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Taiwan earthquake could affect holiday PC sales (cont.) ATI Technologies and other graphic card makers responded to the shortage by, which PC makers will have to absorb or pass onto consumers.
CD-ROM drives are another trouble spot, because a controller chip is not available, according to industry bulletins from the Taipei Computer Association, a trade and information group covering the island and the industry.
Taiwan accounts for about 44 percent of CD-ROM production, according to TCA, which anticipates serious drive shortages because of the quake. CD-ROM prices had already spiked 10 percent following the quake.
The quake also affected the availability of CD-R and CD-RW drives, which were already in short supply due to increased demand.
One PC manufacturer, which asked not to be identified, said it would more likely cut configurations before raising prices. Consumers could see CD-RW drives, already in short supply, and Zip drives disappearing from higher-end systems but see prices stay level.
PC makers are also expected to offer less memory for the same money, say, 64MB or 96MB instead of 128MB.
The New Wave In Home Networking Over the past year, we have had two meetings in which ways to connect computers using simple ‘peer-to-peer’ networking were demonstrated. In these presentations, the hardware has consisted of the computers, two Ethernet network cards and a network cable. Networks of this type can transfer data at between 10-100Mbps, depending on the quality of the network cards, and the distance between computers. If running network cable through your house to connect your computers in this manner is not your thing, and speed is not that important, the new home networking products available may be for you.
A New Buzzword - HomePNA
But can I use my phone while I’m using the network?
Using this technology, you can use your phone while on the network. There is no degradation in voice quality or network speed while doing both at the same time. You may also use the Internet while using the network, and even access the Internet through the remote computer. (ie. Connect to the Internet with modem in computer A and surf the ‘Net using computer B. You can even use the Internet on both computers simultaneously, but the performance would degrade proportionally.)
HomeFree Phoneline Desktop Pac – Diamond Multimedia Systems Inc.
Diamond also sells a Single PAC with only 1 network card for connecting additional computers.
Home PC Link Kit Best Data Products Inc. |
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webeditor@wpcug.com