NRG Energy, First Solar and MidAmerican Solar representatives gathered to connect the first 100MW of the 290MW Agua Caliente Solar Project to the grid. The project is owned by NRG Energy and MidAmerican, while operator First Solar designed and constructed the plant in Yuma County, Arizona, using thin-film modules.

South Korean conglomerate Hanwha Corp. and ESB Novusmodus LP, a fund backed by Irish state utility Electricity Supply Board, led a $15.5 million Series B investment in closely held TenKsolar Inc.

Globalfoundries has started its production ramp on 28nm and anticipates a much smoother ride on 28nm than it had on 32nm.

Xilinx rose as much as 8.1% in extended trading after forecasting sales this quarter that may beat some analysts' estimates.

ST-Ericsson, a chipmaker that got caught up with the wrong crowd, has announced sweeping changes in an effort to stay relevant in the mobile market.

MStar has licensed the ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore and ARM926EJ-S processors, in addition to a range of ARM system IP for use in smart TVs, set-top boxes (STBs) and smartphones. MStar is already a licensee of the ARM Mali-400 MP GPU, which is used in mass production for MStar smart-TV system-on-chip (SoC) solutions.

It's the beginning of the end for the fabless model, according to Mark Bohr of Intel. Bohr also claimed TSMC's recent announcement it will serve just one flavor of 20nm process technology is an admission of failure.

Sandisk's first quarter results were messy and the outlook wasn't much better. The problem: Sandisk is making all the wrong moves and focusing on the wrong customers in the flash memory market.

Chipmaker Freescale Semiconductor said that its first-quarter loss narrowed from last year as the company cut costs in the face of declining revenue.

Texas Instruments, the largest maker of analog semiconductors, rose in extended trading after forecasting second-quarter earnings that may top some analysts' estimates, buoyed by a revival in chip orders.

When Apple launched the iPod nano, it attracted plenty of attention. While consumers swooned over its sleek design, analysts were more likely to hail it as a turning point for the storage industry.

German solar installations may have more than tripled in the first quarter from a year ago, the country's deputy environment minister said.

Some domestic solar manufacturers praised the recent import levy as a victory for job creation, but an analysis of the industry suggests the duty may actually be a job killer.

A Japanese government panel is likely to recommend utilities pay 42 yen (51 cents) per kilowatt-hour (kwh) for solar power supplies in a feed-in tariff scheme, in line with requests by the solar power industry, the Nikkei business daily said

A DWP pilot program will let solar power producers reduce their bills and sell excess energy, but some say they're worried the new system will be plagued by the same problems as an older system.

ASML dropped the most in six months after Europe's biggest semiconductor equipment maker didn't provide guidance for future orders in its first-quarter results.

IT bellwhether IBM missed Wall Street's revenue projections for Q1 by a smidgen but beat expectations for bottom line growth.

Qualcomm has warned that it was losing sales of its latest high-end chips because of limited supplies, with some customers likely to turn to rivals.

Independent environmental organization Greenpeace is in the midst of a disagreement with Apple after giving the tech giant and others like Amazon and Microsoft low Clean Energy Index scores.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) will offer only one process at the 20nm node, a change from the multiple processes that the foundry giant has offered customers for the past several nodes, said Shang-yi Chiang, company executive VP and co-COO.

Federal subsidies for renewable energy in the US are set to collapse unless there is a change in policy, according to a new analysis from researchers at three think-tanks.

Micron Technology intends to restructure its balance sheet in a manner that effectively increases its debt.

Barclays Capital is raising its total lithography units forecast by more than 10 systems, from 234 to 251 in 2012. As many as 260 litho tools could be purchased for semiconductor manufacturing, as foundries are seeing high demand for 28nm chips.

ARM has announced the availability of a significantly expanded lineup of ARM Processor Optimization Pack (POP) solutions for TSMC 40nm and 28nm process technologies targeting a range of ARM Cortex processors.

A top Nvidia engineer is calling for a move to 450mm wafers as one part of the solution to the growing complexity, cost and time-to-market challenges in chip design.

Solar panels prices have kept marching lower this year, extending steep declines seen in 2011 and keeping pressure on hard-hit manufacturers who have struggled to eke out profits, industry experts said.