CALENDAR OF EVENTS IN 1995

December 1995

• Worldwide user base of Sound Blaster products exceeds 20 million

November 1995

• At Comdex Fall '95 in Las Vegas, Creative made the following announcements:
  • The 3D Blaster PCI version is unveiled to demonstrate its powerful 3D rasterization capabilities that brings workstation-level 3D graphics performance to the Pentium-based PC at consumer pricing. Plug-n-Play ready, the PCI-based product is fully compatible with Windows 95, Windows 3.1 and DOS systems.
  • In line with its long-term goal to provide affordable high-performance communication and multimedia solutions to the widest possible audience, Creative reduces pricing for its ShareVision desktop video conferencing products to under US$1,000. The estimated street price for ShareVision PC3000 is US$999, and the same product without the color camera will be available at US$799.
  • To enable interoperatibility between different video conferencing systems, ShareVision products will support the H.324 video conferencing standard for analog phone line as well as the new T.120 specifications for data sharing in whiteboards and application sharing.
  • Creative offers a complete range of high-speed, convenient PC communications products that allow users to overcome time and distance barriers when they wish to share data or applications, transfer files or play PC games with friends while simultaneously carrying on a conversation. Product releases include Modem Blaster 28.8 PCMCIA for mobile PC users, Modem Blaster 28.8 PnP; Modem Blaster 28.8 DSVD; and the Phone Blaster 28.8 DSVD that provides an all-in-one telephony solution for users to share, discuss and collaborate on Windows applications in real time over a single phone line.

August 1995

• Creative introduces a comprehensive new entertainment platform that supports Windows '95 with Plug-and-Play capabilities and offers an immersive 3D gaming experience. This new platform combines three major components of the Blaster family of technologies including:
  • Creative's 3D audio available with Sound Blaster AWE32 PnP audio card
  • 3D Blaster, Creative's latest 3D gaming card
  • Creative's 28.8, V.34 Digital Simultaneous Voice and Data (DSVD) modem
• Creative launches 3D Blaster™, the world's first 3D game card which will transform the home PC into the ultimate gaming machine. A high performance add-in board, 3D Blaster will bring the excitement and visual realism of today's most advanced 3D arcade games into the home PC.
• Blasterware™ software product line is set on a new initiative in enabling the development of software titles that will take advantage of Creative's 3D audio and 3D graphics technologies.
• Creative announces CQM™ - Creative Quadratic Modulation - a new audio technology that delivers richer quality sound than the traditional FM music synthesis, and at a lower cost.
• Creative begins production of its own 6x-speed CD-ROM drives, which offers a significant jump in performance to enhance users' multimedia experience and improve productivity in CD-ROM usage.

June 1995

• Creative sets up Creative Labs Sdn Bhd., a new subsidiary office located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to support local sales, marketing and technical needs.

May 1995

• Creative and Asymetrix Corporation, leading provider of Windows-based tools for multimedia development and client-server solutions, jointly announce the launch of multimedia software and hardware superbundle, Sound Blaster Multimedia DesignWorks, which is designed to deliver unprecedented value to the multimedia application development market.
• Reinforcing its commitment to provide high value communications products to the SOHO (Small Office Home Office) market, Creative unveils Phone Blaster, an all-in-one telephone management system for the PC that incorporates voice, modem and fax features and to give the small office the telecommunication capabilities of a large corporation and the user the benefit of cost savings and enhanced productivity.
• Creative announces a strategic partnership with Telecom Equipment (Singapore) to bring the latest in world class multimedia telecommunications solutions to corporate and consumer markets
• Creative Technology and Ngee Ann Polytechnic jointly announce the winners of the Creative Ngee Ann Multimedia Awards '95 in conjunction with the launch of Intermedia Asia '95 tradeshow. The Creative Ngee Ann Multimedia Awards '95 is Singapore's first nationally organized multimedia competition. Launched in mid-January, the national competition received tremendous response with more than 80 entries.

April 1995

• Creative introduces a 3D Audio Developer's Kit which allows game developers to provide advanced spatialization sound capabilities in their new games. The developer's kit will further extend the widely adopted Sound Blaster industry standard for playing enhanced sounds on PCs.
• Creative Technology introduces two innovative multimedia music courseware packages for music education - Creative BlasterKeys and Sound Blaster AWE32 Home Music Studio. The interactive music courseware found in both packages enables users to learn to play, arrange, compose and produce music at the PC, in their own time and at their own pace.

March 1995

• Creative announces Video Blaster SE100, a video overlay and capture board that brings powerful video capabilities to a broad audience and provides the PC with an interface to a wide range of video devices such as VCRs, camcorders and laserdisc players.
• Creative's Blasterware title "A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking: An Interactive Adventure" wins the Best CD-ROM Literature award at the inaugural Digital Hollywood Awards and is nominated to receive a 1995 Software Publisher Association (SPA) Cody Award for Excellence in Software.
• Creative introduces Sound Blaster Multimedia Home 4x, the cost-effective upgrade kit for both edutainment and productivity markets. The kit includes an internal quad-speed CD-ROM drive, Sound Blaster 16, speakers, hands-free microphone and 24 software titles.
• Creative releases TVCoder External, an external video output unit that features up to 16.7 million colors and allows users to connect a PC or notebook computer to virtually any video display device, including a television, RGB projector and VCR. Portable and easy to use, TV Coder External is the simple solution in bringing full multimedia presentations to any video display unit.

February 1995

• Creative announces its worldwide manufacturing plant in Singapore has been awarded ISO 9002 certification for its quality management system by the Singapore Institute of Standards and Industrial Research (SISIR).
• Creative revamps the highly popular Sound Blaster Discovery CD multimedia kit to combine Sound Blaster 16 technology with added educational and entertainment software titles from EA*Kids and ORIGIN Systems respectively, two subdivisions of Electronic Arts and T/Maker Company.

January 1995

• Creative adds Wave Blaster II to the expanding Sound Blaster line of multimedia products. Using E-mu Systems' patented EMU8000 chip, Wave Blaster II is a general MIDI wavetable synthesis daughterboard for the upgradeable series of Sound Blaster 16 cards. Wave Blaster II provides 2MB ROM of samples including 128 instrument and sound effects and over 400 percussion sounds; and supports general MIDI, Sound Canvas and MT-32 sound sets.
• Creative announces that ShareVision PC3000 has been selected as an Innovations '95 award-winning product at 1995 Winter Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held in Las Vegas. Innovations is one of the consumer electronics industry's most recognized awards for design and engineering of electronic hardware and software consumer products.
• Creative introduces the first cross-platform desktop video conferencing product, ShareVision Mac3000 for the Macintosh. ShareVision Mac3000 supports cross-platform connectivity between Macintosh and PC-based computers over regular telephone lines.