Dan Nystedt

Powerchip Semiconductor Corp., Taiwan's second largest DRAM (dynamic RAM) maker by revenue, has raised its target on new plant spending for 2005 to NT$50 billion (US$1.6 billion) this year, up from NT$40 billion previously, a company executive said Tuesday.

Prices for the most popular type of computer memory chips have fallen by more than 40 per cent since the start of the year, and users may get even better bargains if they wait until the middle of the year, observers said.

Taiwan's five third-generation (3G) license holders have formed a research and development alliance aimed at creating new applications for the mobile broadband service, an effort the government will partially fund, an official said Friday.

Two Taiwanese makers of graphics chips stepped up their support for Linux-based PCs this week by releasing the source code for some of their drivers to the open source community.