Asus

Infobox_Company
company_name = ASUSTeK Computer Incorporated
company_
company_type = Public
(lse|ASKD
TSE|2357)
foundation = 1989
location_city = Taipei
location_country = 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)
market c
US$ 243.29 billion ("2008") [ [http://finance.google.com/finance?q=TPE%3A2357] ]
revenue = profit NT$ 755 billion (2006)
(US$ 23 billion) [ [http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%8F%AF%E7%A2%A9, retrieved 25 May 2007, using 25 May 2007 NWT-USD coversion rate] ]
num_employees = 8,885
slogan = "Rock solid, Heart touching"
homepage = [http://www.asus.com/ www.asus.com]

ASUSTeK Computer Incorporated (Asus) (TSE|2357, lse|ASKD) (zh-t|t=華碩電腦股份有限公司) is a Taiwan-based multinational 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 its brand name Asus (pronounced [http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/eee-pc/how-to-pronounce-eee-pc-320007.php?autoplay=true ah-soo-ss] or [a'sus] in IPA), it is listed on both the London Stock Exchange and the Taiwan Stock Exchange.In 2007, one in three desktop PCs sold was using an ASUS motherboard; and the company's 2007 revenues reached US$6.9 billion. [ [http://www.canardplus.com/statscpuz-cm-en.html Chipsets/Motherboard Statistics by CPU-Z, retrieved August 2008] ] [ [http://www.asus.com/news_show.aspx?id=8963 Asus official website news, retrieved August 2008] ]

Corporate information

History

Asus was founded in 1989 in Taipei, Taiwan by TH Tung, Ted Hsu, Wayne Hsieh, and MT Liao - all four were computer engineers from Acer. The name "Asus" originated from "Pegasus", the winged horse of Greek mythology. [http://www.hw.by/events/asus.html Russian-language interview with Alexander Kim, October 2003] ] The first three letters of the word were dropped to give the resulting name a high position in alphabetical listings.

In 2005, shipments from Asus, ECS, Gigabyte, and MSI totaled 104.86 million units. Asus led with 52 million units, followed by ECS with 20 million, MSI with 18 million, and Gigabyte with 16.6 million.

Asus also produces components for other manufacturers, including Sony (PlayStation 2)Fact|date=May 2008, Apple Inc. (iPod, iPod Shuffle, MacBook), Alienware, Falcon Northwest, Palm, Inc., HP, and HP's Compaq brand.

Relationship with Intel

In the early 1990s, Taiwan based 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, and the Taiwanese companies would be forced to wait for approximately six months after IBM received their engineering prototypes. [ [http://big5.huaxia.com/sw/qycf/2007/00563271.html 巨獅傳奇：華碩成長為世界500強的故事 ] ]

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, there was not a formal greeting 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. [ [http://big5.huaxia.com/sw/qycf/2007/00563271.html 巨獅傳奇：華碩成長為世界500強的故事 ] ]

Asus is one of the main supporters of Intel's Common Building Block initiatives.

Corporate restructuring

As of 3 January 2008, Asus has been 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 and component 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. [ [http://www.dailytech.com/New+ASUS+Corporate+Structure+Zeroes+Employee+Pensions/article10206.htm "New ASUS Corporate Structure Zeroes Employee Pensions", DailyTech, 3 January 2008]

Timeline

* 2002: Formed subsidiary Asrock.
* September/October 2003: debuts in the cellphone market with the J100 model. [ [http://www.apoxi.com/phones_asus.html J100 Phone from Asus] ]
* September 2005: releases their first PhysX accelerator card. [ [http://www.vr-zone.com/?i=2724&s=1 Asus PhysX Card Ready] ]
* December 2005: enters the LCD TV market with the TLW32001 model, initially only available on the Taiwan market. [ [http://www.newlaunches.com/archives/asus_enters_lcd_tv_market_with_tlw32001_32_lcd_tv.php Asus enters LCD TV market with TLW32001 32" LCD TV] ]
* 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. [ [http://www.informationweek.com/hardware/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=181502222 Microsoft Unfolds Origami] at the 2006 CeBIT expo]
* August 8 2006: announced joint venture with Gigabyte Technology. [ [http://www.digitimes.com/mobos/a20060808PR203.html Asustek and Gigabyte form joint venture] ]
* June 5 2007: Asus announced the Eee PC at COMPUTEX Taipei 2007.
*September 9, 2007 Asus started to support Blu-ray by announcing the release of BD-ROM/DVD writer PC drive, BC-1205PT. [cite web|url=http://www.psu.com/Blu-ray-scores-major-new-supporter--a0001253-p0.php
title = Asus BD-ROM/DVD writer drive
accessdate = 2007-09-09
year = 2007] 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.
* January 3 2008: Asus formally splits into three companies: ASUStek, Pegatron and Unihan. [ [http://www.dailytech.com/New+ASUS+Corporate+Structure+Zeroes+Employee+Pensions/article10206.htm New ASUS Corporate Structure Zeroes Employee Pensions] ]
* August 2008: ASUS refuses to accept responsibility, or provide support, for the incompatibility of its A8N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard with Windows XP SP3, thereby tacity refusing to guarantee that any of its manufactured components' will remain compatible throughout the entire lifespan of a given Windows platform (in this case, the ubiquitous Windows XP operating system). [ [http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080801123209AAQiBYZ|Incompatibility: WindowsXP SP3 and ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe MoBo] ]
* August 12 2008: Asus creates a new motherboard (ZT23) capable of clocking a processing speed of 120GHz, a record
* August 22 2008: Details of the N10, a mid-level version of the Eee PC, leaked online [ [http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/220875/pictures-of-eee-pcs-big-brother-leak-online.html Pictures of Eee PC's big brother leak online] ]

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 (Ostrava) with a monthly production capacity of two million motherboards and 150,000 notebook computers. [ [http://www.asus.com/ Data retrieved from Asus' official website.] ]

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").

Asus is known for its extensive cooling solutions on it's enthusiasts motherboards and video cards. Many incorporate a large copper cooler that does not require the presence of a fan.

Piracy Controversy

It has been discovered ASUS has been selling a number of laptops that contain (on both the physical machine and the recovery media) cracked and pirated software, together with confidential documents from Microsoft and other organizations, as well as internal documents, and sensitive personal information including CVs. An ASUS spokesperson promised an investigation at "quite a high level", but declined to comment on how the files became to be located on the machines and recovery media. [ [http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/224892/asus-ships-software-cracker-on-recovery-dvd.html PC Pro: News: Asus ships software cracker on recovery DVD] ] The pirated software is believed to have been accidentally copied over from a flash drive during the unattended installation of Windows Vista, due to a parameter in the "unattend.xml" file on the personal flash drive used to script the installation. [ [http://thecoffeedesk.com/news/index.php/archives/30] ] [ [http://tech.slashdot.org/tech/08/09/22/0149222.shtml] ]

ee also

* List of companies of Taiwan
* ASUS Eee PC
* Asus Media Bus
* Asus Routers

References

External links

* [http://www.asus.com/ Official Website]
* [http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/asus.html Linux on Asus Laptops (user experiences)]
* [http://wiki.openwrt.org/OpenWrtDocs/Hardware/Asus/WL500GP?highlight=%28tftp%29%7C%28asus%29 Asus Wl 500 premium Open WRT Howto] : WiFi router for the Huawei E220
* [ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/ 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)]
* [http://asusreviews.com/forum/ Asus Forum Troubleshooting and Reviews]