With IBM in the happy position of making its own memory chips, Apple Computer Inc is somewhat exposed by the unruly market that has been created by the excess of demand over supply of 256K and 1M memory chips. The company is reportedly so concerned that it is considering whether it should make its own chips and is said to have appointed a task force to look at the issue and also decide on which partners the Cupertino company should choose for its future needs in applications-specific integrated circuits. The task force is due to report its findings at the end of next month. Separately, Apple is understood to have chosen Hosiden Electronics of Osaka, Japan to be the supplier of the active matrix screens for the forthcoming Laguna laptop version of the Macintosh, and is said to be in for 10,000 of the things monthly. Active matrix technology, currently used in some Japanese pocket television sets, has a transistor at each pixel point on the screen where a liquid crystal diode display connects the crystals to the transistors by wires. The result is a faster, cooler running screen with better contrast than an LCD.
