Texas Instruments (TI) is working with Microsoft on future versions of Windows Mobile-based Portable Media Centers. The development is based on a TI system-on-a-chip (SOC), a highly- integrated Digital Media processor targeted specifically for portable applications, capable of supporting QVGA resolution for Windows Media Video 9, as well as up to D1 resolution of other commonly used video formats. TI's Digital Media processor is a multi-core device, embedding a digital signal processor (DSP) and an ARM core. It has an integrated peripheral set, supporting the base Portable Media Center requirements, as well as many of the additional options available to Portable Media Center developers. It features an integrated video encoder, hardware video accelerators and USB host capabilities. "Portable Media Centers have created new opportunities for people to take their entertainment -- video, photos and music -- with them anywhere, anytime," said John Pollard, director of Windows Mobile Applications and Services Marketing at Microsoft Corp. "TI's Digital Media processors will help our Windows Mobile-based device manufacturers deliver more choices as the category continues to evolve and expand."
Semiconductor forecasts rarely move enough to reshape an enterprise boardroom budget conversation. Omdia's latest worldwide market study findings does exactly that. The research firm has raised its 2026 global semiconductor revenue forecast to 94.1 percent year-over-year growth, an increase driven almost entirely by memory pricing tied to artificial intelligence infrastructure. For technology executives, the number itself matters less than what sits underneath it. Applied-AI demand has now outrun the industry's capacity to produce and package the chips it needs, and Omdia expects that imbalance to persist through early 2027. The Semiconductor Forecast Revision Memory integrated circuits, DRAM and NAND combined, are now projected to account for more than 50 percent of total semiconductor revenue in 2026. That threshold has rarely been crossed in the industry's history. It marks a structural shift in where chip economics get decided. Logic used to set the pace of the industr...