TECHNOLOGY & TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Joint Development of Low-Power Chips Planned: Three of the world’s biggest semiconductor makers said they will work together on low-power chips for portable communications. Toshiba Corp., Motorola Inc. and National Semiconductor Corp. intend to develop logic chips that run at 3 volts and below, replacing today’s chips, which run at 5 volts and more. Low-power chips will become increasingly important as computers and communications devices such as cellular phones get smaller and more powerful. Low-power chips will let batteries run longer without changing or recharging and will also permit the use of smaller, lighter batteries.