Difference between revisions of "Acer Cloud Technology"

From Rare Gaming Dump
(19 intermediate revisions by 3 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
[[File:Logo-RouteFree.png|200px|thumb|Logo used from RouteFree.]]
+
<gallery perrow=1 mode=nolines style="float: right">
[[File:Logo-BroadOn.png|200px|thumb|Logo used for BroadOn.]]
+
File:Logo-Acer.png
[[File:Logo-iGware.png|200px|thumb|Logo used for iGware.]]
+
File:Logo-iGware.png
[[File:Logo-Acer.png|200px|thumb|Logo used for Acer.]]
+
File:Logo-BroadOn.png
 +
File:Logo-RouteFree.png
 +
</gallery>'''Acer Cloud Technology''' (their acquisitions formerly known as '''iGware''', '''BroadOn''', and '''RouteFree''') is a software engineering company that contributed to hardware, software, and online platform development for several of Nintendo's consoles. It was launched in April 2000 as RouteFree, and was subsequently renamed to BroadOn in 2003 and iGware in 2009. The company merged with Acer in 2011 with a $320 million deal and became Acer Cloud Computing. It was founded by a Chinese-American entrepreneur named [[Wei Yen]] who had previously worked on the N64 and GameCube hardware development teams at [[Silicon Graphics]] and [[ArtX]] respectively. It was a privately held startup company, with 50 employees at its peak.
  
'''BroadOn''' (formerly known as '''RouteFree''' and later known as '''iGware''') was a company that helped Nintendo with network services, the Wii's [[IOS]], device management, and more. It was launched in April 2000 (probably April 13, 2000, the day that [[AiLive]] was launched). The company merged with Acer Cloud Computing in 2011 with a $320 million deal. It was founded by a Chinese-American person named Wei Yen. BroadOn was a privately held startup company, with 50 employees at its peak.
+
__TOC__
 +
== Location ==
  
Not much is known about the company, but it's where a lot of development for Nintendo's console features took place. The company didn't have a quality assurance team. We have gathered data from their employees' LinkedIn profiles. Their office was originally in Palo Alto, California (which is now used as the offices for Nest, a company that makes thermostats, smoke detectors, etc.) and then moved to Mountain View, California (which is now used for a school owned by Khan Academy called [https://khanlabschool.org/ Khan Lab School]).
+
RouteFree's office was originally in Palo Alto, California (which is now used as the offices for Nest, a Google brand) and then moved to Mountain View, California (which is now used for a school owned by Khan Academy called [https://khanlabschool.org/ Khan Lab School]).
  
BroadOn originally worked on the iQue Player (Chinese version of the Nintendo 64). The console has finally been hacked and the ROMs and the SDK for it have been released in 2018.
+
== Name change ==
  
The logos for the company were heavily subpar. The RouteFree and BroadOn logos are basic logos with Times New Roman as the font, and iGware using Arial as the font.
+
It is unknown why RouteFree was renamed to BroadOn. It was changed again from BroadOn to iGware, most likely due to a lawsuit between Broadcom and BroadOn, possibly relating to their name and/or the chip manufacturing business.
  
The name of the company was changed to iGware probably because, we found a court case between BroadOn and Broadcom (a company that makes chips, not the kind you snack on), so they might have been forced to change their name because it was similar. The court case could also be a patent infringement because BroadOn also made chips, maybe?
+
== Contributions to Nintendo products ==
  
When BroadOn merged with Acer Cloud Computing, the NUS service they made was reused for deploying cloud apps. The domain they use on SOAP requests is "nus.wsapi.broadon.com", and continued to be used even after they were called iGware.
+
BroadOn's influence on Nintendo products dates as far back as 2002, when development on the [[iQue Player]] begun; at this point, BroadOn still used the RouteFree name. However, prior to this, BroadOn's founder [[Wei Yen]] had contributed to the hardware development of the Nintendo 64 and the Nintendo GameCube, which is why BroadOn was selected by Nintendo for new hardware platform development. BroadOn contributed heavily to the hardware and software development of the iQue Player, creating its SDK and e-commerce services. In April 2018, the scene release group SUXXORS released the iQue Player SDK and plain-text iQue Player titles, marking the second known leak of internal BroadOn files (the first was [https://github.com/iversonjimmy/acer_cloud_wifi_copy this leak]).
 +
 
 +
BroadOn went on to develop much of the Wii's software infrastructure and some of its hardware, providing the [[IOP]] (commonly known as "Starlet") unit inside the Wii's GPU package as well as its software environment, [[IOS]]. This provides the backbone for most of the Wii's features which were not present in the GameCube, such as wireless connectivity and flash memory access. BroadOn also developed most of the Wii's e-commerce infrastructure, with [[Wii Shop Channel]] and [[Nintendo DSi Shop]] pages containing references to Acer Cloud Technology as they had been updated to extend their copyright up to 2014.
 +
 
 +
BroadOn contributed to the DSi's e-commerce environment as well, although their role in the DSi's overall software infrastructure is unknown, but the system works similar to the Wii.
 +
 
 +
BroadOn had some influence in the development of the 3DS' and Wii U's software/e-commerce infrastructure (as iGware), although it is unknown to what extent they were involved due to the 2011 Acer merger.
 +
 
 +
While BroadOn's successor did not have any direct influence in the development of the Nintendo Switch or later platforms, the software concepts which they introduced as early as the iQue Player still remain in Nintendo's latest software environments.
 +
 
 +
== Security Issues ==
 +
 
 +
BroadOn and Nintendo made several security mistakes in the software which they developed for the Wii and other platforms. One such example is the [[Trucha Bug]].
 +
 
 +
== Domain ==
 +
 
 +
When BroadOn merged with Acer Cloud Computing, the NUS service they made was reused for deploying cloud apps for Acer devices. The domain they use on SOAP requests is "nus.wsapi.broadon.com", and continued to be used even after they were called iGware.
 +
 
 +
[[Category:Wii]]
 +
 
 +
{{Template:CompanyNavbox}}
 +
 
 +
[[Category:Companies]]

Revision as of 19:32, 10 September 2019

Acer Cloud Technology (their acquisitions formerly known as iGware, BroadOn, and RouteFree) is a software engineering company that contributed to hardware, software, and online platform development for several of Nintendo's consoles. It was launched in April 2000 as RouteFree, and was subsequently renamed to BroadOn in 2003 and iGware in 2009. The company merged with Acer in 2011 with a $320 million deal and became Acer Cloud Computing. It was founded by a Chinese-American entrepreneur named Wei Yen who had previously worked on the N64 and GameCube hardware development teams at Silicon Graphics and ArtX respectively. It was a privately held startup company, with 50 employees at its peak.

Location

RouteFree's office was originally in Palo Alto, California (which is now used as the offices for Nest, a Google brand) and then moved to Mountain View, California (which is now used for a school owned by Khan Academy called Khan Lab School).

Name change

It is unknown why RouteFree was renamed to BroadOn. It was changed again from BroadOn to iGware, most likely due to a lawsuit between Broadcom and BroadOn, possibly relating to their name and/or the chip manufacturing business.

Contributions to Nintendo products

BroadOn's influence on Nintendo products dates as far back as 2002, when development on the iQue Player begun; at this point, BroadOn still used the RouteFree name. However, prior to this, BroadOn's founder Wei Yen had contributed to the hardware development of the Nintendo 64 and the Nintendo GameCube, which is why BroadOn was selected by Nintendo for new hardware platform development. BroadOn contributed heavily to the hardware and software development of the iQue Player, creating its SDK and e-commerce services. In April 2018, the scene release group SUXXORS released the iQue Player SDK and plain-text iQue Player titles, marking the second known leak of internal BroadOn files (the first was this leak).

BroadOn went on to develop much of the Wii's software infrastructure and some of its hardware, providing the IOP (commonly known as "Starlet") unit inside the Wii's GPU package as well as its software environment, IOS. This provides the backbone for most of the Wii's features which were not present in the GameCube, such as wireless connectivity and flash memory access. BroadOn also developed most of the Wii's e-commerce infrastructure, with Wii Shop Channel and Nintendo DSi Shop pages containing references to Acer Cloud Technology as they had been updated to extend their copyright up to 2014.

BroadOn contributed to the DSi's e-commerce environment as well, although their role in the DSi's overall software infrastructure is unknown, but the system works similar to the Wii.

BroadOn had some influence in the development of the 3DS' and Wii U's software/e-commerce infrastructure (as iGware), although it is unknown to what extent they were involved due to the 2011 Acer merger.

While BroadOn's successor did not have any direct influence in the development of the Nintendo Switch or later platforms, the software concepts which they introduced as early as the iQue Player still remain in Nintendo's latest software environments.

Security Issues

BroadOn and Nintendo made several security mistakes in the software which they developed for the Wii and other platforms. One such example is the Trucha Bug.

Domain

When BroadOn merged with Acer Cloud Computing, the NUS service they made was reused for deploying cloud apps for Acer devices. The domain they use on SOAP requests is "nus.wsapi.broadon.com", and continued to be used even after they were called iGware.