Three Japanese semiconductor makers have agreed to explore the possibility of creating a joint venture to handle future production for their companies and others. Toshiba Corp., Hitachi Ltd. and Renesas Technology Corp. are establishing a joint planning company to examine whether to pool resources and jointly build a chip production plant. The new planning company has been named Advanced Process Semiconductor Foundry Planning Co.

Intel Q4 sales come in below forecast

Intel Corp.'s revenue came in below its own updated forecast for the fourth quarter of 2005 because shipments of desktop processors were lower than expected.

Microsoft issues patch for Vista OS

Microsoft Corp. has issued a patch for a preliminary version of its Windows Vista operating system to fix the same graphics-rendering problem that had earlier raised concerns about current versions of Windows. The patch applies to the Community Technology Preview of Vista, which was released in December. Vista isn't due for general release until later this year.