Stories by Martyn Williams

  • NEC, Hitachi ink DRAM deal

    NEC and Hitachi last week signed an agreement to form a joint venture, NEC-Hitachi Memory, to develop and market advanced DRAM chips.

  • Vendors to support DVD as it hits the big time

    Four years after its debut, DVD (digital versatile disk) looks like it can finally call itself a major format. The DVD-Video version of the format was beginning to move into the US marketplace at the time of last year's Comdex and the adoption earlier this year of DVD-ROM drives in favour of CD-ROM drives by many mid-market PC makers has helped expand the video market. The PC software market has been slower to pick up the format, largely because the 650MB of space offered by a CD-ROM is sufficient for many current applications. There are a few exceptions - several encyclopedias make use of the 2.4GB of space on single-sided DVD-ROM disks and, mirroring the early days of the VHS videotape format, the system is proving popular among adult software and image vendors.

  • Sony president's keynote surprises

    Sony president and CEO Nobuyuki Idei delivering a keynote address at Comdex last week, outlined his company's vision of a networked future, unveiled several never-before-seen prototypes and delivered a warning to US companies wanting to play a part in the future networked world.