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World Business Quick Take

■ Semiconductors
Sun has `eco-friendly' chip
Sun Microsystems Inc yesterday announced an "eco-friendly" UltraSparc T1 server chip that it says will deliver more performance while requiring less electricity than competing microprocessors. The processor, code-named Niagara, has eight computing engines on a single chip, with each core capable of handling up to four tasks at once, Sun said. It expects to ship systems based on the processor by the end of the year. The new chip uses about 70 watts of power on average, significantly less than the 150 watts to 200 watts required by server chips from Intel Corp or IBM, Sun said. It also said that removing the world's Web servers and replacing them with half the number of UltraSparc T1-based systems would have the same effect on carbon dioxide emissions as planting 1 million trees.

■ Economics
Asia cheap for expatriates
Asia offers expatriates lower living costs than Western Europe and North America due to steady inflation rates and currencies, according to a survey by human-resources firm ECA International that was released yesterday. Japan, slipped one notch from last year to rank as the third-most expensive place to live globally in the survey of 32 countries and territories, ECA said. Norway remained the most expensive country, unchanged from its position in last year, followed by Denmark which rose one place to the second-most costly place for expatriates. The Philippines, which placed at the bottom of the survey, was the cheapest country to live followed by Argentina, Thailand and Malaysia. European countries dominated the top 10 with the only exceptions being second-place Japan and South Korea in sixth.

■ Energy
China to ease energy costs
China plans to ease official controls on energy prices, letting them rise to market levels in order to encourage conservation amid severe shortages of gasoline and electric power, news reports said yesterday. Officials speaking at a weekend conference said Beijing plans to deregulate prices for oil, gas and coal as part of an economic development plan covering the next 15 years, the China Daily newspaper and other media reported. The reports didn't say when the changes would take effect or give other details. The decision comes amid shortages of gasoline and electric power that have led to long lines at filling stations and planned blackouts in some cities. Fuel price controls have cushioned Chinese factories and drivers from the recent surge in world oil prices. Officials worry that keeping prices low encourages wasteful misuse of energy.

■ Telecoms
Cisco targets small firms
Cisco Systems Inc is launching a bundled offering that will combine data, Internet telephone and other services in a single platform for companies with fewer than 100 employees. Linksys One is expected to be available regionally in the next few months, with full US deployment by next summer. "The average small business would pay US$62 per seat per month, which is right in line with what they're paying today just for voice," said Marthin De Beer, general manager of the Linksys Small Business Systems Business Unit at Cisco. "They will effectively get voice, video, data and security all for the price of voice." There are more than 35 million small businesses with fewer than 100 employees worldwide, according to the research firm AMI Partners.

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