"MediaTek and Realtek won't face the capacity constraints that they used to have," Tai said. "Their manufacturing cost has decreased even more than their product prices."
Realtek designs chips that are used to manage the flow of data in computer networks, which Tai said will be the next "driving force" for electronics demand as the market for personal computers wanes in importance.
Realtek's largest competitors are Intel Corp, the largest chipmaker, and 3Com Corp. Realtek shares rose NT$5.5, or 4.9 percent, to NT$118.5.
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