Mobility

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.

Microsoft Corp. is beginning to release more details of the next generation of its productivity software, code-named Office 12, emphasizing tools for greater collaboration, information discovery and content management. Although the software isn't due out until the second half of 2006, chief software architect Bill Gates will highlight some of its features during an opening address at the company's CEO Summit on Microsoft's Redmond, Washington, campus.

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has developed what it says is the world's first organic light emitting diode (OLED) display that measures 40-inches across the diagonal. OLEDs have been viewed as a potential replacement for LCDs (liquid crystal displays) and PDPs (plasma display panels) in some applications for several years. They don't require a power-hungry backlight and so are viewed favorably for portable applications. Generally faster response rates of OLED screens means they are also being considered for use in televisions.

By the end of May, Intel Corp. will release a new chipset and network adapter for business PC users that brings several new IT management technologies into the PC world, according to company executives. Intel was expected to announce that the Intel 945G chipset and the Intel Pro/1000 PM networking chip will begin to ship in PCs by the end of the month. The new products will allow for the introduction of technologies such as Intel Active Management Technology (AMT) and will fit into Intel's Stable Image Platform Program (SIPP).

The Canadian model for government service delivery is three to five years ahead of those in the U.S. and U.K., according to the Citizens First 4 update presented Monday at the Lac Carling Congress in Saint-Sauveur, Que.

Microsoft and SAP AG have teamed to work on a new product that will aim to make the task of processing and analyzing the latter company

Matrix Semiconductor Inc. has used its write-once 3-D technology to make what it says is the world's smallest memory chip. The move could lead to cheaper one-use memory cards, the company said. Matrix increases the density of memory cells on a chip by stacking them in layers, reducing the surface area occupied by the memory chip. This allows more chips to be made on a single wafer and cuts manufacturing costs.

America Online Inc. (AOL) is giving its AIM instant messaging software a complete overhaul, including a major redesign of the user interface and a remodeled underlying code architecture.