Sim Wong Hoo, founding father of Sound Blaster maker Inventive Labs, has died
Sim Wong Hoo, who based Sound Blaster producer Inventive Know-how in 1981 and remained at its head ever since, has died. A assertion (opens in new tab) launched by the corporate stated Sim “handed away peacefully” on January 4.
Inventive Know-how—generally known as Inventive Labs in North America—was a groundbreaking participant within the early days of PC gaming due to its long-running sequence of audio playing cards. After initially launching because the Inventive Music System in 1987, the well-known Sound Blaster line debuted in 1989, and rapidly took over the market: Advert Lib, which previous to the arrival of Sound Blaster playing cards was the efficient commonplace for PC gaming audio, misplaced a lot floor so rapidly that it was compelled to file for chapter in 1992.
The Sound Blaster sequence developed by a number of generations after the discharge of that first card. My second sound card (mockingly, changing an Advert Lib) was a Sound Blaster Professional, which got here out in 1991 and helped push the corporate’s international revenues to properly over $1 billion by the mid-Nineteen Nineties.
The arrival of onboard audio later took a giant chunk out of consumer-level sound card gross sales, and Inventive’s efforts to maneuver into different applied sciences, like CD-ROM drives and video accelerators, did not catch hearth. However the firm discovered continued success by refocusing its efforts on specialty audio, together with high-end sound {hardware}—the Sound Blaster AE-9 actually impressed us when it launched in 2019—and audio system.
An audio legacy
Inventive is an organization that has change into synonymous with pc audio through the years, to such an extent that I doubt there are lots of of us that have not used a pair of Inventive audio system or caught a sound card from the corporate inside their machine sooner or later. I had a set of the go-to Encourage T10 audio system once I went to college they usually nonetheless promote that precise mannequin to today. I additionally nonetheless have a Sound Blaster sound card in my PC, and as a baby/teen I even had a Inventive Zen MP3 participant. I suppose I can thank Mr Sim for that long-lasting audio legacy.
– Jacob Ridley, senior {hardware} editor
Inventive can also be notable for squaring off with Apple—and successful—in a 2006 patent dispute over Apple’s scorching new invention, the iPod. Inventive had its personal lineup of Zen audio gamers on the time, and these had an interface for scrolling by your library of music that Apple fairly favored for its personal. In the end, the 2 corporations settled for a $100 million fee out of pocket, and Mr. Sim’s firm walked away that a lot richer. Admittedly Apple would have the final snigger contemplating its success with the iPod thereafter, however Inventive continued to construct loads of PC merchandise we use to today, even when its Zen music participant had a restricted shelf life.
“I’ve identified and labored with Mr. Sim for over 30 years,” interim CEO Tune Siow Hui stated in a press release. “This can be a unhappy and sudden growth and we really feel an important loss.”
A message (opens in new tab) posted on the Inventive web site says Sim was “a visionary, inventor, and entrepreneur who gave the PC a voice. He shall be deeply missed.”
A reason for demise was not launched by the corporate. Sim was 67 years outdated.
