aLi

Lore & Background

The company was founded in 1987, and later spun off from Acer group in 1993. Its president is Teddy Lu. Part of ALi including the personal computer integrated circuits business was spun off as ULi Electronics Inc. in June 2003. ULi was acquired by Nvidia in 2006 for $52 million.

In Their Own Story

The arena lights were dim, the crowd a low hum of anticipation behind the glass. The monitor glow painted aLi's face in cool blue, and the headset sat just slightly loose on one ear. The series was two-one down, the crowd across the stage had started their slow, rhythmic chanting. aLi peeled one ear off the cup, took a breath that lasted a full four seconds, and set it back on. No words to the team. Just a small nod, a reset of the crosshair or the cursor, and then the next round began. The room exhaled. The C9 side of the stage went quiet in a way that was louder than any cheer. That was the moment fans would later describe as "the aLi reset" — not a play, not a kill, just a player choosing stillness when everything around him was screaming for panic. The series came back. The highlight reels would show the clutch rounds. But the people who were there remembered the breath.

Reader's Guide

ALi produces chipsets for various CPU sockets, VGA controllers, video decoders, PC peripherals (SuperIO chips, USB/FireWire chips, PCI IDE controllers, sound, USB controllers, flash drive controllers, cardreaders, digital audio player controllers, RTC chips), and embedded systems (M6117, M6032, M6759 microcontrollers).

Did You Know?

• ALi was originally a subsidiary of the Acer group.
• The company spun off its PC integrated circuits business as ULi Electronics in June 2003.
• ULi was acquired by Nvidia in 2006 for $52 million.
• ALi's M6117 is a single-chip implementation of an Intel 386SX compatible microprocessor subsystem.