abit
| Universal ABIT
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| legal form | Co. , Ltd. |
| founding | 1989 |
| Seat | 13 F., No. 66, San-Chung Road (Nangang Software Park) Taipei 115, Taiwan |
| Branch | Motherboards , graphics cards |
|
| Abit logo before USI takeover |
Universal Abit ("Abit" for short, often spelled "ABit" or "ABIT") was a Taiwan- based manufacturer of computer components and had been in business since the late 1980s through March 31, 2009. The core business was the main boards - division , with the overclocking market is targeted. In 2005 Abit ran into serious financial difficulties, and Universal Scientific Industrial (USI) took over the motherboard division .
history
Abit was founded in 1989 and in 1991 it became the fastest growing motherboard manufacturer with sales of more than US $ 10,000,000. In 2000 Abit experienced its IPO at TAIEX .
It was alleged that motherboards sold doubled between 2000 and 2001. In order to keep up with their “good” sales figures, Abit opened one of the most modern plants in Suzhou ( People's Republic of China ) and moved to its new headquarters in Neihu , Taipei .
But that dream soon fell apart: on December 31, 2005, the Taiwan Stock Exchange downgraded Abits shares due to dubious accounting practices . Research revealed that the majority of import and export businesses were conducted through seven companies, all at the same address, and each of those companies had only HK $ 2 in capital. This made it easy to inflate the reported number of motherboards sold. The Hong Kong media reported that management was being investigated for embezzlement of company funds.
When Abit was short of cash in June 2005, Wan Hai Industries were brought on board as an investor .
On December 28, 2005, DigiTimes reported that Abit was still grappling with financial problems. The net worth fell from US $ 325 million (November 2004) to US $ 51 million (October 2005). The Securities and Futures Investors Protection Center Of Taiwan (in German as "Taiwanese Center for Protection of effects - and the futures contract investors are") continued its investigations into the financial reports continued because they had irregularities.
On January 25, 2006, Abit announced that USI intended to purchase the motherboard business as well as the brand and announced a special shareholders' meeting to discuss the sale of Abit's Neihu facility. The change of the company name, the sale of company owners and the decision by the managing directors to waive restrictions that do not affect competition were also discussed.
Abit sold his own property in Taipei to Deutsche Bank to raise money for his debt .
After USI took over the motherboard division, Abit switched to selling components and network products. The facility in Suzhou, China will only be used to provide some custom build motherboard services. The motherboard brand Abit will continue to be used by USI as planned under the name "Universal ABIT", all websites and support structures will be retained.
On September 3rd, 2008 Abit officially announced the exit from the mainboard business. From now on Abit wants to concentrate on the production of consumer electronics, such as digital photo frames with printers.
Technical problems
Abit was one of the first manufacturers on whose mainboards electrolytic capacitors were destroyed during operation . The reason was that Abit bought some batches of low-quality Taiwanese capacitors in 2000, which caused the motherboards to fail prematurely. However, Abit is the only manufacturer to date to admit the use of such poor condition capacitors and to recall affected motherboards for repair.
In response, Abit used higher quality capacitors from Japan, sourced primarily from Rubycon .
Technical successes
Abit has had a good reputation among computer enthusiasts because the motherboards offer support for overclocking . In the late 1990s, the "soft menu" feature was introduced. It was one of the first " jumper- free" CPU configuration tools that allowed overclocking via BIOS settings and thus made "jumper tinkering" superfluous.
Abit is the first manufacturer ever to introduce the 133 MHz FSB clock for the Intel BX chipset under the name "AB-BX133". Abit also achieved SMP functionality for Intel's Celeron CPU (code name Mendocino ) on its BP6 motherboard , although Intel had blocked the SMP functionality in the Celeron chip.
In 2004 the "OTES" cooling system was introduced. This cooling system based on heat pipe technology is intended to remove the heat from the chipset and / or the voltage converters via the rear I / O panel from the housing.
swell
- S. Chen, S. Shen, "Abit cuts debts by selling properties, but trouble remains," DigiTimes.com, December 28, 2005.
- E. Wang, "Abit reaches tentative agreement with creditor banks," DigiTimes.com, January 21, 2005.
- E. Wang: "Abit stock downgraded to requiring full delivery", DigiTimes.com, December 15, 2004.
- Abit Press Department: "Abit announced a merger with Universal Scientific Industrial Co., Ltd. (USI). ", Abit.com.tw, January 25, 2006.
- Column: abit's final exit from the mainboard business. In: tweakpc.de. September 2, 2008.
Web links
- Official homepage of Abit ( Memento of December 5, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
- Universal Scientific Industrial (USI) ( Memento from December 5, 2014 in the Internet Archive )