■ MEMORY CHIPS
Short DDR2 supply expected
Two of Taiwan's memory-chip manufacturers warned earlier last week that the industry will continue to see DDR2 dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips in short supply during the first half of this year. DRAM is used primarily in personal computers. DDR, or double data rate, is a faster type of DRAM that consumes less power. Second-generation chips (DDR2) deliver performance benefits over their first-generation (DDR1) counterparts. Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) vice president Pai Pei-lin (白培霖) told an investor's meeting on Jan. 23 that memory chip supply will be very tight until March, specifically for DDR2 chips. Demand is estimated to exceed supply by about 30 percent during the period, he said. Owing to the shortage, the company predicted a 10-percent increase in DRAM contract prices next month, he said. Global memory chipmakers won't be able to produce enough DDR2 chips to meet demand for at least for two more quarters, ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技) chairman Chen Min-liang (陳民良) said on Wednesday. Nanya Technology is the nation's second-largest memory-chip maker, after Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶半導體). ProMOS is the third-largest.
■ COMPUTERS
Light notebooks panned
Notebook computers weighing less than 2.5kg are practical, but still have problem areas including batteries with short lifespans. Batteries for use in mobile notebook computers should last longer than four hours, according to the German computer magazine c't. A test of 11 notebook computers showed that while most of them are equipped with a 14-inch display, only one of the batteries lasted longer than four hours. While some of the notebooks ran longer with an additional battery, the notebook became heavier.
■ SOFTWARE
Microsoft eyes Seadragon
Microsoft Corp is acquiring Seadragon Software, a Seattle-based company developing technologies that could be used across several of the software giant's businesses, the Seattle Times reported, citing a person familiar with the deal. Seadragon, which has 10 employees, has developed technology that lets people quickly view large images from a personal computer or other device, the newspaper said. Neither Seadragon nor Microsoft would comment on the matter, the Times said. Seadragon was founded in Princeton, New Jersey, in 2003 by Blaise Aguera y Arcas, then a graduate student at Princeton University, the newspaper reported.
■ TELECOMS
Complaints grow in China
Complaints by China's mobile-phone subscribers rose last year because of fees the users were charged for text-message services they either didn't want or hadn't realized they were using, state news agency Xinhua reported, citing data from the China Consumer Association. Complaints related to telecommunications services rose 13 percent last year from 2004, the report said. Among the most common complaints were that users were charged for services activated by sending a reply to a text message from an unknown number, Xinhua said. China, the world's largest cellphone market by users, had 393.4 million mobile subscribers as of the end of last month, according to data from the Ministry of Information Industry. The number of short text messages sent rose 39.9 percent to 304.7 billion from a year earlier.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”