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The Empeg Car was one of the first in-car
MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...
players developed. Originating in a personal project to build an in-car system that could perform MP3 playback in software, a British company called ''Empeg'' was formed in July 1998 to build a commercial version of the concept, this becoming available for sale in August 1999. Although the original project employed an embedded PC board from Advantech running a
Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, whi ...
-based operating system, employing a 150 MHz Cyrix processor that was later upgraded to a 166 MHz Pentium, the Empeg Car was built around a system employing a StrongARM processor.The Mark 2 player used the SA-1100-DA variant, according to th
user guide
Transfer of MP3 tracks to the player was facilitated by the provision of USB,
Ethernet Ethernet () is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 1 ...
, and serial port connections. Initial production was limited to 400 units, after which the "mark II" version of the product, suitable for larger scale production, was to be offered from late 2000 onwards at an estimated starting price of around £900. Prices started at $1,100 US for the 4GB version, reaching up to $2,400 for a 28GB unit that utilized two laptop drives (which was considered very large capacity at the time). The Empeg Car garnered quite a following and became beloved among the small group of users who bought one. SONICblue - the former S3 company that had already acquired both the
Rio Rio or Río is the Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Maltese word for "river". When spoken on its own, the word often means Rio de Janeiro, a major city in Brazil. Rio or Río may also refer to: Geography Brazil * Rio de Janeiro * Rio do Sul, a ...
line of MP3 portables by purchasing Diamond and the Rave-MP line by purchasing Sensory Science - took notice of the unit and decided the Empeg Car would fit into its plans. On November 1, 2000 Empeg was acquired by SONICblue Incorporated and the unit was renamed the
Rio Car The Empeg Car was one of the first in-car MP3 players developed. Originating in a personal project to build an in-car system that could perform MP3 playback in software, a British company called ''Empeg'' was formed in July 1998 to build a commerci ...
. The original British development team was rolled into the company and eventually took responsibility for all audio software development at SONICblue. Unfortunately, SONICblue did not have a clear game plan with how to promote the Rio Car. Rio did little to market it and soon left it to languish. Despite their owners' strong devotion to the product, sales of new units were modest and on September 24, 2001 SONICblue discontinued the line. Fewer than 6000 players were ever produced. Most of the resources, including people, code, and design work, behind the Empeg Car went into the following products: *
Rio Receiver The Rio Receiver was a home stereo device for playing MP3 files stored on your computer's hard drive over an Ethernet or HomePNA network. It was later rebranded and sold as the Dell Digital Audio Receiver. With a design derived from the existing L ...
- Network enabled client for streaming music off a computer to anywhere in the home *
Rio Central Rio or Río is the Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Maltese word for "river". When spoken on its own, the word often means Rio de Janeiro, a major city in Brazil. Rio or Río may also refer to: Geography Brazil * Rio de Janeiro * Rio do Sul, a ...
- A home stereo component that ripped CDs to MP3s and stored them on an internal hard drive. Supported Rio Receivers as clients. *
Rio Karma The Rio Karma is a digital audio player originally made by the now-defunct Rio. It was released in August 2003. It measures 2.7 × 3 × 0.9 inches (6.9 × 7.6 × 2.3 cm) and weighs 5.5 ounces (160 grams). It has a 20 gigabyte (18.6 gibiby ...
- Portable 20gb music player SONICblue went bankrupt in 2003, but the Rio division was purchased by
D&M Holdings D+M Group, formerly known as DMGlobal and D&M Holdings, was a Japanese corporation that owned several audio and video brands. It was formed in 2002 from the merger of Denon and Marantz. It had acquired several other companies since that time. Pri ...
. The former Empeg employees still with Rio went on to produce the
Rio Karma The Rio Karma is a digital audio player originally made by the now-defunct Rio. It was released in August 2003. It measures 2.7 × 3 × 0.9 inches (6.9 × 7.6 × 2.3 cm) and weighs 5.5 ounces (160 grams). It has a 20 gigabyte (18.6 gibiby ...
, the
Rio Carbon The Rio Carbon is a line of digital audio players that was produced by the now defunct Rio from 2004 to 2005. It was similar in size, capacity, and cost with Apple's iPod Mini which debuted earlier the same year. This was Rio's second player to us ...
, and several recent flash memory players. In 2005, D&M sold all of their audio player technology to SigmaTel, including all of the Empeg technology, and all of the patents, source code, and designs related to the Rio audio players. The former Empeg employees as well as other Rio technical employees are now employed by SigmaTel at their
Austin, TX Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city i ...
offices.


References


Notes

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External links


Diamond Rio Buys Car MP3 Player Company
- October 2000 MP3 Newswire article
empeg home pageunofficial empeg discussion boardsRiocar.org
- Home of the empeg FAQ, and other empeg information
MP3Mobile
- Hugo Fiennes's first in car MP3 player

- (rather out of date)
Three Years in Embedded Linux: A Talk with Hugo Fiennes and Marc Merlin
- About the empeg and Rio Car (from 2001)
From Warwick University to Apple Inc California
- Article about Hugo Fiennes's Career (from 2009) Digital audio players Linux-based devices