Fujitsu Siemens to withdraw from PDA market

Fujitsu Siemens is expected to withdraw from the PDA sector by the end of this year. The move could affect revenues of Taiwan-based Compal Communications, the contract maker for Fujitsu Siemens' Pocket Loox PDAs, according to market sources.

DigiTimes says Fujitsu Siemens decided to exit from the PDA business as the increasing popularity of personal navigation devices and smartphones has eroded the PDA market.

According to IDC data, global sales of PDAs (excluding PDA handsets) totalled 719 000 units in the second quarter of 2007, down 43.5% from the same quarter of last year.

Hynix Semiconductor has developed what it claims is the industry's smallest 1Gb mobile DRAM, on 66nm, according to DigiTimes.

This mobile DRAM operates at a maximum clock speed of 200MHz, resulting in a throughput of up to 1.6GB of data per second, with a 32-bit I/O, detailed Hynix.

As this device consumes very little power, the extended battery life makes it suitable for a wide range of portable electronic devices, Hynix highlighted.

Microsoft last week released a pair of Windows Vista updates that had leaked onto the Internet at the end of July. However, the company did not say when it would begin pushing them to users via Windows Update, reports Computerworld.

One of the updates is pegged as a performance booster for the new operating system, while the other addresses reliability issues.

They include a long list of non-security bug fixes, including one to improve the speed of Vista's wake-from-hibernation function and another that is designed to more quickly calculate the time needed to copy or move large directories.