Actix Systems
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computer hardware |
| Founded | 1 January 1990 in Santa Clara, California, United States |
| Founder | Stephen W. Cheng |
| Defunct | 1998 |
| Headquarters | Sunnyvale, California , United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Stephen W. Cheng (Founder) |
| Products | Graphics adapters (GUI accelerators, GraphicsEngine series) |
Number of employees | 27 (1996) |
Actix Systems, Inc., an American manufacturer of graphics adapters, operated from 1990 until 1998 and was headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area. Established by Stephen W. Cheng, the firm initially concentrated on producing GUI accelerators, quickly establishing itself as a significant contributor within this specialized market.[1] By the middle of the 1990s, Actix broadened its product line to include general-purpose graphics adapters marketed under the GraphicsEngine label.
Establishment and Early Years (1990–1992)
In 1990, Stephen W. Cheng founded Actix Systems in Santa Clara, California. Born in Chiayi in 1945, Cheng held an M.D./Ph.D. from Texas A&M School of Medicine and had accumulated experience in both technical and leadership roles at companies such as Mostek, Wang Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, and Digital Equipment Corporation prior to launching Actix. His multifaceted expertise guided the company’s emphasis on developing cutting-edge graphics adapter technology.[2]
The company focused on GUI accelerators designed to boost graphical user interface performance by enhancing color fidelity and screen resolution. Actix was among the pioneers in this product category.[3] Their debut offering, the Tiger 10 (released August 1991), targeted business users running Windows 3.0 and incorporated proprietary drivers alongside Texas Instruments TIGA processors capable of supporting VGA through Super VGA resolutions at refresh rates reaching 90 MHz.[4]
In September 1991, Actix introduced the Quantum VGA, a GUI accelerator built around S3 Incorporated's 86C911 chipset.[5][6][7] This product was well-received for its ability to notably enhance performance on systems with less powerful CPUs.[8]
Subsequently, Actix launched the HiColor Spectra Board aimed at consumers; this adapter utilized Tseng Labs' ET4000 chipset combined with a Sierra RAMDAC to increase color depth capabilities from 256 colors up to 32,768.[9][10]
GraphicsEngine series (1992–1998)
Actix introduced the GraphicsEngine VGA adapters in January 1992, utilizing the GUI accelerator chip developed by S3. Two versions were available, equipped with 512 KB and 1 MB of video memory respectively, supporting display resolutions up to 1024×768 at 4-bit color depth and 1280×960 at 8-bit color depth. In March of the same year, the company unveiled the GraphicsEngine Display Accelerator, which delivered 16-bit color at a resolution of 1280×1024, employing the same RAMDAC as featured in the HiColor Spectra. Although reviews in PC Magazine were varied, InfoWorld praised it as the fastest accelerator in the low-end GUI category.
By the end of 1993, Actix had expanded its operations to a larger facility in Santa Clara, increasing its staff to 20 employees—double the count from the previous year. The business reported $9 million in revenue for that year but maintained a low profile regarding internal operations.
In mid-1993, Actix launched its first VESA Local Bus product, the GraphicsEngine 32VL. This advancement allowed direct interfacing with the Intel i486 memory bus, substantially enhancing graphics throughput compared to the traditional Industry Standard Architecture bus. The following year, Actix released PCI-based graphics cards—the GraphicsEngine 64 PCI and Ultra 64 PCI—leveraging Intel’s emerging high-bandwidth motherboard standard that rapidly became prevalent in the market.
Among Actix’s later releases was the GraphicsEngine Ultra AV in 1995, built around S3’s Vision968 chipset and equipped with a Texas Instruments RAMDAC. This model supported display resolutions reaching 1600×1200 pixels. By 1996, Actix reported annual sales totaling $17 million and had relocated to Sunnyvale, California, with a workforce of 27 employees. Plans emerged in 1997 to transition into enterprise video conferencing solutions; however, these initiatives did not come to fruition, culminating in Actix filing for dissolution in California in 1998.
- ↑ Dvorak, John C. (March 17, 1994). "Quicker but streamlined PowerMac wave of future". The Vancouver Sun: 62 – via Newspapers.com.
- ↑ "Transpacific 100: Stephen Cheng". Transpacific (67): 22 et seq. October 1996 – via Gale.
- ↑ "Windows accelerator board: new 70 MHz/0 wait-state board increases Windows performance by three to five times". EDGE. 3 (96). EDGE Publishing: 20. March 23, 1992 – via Gale.
- ↑ Rohrbough, Linda (August 13, 1991). "New graphics board makes Windows twice as fast". Newsbytes. The Washington Post Company – via Gale.
- ↑ "Minigrams". Computergram International. GlobalData. September 6, 1991 – via Gale.
- ↑ Harbert, Tammi (October 17, 1991). "Graphics board makers anoint Microsoft; but IBM's register-conscious graphics modes will live on as developers tie in to the CPU bus". EDN. 36 (21A). UBM Canon: 1 et seq. – via Gale.
- ↑ Joch, Alan (January 1992). "Tweaking Windows". Byte. 17 (1). McGraw-Hill: 250 – via Gale.
- ↑ Canning, Jim (November 18, 1991). "Actix's Quantum VGA adapter jump starts Windows". InfoWorld. 13 (46). IDG Publications: 109 – via Google Books.
- ↑ O'Brien, Bill (September 1991). "Abundant color: Actix HiColor Spectra Board". PC Sources. 2 (9). Ziff-Davis: 309 – via Gale.
- ↑ Betts, Kellyn (March 17, 1992). =6wZXSf0Yg78C&pg =PT376 "Actix GraphicsEngine Display Accelerator". PC Magazine. 11 (5). Ziff-Davis: 359 – via Google Books.
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