Stories about: Norwood

The semiconductor industry is facing one of the toughest periods in its history, with global chip sales expected to decline for two consecutive years for the first time ever, analysts at Gartner said on Tuesday.

Softening demand for a wide range of products has taken its toll on the worldwide semiconductor industry, which recorded an estimated revenue decline of US$12 billion for 2008 compared to last year, Gartner said in a study released on Friday.

For all the flexibility server virtualization affords today's IT departments, there's one type of flexibility IT managers would love to have but aren't likely to get: the ability to save money on Microsoft software licenses. Even when carving a physical server into multiple virtual machines, customers using virtualization probably won't find any way to circumvent the licensing terms set by Microsoft for software running on virtual machines, Forrester analyst Christopher Voce said at Forrester's IT Forum last week.

Gartner raised its forecast for global semiconductor industry revenue growth for several reasons, including signs of stronger than expected sales of personal computers and mobile phones, a researcher at the company said Monday.

Sentient Jet, a private charter-flight provider, has developed a proprietary system called the Optimizer that it expects will lower costs and thereby enable it to attract more corporate users to its premium air travel service.

IT service provider Damovo is piloting a Bluetooth wireless network to reduce its telephony costs while increasing contact levels.

Weakened by a collapse in prices that began over a year ago, the world's DRAM (dynamic random access memory) manufacturers will face even lower sales in 2002 and be hit by a wave of industry consolidation, according to market research company Dataquest Inc.

Semiconductor maker Infineon Technologies AG is claiming progress in its plan to cut costs by 1 billion euros (US$923 million) over the next year, but observers say the company remains on shaky financial ground.

The DRAM (dynamic random access memory) chip market will be worth 55.5 percent less this year than last largely because of falling chip prices, according to a study published Thursday by Dataquest.

Semiconductor manufacturing equipment sales are about to take a dramatic dip as high-tech inventory levels back up the supply chain. The value of new orders received by U.S. makers of semiconductor manufacturing equipment during February, March and April this year was far lower than the value of products shipped during that period, according to the trade association Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI).

What do you look for in a new desktop PC? A big, bright screen? Zippy new processor? Capacious hard drive? Acres of RAM? Sorry, none of these is a real concern for corporate PC buyers. What they're looking for probably isn't even in the machine.