Intel plans to lay off by end-2013 an undisclosed but "relatively small" number of workers at both of its assembly plants in Malaysia, the US chip maker's regional spokesman said Monday.

The focus of the US operations will be to find and support partners that can leverage XMC's customized manufacturing capabilities. XMC is currently in production technology nodes down to 45nm. Its leading-edge fabrication facilities in Wuhan China can be configured to produce up to 60,000 300mm wafers per month.

GlobalFoundries is preparing to make chips for Apple's iPhone and iPad at its Fab 8 complex in Malta, according to a source close to the company.

The semiconductor industry is in a standoff over the next big thing - 3D chip stacks. Someone needs to blink before the technology will be viable for creating the next generation of high-performance, low-power systems.

Accelerometers, gyroscopes, NFC and gesture recognition are predicted to be the big winners in mobile devices. These mobile technologies are projected to make the greatest penetration gains over the coming years, according to ABI Research.

China's exports rebounded to relatively strong growth in October while imports accelerated, adding to signs of a recovery in the world's second-largest economy.

US-listed chipmaker RDA Microelectronics said it received an US$18 per share buyout offer from China's state-owned Tsinghua Unigroup, which is funded by the Tsinghua University, marking it a second such bid in more than a month.

A consortium that includes the wireless company Qualcomm, the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management and BlackBerry's co-founders, Mike Lazaridis and Doug Fregin, is preparing a bid for the company ahead of a Monday deadline, according to people briefed on the process.

ARM expanded its reach from mobile systems down to wearables and out to datacenter servers at its annual ARM Tech Con here last week.

Activist investor Starboard Value LP asked TriQuint Semiconductor to consider selling or restructuring its mobile power amplifier business, which it said was a drag on the radio frequency chipmaker's share price.

Hillcrest's SH-1 sensor hub includes sensor fusion, gesture recognition, and ?？lways on' functions for context aware applications.

InvenSense has announced the 6-axis MPU-6515 MEMS SoC and corresponding MotionApps software platform optimized to support key new functions introduced in Android KitKat.

A Qualcomm executive has been given a new role after making critical comments about Apple's 64-bit A7 chip.

Fusion-io swung to a fiscal first-quarter loss as the data-storage company recorded a steep drop in revenue, weighing on margins. The company also announced CFO Dennis Wolf will be leaving.

Dow Chemical, which is looking to exit businesses that are exposed to commodity price swings, said it planned to raise at least US$3 billion to US$4 billion from asset sales.

STMicroelectronics said chip demand is taking a hit as smartphone manufacturers trim orders, adding to testimony of weakening appetite for high-end handsets.

Japanese consumer electronics giant Panasonic will slash its 14,000-strong chipmaking workforce by half and possibly sell some of its plants, the Nikkei business daily reported Wednesday.

British microchip designer ARM said Tuesday it has a record order backlog going into the final fiscal quarter as it posted a rise in third-quarter profit on forecast-beating revenue powered by global demand for smartphones.

While TI hit the targets, investors seemed shaken by drops in revenue and EPS from the same quarter last year.

Broadcom fell after the company forecast lower fourth-quarter revenue than analysts estimated and said it's cutting as many as 1,150 jobs as demand slows for chips that connect mobile phones to the Internet.

Applied Materials has announced new technology systems for manufacturing large size and ultra-high definition (UHD) LCD and OLED displays that meet consumer demand for greater screen performance, clarity, color and brightness.

Xilinx has reported adjusted earnings per share of 49 cents in the second quarter of fiscal 2014, which lagged the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 52 cents per share. However, reported earnings increased 6.6% from the year-ago quarter.

SanDisk more than tripled its quarterly profit, beating analysts' estimates, after a fire at a rival chipmaker increased prices at a time when Apple and other users of its flash memory chips were launching new products.

ASML said it sees first-half sales in 2014 at similar levels to the second half of this year - which would translate into sales of about EUR3.12 billion if the company meets its full-year sales forecast of EUR5.2 billion in 2013.

Chipmakers including Broadcom and Renesas Electronics are ramping up in-car entertainment with faster processors and networks for wireless HD movies and navigation, aiming to keep drivers informed and passengers entertained.

Imagination Technologies has announced the first MIPS Series5 ?？arrior P-class' CPU, representing a major step forward in feature set for high-performance MIPS CPU IP cores.

InvenSense and Analog Devices have entered into a definitive purchase agreement for InvenSense to acquire all of the assets of ADI that are exclusively related to ADI's MEMS microphone business line including intellectual property, goodwill and certain tangible and intangible assets.

The Advanced Patterning Center will offer the global semiconductor ecosystem crucial patterning knowledge for sub-10nm technologies.

NXP Semiconductors has strengthened its presence in Asia by establishing Singapore as its global headquarters.

Dongbu HiTek is not exactly a household name in the foundry business like TSMC, Globalfoundries and Samsung. But Dongbu, a company described by some as the industry's best kept secret, has been sharpening its strategy, honing its skills, and steadily expanding capacity in South Korea under Chang-Sik Choi, who became its president and CEO a year and a half ago.

ARM has opened a new Design Center in Noida, North India. The center will focus on IP design in specialized areas such as planar and FinFET CMOS technologies and address the growing needs of ARM partners.

Its forecasts also indicate potentially slowing profit growth at its mobile business-a signal that its run of record results is under threat by rising competition and lower-margin phones taking up a bigger proportion of sales.

RDA Microelectronics said China's state-owned Shanghai Pudong Science and Technology Investment offered to buy the shares of the chipmaker it does not already own at $15.50 per American depositary share.

Intel will take over a plant in Israel's Kiryat Gat city after it was shut down by the US microchip manufacturer Micron in a bid to save 800 jobs, it was announced Sunday.

Samsung Electronics has begun commissioning equipment orders for its newly constructed semiconductor plant in Xian, China.

SK Hynix is considering signing a cross-licensing deal on memory chip patents with Micron Technology.

Synaptics has announced that its TouchPad solution is the first to be certified under the Precision Touchpad (PTP) program for Windows 8.1-based PCs and notebooks.

STMicroelectronics and Movea have announced their agreement to integrate Movea's SmartMotion technology into the STM32F401 microcontroller operating as a low-power sensor-hub controller.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a former Qualcomm executive and his financial adviser with insider trading, alleging he used a secret offshore brokerage account to make trades based on inside information about the chipmaker.