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Unfortunately, SONICblue did not have a clear game plan with how to promote the Rio Car. Rio did little to market it and soon left it to languish. Despite their owners' strong devotion to the product, sales of new units were modest and on
September 24, 2001 SONICblue discontinued the line. Fewer than
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Prices started at $ 1,100 US for the 4GB version, reaching up to $ 2,400 for a 28GB unit that utilized two laptop drives (which was considered very large capacity at the time). The Empeg Car garnered quite a following and became beloved among the small group of users who bought one.
61:, and serial port connections. Initial production was limited to 400 units, after which the "mark II" version of the product, suitable for larger scale production, was to be offered from late 2000 onwards at an estimated starting price of around £900.
144:, including all of the Empeg technology, and all of the patents, source code, and designs related to the Rio audio players. The former Empeg employees as well as other Rio technical employees are now employed by SigmaTel at their
49:-based operating system, employing a 150 MHz Cyrix processor that was later upgraded to a 166 MHz Pentium, the Empeg Car was built around a system employing a
91:. The original British development team was rolled into the company and eventually took responsibility for all audio software development at SONICblue.
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players developed. Originating in a personal project to build an in-car system that could perform MP3 playback in software, a
British company called
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83:- took notice of the unit and decided the Empeg Car would fit into its plans. On November 1, 2000 Empeg was acquired by
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Most of the resources, including people, code, and design work, behind the Empeg Car went into the following products:
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was formed in July 1998 to build a commercial version of the concept, this becoming available for sale in August 1999.
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140:, and several recent flash memory players. In 2005, D&M sold all of their audio player technology to
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to MP3s and stored them on an internal hard drive. Supported Rio
Receivers as clients.
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Although the original project employed an embedded PC board from
Advantech running a
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processor. Transfer of MP3 tracks to the player was facilitated by the provision of
105:- Network enabled client for streaming music off a computer to anywhere in the home
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line of MP3 portables by purchasing
Diamond and the Rave-MP line by purchasing
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Three Years in
Embedded Linux: A Talk with Hugo Fiennes and Marc Merlin
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SONICblue went bankrupt in 2003, but the Rio division was purchased by
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132:. The former Empeg employees still with Rio went on to produce the
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The Mark 2 player used the SA-1100-DA variant, according to the
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225:"MP3 meets Car Audio: Empeg Mark II in-dash Car MP3 Player"
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Heffernan, Cameron; Crotty, Cameron (November 1999).
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378:- Home of the empeg FAQ, and other empeg information
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402:- Article about Hugo Fiennes's Career (from 2009)
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400:From Warwick University to Apple Inc California
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279:"Sonicblue picks up audio manufacturer empeg"
169:"Engineers drive craze for MP3 audio players"
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75:company that had already acquired both the
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396:- About the empeg and Rio Car (from 2001)
384:- Hugo Fiennes's first in car MP3 player
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356:Diamond Rio Buys Car MP3 Player Company
198:"Whatever happened to... Hugo Fiennes?"
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223:Lal Shimpi, Anand (September 2000).
305:"Rio owner quits MP3 player market"
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371:unofficial empeg discussion boards
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349:
277:Shim, Richard (5 November 2000).
95:6000 players were ever produced.
252:"You Say You Want a Revolution"
111:- A home stereo component that
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303:Smith, Tony (30 August 2005).
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1:
196:Bailey, Alasdair (May 2000).
167:Clarke, Peter (2 June 1999).
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87:and the unit was renamed the
124:- Portable 20gb music player
34:was one of the first in-car
7:
258:. pp. 199–203, 206–207
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27:Early in-car MP3 player
390:- (rather out of date)
388:Hugo Fiennes home page
85:SONICblue Incorporated
416:Digital audio players
421:Linux-based devices
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366:empeg home page
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360:MP3 Newswire
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309:The Register
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176:. Retrieved
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103:Rio Receiver
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44:
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29:
109:Rio Central
410:Categories
376:Riocar.org
340:user guide
314:14 October
288:14 October
202:Acorn User
152:References
146:Austin, TX
138:Rio Carbon
382:MP3Mobile
229:AnandTech
148:offices.
134:Rio Karma
122:Rio Karma
69:SONICblue
51:StrongARM
32:Empeg Car
256:PC World
235:13 March
142:SigmaTel
59:Ethernet
362:article
173:EETimes
89:Rio Car
18:Rio Car
262:22 May
208:22 May
178:22 May
136:, the
113:ripped
326:Notes
283:ZDNet
47:Linux
40:Empeg
316:2022
290:2022
264:2022
237:2023
210:2022
180:2022
30:The
116:CDs
77:Rio
55:USB
36:MP3
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73:S3
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