TECHNOLOGY
IC sales expected to rise
Local integrated circuit (IC) packaging and testing services providers are expected to enjoy an increase in sales this month from last month as mobile device makers and PC manufacturers keep building up their inventories, analysts said on Saturday. Demand for tablet computers and budget smartphones continues to grow, while the waves of PC replacements due to Microsoft’s end of its support for the Windows XP operating system is also likely to drive the IC business higher, they said.
TECHNOLOGY
Show to focus on touch
Asia’s largest computer show, Computex, is to focus this year on touch-enabled hardware, including wearable devices, the Taipei Computer Association said on Friday. There will also be a one-on-one purchase meeting for international telecom operators during Computex, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council said on Saturday. Computex Taipei is to take place at the Nangang Exhibition Hall, the Taipei International Convention Center and the Taipei World Trade Center Exhibition halls 1 and 3 from June 3 to June 7.
TECHNOLOGY
Acer to open BYOC center
Acer Inc (宏碁) is to open an experience center on Thursday for its Build Your Own Cloud (BYOC) business in Taoyuan County to showcase its cloud computing solutions. The BYOC is a system for users to put together cloud services that manage music and photographs across Acer PCs and mobile devices, Acer said. Meanwhile, HTC Corp’s (宏達電) stripped-down version of its flagship smartphone, One Mini 2, is to be released in the UK on June 30, according to a preorder page of online retailer Amazon.com Inc’s UK Web site.
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],”