Asus (styled as ASUS, officially ASUSTeK Computer Inc.) (/ˈeɪsʊs/^[2]) is a Taiwanese multinational computer hardware and electronics company headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan. Its products include motherboards, desktops, laptops, monitors, tablet PCs, servers, video cards and mobile phones. It primarily sells products under its own brand but also produces components for other manufacturers, including Apple, Dell and HP.

Asus is the world's fifth-largest PC vendor by 2011 unit sales (after HP, Lenovo, Dell and Acer).^[3] Asus appears in BusinessWeek’s "InfoTech 100" and "Asia’s Top 10 IT Companies" rankings. Wall Street Journal Asia ranks it number one in quality and service, and it ranked first in the IT Hardware category of the 2008 Taiwan Top 10 Global Brands survey with a total brand value of US$1.324 billion.^[4]

Asus has a primary listing on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE: 2357) and a secondary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE: ASKD).

Name[link]

The name Asus originates from Pegasus, the winged horse of Greek mythology.^[5][6] Only the last four letters of the word were used in order to give the name a high position in alphabetical listings.^[7]

History[link]

Asus was founded in Taipei in 1989 by T.H. Tung, Ted Hsu, Wayne Hsieh and M.T. Liao,^[8] all four having previously worked at Acer as computer engineers.

In the early 2000s, Taiwan-based motherboard manufacturers had not yet established their leading positions in the computer-hardware business. Intel Corporation would supply any new processors to more established companies like IBM first, and the Taiwanese companies would have to wait for approximately six months after IBM received their engineering prototypes. As of 2009^[update], Asus receives Intel engineering samples ahead of its competitors.^[9]

In January 2007, Asus started restructuring its operations.^[10] The company split into three distinct operational units: Asus, Pegatron and the Unihan Corporation.^[11] The Asus brand was applied solely to first-party branded computers. Pegatron handled OEM manufacturing of motherboards and components, and the Unihan Corporation focused on non-PC manufacturing such as cases and molding. In January 2008, Pegatron acquired the Unihan Corporation as a subsidiary from Asus.^[12]

In the process of restructuring, the highly criticized pension-plan restructuring effectively zeroed out the existing pension balances. The company paid out all contributions previously made by employees.^[13]

On 9 December 2008, the Open Handset Alliance announced that Asus had become one of 14 new members of the organization. These "new members will either deploy compatible Android devices, contribute significant code to the Android Open Source Project, or support the ecosystem through products and services that will accelerate the availability of Android-based devices."^[14]

In October 2010 Asus and Garmin announced that they would be ending their smartphone partnership as a result of Garmin deciding to exit the product category.^[15] The two companies had produced six Garmin-Asus branded smartphones over the prior two years.^[15]

Timeline[link]

• September 2005: Asus released the first PhysX accelerator card.^[16]
• December 2005: Asus entered the LCD TV market with the TLW32001 model, initially only available in the Taiwan market.^[17]
• January 2006: Asus announced that it would cooperate with Lamborghini to develop its VX series.^{[18][dead link]}
• 9 March 2006: Asus was confirmed as one of the manufacturers of the first Microsoft Origami models, together with Samsung and Founder Technology.^[19]
• 8 August 2006: Asus announced a joint venture with Gigabyte Technology.^[20](Subscription required)
• 5 June 2007: Asus announced the Eee PC at COMPUTEX Taipei 2007.
• 9 September 2007: Asus indicated support for Blu-ray, announcing the release of a BD-ROM/DVD writer PC drive, BC-1205PT.^[21] The release of several Blu-ray based notebooks follows.
• 31 October 2007: Asus launched a PDA/smartphone range in the UK market.
• 3 January 2008: Asus formally split into three companies: ASUSTeK, Pegatron and Unihan.^{[22][unreliable source?]}
• 22 August 2008: Details of the Asus N10 were leaked online.^[23]
• December 2008: Asus released a beta BIOS update that potentially fixes the Windows XP SP3 incompatibility with the Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard.
• 1 June 2010: Asus spins off Pegatron Corp.^[24]
• December 2010: Asus launched the world's thinnest notebook, the Asus U36, with Intel processor voltage standard (not low voltage) Intel core i3 or i5 with a thickness of only 19 mm.^[25]
• October 2011: Asus designed UX/21E/31E ZENBOOK™, it uses a precision-crafted design measuring only 3mm at the front and 9mm at the rear. The form features razor thin edges.
  • Asus chairman Jonney Shih claimed these ultra thin (under 3 mm at its slimmest edge) laptops will last more than seven hours.^[26][27]
• March, 2012: Asus releases in Europe Market Asus K93SM notebook with 18.4-inch display with resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels (Full HD), a GeForce GTX 630M discrete graphics with 1GB of memory and Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit pre-installed. ^[28]

• 

  Asus NVIDIA GeForce 210 silent graphics card.
  2012

• 

  Asus Eee Note EA-800, Easy to doing, Write and more in the CeBIT 2011.
  2011

• 

  Asus Eee PC 1215P Netbook.
  2011

• 

  An Asus AMD motherboard with an AMD Phenom II processor mounted, along with the stock heatsink and fan on the board.
  2010

• 

  Asus R2E. UMPC
  2007

Operations[link]

Asus has its headquarters in Beitou District, Taipei, Taiwan.^[29]

As of 2009^[update] Asus had manufacturing facilities in Taiwan (Taipei, Luzhu, Nangan, Guishan), China (Suzhou), Mexico (Ciudad Juárez) and the Czech Republic (Ostrava). The Asus Hi-Tech Park, located in Suzhou, China, covers 540,000 square meters, roughly the size of 82 soccer fields.

Asus claims a monthly production capacity of two million motherboards and 150,000 notebook computers.^{[30][verification needed]}

Asus operates around 50 service sites across 32 countries and has over 400 service partners worldwide. It provides support in 37 languages.

Products[link]

Asus products include laptops, tablet computers, mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), servers, computer monitors, motherboards, graphics cards, sound cards, optical disc drives, computer networking devices, computer cases, computer components and computer cooling systems.

Essentio[link]

As of December 2011 the Essentio line of desktop PCs consisted of the CG Series designed for gaming, the CM series for entertainment and home use and the CS and CP slimline series.^[31]

Eee[link]

Since its launch in October 2007, the Eee PC netbook has garnered numerous awards, including Forbes Asia’s Product of the Year,^[32] Stuff Magazine’s Gadget of the Year and Computer of the Year,^[33] NBC.com’s Best Travel Gadget, Computer Shopper's Best Netbook of 2008, PC Pro's Hardware of the Year, PC World's Best Netbook, and DIME magazine’s 2008 Trend Award Winner.

Asus subsequently added several products to its Eee lineup, including:

• EeeBox PC, a compact nettop
• Eee Top, an all-in-one touchscreen computer housed in an LCD monitor enclosure,
• Eee Stick, a plug-and-play wireless controller for the PC platform that translates users’ physical hand-motions into corresponding movements onscreen
• Eee Pad Transformer, is a tablet computer that runs on the Android 3.0 operating systems^[34]
• Eee Pad Transformer Prime, the successor to the original Transformer.

On 6 March 2009, Asus debuted its Eee Box B202, which PCMag saw as "the desktop equivalent of the Asus EeePC", (the "Asus Eee Box" computer line is later in 2010 renamed to "Asus EeeBox PC").^[35]

With its price range between US$269 and US$299, this desktop competed directly with the Mac Mini.^[36]

GPS devices[link]

Asus produces the R700T GPS device, which incorporates Traffic Message Channel.^[37]

Republic of Gamers[link]

Republic of Gamers is a line of products launched by Asus in 2006 "with the purpose of delivering the most innovative hardcore hardware for truly dedicated gamers."^[38]

Asus Republic of Gamers products include motherboards, graphic cards, notebooks, desktops, peripherals and accessories.

Sound cards[link]

Asus started its line of sound cards by releasing the Xonar DX on February 28, 2008, a card that promised great audio quality. But this card's main attraction was its ability to emulate the EAX 5.0 effects through the Asus GX software while also supporting Open AL and DTS-connect.^[39] This offered an alternative to Creative's sound cards which were characterized with poor driver support under Windows Vista.^[40][41] Asus followed-up with the introduction of its Xonar D1 on the 27th of July 2008 which offered largely similar features to the Xonar DX but connected to the motherboard through the PCI interface instead of the PCI-E x1 connection on the Xonar DX.^[42] Asus then released the Xonar HDAV 1.3, which was the first solution enabling loss-less HD audio bit streaming to AV receivers.^[43] After that, Asus used the same audio processor to produce its Xonar DS sound card, which was released on the 13th of May, 2009. This card had 107db SNR rating which is slightly less than what the Xonar DX and the Xonar D1 had to offer but, it featured an upgradeable Operational Amplifier (OP-AMP) in addition to the common features of the Xonar line.^[44] Asus then targeted high-end audiophiles with the introduction of its Essence ST sound card on the 15th of May, 2009. This card featured 124db SNR rating and precision audio clock tuning.^[45] Three days later, Asus refreshed the HDAV family by releasing the HDAV 1.3 slim, a card targeted for HTPC users offering very similar functionality to HDAV 1.3 but in a smaller form.^[46] During Computex 2010, Asus introduced its Xonar Xense which was an audio bundle composed of the Xense sound card and a special edition of the Sennheiser PC350 headset.^[47][48] In August 2010, Asus released the Xonar DG sound card to target budget buyers. The card offered 5.1 surround sound support, 105db SNR rating, support for Dolby headphone and GX 2.5 support for emulating EAX 5.0 technology.^[49][50]

Digital media receivers[link]

Asus sells digital media receivers under the name Asus O!Play.^[51]

Environmental record[link]

This section appears to be written like an advertisement. Please help improve it by rewriting promotional content from a neutral point of view and removing any inappropriate external links. (April 2012)

Green Asus[link]

In 2000, Asus officially launched Green Asus,^[52] a company-wide sustainable computing initiative overseen by a steering committee led by Jonney Shih, the Chairman of Asus. Green Asus pursues what the company calls the "Four Green Home Runs", namely: "Green Design, Green Procurement, Green Manufacturing, and Green Service and Marketing".^[53]

Measures[link]

• As of 2009^[update] Green Asus restricts 37 hazardous substances, 31 more than the 6 stipulated by the European Union RoHS.
• Asus designs its notebooks to meet Energy Star standards. As of 2009^[update] over 50 Asus notebooks have Energy Star certification.
• In 2006, Asus became the first computer maker in Taiwan to develop an easy-to-reuse and easy-to-recycle end-of-life "green design" system.
• In September 2006, Asus initiated a free take-back program for all Asus-made products in the USA.
• In 2005, Asus launched Taiwan’s first GPMS (Green Product Management System) information-technology platform.

Recognition[link]

In 2006, Asus obtained IECQ (IEC Quality Assessment System for Electronic Components) HSPM (Hazardous Substance Process Management) certification for its headquarters and for all of its manufacturing sites.^[54]

In 2007, Oekom Research, an independent research institute specializing in corporate responsibility assessment, recognized Asus as a "highly environmental friendly company" in the "Computers, Peripherals and Office Electronics Industry".^[55]

In October 2008, Asus received 11 Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) Gold Awards for its products,^[56] including four of its N-Series notebooks, namely the N10, N20, N50 and N80. In the following month, it received EU Flower certification for the same N-Series notebooks at an award ceremony held in Prague.^[55] In December 2008, Det Norske Veritas conferred the world’s first EuP (Energy-using Product) certification for portable notebooks on these machines.^[55]

Recycling campaign[link]

In April 2008, Asus launched its "PC Recycling for a Brighter Future"^[57][58] program in collaboration with Intel and with Tsann Kuen Enterprise Co. This program collected more than 1,200 desktop computers, notebooks and CRT/LCD monitors, refurbished them and donated them to 122 elementary and junior high schools, five aboriginal communities and the Tzu Chi Stem Cell Center.

Pirated software and dissemination of confidential data[link]

This section has been nominated to be checked for its neutrality. Discussion of this nomination can be found on the talk page. (July 2009)

In September 2008, PC Pro discovered through a reader that Asus had shipped laptops that contained cracked and pirated software.^[59] Both physical machines and recovery CDs contained confidential documents from Microsoft and other organizations, internal Asus documents, and sensitive personal information including CVs.

At the time, an Asus spokesperson promised an investigation at "quite a high level", but declined to comment on how the files got on the machines and recovery media.^[60] It was demonstrated that an unattended installation of Windows Vista could accidentally copy material from a flash drive with a parameter in the "unattend.xml" file on the personal flash drive being used to script the installation.^[61][62]

See also[link]

	Taiwan portal
	Companies portal

References[link]