Budget PCs could help Taiwanese firms in downturn

Thinking small might help Taiwan's computer industry emerge from the global downturn as an even bigger global player.Taiwan-made mini-laptops burst onto the world's electronics scene with an estimated 11 million units sold last year. This year, sales could hit 22 million units, according to several analysts. In comparison, 120 million standard laptops are expected to be churned out this year.

While the worldwide computer market is suffering through its worst sales in years, one bright spot is coming from the mini-laptops known as "netbooks," which appeal to the budget-conscious in tough times.Growth in netbooks could be well timed for Taiwanese contract manufacturers, which need to keep their assembly lines busy during a falloff in orders for conventional laptops and desktops. Some 85 percent of all laptops are made by Taiwanese companies.

AsusTek and Acer netbooks are among the top-selling computers listed by Amazon.com, the leading online retailer, and Business Computer News Ranking, a Japanese market research firm. And sales of those computers figure to help Acer and AsusTek raise their profiles abroad with consumers who might remember those brands when shopping for desktops and standard laptops, said Tu Tze-chen, head of research at Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute.

How Intel's wirefree power tech will end battery life woes

imagine an alternative reality in which power wasn't delivered by cables but transmitted wirelessly through the ether. It sounds like science fiction, but as we found out during a visit to Intel's funky Seattle research lab, it's very real indeed.

Imagine a world where you never worried that your laptop's battery might lose the will to live. Or one in which the viper's nest of power cables that nestles behind your PC vanished in a puff of technology.Of course, you could argue that wireless power is nothing new. After all, induction based wireless systems are commercially available. But the problem with induction is that the power delivered falls off exponentially as you move an object away from the source. It's a major constraint.

Are Intel's solid state drives broken?

A recent report by website PC Perspective suggests that due to a combination of the way the X25-M handles write commands and the wear-leveling algorithms Intel has implemented, both read and write speeds decline markedly with heavy use.

Intel's X25-M solid state disk drive was one of the performance revelations of 2008. But evidence is now emerging that the drives suffer from near catastrophic performance degradation over time.In hindsight, the X25-M's apparent woes are not enormously surprising. It's still early days for SSD technology and pretty much every drive currently available suffers from a few foibles.

In the long run, we've little doubt Intel will address and solve the problem. But for now – and given the hefty price Intel charges for the X25-M - we can only recommend buyers steer clear. Exactly what the implications are for existing owners is another matter altogether.

Intel to close Shanghai plant amid global crisis:statement

The world's largest chip maker Intel Corp said Thursday it would shut down an assembly and test factory in Shanghai and move it to a city in China's far west due to the global economic crisis.it was still going ahead with the construction of a plant in the northeast Chinese city of Dalian. The cost of this plant was previously given as 2.5 billion dollars.

"The economic downturn has had an enormous impact on the semiconductor sector, forcing companies to take measures to cut costs," said Liu Liang, an analyst with Industrial Securities, according to state-run Xinhua news agency.The consolidation, which will take place over the next 12 months, came "as a result of current economic conditions", the statement said.

The move will affect about 2,000 employees, who will be offered jobs in the western city of Chengdu or other Chinese locations where Intel operates, the US-based company said in a statement.Intel plans to keep a research and development centre in Shanghai, which will also remain the China headquarters for the company.