Open Mobile Alliance DM extension will make it simpler to put new apps on phones

"We've decided to set up a direct sales office in central Seoul by 2009, as time is ripe to effectively spur our products," Kevin Du, a general manager responsible for the Korean and Japanese markets, told The Korea Times in an interview, Tuesday. "Asustek is fully set to strengthen product portfolios, ranging from the Eee PC, notebooks, and desktops to LCD monitors and increasing the number of direct sales offices has become a major trend for foreign electronics makers, here," he said, citing similar aggressive moves by Hewlett-Packard.

HP's US online store has revealed that company's Mini-Note line is due to be expanded with a new model, the Mini 1000. An ad for the Mini 1000 appeared on the site over the weekend, though it now seems to have been pulled. Screengrabs of the banner reveal not only the machine's name but also that it's less than 25mm thick and weighs just over a kilo.

For the day, shares in the Taiwan stock market suffered a losing streak of 4.65% – or 212.75 points – decline, closing at 4366.87 points on turnover of NT$35.87 billion. Shares plummeted sharply by 278.29 points as it opened today as the 7% limit took effect beginning today after two weeks of halving the downward limit to 3.5% by the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC).

Google, Motorola and Microsoft are among the companies that want the unused spectrum for a new generation of wireless devices. Rep. John Dingell, chairman of the House of Representatives House Energy and Commerce Committee, sent a list of questions to Martin, including whether an FCC engineering report was peer reviewed, and how the agency would deal with interference from broadcast signals if it occurs. "Why did the Commission decline to adopt a licensed approach to some of all of this spectrum?" Dingell asked.

...Huang said that much of Global's work these days goes into gathering and validating IP-based platforms: libraries of functions, often in hard-macro form, that are necessary for a particular application space. If the functional IP is on the shelf, verified, outfitted for power management, are DfM-friendly, then creating a specific chip for a customer becomes mainly a matter of IP assembly rather than a physical design effort...

...The won is the worst in performance against the dollar among the major economic powers and its stock markets are gyrating more severely than other countries. ...39 of the 92 highest-cap firms in the domestic Korea bourse, or 42.4%, have a price-to-book ratio (PBR) less than one. Posco's ratio amounts to 0.9 and Hyundai Motor's is 0.8. Those of LG Display and Samsung SDI are both 0.7. The figures are likely to be lower in consideration of Friday's market crash.

Toshiba said at a symposium that its 40nm and 45nm process technologies are ready and that the company has moved into "pilot line" production for those fabrication processors. However, Toshiba's main customer, Sony Computer Entertainment, has not yet designed 40nm or 45nm versions of its chips that are used inside Sony PlayStation 3 video game system.

Lam Research, which makes equipment used to manufacture semiconductors, said Thursday its third-quarter profit plummeted 94%, as restructuring costs and weaker demand weighed on the company's performance. Lam said earnings for the quarter ended Sept. 28 declined to US$8.9 million, or 7 cents per share, from US$148.6 million, or US$1.18 per share, in the same quarter last year.

..in July, there were plenty of executives who said they were dead set against 450mm, that it doesn't make economic sense, now or ever, that the industry should focus on reducing cycle times for 300mm tools, and so on. Executives at Applied Materials, ASML, Novellus, all have been adamant in their opposition to 450mm. But re the major IC makers that back the 450mm transition –Intel, Samsung, and TSMC –big enough to get what they want? If such companies control 60-70% of equipment spending, at some point will they get what they want?...