PCs - PC Components
Nanya May Buy Out Qimonda in Inotera Memories JV
Nanya, one of Taiwan's largest makers of DRAM chips in revenue terms, began discussions with Qimonda after signing a preliminary agreement earlier this month with Micron Technology Inc. to set up a JV to develop technology for making DRAM chips. Go Inotera Panicking?
Notebook Battery Shortage
Dell, Asus and HP say there’s a shortage of laptop batteries, partly because of a recent fire at LG Chem, second biggest Korean battery maker. The fire has driven PC makers back to other makers including Sony (remember world’s largest product recall of tales of exploding batteries?) LG Chem expects the Ochang plant to start production again in three months. Go LG Chem
Geek Grandma vs. Giants of Industry
Once more the name Rothschild strikes fear in the heart of the business community. Dr. Gertrude Neumark Rothschild holds patents she thinks cover "short-wavelength (e.g., blue, violet)” LEDs and laser diodes used in handheld mobile devices, instrument panels, billboards, traffic lights, high def DVD players (Blu-ray), and data storage devices. The US International Trade Commission takes her claim seriously and will officially investigate a Who’s Who in Electronics (Hitachi, Continue reading...Low Cost Intel PC Platform Comes to Europe
Computer makers in Europe will sell a 2nd-generation version of the Intel-designed Classmate PC for about 300 euros.
Intended as kiddie PCs, their arrival in the market will fuel the low-cost computing movement.
The new, low-cost laptops developed from Intel technology will run on Windows. Intel says makers in India, Mexico and Indonesia already sell Classmate PC laptops to retail clients.
Go Classmate
Solid State Drives Not So Solid?
Just as notebook makers increasingly adopt SSDs, an industry analyst says a major builder (Dell presumably) experiences a 20-30% return (performance issues piling on top of 10-20% failure rates.) Intel is expected to enter the SSD market with 80GB-160GB. With SSD failures 10X higher than HDDs (10-12% vs. 0.5-2%), making reliable SSDs will be the key that could differentiate SSD vendors. SSD’s high failure rates come at a price: $1000 extra for a notebook with SSD. Go Avian Continue reading...
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