In the face of higher-than-expected demand for PCs and communication products, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC), the world's largest contract chip maker, has raised its fourth quarter forecast, projecting that wafer shipments and its utilisation rate will be higher than the company's earlier predictions.
Can a new type of device topple the mighty PC? Bill Gates apparently thinks so.
After warning in July that demand for chips was expected to slow, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC) reported strong year-on-year profit growth during the third quarter, even as profits fell on a sequential basis. Looking ahead, the company remains cautious and warned that weak demand will be a problem for the next six months.
Thieves broke into Acer's Hong Kong warehouse over the weekend, holding Acer employees hostage in a standoff with police before making off with $US1 million worth of computers and peripherals, the company said.
Microsoft's Pocket PC 2002 software does not address critical security issues and could make sensitive corporate data stored on PDAs (personal digital assistants) and desktop PCs vulnerable to theft and loss, market analyst Gartner has warned in a recent research note.
For PC users casting a covetous eye over a TFT-LCD (thin film transistor liquid crystal display) monitor to replace their bulky CRT (cathode ray tube) monitor, now may be the right time to start thinking about an upgrade as prices on flat-panel screens are expected to fall in the months ahead.
Taiwanese hardware maker Asustek Computer is gunning for a slice of the market for PDAs (personal digital assistants) with the long-awaited launch last month of its MyPal A600, based on Microsoft's Pocket PC 2002 software and a 400MHz XScale processor from Intel.
Network operators, handset makers and IT companies are lining up to back a new industry group that has been formed to drive the development of standards for mobile telecommunication services and guarantee interoperability between mobile products and services.
Showcasing its efforts to bring entertainment capabilities to the home PC, Acer plans to display the latest additions to its Aspire line of PCs, which offer the ability to receive and record TV shows, at the Computex 2002 exhibition to be held here this week.
Microsoft has released a patch that addresses six security vulnerabilities in its Internet Explorer browser, including a critical flaw that could allow an attacker to run code on a client machine. The patch is intended for Internet Explorer 5.01, Internet Explorer 5.5 and Internet Explorer 6.0.
Taiwan was hit by a second strong quake in less than two months Wednesday as a temblor that measured a magnitude of 6.2 rattled the island at 11:46 a.m. local time (13:46 AEST). Local chip makers were unaffected, however.
In a presentation that would have been familiar to any user that has grumbled about their Windows-based computer, a Microsoft executive called on Taiwanese hardware manufacturers to help address a long list of PC shortcomings, saying improvements to both desktop and laptop computers were needed to increase consumer demand.
Via Technologies plans to acquire a CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) chip design centre from LSI Logic. The announcement brings to a close a nearly five-month long search for a buyer as LSI Logic has looked to exit the CDMA chip market.
Network Associates plans to acquire all publicly held shares in McAfee.com through a stock swap in a bid to turn the Californian antivirus software vendor into a wholly owned subsidiary.
With the price of some memory chips having increased in recent months, German memory-chip maker Infineon Technologies has boosted its access to production capacity for DRAM (dynamic RAM) chips in deals struck with two Taiwanese memory makers.
