Aureal Semiconductor

Infobox_Company
company_name = Aureal Semiconductor Inc
company_
company_type = Corporation
foundation = 1995
location = Fremont, California
industry = Audio Technologies
key_people = Kenneth 'Kip' Kokinakis, President and CEO
homepage = http://www.aureal.com (closed down)

Aureal Semiconductor Inc. was an American electronics manufacturer, best known throughout the mid-late 1990s for their PC sound card technologies including A3D and the Vortex (a line of audio ASICs.) The company was the reincarnation of the, at the time, bankrupt Media Vision Technology. Media Vision was a developer and manufacturer of multimedia peripherals such as the Pro Audio Spectrum 16.

History

On March 5th, 1998 [http://web.archive.org/web/19990829025202/www.aureal.com/cgi-bin/pub/display.pl?template=press_aur_detail.htm&serial=76] , Creative Labs sued Aureal for patent infringement. Aureal countersued because they believed Creative was guilty of patent infringement. After numerous lawsuits Aureal won a favorable ruling in December 1999, which vindicated Aureal from these patent infringement claims, but the legal costs were too high and Aureal filed for bankruptcy. On September 21st, 2000, Creative acquired Aureal's assets from its bankruptcy trustee for US$ 32 million. The purchase included patents, trademarks, other property, as well as a release to Creative from any infringement by Creative of Aureal's intellectual property including A3D. The purchase effectively eliminated Creative's only competition in the gaming audio market. It also eliminated any requirements for Creative to pay past or future royalties as well as damages for products which incorporated Aureal's technology.

Technologies and products

Aureal's technology was originally advertised as developed by NASA. The original NASA program was to create accurate 3D sound with only a set of headphones. This was in an attempt to cut costs, as speakers were more expensive during this time. Aureal took some of the technology and rebranded it as A3D.

Contrary to OEM companies (such as Creative which builds brands and sells their own devices), Aureal was a fabless semiconductor company. This changed with their final product: the Aureal SuperQuad. However, to not anger the middlemen, Aureal did no marketing of its self-branded product.

On the software side, A3D was supported by 3DMark along with many other software titles of the late 1990s.

References

*cite web | title = Aureal And Creative Engage In Legal Skirmish | date = 1998-03-05 | url = http://web.archive.org/web/19990829025202/www.aureal.com/cgi-bin/pub/display.pl?template=press_aur_detail.htm&serial=76 | accessdate = 1999-08-29 (through Internet Archive)

External links

* [http://alive.singnet.com.sg/features/aureal-creative.htm Aureal vs Creative] - Timeline of Aureal and Creative's legal battle and its purchase by Creative.
* [http://arstechnica.com/reviews/3q99/soundcard/soundcard-1.html]