Melco Holdings Inc. is a

family business A family business is a commercial organization in which decision-making is influenced by multiple generations of a family, related by Consanguinity , blood, marriage or adoption, who has both the ability to influence the vision of the business a ...

founded by Makoto Maki in 1975 and is located in Japan. The company's most recognizable brand is Buffalo Inc. Buffalo Inc. is currently one of the 16 subsidiaries of Melco Holdings Inc., initially founded as an

audio equipment Audio equipment refers to devices that reproduce, record, or process sound. This includes microphones, radio receivers, AV receivers, CD players, tape recorders, amplifiers, mixing consoles, effects units, headphones, and speakers. Audio equip ...

manufacturer, the company entered the

computer peripheral A peripheral device, or simply peripheral, is an auxiliary hardware device that a computer uses to transfer information externally. A peripheral is a hardware component that is accessible to and controlled by a computer but is not a core compo ...

market in 1981 with an

EEPROM EEPROM or E2PROM (electrically erasable programmable read-only memory) is a type of non-volatile memory. It is used in computers, usually integrated in microcontrollers such as smart cards and remote keyless systems, or as a separate chip d ...

writer. The name BUFFALO is derived from one of company's first products, a printer buffer and the name for the

American Bison The American bison (''Bison bison''; : ''bison''), commonly known as the American buffalo, or simply buffalo (not to be confused with Bubalina, true buffalo), is a species of bison that is endemic species, endemic (or native) to North America. ...

(Buffalo).

Name

Melco's name stands for Maki Engineering Laboratory COmpany.

History

Melco Holdings Inc. was incorporated in 1986; currently its subsidiaries are involved in the manufacture of

random-access memory Random-access memory (RAM; ) is a form of Computer memory, electronic computer memory that can be read and changed in any order, typically used to store working Data (computing), data and machine code. A random-access memory device allows ...

products,

Flash memory Flash memory is an Integrated circuit, electronic Non-volatile memory, non-volatile computer memory storage medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. The two main types of flash memory, NOR flash and NAND flash, are named for t ...

products,

USB Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard, developed by USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), for digital data transmission and power delivery between many types of electronics. It specifies the architecture, in particular the physical ...

products,

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains computer data storage, data computers can read, but not write or erase. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold b ...

DVD-RW DVD recordable and DVD rewritable are a collection of optical disc formats that can be written to by a DVD recorder and by computers using a DVD writer. The "recordable" discs are write-once read-many (WORM) media, where as "rewritable" discs a ...

drives,

hard disk drive A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating hard disk drive platter, pla ...

local area network A local area network (LAN) is a computer network that interconnects computers within a limited area such as a residence, campus, or building, and has its network equipment and interconnects locally managed. LANs facilitate the distribution of da ...

products, printer buffers,

liquid-crystal display A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other Electro-optic modulator, electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizers to display information. Liq ...

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

accelerators,

personal computer A personal computer, commonly referred to as PC or computer, is a computer designed for individual use. It is typically used for tasks such as Word processor, word processing, web browser, internet browsing, email, multimedia playback, and PC ...

components and

CPU A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor, or just processor, is the primary processor in a given computer. Its electronic circuitry executes instructions of a computer program, such as arithmetic, log ...

accelerators. A subsidiary of Melco provides corporate services in Japan like

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

set-up,

computer terminal A computer terminal is an electronic or electromechanical hardware device that can be used for entering data into, and transcribing data from, a computer or a computing system. Most early computers only had a front panel to input or display ...

installation/set-up,

computer A computer is a machine that can be Computer programming, programmed to automatically Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (''computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic set ...

education and computer maintenance. The company has also started selling

solid-state drive A solid-state drive (SSD) is a type of solid-state storage device that uses integrated circuits to store data persistently. It is sometimes called semiconductor storage device, solid-state device, or solid-state disk. SSDs rely on non- ...

s in Japan.
Buffalo Technology (USA)
is the

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

n subsidiary of the group and is based in

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

. The company has been first to market on a number of new technologies.

A Timeline of Firsts

January 1999 – First Wireless Router December 2002 – First Draft-11g Wi-Fi Products Shipped November 2003 – First NAS Appliance January 2005 – First RAID NAS Appliance April 2006 – First Draft-11n Wi-Fi Products Shipped November 2009 – First USB 3.0 Storage January 2012 – First Draft-11ac Wi-Fi Solution Demonstrated at CES May 2012 – First Draft-11ac Wi-Fi products shipped June 2012 – First Thunderbolt + USB 3.0 Hybrid Device May 2013 – First DDR Memory Buffer DAS Drive

Corporate structure

Products

Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector The Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector is a wireless game adapter, developed by Nintendo and Buffalo Technology, which allows the Nintendo DS, Wii and 3DS users without a Wi-Fi connection or compatible Wi-Fi network to establish an Internet connect ...

Buffalo network-attached storage series The Buffalo TeraStation network-attached storage series are network-attached storage (NAS) devices. The current lineup includes the LinkStation and TeraStation series. These devices have undergone various improvements since they were first produc ...

External hard drive A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magnet ...

* HD DVD Computer Drive * AirStation (

Residential gateway A residential gateway is a small consumer-grade gateway which bridges network access between connected local area network (LAN) hosts to a wide area network (WAN) (such as the Internet) via a modem, or directly connects to a WAN (as in EttH), ...

) * AOSS * Memory -

SO-DIMM A DIMM (Dual In-line Memory Module) is a popular type of memory module used in computers. It is a printed circuit board with one or both sides (front and back) holding DRAM chips and pins. The vast majority of DIMMs are manufactured in compli ...

and

DIMM A DIMM (Dual In-line Memory Module) is a popular type of memory module used in computers. It is a printed circuit board with one or both sides (front and back) holding DRAM chips and pins. The vast majority of DIMMs are manufactured in compl ...

USB flash drive A flash drive (also thumb drive, memory stick, and pen drive/pendrive) is a data storage device that includes flash memory with an integrated USB interface. A typical USB drive is removable, rewritable, and smaller than an optical disc, and u ...

* UPnP Media Rendering Hardware File:TeraStation 6000.png, TeraStation with Hard Drives Included File:Kuro-box pro.jpg, Kuro Box Pro File:Kuro-box hg.jpg, Kuro Box HG-WR File:Linkstationhg.jpg, Linkstation HG File:Terastation.jpg, Terastation File:Buffalo HD-H250U2.jpg, Drivestation

external hard drive A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magnet ...

File:Nintendo-Wii-DS-Buffalo-Wifi-USB-Connector.jpg,

File:Buffalo AirStation WBR-G54.jpg, A Buffalo AirStation File:Buffalo LinkStation Pro and KuroBox Pro together.jpeg, LinkStation Pro and KuroBox Pro

Litigation

In late 2006, the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (

CSIRO The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government agency that is responsible for scientific research and its commercial and industrial applications. CSIRO works with leading organisations arou ...

) won a lawsuit against Buffalo Inc. under which it would receive a royalty for every

WLAN A wireless LAN (WLAN) is a wireless computer network that links two or more devices using wireless communication to form a local area network (LAN) within a limited area such as a home, school, computer laboratory, campus, or office buildin ...

product worldwide. The lawsuits basis was that CSIRO was granted US patent 5487069 in 1996, which grants elements of 802.11a/g wireless technology that had become an industry standard. In June 2007, the federal court in Texas granted an injunction to prevent any more wireless products from shipping until a license agreement had been reached.Tim Higgins, TG Daily.
CSIRO shuts down Buffalo WLAN shipments
. June 20, 2007." On September 19, 2008, the Federal Circuit ruled in Buffalo's favor and has remanded this case to the district court ruling that the district court's Summary Judgment was insufficient on the merits of obviousness of CSIRO's patent. Therefore, this case will be tried again before the district court. In this connection Buffalo is hopeful that it will shortly be permitted to, once again, sell IEEE 802.11a and 802.11g compliant products in the United States.

References

External links

Buffalo's web page
{{Electronics industry in Japan Computer companies established in 1975 Computer hardware companies Computer memory companies Computer peripheral companies Electronics companies of Japan Computer companies of Japan Defunct defense companies of Japan Manufacturing companies based in Nagoya Japanese companies established in 1975 Companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Japanese brands

Name

History

A Timeline of Firsts

Corporate structure

Products

Litigation

See also

References

External links