GlobalFoundries, the contract chip manufacturer whose clients include Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Qualcomm, plans to spend US$4.4 billion in 2013 to expand production as demand for smartphones and tablets climbs.

Altera has agreed to acquire TPACK, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Applied Micro Circuits. TPACK delivers complete FPGA-based OTN (optical transport network) products targeting packet and optical networking equipment suppliers.

"More generally there is a growing level of dissatisfaction among Apple executives and employees, and a greater willingness to explore leaving..."

Increased spending in NAND and flash by Micron, LEDs by Philips and Osram, and continued investments by Globalfoundries will create new opportunities for equipment and materials suppliers in Southeast Asia.

TSMC has pulled in plans for initial production of its 16nm FinFET process to the end of 2013. In addition, it hopes to adopt extreme ultraviolet lithography to make 10nm chips starting in late 2015 but is still researching e-beam as an alternative.

After strong gains in 2010 and 2011, power transistor sales fell more than 8% in 2012 to US$12.3 billion primarily due to weak economic growth and high levels of uncertainty, which caused equipment makers to rein in semiconductor purchases, according to IC Insights.

Toshiba has said that it will concentrate on three fields: analog, automotive and communications in 2013.

China's economic growth slowed unexpectedly in the first quarter, raising concerns that a recovery that started in the second half of last year is already losing steam.

Data from Chinese semiconductor industry sources identifies Allwinner as, by far, the number one apps processor supplier for Chinese tablets in 2012, followed by Rockchip, ViaTech, Amlogic and Vimicro.

At a recent event in San Jose, California, TSMC CEO Morris Chang said that company sales will rise at a percentage in the teens this year.

Kingston's 512GB USB 3.0 Drive might have trouble being used as a boot drive for multiple operating systems as a result of this bug.

Cadence Design Systems has announced an ongoing multi-year agreement with TSMC to develop the design infrastructure for 16-nanometer FinFET technology, targeting advanced node designs for mobile, networking, servers and FPGA applications.

Worldwide semiconductor revenues reached US$299.9 billion in 2012, down 2.6% from 2011, according to Gartner.

Lenovo, which has maintained a small IC design team consisting of about 10 people over the last decade, is now committed to expanding this team to about 100 engineers by the middle of 2013, according to a China-based industry source with direct knowledge of the company's recruitment of chip designers.

Analog Devices' CEO Jerald Fishman has died at age 67 following an apparent heart attack Thursday night, according to the company.

The HTC One was successfully torn down, but the excessive use of glue, rather than screws, helped make this device the single most difficult cellphone ever disassembled.

The president of struggling Renesas Electronics said Thursday that the chipmaker is in talks with overseas companies on selling its loss-making mobile device chip operations as part of efforts to streamline its business.

STMicroelectronics has signed a loan agreement with the European Investment Bank to strengthen its finances.

Samsung Semiconductor is moving swiftly to begin work on a new 680,000-square-foot office project that will be built on its existing 215,000-square-foot office complex at North First Street and West Tasman Drive.

Persistent speculation about a pending merger between Chinese fabless chip vendors RDA Microelectroics and Spreadtrum Communications may have some basis in reality, but word is that RDA has its sights set on a higher bidder.

I have to admit I missed this item of news that came out last October. And the news was that successful MEMS company InvenSense had announced that its founder and CEO, Steve Nasiri, would be stepping down from the company.

Micron Technology is poised to get a US$400 million discount on the acquisition of Japanese rival Elpida Memory, after a 16% slump in the yen against the US dollar.

Micron Technology has posted a quarterly loss, hurt by acquisition-related expenses, but the chipmaker's revenue and margins improved.

The latest toxic gas leaks may not have caused serious physical harm, but the fact that the culprit companies failed to promptly report to state authorities is raising suspicions of corporate negligence.

Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMIC), for the first time in a long time, has a good story to tell.

Manufacturing activity in China picked up speed in March, an initial HSBC survey has indicated, adding to hopes of a sustained recovery in its economy.

The deal aims at building a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship between Renesas and J-Devices as strategic partners in the semiconductor production business. The two companies intend to complete the transfer on June 1, 2013.

ARM has announced that CEO Warren East has decided to retire from the company, effective 1 July 2013. Simon Segars, currently president of ARM, will become the company's new CEO.

STMicroelectronics and Ericsson have agreed to split up their unprofitable ST-Ericsson chip venture after failing to find a buyer for the business, cutting about 1,600 jobs as they divide the assets.

Each time in recent years that the Federal Reserve has paused in its efforts to stimulate the economy, it has come to regret the decision as premature.

"We are proud to say that the newest Snapdragon 600 processor is at the heart of the GALAXY S 4 in select regions," Qualcomm said in a blog post.

Seven O-S-D product categories and device groups reached record-high sales in 2012 compared to 14 new records being set in 2011.

Cadence Design Systems has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Tensilica, a leader in dataplane processing IP, for approximately US$380 million in cash.

China is over-reliant on imported goods for its semiconductor industry, and local chip companies supply only about 10% of its domestic needs as they remain in the development stage despite years of investments.

Despite continued rumors that Apple has been working very hard to transition away from Samsung for production of A-series chips, it appears that Apple has not yet been able to make that step on a mass production basis, as this new smaller A5 is still being fabbed by Samsung.

The reason is quite understandable really: demand for DRAM is still dropping, so how can there be a price improvement?