Millionth TSMC wafer to VIA
Computer chip designer VIA Technologies Inc (威盛電子) received its one millionth wafer from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday, e-mailed statements from both companies said.
"VIA's partnership with TSMC has been a key element to our success over the past nine years," said Chen Wen-chi (陳文琦), chief executive officer and president of VIA.
"This is a great milestone for VIA," said Rick Tsai (蔡力行), president of TSMC. "They currently have many new designs for a variety of innovative applications in the pipeline with us, and we expect an even stronger relationship going forward."
HP's center marks birthday
Hewlett-Packard Co's global standard Product Development Center (PDC) yesterday celebrated its first anniversary in Taiwan, saying it will double research fund to develop more new products for the second year.
"It's been a successful year, and we will keep enlarge the scale and depth of the PDC," Kai Hsiao (蕭國坤), director of HP Asia international Procurement Office said yesterday.
In the past year, the HP product center developed six products, including 16-inch Compaq Presario 3000 tablet PC and HP ProLiant ML servers.
Hsiao said HP is very content with the research and development environment here and aims to develop Taiwan into a regional product development center in Asia.
AU unveils big LCD panel
AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), the nation's largest flat-panel display maker, yesterday launched its 46-inch LCD panel for High Definition Television (HDTV), the company said in a statement.
The panel will be manufactured at a "fifth-generation" technology plant, the company said, adding that the shipments are expected to begin in the first quarter of next year.
AU ranks third in the world after Samsung and L.G. Philips of South Korea.
By 2005, the company will have two fifth-generation plants and one sixth-generation site to meet demand for LCD TVs, it said.
Construction of the sixth-generation plant started at the end of July and it is scheduled to begin mass production in the second quarter of 2005 with an initial monthly capacity of 60,000 panels.
The company's joint development program with Fujitsu Display Technologies will underpin the development of LCD TV production.
Central bank to check accounts
The central bank, concerned about currency speculation, is investigating overseas funds that may have converted foreign currency to New Taiwan dollars and parked the money in domestic accounts, a Chinese-language business newspaper reported, without citing the source of its information.
The central bank is focusing on overseas investors who received regulatory permission to buy Taiwanese stocks but have tucked the money in bank accounts instead, the newspaper said.
It's also looking at comments made by some foreign institutions predicting the local currency will appreciate, the report said.
NT dollar hits 13-month high
The New Taiwan dollar had its strongest close in 13 months as exporters concerned the currency will extend gains hastened sales of the US dollar.
The NT dollar rose for a third day yesterday, climbing 0.2 percent to NT$33.735, its highest close since Aug. 14 last year, according to Taipei foreign exchange market.
Turnover was US$1.275 billion.
Gains in the Japanese yen and South Korean won Monday surpassed the NT dollar's advance, spurring speculation there's more room for the currency to strengthen, said Tarsicio Tong, a trader at Union Bank of Taiwan (聯邦銀行).
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last