computer science

Alaris, Inc.

Alaris, Inc. is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Alaris, Inc. rather than just read about it. In short: Alaris, Inc., was an American computer hardware and software vendor active from 1991 to 2002. During the first half of its existence, the company sold high-performance x86- and PowerPC-based motherboards (manufactured by IBM) as either aftermarket upgrades for consumers or for OEMs to put in their own computer systems.

Key takeaways

Alaris, Inc. belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Alaris, Inc. to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Alaris, Inc. from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Alaris, Inc., was an American computer hardware and software vendor active from 1991 to 2002. During the first half of its existence, the company sold high-performance x86- and PowerPC-based motherboards (manufactured by IBM) as either aftermarket upgrades for consumers or for OEMs to put in their own computer systems. Alaris also briefly sold its own computer systems. In 1996, the company pivoted to software, releasing the Videogram suite of video compression software intended for low-bandwidth websites and email. In 2002, the company was acquired in whole by a Japanese electronics conglomerate.

History

Hardware products (1991–1996)

Alaris, Inc., was founded by Raymond Yu and Philip Lau in Fremont, California, in 1991, as a producer of high-performance motherboards for personal computers. Both Yu and Lau had worked as executives for Everex Systems (Yu as VP of engineering and Lau as treasurer) in the 1980s. Everex was another Fremont-based computer hardware manufacturer, which found market success in the early 1980s as a vendor of IBM PC–compatible computer systems and expansion cards before faltering in the early 1990s, culminating in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1993. The two operated Alaris in stealth mode for the first two years of its existence before announcing its first products in 1993. Yu and Lau positioned the company as a design and manufacturing firm to support systems integrators who wanted to avoid investing in hardware development capabilities themselves. Their initial business model focused on providing clients with early access to cutting-edge technologies through partnerships designed for very high volume manufacturing and global distribution. This strategy came at a time when the PC industry in the early 1990s had been shifting away from prioritizing hardware, which had mostly become a commodity, in favor of software and services. Alaris announced its first products, comprising a line of IBM PC compatibles, in March 1993. Later in the same month, Alaris signed a contract with IBM for the latter to produce PC-compatible motherboards based on Alaris's specifications from IBM's Microelectronics plants in Burlington, Vermont, and Charlotte, North Carolina. Alaris's motherboards initially made exclusive use of IBM's 486SLC line of processors, a licensed clone of Intel's i486SX which IBM introduced in 1992. Alaris paid IBM US$127 million for the contract, representing a total shipment of several hundred thousands of motherboards. Yu had previously considered Solectron and SCI Systems as manufacturers of their motherboards but ultimately turned to IBM for their more rigorous testing services and three-year warranty program. By 1994, Alaris was one of IBM's largest customers, as well as one of the most popular vendors of IBM's x86-based processors. Said Yu the previous year: "I don't consider [IBM] a contractor. I consider them a partner". Alaris' first motherboard, the Leopard, was announced in July 1993 and began shipping later in the year. The motherboard was equipped with the 486SLC2 clocked at 66 MHz, featured eight ISA slots (two with VLB extensions), and was upgradable to 16 MB of RAM. In August 1993, Alaris announced the fully 32-bit Cougar motherboard, which came equipped with IBM's "Blue Lightning" 486BL processor clocked at 75 MHz (25 MHz internal bus) onto a socket supporting an optional aftermarket Pentium OverDrive, seven ISA expansion slots (two with VLB expansions, one of which is preoccupied with a VLB disk controller card), and an i387SX math coprocessor. The Cougar was incorporated onto Alaris' first computer system, the Alaris Cougar EnergySmart PC BL3X/75, released in the summer of 1994. The computer system received generally positive reviews in InfoWorld and PC Magazine, with writer Tom Albano of the latter publication considering it superior to IBM's own Ambra Lightning 100 system, despite the latter's processor being clocked faster at 100 MHz. In April 1994, Alaris introduced the successor to the original Leopard, the Leopard Plus, which shipped with the same 486SLC2 processor clocked at 66 MHz but put it on a Pentium OverDrive socket like the Cougar and added an additional VLB slot, a flash-upgradable BIOS ROM, a COAST slot for extra processor cache, and optimized support for the company's EnergySmart power conservation software. In June 1994, Alaris became one of the first computer systems manufacturers outside the Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance to announce a desktop computer system based on the PowerPC platform. The company slated their PowerPC offerings for a late 1994 release, pending the delivery of the PowerPC version of IBM's OS/2 (later released as Workplace OS in 1995), as well as Microsoft's Windows NT 3.5 for PowerPC. In November 1994, Alaris introduced the Cian line of upgradable computers, which had the ability to change the computer bus between multiple standards through a riser card on the motherboard. One such option was to upgrade the bus from x86 and ISA to PowerPC and PCI. In fall 1994, Alaris became the first company to ship a computer with NexGen's Nx586 processor, which was a competitor to Intel's Pentium processor manufactured at IBM Microelectronics in Burlington. Their partnership was announced in July 1994, with the first computers, based on the 60- and 66-MHz Nx586 processor, slated for a September 1994 release. In August 1994, Alaris upgraded the terms of their agreement with NexGen, with Alaris becoming NexGen's primary developer of motherboard specifications and other hardware products for OEMs. By late 1994, Alaris had released VLB computer systems with 90- and 100-MHz versions of the Nx586. In 1995, they delivered a 100-MHz Nx586 system. Alaris supplied NexGen-based motherboards to several other computer systems manufacturers during this time, including Aberdeen, Inc.; Blackship Computer Systems; Datastor; Duracom Computer Systems; Maximus Computer Systems; and Tangent Computer. Alaris announced their first graphics card with the Stinger in November 1994. Released in the following January, the Stinger is a 64-bit PCI card based on S3's Vision864 GPU; with the stock 1 MB of VRAM, it supports up to 24-bit color at a 800-by-600-pixel resolution or 8-bit color at 1024-by-768-pixel resolution. With 2 MB of VRAM, the Stinger supports a maximum resolution of 1600 by 1200 pixels. Alaris followed up the Stinger with the Matinee, also PCI-based and which came with 2-MB of VRAM stock.

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Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Alaris, Inc.

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Alaris, Inc. claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Alaris, Inc. before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Alaris, Inc. ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Alaris, Inc.

In research: Alaris, Inc. appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Alaris, Inc. in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Alaris, Inc. is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1991 establishments in California, 2002 disestablishments in California, American companies disestablished in 2002, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Alaris, Inc. outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Alaris, Inc. in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Alaris, Inc. means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Alaris, Inc. out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Alaris, Inc. in simple terms?

Why does Alaris, Inc. matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Alaris, Inc.?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Alaris, Inc..