| Subject: Re: ASE Technologies |
Author:
Trent
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Date Posted: 00:58:56 11/14/00 Tue
In reply to:
Allen
's message, "Re: ASE Technologies" on 15:02:25 11/13/00 Mon
Okay, sorry for the long sabatical. I'll try to keep this short and sweet. ASE Technologies in Taiwan manufactured notebooks previously for several major OEMs - primarily IBM Thinkpad 365 series, several Canon notebooks, the first two or three generations of WinBooks (386 & 486), Epson (486), and, of course, Transmonde (Pentium & Pentium II). One of the major reasons Transmonde closed their doors was because ASE in Taiwan, the major stock holder of Transmonde, wasn't aggressive enough and lost all their OEM business, thus ceased manufacturing notebooks. ASE is still a huge huge manufacturer of components and chips. ASE purchased an "interest" in USI which is a major motherboard manufacturer and also makes notebooks. Their core business is desktop motherboards. The notebooks they manufacturer are not of the same quality of previous ASE products. USI doesn't have anything to do with older ASE products (so don't bother contacting them because they won't have any idea what you're talking about).
The other subsidiaries, such as the office in California (www.aseus.com) deals with IC packaging (you can read more about it on their site - which is very old and not updated). They also have nothing to do with computers, notebooks, or Transmonde.
At one time, manufacturing notebooks was profitable, but like so many high tech products, margins are very thin. There is virtually no profit in products. That is why so many hardware companies are teaming up with companies that provide some kind of service - such as ISPs.
Regarding models and code names, here is the compatibility:
Robin -------> Vibrant
Starling ----> Vivante
Starling II -> Vivante SE
Canary ------> Vivante XL
Falcon ------> Vibrant LS
I wouldn't try updating or loading any versions of the BIOS you may find unless they are made specifically for the Transmonde products. Eventhough you may find a BIOS for Canary (for example), it may not be fully compatible with the US version of Windows or whatever OS you may be running. Use caution when updating the BIOS - that's all I'm saying.
I hope I've answered most of your questions.
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