Microsoft announced that U.K. telecommunications giant BT will use its Microsoft TV IPTV software to deliver TV over broadband to its subscribers. BT will trial Microsoft's IPTV software in early 2006, with plans to launch a commercial service next summer for its 20 million consumer and business customers. The announcement comes a week after Australia's largest telecommunications provider, Telstra, decided not to advance its lab trials with Microsoft IPTV software into its customers' homes. Microsoft is also testing its IPTV software in the U.S. with providers including SBC, which recently signed a ten-year, $400 million deal to use the software. The IPTV service will include customizable channel lineups, video-on-demand, digital video recording, interactive program guides, event notifications and content protection features. Microsoft will also resell the IPTV platform through Alcatel.
Few technology sectors sit as close to the center of gravity in today's artificial intelligence (AI) economy as semiconductor manufacturing. Every AI chip that trains a frontier model, every GPU that powers a data center inference workload, and every power management IC that keeps hyperscaler facilities running traces its origins back to the global Foundry ecosystem. IDC's latest market study throws that reality into sharp relief, projecting that the broadly defined Foundry 2.0 market will surpass $360 billion in 2026, a 17 percent year-over-year gain that would have seemed optimistic even two years ago. For anyone advising boards or investment committees on technology and AI infrastructure strategy, this growth trajectory demands careful consideration. Foundry 2.0 Market Development The umbrella term covers four distinct verticals: pure-play foundry, non-memory integrated device manufacturer (IDM) production, outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT), and photomask fab...