Alps Electric Co., Ltd. (アルプス電気株式会社, Arupusu Denki Kabushiki-gaisha^?) (TYO: 6770 ) produces electronic devices, including touchpads. Alps is a multinational corporation, headquartered in Ota-ku, Yukigaya-otsuka-cho, 1-7, 145-8501, Tokyo, Japan. The nearest rail station to the headquarters is Yukigaya-otsuka station on the Tokyu Ikegami line. The company was established in 1948. As of 2004, the CEO is Masataka Kataoka. Alps is also well-known for the Alpine brand of car audio. The Tokyo Stock Exchange ), or TSE, is one of the largest stock exchange markets in the world by monetary volume located in Tokyo, Japan, second only to the New York Stock Exchange. ... Electronics is the study and use of electrical devices that operate by controlling the flow of electrons or other electrically charged particles in devices such as thermionic valves and semiconductors. ... Touchpad and a pointing stick on a Laptop Close up of a modern, brushed steel touchpad A touchpad is an input device commonly used in laptop computers. ... A multinational corporation (MNC) or multinational enterprise (MNE) or transnational corporation (TNC) or multinational organization (MNO) is a corporation/enterprise that manages production establishments or delivers services in at least two countries. ... Tokyo ) , literally eastern capital, is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan and includes the highly urbanized central area formerly known as the city of Tokyo which is the heart of the Greater Tokyo Area. ... 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar). ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Alpine is a car audio manufacturer, famed for their range of in-car sources commonly known as headunits. It is a subsidiary of Alps Electric Corporation of Japan. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Alps licenses their touchpad hardware from Cirque Corporation, but write their owns drivers. Their drivers are Windows certified. They all have simple features such as edge scrolling, but no programmability. They are mostly found in Sony notebooks. They also manufacture keyboards for Apple computers, including the original Macintosh and the first iMac. Cirque Corporation is a United States based company which developed and commercialized the first successful touchpad, now widely used in notebook computers. ... Microsoft Windows is a family of operating systems by Microsoft for use on personal computers, although versions of Windows designed for servers, embedded devices, and other platforms also exist. ... This article needs cleanup. ... Sony Corporation ) is one of the worlds largest media conglomerates founded in Tokyo, Japan. ... An Acer laptop with touchpad A laptop computer or simply laptop (also notebook computer or notebook) is a small mobile personal computer, usually weighing from one to three kilograms, depending on size, materials and other factors. ...

External links

• Alps Electric Global Site