Creative Labs

Creative Technology Limited (SGX: C76, NASDAQ: CREAF) is a listed manufacturer of computer multimedia products based in Singapore where the firm was initially founded by Sim Wong Hoo (born 1957) on July 1, 1981. It has more than 5,000 employees worldwide. more...

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Sim is the CEO and the Chairman of the company. The US subsidiary of the company is known as Creative Labs, Inc.; this name is commonly (but incorrectly) used to refer to the entire company.

Historically, Creative is most famous for their Sound Blaster line of audio cards. At present, they are best known for their line of portable multimedia players. Creative has also gained some attention for a legal battle with media player rival Apple Computer.

History

Creative began as a computer repair shop, where Sim developed an add-on memory board for the Apple II computer. Later, they started creating customized PCs adapted for the Chinese language. A part of this design included enhanced audio capabilities, so that the device could produce speech and melodies. The success of this audio interface led to the development of a stand-alone sound card.

In 1987 Creative released a 12-voice sound generator sound card for the IBM PC architecture, the Creative Music System (C/MS), featuring two Philips SAA 1099 chips. Sim personally went from Singapore to Silicon Valley and managed to get RadioShack's Tandy division to market this card. The card was however not successful and lost the competition against the AdLib card which was using the Yamaha YM3812 chip (also known as OPL2). In addition to being a capable gaming card, the AdLib version was also a passable music synthesizer, which was a task the C/MS could not do.

Later, another attempt was made with the Sound Blaster, a card featuring the same chip as found on the AdLib card and with additional digital audio capabilities for playing and recording digital samples. Creative used aggressive marketing, like calling the card a "stereo" component even though the C/MS components offered stereo, or calling the sound producing microcontroller a "DSP", hoping to associate the product with a digital signal processor. This card soon became a de facto standard for sound cards in PCs for many years, mostly by the fact that it was the first to bundle what today is considered as part of sound card functionality: digital audio, onboard music synthesizer, MIDI interface and a joystick port.

Present day

Creative's most lucrative products are the Creative NOMAD/Creative Zen digital audio players, which is in the same market as the iPod and other portable music players. The Sound Blaster line still exists with products such as Sound Blaster Audigy, Sound Blaster Audigy 2, Sound Blaster Audigy 4, and Sound Blaster X-Fi. The soundcard market continues to be a solid performer for Creative even with the inclusion of onboard sound on most PCs, some even featuring 7.1 surround sound. The continued success is due in part to the better sound quality and richer features of an "add on" sound card. In fact, Creative's Audigy 2 line featured the first sound card to be "THX" certified. The X-Fi line was launched in 2005, with four variations of the product, including X-Fi Xtreme Music for entry level, X-Fi Platinum, X-Fi Fatal1ty which is named after professional gamer Johnathan Wendel and features 64MB onboard RAM, and X-Fi Elite Pro which is Creative's flagship product and features 64MB onboard RAM, an external breakout box, and the highest audio fidelity in the history of the Sound Blaster line.

Read more at Wikipedia.org