Microsoft will likely maintain its dominance in embedded technology for consumer electronics as more of the devices come onto the market, several local companies said yesterday.
"I think a large number of manufacturers are applying, or plan to adopt, Microsoft's embedded technologies due to the high capacity, which enables their products to be compatible with Windows-platform appliances," Zebra Chen (陳仁邦), general manager of Techware Information Technology Inc (鈦克科技), said at a press conference organized by Microsoft.
Techware, a consulting firm that provides embedded software solutions, joined with Tatung Co (大同公司), Advantech Co (研華), Wistron Corp (緯創), Synnex Technology International (聯強) and four other companies yesterday to demonstrate their support for Microsoft's embedded device technology.
Embedded devices are chips with software already integrated that are applied to a wide range of electronic products including personal digital assistants (PDAs), digital cameras and smartphones.
These devices are mostly powered by Microsoft software such as Windows CE .NET, Windows XP Embedded and Visual Studio .NET.
Nearly 90 percent of such appliances are used in conjunction with Windows operating systems on personal computers.
Although the open-source Linux is considered more flexible and cheaper, companies using Linux also need to invest more in developing their own products, Chen said.
Furthermore, Linux's incompatibility with the Windows operating system, which is used in the majority of PCs around the world, makes it less favored in consumers electronics, he said.
According to a study last year conducted by the US research firm Embedded Market Forecasters, embedded system manufacturers on average took 76 percent longer and spent more than 300 percent more to develop and bring to market embedded systems using Linux compared to Windows.
Alan Pan (
For example, many consumers like to transmit data or files stored in their PDAs to their personal computers, or send audio files downloaded from PCs to their mp3 players, Pan said.
However, Chen said the result of Microsoft's dominance in embedded technology would create dependence on the company.
"In this way, we all need to count on Microsoft to constantly improve its embedded devices to drive the progress of various products," Chen said.
"And the industry will generally lose its creativity," he said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) would not produce its most advanced technologies in the US next year, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. Kuo made the comment during an appearance at the legislature, hours after the chipmaker announced that it would invest an additional US$100 billion to expand its manufacturing operations in the US. Asked by Taiwan People’s Party Legislator-at-large Chang Chi-kai (張啟楷) if TSMC would allow its most advanced technologies, the yet-to-be-released 2-nanometer and 1.6-nanometer processes, to go to the US in the near term, Kuo denied it. TSMC recently opened its first US factory, which produces 4-nanometer
PROTECTION: The investigation, which takes aim at exporters such as Canada, Germany and Brazil, came days after Trump unveiled tariff hikes on steel and aluminum products US President Donald Trump on Saturday ordered a probe into potential tariffs on lumber imports — a move threatening to stoke trade tensions — while also pushing for a domestic supply boost. Trump signed an executive order instructing US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick to begin an investigation “to determine the effects on the national security of imports of timber, lumber and their derivative products.” The study might result in new tariffs being imposed, which would pile on top of existing levies. The investigation takes aim at exporters like Canada, Germany and Brazil, with White House officials earlier accusing these economies of
Teleperformance SE, the largest call-center operator in the world, is rolling out an artificial intelligence (AI) system that softens English-speaking Indian workers’ accents in real time in a move the company claims would make them more understandable. The technology, called accent translation, coupled with background noise cancelation, is being deployed in call centers in India, where workers provide customer support to some of Teleperformance’s international clients. The company provides outsourced customer support and content moderation to global companies including Apple Inc, ByteDance Ltd’s (字節跳動) TikTok and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. “When you have an Indian agent on the line, sometimes it’s hard
PROBE CONTINUES: Those accused falsely represented that the chips would not be transferred to a person other than the authorized end users, court papers said Singapore charged three men with fraud in a case local media have linked to the movement of Nvidia’s advanced chips from the city-state to Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) firm DeepSeek (深度求索). The US is investigating if DeepSeek, the Chinese company whose AI model’s performance rocked the tech world in January, has been using US chips that are not allowed to be shipped to China, Reuters reported earlier. The Singapore case is part of a broader police investigation of 22 individuals and companies suspected of false representation, amid concerns that organized AI chip smuggling to China has been tracked out of nations such
RSS