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World Business Quick Take

■ semiconductors
Chip breakthrough reported
Intel Corp and university researchers announced a breakthrough on Monday that could lead to a laser-producing chip that could vastly improve computing power at a low cost. Intel said the researchers for the company and the University of California at Santa Barbara developed a process that could allow the production of hybrid silicon-laser chips to use laser beams instead of wires to transfer data. The use of photonics, or optical data transfer, could vastly increase the speed of computers while keeping costs down, the researchers said. The use of lasers could allow communication between chips within a system, bypassing many of the bottlenecks on existing computer chips.

■ Entertainment
Sharp goes with Blu-ray
Sharp Corp said it will start selling recorders that use Blu-ray high-definition disks early next year. The Blu-ray format, developed by Sony, can store between five and 10 times as much data as a conventional DVD, and is competing with Toshiba Corp's HD DVD to become the standard for recording and playing high-definition movies and other content. Mikio Katayama, executive director in charge of Sharp's LCD panel and TV business said the company would start selling Blu-ray recorders. Samsung Electronics, Apple Computer and Dell also support the Blu-ray format, while the HD DVD standard is backed by NEC, Intel aand Microsoft.

■ Steel
Mittal has hopes for China
Lakshmi Mittal, president of steel giant Arcelor-Mittal, hopes that China may allow foreign ownership of its steel interests by 2008, according to an interview with the Financial Times published yesterday. "I'd hope some day the Chinese government would allow this [foreign ownership] to happen, perhaps in the next two years," he said. Arcelor-Mittal, by far the world's biggest steelmaker after a recent takeover of the European group Arcelor by Mittal Steel, has cited Asia and the Middle East as key areas of expansion. Arcelor-Mittal has three joint ventures with operators in China, which accounts for almost one-third of global steel production and consumption.

■ Internet
Microsoft inks China deal
Microsoft Corp will provide China Telecom Corp, China's biggest Internet service provider, with a Web search to try raise the carrier's share of the Chinese Web market. Microsoft will provide its Live Search service to 25 million China Telecom customers, the two firms said a briefing in Beijing yesterday. Microsoft is working with China Telecom to raise its share of the nation's Internet market, whose users may double in five years, according to researcher IResearch Inc. The world's biggest software maker has invested hundreds of millions of dollars on its search engine to lure customers away from Google Inc.

■ Automobiles
Tokyo seeks more luxury
Toyota Motor Corp, which failed to meet its domestic sales target for the Lexus brand last year, will introduce its Lexus LS sedan in Japan to raise its share of the luxury segment in the world's second-largest auto market. Toyota expects to sell 1,300 units of LS sedans a month, it said in a statement yesterday. Toyota expects total global sales for the Lexus brand to reach 470,000 this year and surpass 500,000 vehicles next year.


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