The Creative Advanced Technology Center is Creative's primary advanced research and development center, working on leading-edge technology for Creative's PC and Personal Digital Entertainment products.

Creative's name has long been associated with its audio technology, from the pioneering Soundblaster cards to the latest SB-Live! and portable Nomad MP3 players. Not surprisingly, much of our focus is on audio technology in all its aspects, from algorithm research through VLSI architecture and development, to software APIs and applications such as Environmental Audio and Oozic (formerly LAVA!)

ATC provides value to Creative in several significant ways:

We design proprietary chips that give Creative an edge over the competition in terms of performance, functionality, and cost. By having access to product-specific silicon, Creative has a distinct advantage over many of its competitors who are limited to using standard off-the-shelf components.

In support of the custom silicon, we also develop software in the form of drivers, API's and applications, for both Windows and MacOS platforms, as well as for embedded applications such as portable MP3 players like Jukebox.

We provide reference designs for innovative new products - the Nomad Jukebox is a recent example of one of ATC's designs. The entire system design and development originated at ATC, and was transferred to Creative for offshore production.

We develop proprietary intellectual property in the form of novel audio DSP algorithms and applications. Much of the research conducted at ATC results in practical applications in compression, audio spatialization, and signal understanding.

In addition, we provide technical direction and initiate new business opportunities for Creative.

The Creative Advanced Technology Center is located in Scotts Valley, California, close to Santa Cruz and the beautiful Monterey Bay and the Santa Cruz Mountains, and only 30 miles from the heart of Silicon Valley. We have a staff of about 100 employees, mostly engineers, and a world-class design environment, fully equipped with powerful networked workstations and compute servers and state-of-the-art design tools.