ABIT To Cease Trading [The Overclockers Friend To Wind Up]

Those amongst you who have ever dabbled with overclocking your PCs will no doubt hold ABIT in particularly high esteem – in no small part due to the fact that introduced the first ever jumperless motherboards (allowing CPU configuration to be adjusted directly via the computers BIOS – so you’ll join us in queuing up to wish ABIT a fond farewell following the (not unexpected) news that they are to cease trading as of 31 December 08.

In fairness, as indicated above, ABIT have been struggling somewhat for some considerable time following the Taiwanese Stock Exchange acting to downgrade its stock in 2004 following on from the uncovering of accounting inconsistencies which led to the company’s motherboard operation being subsequently picked up by USI (Universal Scientific Industrial) in 2006 at which point that particular operation was rebranded as Universal ABIT (that particular operation now enduring substantial restructuring as well as a server cost cutting exercise).

The original ABIT, however, from the end of this year will be no more – with its impact on PC technology being assigned to the vaults of computing history.

ABIT – Key Events:

• 1989 ABIT Computer Corporation established.
• 1990 Assigned to be C&T’s demo board design partner.
• 1991 Sales exceed 10 million US dollars.
• 1993 Presents the world’s first Vesa Local Bus SCSI controller.
• 1994 Joins Taiwan’s top 10 motherboard manufacturers.
• 1995 New assembly line to increase production capacity.
• 1996 Introduces the world’s first Jumperless technology with Soft Menu
• 1997 Expands Research & Development unit, acquires 2nd office. Acquires a second factory in Tao-Yuan (Taiwan).
• 1998 Receives Contribution Award from Intel. Announces the next generation of SoftMenu. SoftMenu II Produces the world’s first 440BX motherboard. Joins Taiwan’s top five manufacturers of own-brand motherboards.
• 1999 Sells over one million BH6 motherboards in less than 12 months. Produces the world’s first dual Celeron motherboard: the BP6. Produces the worlds first ATA66 for the BX chipset, the BE6-II.
  Receives ISO 9001 certification.
• 2000 Introduces the world’s first LINUX motherboard support with GENTUS. IPO (Initial Public Offering) on the TAIEX stock exchange. Becomes a design partner for the INTEL 815 and 815E. Announces RAID is a mainstream specification for all ABIT Motherboards. Opens a state-of-the-art factory in Su Zhou, China.
• 2001 Announces it is a design partner for the Intel Pentium4 motherboard. Announces it is a design partner for a major server appliance company. Introduces world’s first universal motherboard, ST6 and VH6T

From one that has owned four ABIT motherboards – which served us well beyond the call of duty – we wish you very, very fond farewell.