Nvidia has (according to sources) infringed a patent regarding PCI prefetch held by OPTi and although OPTi no longer makes PC chips, they now license intellectual property. Nvidia didn't come to agreeable terms with OPTi and has to remove the PCI prefetch feature from its chipsets.

He said that the 49 percent debt-to-equity ratio in the third quarter was an anomaly because of the acquisition of Lite-On Technology Corp (光寶科技) last month, and that by year end he expects the ratio to drop to between 17-25%. On the issue of access to capital, Henry Lin assured analysts that Wistron is still a first-tier customer to many commercial banks, despite increased funding costs.

Hynix Semiconductor, the world's second biggest chipmaker behind Samsung Electronics, said it expects prices of computer memory chips to decline by about 30% in 2009, and prices of NAND flash memory chips to fall 40% further from this year. "The slowdown in both personal computer and motherboard sales will weaken the demand for DRAMs, which will hurt prices," a Hynix executive told The Korea Times, Wednesday.

oshiba, the largest Japanese chip maker, reported a quarterly loss Wednesday as the global economic slowdown aggravated a glut in the market for chips used to store data in consumer electronics, helping drive down memory prices. The net loss was ¥26.8 billion, or about US$275 million, in the three months that ended September 30, compared with a ¥25 billion profit a year earlier, the Tokyo-based company said. Sales fell 7%to ¥1.88 trillion.

Pioneer was awarded US$59 million after a federal jury found South Korea's Samsung Electronics and Samsung SDI Co. violated two patents used to make plasma- television displays.