Globalfoundres announced that its Fab 1 in Dresden, Germany has shipped a quarter of a million semiconductor wafers based on 32nm High-k Metal Gate (HKMG) technology. The milestone represents a significant lead over other foundries in HKMG manufacturing, it claimed.

Memory chipmaker Micron Technology, which rocked in February by the death of its CEO in a plane crash, on Thursday posted a US$224 million net loss in the second quarter as sales fell.

"Why not be a foundry for all the mobile companies?" Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang told a group of reporters Wednesday evening. "There's no shame in that."

The solar industry in the U.S. has been holding its breath over a much-delayed review by the Commerce Department over allegedly unfair trade practices by Chinese solar panel makers.

President Obama touted solar energy as an "industry on the rise" and condemned Republican skeptics of this power source in his first stop on a nationwide energy tour.

Global chipmaker Broadcom has reportedly acquired Israeli startup BroadLight for at least US$200 million, two Israeli newspapers report Tuesday.

Chang-Sik Choi, former executive vice president of Samsung Electronics, has been named president and CEO while Chan-Hee Lee, former executive vice president of MagnaChip Semiconductor, has been named president in charge of Dongbu HiTek's foundry business.

Samsung Electronics will use its single-chip solutions for the Galaxy S III to lower dependence on Qualcomm.

Elpida Memory has filed court papers in US Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware, listing more than US$1 billion in assets and debt. It asked the court to recognize the Japanese case as the main bankruptcy proceeding.

"It is likely that it will be raised, but we can't confirm until April 26" when the company's quarterly investor conference will be held, Elizabeth Sun, a spokeswoman for the Hsinchu, Taiwan-based company, said by phone today, without commenting on the size of the increase.

Intel is ready to start cranking out chips for tablets, but is the chipmaker moving fast enough to boost its presence in the mobile market?

STMicroelectronics should persuade Ericsson that they sell off their mobile chip joint venture ST-Ericsson, but probably to some aspiring Chinese company. That is likely to produce the quickest and most profitable - or least loss-making - exit for the two parent companies from what has become a failed project.

Installations of solar panels will continue to increase strongly in Germany in the first six months of the year, government and industry sources told Reuters, dealing a blow to efforts by the ruling coalition to get the market under control.

Samsung was dealt another blow in its patent battle against Apple this week after a court in the Netherlands ruled that Samsung is not allowed to pursue injunctions on "essential" patents if Cupertino is willing to negotiate a licensing deal.

Despite an amended wafer supply agreement that gives AMD the right to use other foundries to make its 28nm accelerated processing units (APUs), Globalfoundries expects AMD to increase its business with the firm in 2012.

According to seperate reports, both Panasonic and Samsung could be looking to use Android as the base operating system on digital cameras in the future.

It seems as if Nvidia is having difficulty manufacturing its upcoming Kepler GPU lineup due to a supply shortage at TSMC that has been linked to internal (TSMC) 28nm issues.

STMicroelectronics has secured the business of Apple, supplying MEMS for its iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches, as well as the business of Sony. InvenSense, however, has about 70% market share for Google Android-based smartphones.

"The contract is expected to rise to US$11 billion by the end of this year as Apple is planning to release a smaller iPad, probably with a 7.85-inch screen, and to sell more of its MacBook Air PCs using Samsung's faster SSD storage," said a Samsung official.

Hynix Semiconductor said the chip industry is set to recover from the second half of this year as the prices of DRAM chips have been rebounding following news of Japanese chip maker Elpida Memory's bankruptcy protection filing late last month.

Infineon's chief executive Peter Bauer has said the company wants to generate 50% of its total sales from Asia over the long term. Since it made over 40% of sales from Asia in fiscal 2011, it is clearly making progress on its target.

Applied Materials and the Institute of Microelectronics (IME), a research institute under the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), have officially opened the Centre of Excellence in Advanced Packaging at Singapore's Science Park II.

The weak demand for TI's wireless products such as smartphones and tablets is mainly in its OMAP applications processors and connectivity products, said TI vice president Ron Slaymaker.

"It is likely to mean fewer goods are 'Made in Japan', but more are 'Made by Japan'," said David Rea, Japan economist at Capital Economics.

Around 11,000 people gathered in Berlin on 5 March to protest against further cuts to the support for solar photovoltaics (PV) in Germany from April.