You must add a |reason= parameter to this Cleanup template – replace it with {{Cleanup|January 2006|reason=<Fill reason here>}}, or remove the Cleanup template.
| File:ASUS.svg | |
| Company type | Public (LSE: ASKD; TSEC:2357) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computer hardware Electronics |
| Founded | 1989 |
| Headquarters | Taipei, Taiwan |
Key people | Jonney Shih, CEO and Chairman; TH Tung, VP and founder; Ted Hsu, VP and founder |
| Products | Motherboards, graphics cards, notebooks, PDAs and others (see complete list of categories) |
| Revenue |  NT$8,674 million (2004)(US$265 million) [1] |
| NT$3,250 million (US$99.4 million) | |
| NT$11,504 million (US$352.0 million) | |
Number of employees | 58,000 |
| Website | www.asus.com |
ASUSTeK Computer Inc.Pronounced (aa-Suess (Chinese: 華碩電腦股份有限公司, Chinese Large Computer limited liability company) is a Taiwan-based company that produces motherboards, graphics cards, optical drives, PDAs, notebook computers, networking products, mobile phones, computer cases, and computer cooling systems. Commonly called by their brand name ASUS (pronounced [ˈeɪsʊs], [ˈeɪsəs], or [eɪˈsuːs]) it is listed on London Stock Exchange and Taiwan Stock Exchange.
History
Origin of the name
ASUS was founded in 1989 in Taiwan 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 16.5 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 Computer (iPod, iPod Shuffle, MacBook), Alienware, Falcon Northwest, HP and Compaq.
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 more well-known companies such as IBM first, and the Taiwanese companies would have had to wait for about 6 months after IBM recived their samples.
When the Intel 486 first came out, the four ASUS founders decided to design their own 486 motherboard without having a 486 processor prototype on site, but with just the technical details published by Intel and with the experience they had of making the 386 motherboards. When ASUS finalized their 486 motherboard prototype, they took it to Intel's base in Taiwan for testing. However, nobody greeted them when they arrived. It turned out that Intel's own 486 motherboard prototype malfunctioned that day, and Intel's engineers did not have a clue what the problem was. At that time, the four ASUS founders had learnt the 486 technical specifications by heart. They had a look at Intel's malfunctioning motherboard, and proposed a solution, which solved Intel's problem straight away. Intel then tested the ASUS prototype, and it worked too.
Since fatefull day, Intel and ASUS established a very special relationship, and today ASUS receives new Intel processor prototypes much earlier than most other manufacturers do, because of that very special event. [citation needed]
Timeline
- September/October 2003: debuts in the cellphone market with the J100 model.[4]
- September 2005: releases their first PhysX accelerator card[5] (currently expected in May 2006)[6]
- December 2005: enters the LCD TV market with the TLW32001 model, initially only available on the Taiwan market.[7]
- 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.[8]
- August 8 2006: announced joint venture with Gigabyte Technology [9]
Manufacturing facilities
As of January 2006, ASUS has manufacturing facilities in Taiwan (Taipei, Luchu, Nankan, Kweishan) and in mainland China (Suzhou), with a monthly production capacity of two million motherboards and 150,000 notebook computers (Source: ASUS official site)
Product categories
In alphabetical order:
Barebone computer
S96J/Z96J series
Broadband
Graphics cards
LCDs
Mobile phones
Motherboards
Multimedia
Computer networking
Notebook computers
- ASUS barebone notebooks
- ASUS Ensemble notebooks
Optical storage
PC Computer case and Power supply
Personal digital assistants
Server (computing)
Computer cooling
Wireless networking
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 Artificial Intelligence).
| Name | Year of Introduction | Product | Description | Patented |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI NET2 | YYYY | Motherboards | Diagnoses LAN connection problems before starting the OS | |
| AI NOS | YYYY | Motherboards | Non-delay Overclocking System. A dynamic overclocking technology | Yes |
| AI Proactive | YYYY | Motherboards | <purpose> | |
| AI Quiet | YYYY | Motherboards | Controls speed of fan and processor for a more quiet operation. | |
| Audio DJ | YYYY | 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 | YYYY | Motherboards | Allows to update 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) |
YYYY | Motherboards | Automatically restores default CPU settings at reboot when the system fails due to overclocking. | |
| ASUS CrashFree BIOS2 | YYYY | 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 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 |
References
- ^ usa.asus.com Investor Info page, retrieved 16 July 2006, using 14 July 2006 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
- ^ J100 Phone from ASUS
- ^ ASUS PhysX Card Ready
- ^ Asus PhysX boards coming in May
- ^ ASUS enters LCD TV market with TLW32001 32" LCD TV
- ^ Microsoft Unfolds Origami at the 2006 CeBIT expo
- ^ Asustek and Gigabyte form joint venture