ADI Corporation (Advanced Data International) is a defunct Taiwanese manufacturing company active from 1979 to the 2000s. Its primary export was computer hardware—chiefly

computer monitor A computer monitor is an output device that displays information in pictorial or textual form. A discrete monitor comprises a electronic visual display, visual display, support electronics, power supply, Housing (engineering), housing, electri ...

s—through its American subsidiary ADI Systems. For a time, it was the fifth largest monitor manufacturer in the world, with major customers including

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

Compaq Compaq Computer Corporation was an American information technology, information technology company founded in 1982 that developed, sold, and supported computers and related products and services. Compaq produced some of the first IBM PC compati ...

, and Optiquest.

History

ADI Corporation (an initialism for Advanced Data International) was founded in Taiwan in March 1979 by Liao Jian-cheng. The company was originally a diversified concern, manufacturing a number of disparate products, including

footwear Footwear refers to garments worn on the feet, which typically serve the purpose of protective clothing, protection against adversities of the environment such as wear from rough ground; stability on slippery ground; and temperature. *Shoes and si ...

for

Nike, Inc Nike, Inc. (stylized as ''NIKE'') is an American athletic footwear and apparel corporation headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon. It is the world's largest supplier of Sneakers, athletic shoes and apparel and a major manufacturer of sports equ ...

. By the time the company entered the market for computer hardware in the 1980s, ADI still had a contract with Nike to produce shoes. Its first computer-related exports were data terminals and

s. In 1986, Liao Jian-cheng merged ADI with his other corporation Cheng Chang Enterprises Co., Ltd. In 1987, the company went public on the

Taiwan Stock Exchange The Taiwan Stock Exchange Corporation (TWSE; ) is a financial institution, located in Taipei 101, in Taipei, Taiwan. The TWSE was established in 1961 and began operating as a stock exchange on 9 February 1962. It is regulated by the Financial S ...

. Around the same time, the company established Quimax Systems, an American subsidiary dedicated to importing the company's monitors and terminals manufactured in Taiwan. A major customer of Quimax in the 1980s was Esprit Systems, a seller of terminals that was spun off from

Hazeltine Corporation Hazeltine Corporation was an American Defense industry, defense electronics company, active from 1924 until 1986. It was acquired in 1986 by the Emerson Electric Company, and is part of BAE Systems Inc. since 1999. History 1924–1986 The compan ...

within the decade. In 1989, ADI became a major shareholder in Espirit, and in 1990 the year they led a group of other Taiwanese companies in a takeover of Espirit that transformed the public American company into a privately owned venture. By the turn of the 1990s, ADI was a leading manufacturer of terminals and displays in Taiwan. ADI began offering monitors under their own name starting in 1993, under the subbrand MicroScan. Major customers of ADI soon included

Apple Computer Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Computer Co ...

, and Optiquest. Of these customers, Compaq was by far the largest, ADI producing nearly all of their monitors in the 1990s. In November 1994, Compaq formed a joint venture with ADI to raise factories in Mexico, Brazil, and Europe to assemble and store ADI's monitors, helping reduce the travel time from Taiwan to ADI's major exports. Unit shipments increased from 1.1 million in 1993 to 1.6 million in 1994. Also in 1994, ADI piloted the production of an

i486SX The i486SX was a microprocessor originally released by Intel in 1991. It was a modified Intel i486, i486DX microprocessor with its Floating-point unit, floating-point unit (FPU) disabled. It was intended as a lower-cost CPU for use in low-end sys ...

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, although it never came to fruition. In 1998, ADI obtained the rights from

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

to sell monitors with

Trinitron Trinitron was Sony's brand name for its line of aperture-grille-based CRTs used in television sets and computer monitors. It was one of the first television systems to enter the market since the 1950s. Constant improvement in the basic techno ...

picture tubes, starting with the MicroScan 5GT. Around the turn of the millennium, the company began selling flat-panel monitors, chiefly

LCD A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizers to display information. Liquid crystals do not em ...

s. ADI went defunct around the same time they let their American website domain name expire in December 2006.

References

External links

* {{webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/19980203193835/http://www.adiusa.com/, title=Official website, date=February 3, 1998 1979 establishments in Taiwan 1986 establishments in California Manufacturing companies based in Taipei Computer companies established in 1979 Taiwanese brands Computer monitors Computer companies of Taiwan Defunct computer hardware companies