Sidense rolls OTP memory macrocells
(09:28 PM EDT, 05/13/08)
Sidense Inc. has rolled out a line of one-time programmable (OTP) memory macrocells for use in low-power and cost-sensitive applications.

TSMC approves $1B capex expansion
(08:59 PM EDT, 05/13/08)
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC) said that it has approved a capital appropriation of $995 million to expand a 300-mm fab.

Freescale closes Arizona fab
(05:41 PM EDT, 05/13/08)
Freescale Semiconductor Corp. has closed a gallium arsenide fab in Tempe, Ariz., according to local reports.

China earthquake halts some high-tech production
(05:01 PM EDT, 05/13/08)
The massive earthquake that ripped through China earlier this week halted production at some electronic companies operating in the region but reports so far indicate damages were limited and manufacturing should resume within the next week.

Applied Materials has smaller profit, revenue
(04:36 PM EDT, 05/13/08)
Microchip equipment maker Applied Materials Inc. posted a drop in its fiscal second quarter revenue and profit in the face of a slump dogging the industry and a glut of flash memory chips.

TEL posts mixed results
(02:02 PM EDT, 05/13/08)
Amid a lull in the fab-tool market, Japan's Tokyo Electron Ltd. (TEL) posted lower sales and profits for the quarter.

ST, Synopsys drive XA verification of analog ICs
(12:22 PM EDT, 05/13/08)
A project between STMicroelectronics and Synopsys has resulted in significantly improved verification of analog IC designs, the companies claim.

Aerospace engineering employment takes off
(12:05 PM EDT, 05/13/08)
Aerospace employment increased in March, bucking the national manufacturing jobs decline.

DriveCam indentifies risky driving
(11:37 AM EDT, 05/13/08)
By using pattern recognition to detect risky driving and on human experts to give advice on how to improve each individual's driving safety record, companies like DriveCam Inc. are lowering costs for fleet owners and bringing peace of mind to parents worried about reckless driving by their teenagers.

Shakeout seen in DRAM module area
(11:18 AM EDT, 05/13/08)
The DRAM module business is finally improving after a dreadful campaign in 2007.

Celerity names new CEO
(10:47 AM EDT, 05/13/08)
Celerity Inc., a provider of gas and liquid delivery solutions, has named Timothy Harris as its new chief executive.

Sunfilm expands already before production launch
(10:45 AM EDT, 05/13/08)
The demand for PV modules seems to be really strong: Even before the launch of its first production line, module manufacturer Sunfilm AG (Grossroehrsdorf, Germany) has ordered a second one.

TI buys Irish power management firm
(10:03 AM EDT, 05/13/08)
Expanding its efforts in power management, Texas Instruments Inc. has acquired Ireland's Commergy Technologies Ltd., a power supply reference design provider.

Jazz Semi targets Israeli wireless companies
(09:49 AM EDT, 05/13/08)
Pure-play foundry Jazz Semiconductor (Newport Beach, Calif.) is trying to convince wireless companies from Israel to use its foundry services, according to Michael Rome, senior sales manager for Europe at Jazz.

ARM cleared in MMP patent appeal case
(08:42 AM EDT, 05/13/08)
ARM Holdings plc has won a significant round in the long running legal dispute with Technology Properties Limited, Inc. and Patriot Scientific Corporation over the Moore Microprocessor Patent (MMP) portfolio, with the U.S.Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirming that the Cambridge, England based company's products do not infringe the patent.

Flat revenues seen in '07 for critical subsystems
(07:16 AM EDT, 05/13/08)
Carl Zeiss SMT AG retained top spot in 2007 for supplying critical subsystems to the semiconductor and related manufacturing sector, in what was in general a lackluster market last year, according to VLSI Research Inc.

Hitachi losses grow, seeks HDD turnaround
(06:07 AM EDT, 05/13/08)
Japan's Hitachi Ltd. tumbled to a quarterly loss on slow TV sales and a tax writedown but said on Tuesday it would rebound to a profit this year on a recovery in hard drives, pushing its shares up 6 percent.

IBM shifts Cell to 65 nanometers
(12:01 AM EDT, 05/13/08)
IBM Corp. officially announces today a next-generation version of its Cell processor geared for computer servers, the PowerXCell which aims to deliver supercomputing to a broad group of IBM BladeCenter server users.

AMD shifts leadership in PC group
(06:49 PM EDT, 05/12/08)
Advanced Micro Devices has named company veteran Randy Allen as head of its core PC group while Mario Rivas, a former Philips Semiconductors executive who joined AMD in late 2005 and ran the division, has left the company.

Firms file suit against National
(06:16 PM EDT, 05/12/08)
Two firms--eTool Development Inc. and eTool Patent Holdings Corp.--have filed a patent infringement suit against National Semiconductor Corp. over an online technology.

HP in talks to buy EDS
(05:36 PM EDT, 05/12/08)
Hewlett-Packard Co. is in talks to buy technology outsourcing company Electronic Data Systems Corp for $12 billion to $13 billion, seeking to better compete with the top computer services company, IBM.

IBM close to breaking petaflops barrier
(04:11 PM EDT, 05/12/08)
IBM Corp. and the Los Alamos National Laboratory are in a race with time to break the petaflop barrier in computing in time for the June Top 500 list.

Updated: ESI cuts staff; Brooks posts results
(04:00 PM EDT, 05/12/08)
Two more chip-equipment vendors--Brooks and ESI--are separately seeing a slowdown.

HelioVolt, SunPower claim solar records
(11:20 AM EDT, 05/12/08)
Two solar-cell suppliers--HelioVolt and SunPower--have separately claimed world records in the arena.

Chip forecast: China, India could offset losses elsewhere
(10:35 AM EDT, 05/12/08)
A semiconductor industry forecast predicts 12-precent growth this year despite a shaky U.S. economy.

Lightspeed raises $800 million with an eye to India, China
(10:14 AM EDT, 05/12/08)
Lightspeed Venture Partners (Menlo Park, Calif.) has said it has closed Lightspeed Venture Partners VIII LP capitalized with $800 million of limited partner commitments, above the firm's target of $675 million.

Clock chip startup gains funding
(09:57 AM EDT, 05/12/08)
Multigig Inc., a provider of chip clock and timing solutions, has closed its Series B round of funding for $12.5 million.

Zilog's broader 32-bit MCU move: Too little, too late?
(09:34 AM EDT, 05/12/08)
Zilog, Inc. last week made a long overdue decision to solidify its 32-bit MCU strategy by licensing ARM's Cortex M3 processor. The company's broader 32-bit move seems inevitable, but it may have come too late.

Intel a winner in Swedish 2.6GHz auction
(06:31 AM EDT, 05/12/08)
Intel was one of the main winners in the second European 2.6GHz spectrum auction, in Sweden, which raised SEK 2.1 billion (about $350 million) after a grueling 112 rounds of bidding over 16 days.

Nikon profit up, sees mixed litho outlook
(06:03 AM EDT, 05/12/08)
Japan's Nikon Corp. said its quarterly operating profit rose 48 percent thanks to sales of advanced cameras and chip-making equipment, but it predicted a fall in operating profit this year.

Fujitsu Q4 profit down, sees rebound
(04:50 AM EDT, 05/12/08)
Japan's Fujitsu Ltd reported a 40 percent fall in quarterly profit on Monday, hurt by restructuring in its microchip operations, but it forecast that its annual profit would more than double this year on its IT outsourcing operations.

PicoChip preps architectural refresh after August tape-out
(04:29 AM EDT, 05/12/08)
PicoChip Designs Ltd., a fabless chip company focused on wireless basestation applications, is getting ready to tape-out its fourth generation of multicore DSP chips while also planning an architectural refresh to allow it to take chips to higher performance.

Avago claims first RF chip-scale packaging solution
(01:00 AM EDT, 05/12/08)
Wafer-level chip-scale packaging squeezes radio frequency (RF) monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) into world's smallest package.

Tools automate support for multicore CPUs
(12:01 AM EDT, 05/12/08)
The MathWorks has built new parallel processing techniques into its flagship MatLab environment, and startup Exludus Technologies, Inc. is preparing an enhanced release of its scheduling middleware for X86 servers, the latest examples of companies tackling the challenge in automating the shift to parallel software for multicore processors.

Wafer inspection startup raised $8M
(09:21 PM EDT, 05/09/08)
Nanda Technologies GmbH (Unterschleissheim, Germany), a company offering wafer inspection technology, has raised $8 million (about 5 million euro) in a Series B round led by Deutsche Effecten-und Wechsel-Beteiligungsgesellschaft AG (DEWB) and BrainsToVentures AG (b-to-v), a business angel network.