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Researchers boost CD capacity

Researchers at National Taiwan University (NTU) have made a breakthrough in optical storage technology that can boost the capacity of a single compact disc to 150 gigabytes to 200 gigabytes, university officials said during a press conference on Thursday.

The press conference is part of the "12-University Joint Presentation" conducted by the Ministry of Education to present the research results of top local universities and institutes. Thursday's presentation was attended by NTU and National Cheng-kung University, while the other 10 universities will have their own press conferences in the coming days.

The new CDs, using nano-class super-resolution optical near-field structure (Super-RENS), can record data with a write-in interval as small as 90 nanometers, compared to an 800 nanometer interval of the conventional CD and the 400 nanometer interval of DVDs, said Tsai Din-ping (蔡定平), a professor at NTU's Department of Physics.

"It is the key to much greater capacity, " Tsai said. "A CD with Super-RENS can easily beat hundreds of CDs or tens of DVDs in terms of data stored."

HP unveils new notebooks

Hewlett-Packard Taiwan Ltd (HP) yesterday unveiled a slew of new notebooks running on the latest Santa Rosa platform, offering a price tag much lower than market expectations. The company is launching three new portable computers -- the Compaq Presario V3500 for consumers, Compaq 6510b for small and mid-sized enterprises and the Compaq 6910p for larger firms.

The computers range in price from NT$39,900 (US$1,195) to NT$59,900.

The NT$39,900 V3500 is the industry's lowest-priced Santa Rosa notebook, cheaper than models from rivals Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦) and Acer Inc, which cost more than NT$46,000.

Intel Corp and its computer-building partners launched Santa Rosa, the latest update of the Centrino mobile platform, on Wednesday. Santa Rosa consists of a processor, a chipset and a wireless combination.

China Air signs contract

China Airlines (CAL, 華航) and Northwest Airlines yesterday signed contracts to cooperate on mileage programs and VIP lounges beginning on Aug. 1, a China Airlines release said.

For members of CAL's Dynasty Frequent Flyer program and those of Northwest's WorldPerks program, the accumulated mileage can be redeemed for free tickets, upgrades and other perks, the release said.

Yamaha faces export ban

Japanese motorcycle maker Yamaha Motor was banned from exporting unmanned helicopters and related parts for nine months after it allegedly tried to export them for potential military use.

The punishment by Japan's Ministry of Trade and Industry was issued after police arrested three Yamaha employees for allegedly attempting to export an unmanned helicopter to a Chinese aerial photography company in December 2005 without approval from the ministry.

Yamaha said it accepted the punishment.

The trade ministry in December 2005 conducted an on-site inspection of Yamaha Motor and spotted the attempted export of the unmanned helicopter to Beijing BVE Technology Co.

NT dollar loses more ground

The New Taiwan dollar continued losing ground against its US counterpart yesterday, pressured by falling stocks and foreign fund selling, traders said.

The NT dollar dropped NT$0.012 to close at NT$33.300 on the Taipei Forex Inc on turnover of US$593 million.




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