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Based in Inverness, Illinois, VisionTek Products is a subsidiary of Hartford Computer Group Inc. and a leading provider of PC enhancement products designed for the retailer and consumer markets. Powered by ATI Radeon technology, its high-performance products appeal to enthusiasts and supported by outstanding customer service and the most extensive warranty in the industry. VisionTek’s products can be found at BestBuy, Fry’s Electronics, MicroCenter and several major online retailers throughout North America, Asia and Europe.

VisionTek was founded in 1998. Since then, it has been setting the standard for excellence in the graphics card market. Its graphics cards have included the Xtreme Gamer Edition series as well as the award-winning XTASY card line. The company specializes in much more than VisionTek graphics cards. Other products include TV tuner cards, power supplies, gaming mice, graphics converters, memory sticks and the popular ATI All-in-Wonder Video and Graphics card, the ultimate digital entertainment solution.

In 2002, VisionTek shifted its focus from the local sector to a global strategy that helped it become established in both the Asian and European markets. To say the move was a success would be an understatement. From dealings with NVIDIA to an exclusive partnership with ATI, VisionTek has quickly become one of the most dominant companies in the graphics card business. In fact, it became the leading supplier of PC/TV tuners, graphics solutions and PC accessories in 2008, topping out all other companies who supply ATI-based graphics boards.

Conventional wisdom leads one to believe that VisionTek will be a major player for some time to come. A 70,000 square foot production facility, highly skilled R&D teams and an industry-leading lifetime money back guarantee has enabled to remain ahead of the competition. The company has many new innovations in the works and hints that the best is still yet to come.

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Established in 1988, Compro Technology is a company that creates and sells a wide range of multimedia and PC graphics products. Thriving off the latest innovations, it has a team of highly motivated expert engineers with offices located in several regions throughout the world. The Compro infrastructure allows it to deliver top notch products tailored to the fast growing PC market.

In the beginning, Compro set its focus on the OEM industry, utilizing its design and production talents to create quality products. The company enjoyed considerable success throughout the 1990s and into the new millennium. In 2001, the company formed a partnership with the prominent graphics card manufacturer NVIDIA, a move that led to the launch of Personal Cinema, the company’s first branded product. Compro Personal Cinema marked the first complete multimedia offering that integrated a direct-link TV tuner box with a high-performance graphics card. The company released its VideoMate line of PC graphics solutions in 2002 along with a complete lineup of Compro 3D cards with built-in video capability.

Compro VideoMate PCI TV tuner cards and the USB TV tuner cards were released in 2003, offering exclusive features, such as remote power on/off, power up scheduling recording and built in recording software. This innovation garnered the company industry recognition and numerous awards worldwide. The product line was extended in 2004, ranging from mainstream to premium TV cards equipped with superb image quality and new improved features. Compro made significant waves in 2005, launching a new range of digital TV products that include dPCI digital TV cards and USB digital television boxes. Since 2007, Compro’s products have been designed to support Windows Vista and are bundled with Microsoft services, such as Windows Media Center and Vista Gadget.

Compro plans to unveil a new range of video solutions in 2009, including the VideoMate IP Cam and VideoMate Network Media Center. These lines will breathe fresh air into the industry of home electronics, as the products will carry Compro’s user-friendly features and cutting-edge hardware design.

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Based in Minato, Tokyo Japan, NEC Corporation is a multi-international company that specializes in IT and network solutions geared towards the PC, business enterprise, communications, service provider and government markets. Their portfolio includes an extensive line of personal computers, servers, semiconductors, computer software and peripherals, storage devices and digital broadcasting products.

NEC services and solutions are delivered to clients in various industries ranging from aviation and automotive to banking and wholesale distribution. As a chip maker, the company is among the world’s top 20 semiconductor companies in terms of sales.

An early pioneer in telecommunications technology, NEC was originally founded in 1898 as Nippon Electric Limited Partnership. The company survived the tragic Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923, despite losing 105 of its employees and engineers along with four factories and thirteen offices. It also persevered during World War II when their Mita and Tamagawa production plants were placed under military control. The company experienced considerable domestic growth in the 1950’s and expanded globally during the 1960s.

NEC computers were launched in 1970’s, around the same time it introduced the C&C concept, which saw the integration of computers and communications. In 1980, it created the world’s first digital signal processor and jumped into the semiconductor business full time the following year with the establishment of NEC Semiconductors. NEC processors and computers were a mainstay throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s. In 2002, it created the Earth Simulator Computer, highly regarded as the world’s fastest supercomputer up until 2004.

The NEC brand has become one of the most recognizable in the world. Though best known for its technological efforts, the company has also been the sponsor of numerous sports teams and actively participates in a variety of energy-efficient initiatives. NEC is said to currently be in talks with Nissan to develop lithium ion batteries for hybrid automobiles.

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Microsoft is a world renowned company that specializes in various aspects of computer technology. With its headquarters in Redmond, Washington, Microsoft is a global leader in the developing, manufacturing and marketing of various software products for computer devices.

The Microsoft brand is largely supported by wide a range of third-party vendors, giving it a huge advantage over competitors. The company is well known for its highly popular products, such as the Microsoft Windows operating system and Microsoft Office software applications. This company has been one of the most successful in the history of technology, birthing four billionaires and approximately 12,000 millionaires.

Originally founded in 1975, Microsoft started out developing and selling BASIC interpreters that were used for the Altair 8800, the microcomputer design often credited for sparking the phenomenon of personal computers. It quickly evolved to dominate the home computer market with its MS-DOS operating system in the mid 80s. This success was followed by the Microsoft Windows line of software products, a system that has become a mainstay in homes, offices and more increasingly in the network setting.

The company has a major presence in several other markets as well, provided by subsidiaries such as the MSNBC cable TV network, the multimedia Microsoft Encarta encyclopedia and the MSN Internet portal. It also sells a variety of computer hardware products and digital entertainment designs, such as MSN TV, Xbox 360 and Zune, which is hailed by many as a worthy competitor to Apple’s iPod.

Microsoft continues to be an innovator in technology, playing a significant role in the computer industry and helping to evolve internet standards. In February 2009, the company revealed plans to further strengthen its local presence by opening up a small chain of Microsoft-branded retail outlets. Considering what the company has accomplished to this point, it’s hard not to imagine this move being another successful venture.

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Based in Minato, Tokyo, Japan, Fujitsu is a multi-international company that specializes in a wide range of computer hardware and consumer electronics products. Its specialties include personal computers, supercomputers, servers, semiconductors, air conditioners and telecommunications to name a few. World renown, Fujitsu has approximately 500 subsidiary companies and an estimated 160,000 employees. Throughout the years, it has been a rival of industry leading companies such as IBM and NEC.

Fujitsu has a rich history that spans more than 70 years. Founded in 1935, the company specialized solely in the telecommunications field until the dawn of the “Information Age” in the 1960’s. The first Fujitsu computers were created in 1961, leading to mass production in 1966. Its mainframe systems were mostly deployed in Japan until the launch of Fujitsu America Inc. in 1968.

The company established itself as an international entity throughout the 1970s, catering to office users with its FACOM line of computers. Fujitsu computers were right there at the advent of personal computing in the 1980s, introducing a number of units designed for home, workstation and enterprise users. It became a major player in the way of internet and networking technologies in the late 1990s, forming partnerships with names such as Intel, Siemens and Toshiba. Fujitsu steam-rolled into the new millennium, a decade that saw the introduction of its popular LifeBook series of notebooks as well as various products that catered to the emerging wireless and mobile PC markets.

Fujitsu has been at the forefront of innovation for longer than most, playing an integral part in the introduction of technologies such as HD TV, Flash and numerous solutions developed for the open-source market. While the competition has struggled in recent times, Fujitsu remains to be highly profitable, reporting consolidated revenues of an estimated $53 billion in 2008. A brand new roster of multimedia products and network solutions indicate that this company will continue to writer additional chapters in the history books.

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Headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan, BenQ Corporation is a global leader in the manufacturing and marketing of various consumer electronics, computing and communications devices. Its main product line consists of desktop and notebook PCs, digital projectors, digital cameras, LCD TVs, mobile phones and computer components such as optical drives, keywords and mice. The BenQ brand is strong in more than 100 countries, enabled by offices in Asia, Europe and the Americas and a highly skilled workforce of nearly 1,400 employees.

Originally founded in 1984 as Continental Systems Inc., the company did not officially become BenQ until 2001. With more than 20 years of experience, it has been one of the most successful names in the computer hardware industry, particularly in the 2000’s.

In 2005 the company delved heavily into the mobile telecommunications market, expanding its portfolio by acquiring Siemens AG’s mobile devices division. This move made it the sixth largest company in the mobile phone industry. Out of this acquisition came BenQ Mobile, a division dedicated solely to wireless communications. Devices in this group are marketed under the BenQ-Siemens brand name. The innovative design of BenQ mobile phones and computer products has helped the company garner numerous awards over the years. As recently as 2009, it won five Red Dot Design awards as well as the coveted iF Design Award 2009. Highly regarded as one of the best performing IT companies in the world, BenQ has consistently been featured in BusinessWeek’s Infotech 100 among other publications.

Moving ahead, BenQ is focused on maintaining its position as a leading marketer of digital projectors and LCD displays. It looks to accomplish this by leveraging the best of technology and delivering a versatile line of products that offer unparalleled quality to the customer. After two successful decades in the most competitive markets, the company knows how to stay abreast of industry changes and thrive in the completive market.

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Establish in 1996, Alienware is a manufacturer of computer hardware and a wholly owned subsidiary of Dell. Its main focus is the assembly of high-end graphics cards, desktop and laptop computer components that enable high performance gaming. Aside from gaming, Alienware products also support a number of graphic-intense applications such as video editing, audio editing and simulation. Products for sale in its portfolio include desktop and laptop personal computers along with computer peripherals such as mice, keywords, displays and USB headsets.

With its headquarters located in Kendall, Florida, Alienware was founded to fill a gap in the market for high performance gaming products, a market that was virtually untouched at the time by prominent PC manufacturers such as Dell. With little competition on the high-end market, it became an OEM that sold PCs with the highest performing hardware and specifications in the industry. The company is perhaps best known for its Alienware graphics cards and popular line of gaming computers, which differentiated from the competition in terms of performance and the trademark sci-fi-like design.

Dell acquired Alienware in 2006, maintaining its autonomy in regard to design and marketing all while keeping its original line of XPS PC gaming systems. Now consolidated within Dell’s gaming division, it has since become the computer manufacturer’s premiere gaming division. As a subsidiary of Dell, the company currently specializes in various aspects of PC gaming, marketing everything from accessories to popular video game downloads.

Alienware has been a major player in the PC gaming market for more than a decade. Over the years, it has competed with companies such as AVADirect, Falcon Northwest, Velocity Micro and even Dell’s XPS gaming system. Today, the company is focused on maximizing its profits and powering the PC gaming market through high performance products and annual initiatives such as PC Gaming Season.

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Founded in 2002, Compaq Computer Corporation was a manufacturer of personal computers and computer components. The company was once the world’s largest supplier of personal computer systems. Compaq functioned as an independent corporation until be acquired by Hewlett Packard in 2002.

Compaq was started by three senior managers who worked for Texas Instruments, a well known semiconductor manufacturer. Its first product was the Compaq Portable, a portable personal computer that offered compatibility with the IBM PC. This unit is largely credited as one of the earliest influences of today’s laptop computer. In 1984, Compaq launched the Compaq Deskpro, which marked the first line of Compaq Deskpro computers. This was followed up Deskpro 386 and the Systempro, a piece of server hardware integrated with support for an additional CPU and RAID storage.

Moving into the 1990s, Compaq started its domination over the server market as it entered the retail computer industry with Presario. With a number of low-priced products and partnerships that allowed it to utilize processors developed by AMD and Cyrix, the company was able to drive competitors such as IBM and Packard Bell away from the market. Compaq computers became a mainstay in the home and corporate setting, helping the manufacturer leverage relationships with emerging industry leaders such as Microsoft. In 1998, the company entered into an agreement with NaviSite to promote and sell web hosting packages. NaviSite made Compaq its preferred provider because of its high-quality storage facilities and Intel-based servers.

In 2001, Compaq entered a merger with Hewlett Packard and the acquisition was officially completed the following year. It has since become a brand name owned by HP. Although numerous Compaq computers and other products have been renamed, a large number of them still bear the original company name. HP even discontinued its line of business computers in favor of the Compaq Evo line. The product line has officially been branded as HP Compaq. Support and downloads for its older products are widely available on a condensed version of the Compaq website.

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Originally established in 1991, C-Media Electronics is a Taiwan-based semiconductor company that manufactures a wide range of computer hardware. As a global leader, its primary focus is to provide innovative products to PC audio, USB storage, wireless audio device, sound card, motherboard, PC and VoIP peripheral manufacturers across the globe.

Over the years, this company has garnered recognition across the board and brought home numerous honors, thus bolstering their reputation. Some of its most notable accolades include the Best of Computex 2005 Award, the 2008 Certificate of Corporate Governor System honor and the International CES Innovations 2009 Design and Engineering Award. The latter was an honor received for its highly regarded Xonar HDAV 1.3, the first audio solution in the world to enable passing via lossless digital audio on PC platforms. This device marks the only solution for Home Theater Personal Computers in the new Blu-ray era.

C-Media has been highly successful in the computer hardware industry, a company that can hang its hat on a long line of firsts. Some of its most notable innovations include the first single-chip USB audio control with a built-in power amplifier, the first driver-based implementation of Dolby Virtual Speaker and Dolby Headphone, as well as the first software implementation of Dolby Digital Live. The company also boasts the title as the company to deliver the first completely qualified solution for HD audio. These cutting edge innovations can be attributed to the fact it has one of the most experienced development and software teams in the entire industry.

Considering the track record, the sky appears to be the limit for C-Media and the company is showing no signs of slowing down soon. With a number of patents under its belt and several others pending, the company hints that even more industry firsts are to come in the very near future.

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Established in 1984, Cirrus Logic is a fabless semiconductor company that specializes in analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits for a wide range of industrial and consumer markets. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Cirrus has more than 900 patents for a line of approximately 600 products to serve well over 3,000 end-users across the world. Its technologies are relied on by industry-leading names such as Harman International, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung and Sony.

In the early, 1990s, Cirrus was a leading manufacturer of affordable PC graphics chips. Its Microsoft Windows 2D GUI accelerators were highly acclaimed as some of the fastest and most affordable on the market, outperforming VGA-chips from competitors like Western Digital, Trident Microsystems and Oak Technologies. The Cirrus graphics chip, the GD5422, supported hardware acceleration for 8-bit and 16-bit color, making it one of the lowest-priced VGA controllers to offer support for both. In the mid to late 1990s, it was one of a handful of companies to deliver a VGA controller for 3dfx’s Voodoo Rush 3D-accelerator card. To the current day, Cirrus chipsets help to power a number of notebook and desktop PCs.

The Cirrus product line is quite extensive and robust. Aside from a broad range of integrated circuits targeted at industrial and consumer markets, it also features high–precision ICs for automotive entertainment applications and electrical solutions in digital power meters and seismic systems. Cirrus audio processors and converters can be found in a number of professional consumer products including home-theater receivers, portable media players, television sets and set-top hardware. There was a time when the company designed and marketed hard disk controller chips, modem controllers, CD drive controller chips, PC graphics chips and PC soundcard controllers. A highly successful portfolio of Cirrus ICs and processors has made this company one of the most recognizable names in the industry.

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