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Taiwan No. 2 foreign exhibitor at CeBIT

A total of 428 manufacturers of information communications and technology products from Taiwan are scheduled to take part in the CeBIT computer expo set to start in the German city of Hannover on Tuesday.

The event organizer said that Taiwan will be the second-largest foreign exhibitor, behind China, in terms of the number of participating companies, followed by South Korea with 170 companies and Hong Kong with 151.

A Taiwanese pavilion aimed at promoting the nation's image will be set up at the fair by the Taiwan External Development Council (TAITRA).

The pavilion will feature nearly 60 high-end products from Taiwanese companies including Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), Gigabyte Technology Co (技嘉) and Tatung Co (大同), TAITRA said.

CeBIT is expected to attract 400,000 visitors, the organizer said. The six-day exhibition brings together 5,500 tech firms all keen to show off gadgets that are innovative, cutting edge and cool -- and this year also green.

Deutsche Telekom, for instance, says that its stand at CeBIT will be 100 percent powered by renewable energy, while German PC manufacturer Fujitsu Siemens will present "Green PCs, intelligent cooling concepts, low power consumption and innovative power management."

IBM, meanwhile, plans to unveil an emissions-free computing center model that uses energy recycling, relying on a "smart heating and cooling circuit based on an innovative water-cooling system implemented at chip level."

And it is with this in focus, and with some Gallic tech flair provided from this year's co-host France, that CeBIT organizers hope to restore some of the event's somewhat waning appeal.

The trade fair is the world's biggest tech gathering, leaving the likes of Las Vegas, Barcelona and Berlin in the dark.

But this year has seen a 5 percent fall in the number of exhibitors and a 10 percent drop in the surface area they are using to display their wares. The event has even been shortened by a day in an effort to cut costs.

But is it all genuine concern about the environment or just PR puff and greenwashing?

Pressure group Greenpeace will be at CeBIT to decide, vowing to "cut through the corporate green speak and see which companies and products are on the cutting edge of environmental innovation," it said.

Bucking the trend will be Intel, which plans to use CeBIT to unveil the veritable gas-guzzler of the computer world: the 1,000W PC for gamers, German weekly Der Spiegel said.

A normal PC uses just 80W, and even in extreme cases gaming PCs running at full whack with high performance graphic chips and running off several hard discs only consume 600W, Der Spiegel said.
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