better established companies like IBM first,[5] and the Taiwanese companies would be forced to wait for approximately six months after IBM received their engineering prototypes.
When the Intel 486 was released as engineering samples, Asus decided to design its own 486 motherboard without having a 486 processor engineering sample on site, using only the technical details published by Intel and the experience they gained while making the 386 compatible motherboards. When Asus finalized its 486 motherboard prototype, they took it to Intel's base in Taiwan for testing. Unsurprisingly, they were not formally greeted when they arrived. It turned out that Intel's own 486 motherboard prototype had encountered design flaws, and Intel's engineers were rectifying it. The Asus founders exercised their experience with the 486 and had a look at Intel's malfunctioning motherboard. Their solution worked, to the Intel engineers' surprise. Intel then tested the Asus prototype, which functioned perfectly. This marked the beginning of an informal relationship between the two companies - Asus now receives Intel engineering samples ahead of its competitors.[6]
Asus is one of the main supporters of Intel's Common Building Block initiatives.
[edit] Timeline
- September/October 2003: debuts in the cellphone market with the J100 model.[7]
- September 2005: releases their first PhysX accelerator card[8]
- December 2005: enters the LCD TV market with the TLW32001 model, initially only available on the Taiwan market.[9]
- March 9 2006: Asus is announced to be one of the producers of the first Microsoft Origami models, together with Samsung and Founder. Samsung and Asus devices expected by April 2006.[10]
- August 8 2006: announced joint venture with Gigabyte Technology[11]
- September 9, 2007 Asus started to support Blu-ray by announcing the release of BD-ROM/DVD writer PC drive, BC-1205PT.[12] It has been followed by the release of several Blu-ray based notebooks.
- October 31 2007: launched their PDA/smartphone range to the UK market with partners such as DeviceWire
[edit] Manufacturing facilities
As of January 2006, Asus has manufacturing facilities in Taiwan (Taipei, Lujhu, Nankan, Kweishan) and in mainland China (Suzhou), Juarez, Mexico and Czech Republic with a monthly production capacity of two million motherboards and 150,000 notebook computers.[13]
[edit] Asus Company split announced
In July 2007 it became public that Asus intends to split the company into 3 companies. The current Asus OEM business will split from their branded business under the new names of Pegatron (PC-related manufacturing) and Unihan (casing, modules). Asus itself will concentrate on developing the Asus brand.
[edit] Asus original features
Asus has introduced a number of original features and tools that complemented its products, especially motherboards. The table below lists them, together with some third-party technologies, rebranded under Asus-specific names (note: the acronym AI, which prefixes many of the feature names, stands for Asus Intelligence).
| Name | Year of Introduction | Product | Description | Patented |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI NET/2 | 2002 | Motherboards | Diagnoses LAN connection problems before starting the OS | |
| AI NOS | 2004 | Motherboards | Non-delay Overclocking System. A dynamic overclocking technology | Yes |
| AI Proactive | 2004 | Motherboards | a blanket term for all AI enhancements | |
| AI Quiet/Q-Fan | 2004 | Motherboards | Controls fan-speed to requirement for noise management | |
| Audio DJ | 2005 | Motherboards and notebooks | Allows playing Audio CDs without turning the computer on. Notebooks supporting this feature normally have play/pause, stop and other control buttons on the front, where they are accessible even when the notebook is closed. | |
| BIOS EZ Flash | 2004 | Motherboards | Allows update of the BIOS through a non-boot floppy which just contains the new BIOS image. Built-in with the BIOS firmware and can be accessed by pressing ALT+F2 during the power-on self-test | |
| C.P.R. (CPU Parameter Recall) | 2004 | Motherboards | Automatically restores default CPU settings at reboot when the system fails due to overclocking. | |
| Asus CrashFree BIOS/2 | 2004 | Motherboards | If the BIOS becomes corrupted, CrashFree BIOS 2 allows the user to perform a recovery using the motherboard support CD. | |
| Color Shine (or Colour Shine), Crystal Shine | YYYY | Laptop LCDs | Asus marketing names for the anti-reflective LCD technology. | |
| GameFace Live | 2004? | Graphics Cards | A multi-player audio and video chat solution allowing online gamers to see and talk to each other while playing. As of 2006, it is limited to DirectX games and allows up to eight simultaneous players. | |
| GameLiveShow | YYYY | Graphics Cards | Allows gamers to broadcast |
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ retrieved 25 May 2007, using 25 May 2007 NWT-USD coversion rate
- ^ Russian-language interview with Alexander Kim, October 2003
- ^ "First-tier motherboard shipments increase 4.9% in October", Digitimes, 11 November 2004
- ^ [http://www.dailytech.com/New+ASUS+Corporate+Structure+Zeroes+Employee+Pensions/article10206.htm "New ASUS Corporate Structure Zeroes Employee Pensions", DailyTech, 3 January 20080
- ^ http://big5.huaxia.com/sw/qycf/2007/00563271.html
- ^ http://big5.huaxia.com/sw/qycf/2007/00563271.html
- ^ J100 Phone from Asus
- ^ Asus PhysX Card Ready
- ^ Asus enters LCD TV market with TLW32001 32" LCD TV
- ^ Microsoft Unfolds Origami at the 2006 CeBIT expo
- ^ Asustek and Gigabyte form joint venture
- ^ Asus BD-ROM/DVD writer drive (2007). Retrieved on 2007-09-09.
- ^ Data retrieved from Asus' official website.
[edit] External links
- Official Site
- Linux on Asus Laptops (user experiences)
- Asus FTP in Taiwan - for the most up-to-date drivers. (Asus is very slow to update their subsidiary-sites (e.g. Germany), so check here)
da:ASUS de:ASUS es:ASUS eo:ASUS fr:ASUSTeK Computer ko:에이서스 id:ASUS it:ASUS nl:Asus ja:ASUS no:Asus pl:ASUS pt:ASUS ru:ASUSTek sk:ASUS sl:Asus fi:ASUS sv:ASUS tr:ASUS zh:華碩電腦
Categories: Cleanup from November 2007 | All pages needing cleanup | Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange | Companies established in 1989 | Computer enclosure companies | Computer hardware companies | Graphics hardware companies | Motherboard companies | Electronics companies | Electronics companies of Taiwan | Companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange | Taiwan brands | ASUS
