The week in review.

The article presents news from the computer industry. An effort to revive deadlocked talks aimed at unifying competing next-generation DVD standards has failed, according to the president of Matsushita Electric Corp. Taiwan's industry executives are pressuring their government to loosen restrictions on interactions with China. STMicroelectronics NV has scrapped its traditional R&D model to focus exclusively on funding near-term projects. Intel Corp. is set to launch a desktop PC design for business users as a platform for its chips.