Windows (PC) will make its first transition to a machine architecture other than x86 in decades with Windows 8 Windows on ARM (WOA), and Microsoft wants to make absolutely sure that it has a well-oiled ecosystem in place to propel its growth. Currently, Microsoft picked three potent players among ARM processor vendors, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments (that have experience and can ship in Zerg volumes), and NVIDIA (which has demonstrated a lot of engineering potential with its latest Tegra products).

Microsoft reportedly asked the three ARM players to pick two notebook vendors each (one major, and one minor) with which they will work to develop some of the first WOA portable computing devices. Qualcomm selected Samsung and Sony, Texas Instruments chose Toshiba and Samsung, while NVIDIA chose Acer and Lenovo. Among these, Samsung, Toshiba, and Lenovo are the major partners. Surprisingly, Taiwan-based companies have an insignificant role in this ecosystem. ASUS, which has thus far been the largest client of NVIDIA for Tegra processors, has been left out. Now that downstream partners are selected, upstream ODMs such as Quanta Computer, Compal Electronics, Wistron and Pegatron Technology, which manufacture for those companies, are getting their R&D teams in shape to compete for the next-generation platform. The finishing line of ARM's marathon run to get into PCs is in sight.

It looks like there's a subtle but relentless push to get ARM CPUs into desktop PCs. Morgan Stanley recently surveyed 30 PC makers (names not revealed) and discovered that 40% of them are interested in trying out ARM-based PCs within the next two years. As we reported previously that the Wintel alliance appears to be crumbling, this finding appears to add weight to that assertion. Of course, there's a huge mountain to climb before ARM processors can compete head to head with high performance x86, as explained in our article, not least because Microsoft won't begin supporting ARM until Windows 8 is released late next year and the fact that the vast majority of existing software won't run on ARM. A real catch-22 if ever there was one. Just as crucially, the many high performance enhancements and interface standards that currently go into making a modern x86 chip fly will also have to go into an ARM - and developing that isn't going to be cheap, although it may not take that long, since these are tried and trusted technologies that need to be applied. Still, the interest is there and Morgan Stanley expect that 10% (39 million) PCs, excluding tablets, will have an ARM processor at their heart. If true, it will make for interesting times.

Intel started the trend of improving integrated graphics with their second generation LGA1155 socket Core i3, i5 & i7 line of processors. Depending on the model, these processors sport integrated HD2000 or HD3000 graphics right on the processor die, which nowadays give acceptable performance for low-end gaming and can play Full HD 1080p video perfectly. This trend is increasing with the upcoming Ivy Bridge processors, which will be able to support a massive 4096 x 4096 pixel display, as we reported here. AMD now also have equivalent products with their Llano-based A-series processors. So, where does this leave discrete graphics cards? Well, the low end market is certainly seeing reduced sales, as there really isn't enough of a performance difference nowadays to always warrant an upgrade from an IGP. As integrated graphics improve further, one can see how this will hurt sales of higher end graphics cards too. The problem is that the bulk of the profit comes not from the top-end powerhouse graphics cards, but from the low to mid-end cards which allow these companies to remain in business, so cannibalizing sales of these products to integrated graphics could make high-end graphics cards a much more niche product and crucially, much more expensive with to boot.

Well, this is good news for PC enthusiasts. PC overclocking has become a competitive sport in recent years with various brands hosting the competitions and others also chipping in with sponsorship money. This year's event was the fourth annual MSI Master Overclocking Arena competition held in Taipei, Taiwan, with sponsorship money coming from the likes of Intel and Kingston among others. Basic competition info: sixteen teams worldwide; benchmarks used were Super PI 32M, 3DMark 11 and surprisingly, the ancient 3DMark 2001SE but it's not clear why such an old benchmark is being used; the components used are given to contestants based on a lottery system, the team picking a number corresponding to either a CPU or a complete rig. This prevents contestants from having an unfair advantage by bringing in their own heavily modified kit to press home an advantage. Imagine how much more potent a modded motherboard with beefed up voltage regulators could be? Turned out that the favourites, previous winners Romania, won the competition. The prize money was only $3000, which is paltry compared to mainstream sports, but remember that this overclocking "sport" is still very new and is very niche in nature, so isn't so unreasonable when viewed in that light. Head on over to VR-Zone for more competition details and photos.

And you thought 128 GB was too much data to put on a flash drive - even USB 3.0 at that? Wait till you see Transcend's latest flash drive developed in collaboration with Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), that claims to be able to hold no less than 2 terabytes (TB) of data! Called the Transcend Thin Card, the drive is about as long and broad as most USB 3.0 flash drives, but is just a little thicker than a Penny. Thin Card models will start at 16 GB in capacity, and will go all the way up to 2 TB. A Transcend representative told Tom's Hardware that an international standard for USB 3.0 thumb sticks has yet to be set, and so it's not been sold so far. Thumb sticks are flash drives that are thinner than the standard USB connector, and slide into common USB ports.

Created to meet the needs of graphic designers and other professionals, the IPS-paneled ASUS PA238Q joins the ProArt Series of displays as a 23", LED-backlit model with native 1920 x 1080 resolution. It reproduces 100% of the sRGB color space, with every individual monitor precision calibrated at the factory to ensure unmatched color accuracy. The PA238Q ships with ASUS-exclusive QuickFit Virtual Scale software to display photos and documents in their true size on screen. In terms of ergonomics, a fully adjustable and sturdy stand complements a wide I/O range, which includes HDMI, DisplayPort, DVI-D, D-sub, and multiple USB ports.

This Friday, ASUS will launch what it is touting to be a revolutionary new ultra-portable computing device, the Eee Pad Transformer (EP101), at a high-profile launch event in Taipei. The EP101 is a slate-type 10.1-inch tablet that can attach to a bottom-half that includes a keyboard and trackpad, and transform into a netbook. Two of its biggest features include NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor that make it both fast and its UI visually intensive; and Google's Android Honeycomb operating system largely customized by ASUS, that is optimized for larger touch devices such as tablets.

Notable components include Tegra 2 processor, 1 GB LPDDR2 memory, 16/32/64 GB eMMC storage with unlimited cloud storage, IPS display with capacitive touch and resolution of 1280 x 800, 1.2 MP front and 5 MP rear cameras, Tegra 2 graphics that can play back 1080p video, and a load of connectivity feature including WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1 EDR, 3G (optional). Other human interface devices include g-sensor, compass, gyro, light sensor, and GPS. The Eee Pad Transformer is expected to be priced in Taiwan at 19,596 NTD (around US $663).More pictures follow.

With the entire PC motherboard industry concentrated in Taiwan and China, it is valid to say that PC prices are pretty-much pegged to Taiwan's economy. Following a wave of labor-reforms in China and Taiwan coupled with deficit of skilled labor, and inflation added to the mix; key motherboard manufacturers are finding it difficult to cope with competitive motherboard pricing. A much smaller contributor to this is Intel's decision to phase out cheap G31 chipsets, making manufacturers buy slightly costlier G41 ones for the most common motherboard models.

Industry sources told Digitimes that the big three in the motherboard industry - ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI, will be hiking prices of their motherboards shortly, to cope with increasing raw-material, labor, and component costs. The price-hike is likely to increase prices by 10% on average in the next three months. Some higher-end models could increase by as much as 20%, if labor costs in China continue to rise. Another factor here is bulk manufacturers of printed circuit boards (PCBs), who have hiked their prices following increase in price of high-grade copper by a whopping 50% (from US $6000 /ton to $9000 /ton).

Motherboard giant Gigabyte contributed to a nerdtastic art piece put in place by authorities of the Taoyuan International Airport in Taiwan, Gigabyte's home country. A hall inside gate B7 of terminal 1 at the airport sports a wall-hung art-piece made entirely of Gigabyte motherboards, consisting of two lines, and a circle. The circle, made of identical motherboards, looks like a silicon wafer, and from a distance, each motherboard looks like a chip die on that wafer. A map of the island is also carved out of a motherboard on that circle.

Next to it is a large "Made in Taiwan" sign, also made by Gigabyte motherboards. This art piece is said to be using more than 1,200 motherboards, which of course are dead, returned for replacement pieces. After years of war and poverty, Taiwan has emerged as a major hub of semiconductor and electronics industries, there are ongoing efforts such as this one to propagate Taiwan as a stable investment destination, and in a pretty geeky way, we might add.

Intel Capital, Intel Corporation's global investment organization, reaffirmed its dedication to foster worldwide innovation with the announcement of 18 new investments. The new deals total approximately $77 million and were announced today at the 11th annual Intel Capital CEO Summit, Intel Capital's gathering of portfolio company CEOs, corporate technology decision makers from Global 1000 companies and thought leaders from around the world. The new Intel Capital investments span 11 countries including Brazil, China, Germany, India, Israel, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Russia, Taiwan, Ukraine and the United States.

The new investments align with Intel's strategic focus on fostering innovation in core PC and server market segments including cloud computing, mobility solutions and access to broadband wireless in geographies around the world. Additionally, these investments will help enable advancements in adjacent computing areas including smart TV, tablets and smartphones.

OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) and memory modules for computing devices and systems, has announced the opening of a new SSD manufacturing plant in Taipei, Taiwan slated to begin operation on Monday, October 25.

A testament to the Company's dedication to market leadership, the new facility features best of class manufacturing, as well as test and burn-in technology required by the Company's growing OEM client base. The new facility increases the Company's SSD manufacturing capacity to 140,000 units a month from 50,000 units a month internally, accommodating the growing demand for both client and enterprise OCZ SSDs.

TechPowerUp is coming to you LIVE from the GIGABYTE GO OC 2010 World Finals, Taipei. Throughout the weekend we will provide live coverage of events as they happen. GO OC 2010 is a congregation of some of the best overclockers in the scene who battle it out in various OC events. "Contestants from over 33 countries have competed in the local and then regional finals which were held in Indonesia, China, Mexico, Spain and USA from June to August. The victors of the regional events will meet on the battlefield in Taipei, Taiwan at the Hua-Shan Creative Park (East 3 Hall) on Saturday, September 25th, 2010," mentions GIGABYTE.Live coverage follows:

Taiwanese memory and flash specialist Mach Xtreme Technology introduced the MX-CX series of flash drives that use the USB 2.0 data interface. Measuring 69.0 x 17.0 x 8.0mm (LxWxH), these drives weigh just under 40 g. Available in capacities of 4 GB (MXUB2MCX-4G), 8 GB (MXUB2MCX-8G), 16 GB (MXUB2MCX-16G) and even 32 GB (MXUB2MCX-32G), these drives offer transfer rates of 15 MB/s read and 8 MB/s write. These are price (in above order) at around US $9, $20, $30 and $64, respectively.

TSMC today held a groundbreaking ceremony in Taichung's Central Taiwan Science Park for Fab 15, TSMC's third 12-inch (300mm) Gigafab and an important milestone in the company's pledge to expand investment in Taiwan.

The groundbreaking ceremony was conducted by TSMC Chairman and CEO Dr. Morris Chang. "Science Parks have played a critical role in the development of Taiwan's high-tech industry. They have also provided important support to TSMC as we grew to become a leading global semiconductor company with its roots in Taiwan," Dr. Chang said. "Over the past two decades, TSMC has flourished in the Hsinchu and Tainan science parks, and our groundbreaking for Fab 15 today sets the foundation for TSMC to reach new heights."

TSMC, one of the world's major semiconductor foundries, said that it has resolved all issues pertaining to proper yields of chips built on the 40 nanometre node. During a company event on the 19th, Mark Liu, Senior VP of Operations, said that the quality of production on the 40 nm node is almost on par with the 65 nm one. Liu stated that the chamber matching problems that had impacted yield rates for the company's 40nm node have been resolved.

TSMC caters to graphics processor giants NVIDIA and AMD, with both having designs of 40 nm performance graphics processors with multi-billion transistor counts. AMD has been selling 40 nm GPUs made by TSMC since its previous generation ATI Radeon HD 4770, it currently makes all its Radeon HD 5000 series GPUs on the node. NVIDIA is poised to release its first billion transistor 40 nm GPU, the GF100, in its consumer GeForce brand later this quarter.

In addition to this, TSMC has just finished building a new factory at the Hsinchu Science Park (HSP), Taiwan, part of its Fab 12. The new facility will be able to commence volume production of 28 nm products as early as by Q3 2010.

ASUS, in collaboration with NVIDIA and the National Chao Tung University of Taiwan, has introduced the ESC 1000 desktop-sized supercomputer, that harnesses the power of GPGPU, to give out 1.1 TFLOPs of computational power. Enclosed in a 445 x 217.5 x 545 mm chassis (the size of tower server/workstation chassis,) is a system powered by an Intel Xeon W3580 "Nehalem" 3.33 GHz processor, aided by 24 GB of system memory. As many as three NVIDIA Tesla c1060 GPGPU cards are installed, with an NVIDIA Quadro FX 5800 handing graphics. These emphasize that the system is meant for highly complex visual computing, such as in the fields of highly complex modeling, and scientific research. The pricing and availability of the ESC 1000 is not known as yet.

Morris Chang, chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), said on Friday what his predictions were for the global semiconductor industry and when it will recover from the global economic crysis that's upon everything at the moment.

I think it will be 2012 before the total revenue of the semiconductor industry gets back to the '08 level

he said. Knowing that he has more than 50 years experience in this circle, and he's the founder of the world's largest contract chip manufacturer TSMC, we can trust his words. Mr. Chang also added that the semiconductor industry was "pretty close" to the bottom. That's really how bad the chip makers are doing at present.

The Intel Developer Forum (IDF) serves as a platform for technologists to discuss Intel technologies and products based on or around Intel technologies. With China and Taiwan being almost the epicenters of consumer electronics manufacturing and development, Intel began holding annual events in the two countries, apart from the event at San Fransisco, United States. The IDF schedule for 2008, for example, included events in Shanghai, China and Taipei, Taiwan.

Fresh news emerging from Taiwan, sourced by industry observer DigiTimes suggests that Intel canceled IDF Taiwan 2009, originally slated for November, later this year. The company is holding this as part of its cost-reduction efforts to counter the global economic slowdown. The move comes as a surprise to Taiwanese computer hardware firms affiliated with Intel technologies, as the company has been hosting the IDF Taiwan event since the year 1996. Additionally, the company plans to restructure the IDF Beijing event scheduled in April from a two-day event to a one-day event focusing on China. Intel however clarified that it will continue to maintain its cooperation with the Taiwanese to sustain the country's industrial growth, which it hopes to achieve through presence at the Computex event. The main event held in San Fransisco, however, will not be affected. The company hopes to maintain the event in the same proportions as it was, in the past.

IKONIK initiated the 'Kick Start' competition, which started on October 1st and is ending on January 31st 2009. This means these are the final few days to enter the competition, so don't miss your chance to win super performance IKONIK top-of-the-range products. Such as IKONIK's high-end Ra X10 SIM case or upper-mainstream Zaria A20 case; also known as the 'Kick Start'. Entries can also win the Vulcan 850 Watt and Gaia 500 Watt power supply.

With many exciting products and so many chances to win, you are almost guaranteed a prize just by entering. So take a chance and join the competition by registering yourself on the website before January 31st, 2009. This competition is open to anyone.