Universal abit
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Universal abit (formerly ABIT) is a Taiwanese computer components manufacturer, active since the late 1980s. Their core product line was motherboards aimed at the overclocker market. In 2005, they experienced serious financial problems. They were purchased by Universal Scientific Industrial Co., Ltd. (USI).
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[edit] Corporate history
ABIT was founded in 1989. In 1991, they had become the fastest growing motherboard manufacturer, exceeding US$10,000,000 in sales. In 2000, ABIT underwent an IPO on the TAIEX stock exchange. To keep pace with their "good" sales figures, they opened up a state-of-the-art factory in Suzhou, China, and moved to new headquarters in Neihu, Taipei. The number of motherboards sold was claimed to have doubled between 2000 and 2001.
On December 15, the Taiwan Stock Exchange downgraded ABIT's stock due to questionable accounting practices. Investigations revealed that the majority of their import/export business was conducted through seven companies, all located at the same address and had a capital of only HK$2 each. This made it easy to inflate the reported number of motherboards sold. The Hong Kong media also reports that the management is being investigated for embezzling funds from the company.
Running short of money, in June 2005, ABIT brought in Wan Hai Industries as an investor.[1] On December 28, 2005, DigiTimes reported that the company continued to struggle. The company's net worth has declined from US$325 million (in November 2004) to US$51 million (in October 2005). The Securities and Futures Investors Protection Center of Taiwan continues to investigate the company's financial statements, which show anomalies.
On January 25, 2006, ABIT announced that USI intended to purchase ABIT Computer's motherboard business and brand and announced a special shareholders meeting to discuss the sale of ABIT's Neihu building, changing ABIT's company name, the disposition of the company's assets, and the release of the directors from non-competition restrictions. Abit is selling its own office building in Taipei to Deutsche Bank in order to raise money to cut its debt.
Following USI's acquisition of the motherboard business, the remaining divisions of ABIT will switch to distributing components and networking products, while using its Suzhou, China plant only to offer some motherboard contract manufacturing services.
The acquired motherboard business and ABIT brand names are being used today by USI under the new brand name Universal abit. In the US, it is known as Universal abit USA Corporation.
[edit] Technical issues
ABIT was one of the early casualties of the capacitor plague; it bought a batch of defective Taiwanese capacitors circa 2000 which caused their motherboards to fail prematurely. ABIT has so far been the only motherboard manufacturer to admit to using capacitors that were of a poor standard, and eventually recalled and repaired any boards from users that did fail.[2] Today the company only uses high quality Japanese capacitors, notably Rubycon.
[edit] Technical achievements
ABIT had a reputation among PC enthusiasts for producing motherboards that support overclocking. In the late 1990s, the company introduced their Softmenu feature, one of the first jumperless CPU configuration systems that enable overclocking to be adjusted from the BIOS instead of fiddling with jumpers. Softmenu was later extended with the development of the μGuru chip. μGuru is a custom microprocessor on Abit motherboards which, in conjunction with Abit software, gives the ability to modify overclocking settings in realtime while the OS is running. By providing instant feedback on the results of a particular overclock setting, μGuru greatly reduces the time required to discover optimal settings. μGuru also provides a special connector for a panel that can be installed in a 5¼" bay which will display current speed and voltage settings.
ABIT was the first motherboard manufacturer to introduce 133MHz FSB operation for the Intel BX chipset with the aptly named AB-BX133.[citation needed] ABIT also achieved symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) operation for Intel's Mendocino Celeron CPU, in their BP6 motherboard.[3] This was an achievement because Intel had blocked SMP operation in the Celeron.
In 2004, they introduced the OTES cooling system. This heat pipe based cooling system is intended to transfer heat from the chipset or the motherboard's voltage regulators and expel it out of the system through the rear I/O panel.
[edit] References
- S. Chen, S. Shen. "Abit cuts debts by selling properties, but trouble remains", DigiTimes.com, 28 December 2005.
- E. Wang. "Abit reaches tentative agreement with creditor banks", DigiTimes.com, 21 January 2005.
- E. Wang. "Abit stock downgraded to requiring full delivery", DigiTimes.com, 15 December 2004.
- Abit Press Office, "Abit announced a merger with Universal Scientific Industrial Co., Ltd. (USI).", Abit.com.tw, 25 January 2006.
[edit] Notes
- ^ http://www.anandtech.com/tradeshows/showdoc.aspx?i=2443&p=6
- ^ http://www.badcaps.net/
- ^ BP6 motherboard overview at Abit-USA.com; accessed 13 October 2006.
