Lead times for immersion lithography tools are being extended from approximately nine months to about 12 or more, thanks to aggressive tool buying by the likes of Samsung and TSMC, according to analysts at Barclays Capital.

SSD is breaking into the mainstream due to the proliferation of models and the lower prices that have come in the last year from increased competition and improved production processes.

Cadence Design Systems and Globalfoundries have jointly announced a multi-year software and services agreement for advanced semiconductor design.

Elpida will issue 30 billion yen worth of preferred shares, which carry no voting rights, for purchase by the Development Bank of Japan.

Tessera Technologies has said an administrative law judge found its patents weren't infringed in action Tessera brought against DRAM manufacturers in the International Trade Commission.

The formal transfer of Fujitsu's hard disk drive business to Toshiba has been postponed to Oct. 1 pending approval from Chinese antitrust authorities, a person familiar with the proceedings told Dow Jones Newswires.

Japan's Fujitsu said it would make its microchip unit profitable next year by cutting fixed costs and outsourcing production of next-generation logic chips to TSMC.

Fujitsu Services operation in the UK has announced a rationalisation programme across its workforce, proposing a reduction of up to 1,200 jobs. It currently employs 12,500 people in the UK.

The potential sale of Qimonda's 300mm assets in Virginia to Texas Instruments (TI) confirms the opportunities in used 300 mm equipment identified in a study from Semico Research.

The Nikkei reported that Hitachi, Mitsubishi Electric and NEC are in talks to infuse a total of about 200 billion yen into Renesas and NEC Electronics to help smooth the way toward a merger. The merger has been delayed for the second time.

LDK Solar has formed an agreement with Yancheng City in China's Jiangsu Province to develop several photovoltaic power projects, including ground-power stations and roof and building integration systems.

Software company Mentor Graphics has said it expects revenues and adjusted income in the third quarter to top Wall Street expectations.

The US International Trade Commission has said it plans to launch an investigation into flash-memory chips in popular products such as Apple's iPhone, Research In Motion's BlackBerry Storm, as well as camcorders and laptop computers.

President Obama wants to make the US "the world's leading exporter of renewable energy," but in his seven months in office, it is China that has stepped on the gas in an effort to become the dominant player in green energy — especially in solar power, and even in the US.

Samsung Electronics will produce 1.5 million 40nm DDR3 DRAM memory chips in September, and 20 million such chips every month afterwards until December.

PTI will provide final manufacturing services to Spansion at the Suzhou facility pursuant to a Supply Agreement between Spansion LLC and PTI. "We expect an uninterrupted supply of products to our customers after the transfer of ownership of the Suzhou facility...

Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASM International will eliminate 106 jobs as it shutters its manufacturing facility in Phoenix and shifts those operations to Singapore.

Cloud computing and flash-based storage, two fast-emerging IT technologies, are driving each other forward as users of Internet-based services like social networks demand near-real-time access to ever-growing amounts of data.

Texas Instruments has placed a bid of US$172.5 million on used 300mm equipment from the now-shuttered Qimonda fab near Richmond, Va. The Dallas-based company plans to use the equipment for 300mm analog production.

"IC-packaging will almost certainly happen in Vietnam, but it has been delayed by one or two years..."

Pure Wafer, a provider of silicon wafers and wafer services based on reclaimed wafers, has announced plans to raise £2.3 million (US$3.8 million) and restructure its debt, along with its delayed interim financial results to Dec. 30, 2008.

Texas Instruments (TI) could be interested in taking over Qimonda's US-based assets, writes news service swissinfo.ch.

Hynix is expected to swing to an operating profit in the July to September period, ending its seventh consecutive quarterly loss. Samsung may also see profits rise further in its semiconductor unit in the third quarter.

The Flash Memory Summit brought a range of opinions on the state of the NAND industry, scaling, 3-bit-per-cell and solid-state drives (SSDs).

Verigy, a semiconductor testing company, has posted a net loss of US$21 million in its third quarter ended July 31, 2009, compared to net income of US$18 million in the prior year period.

Samsung Electronics and Toshiba said they have received notices from the US Justice Department informing them that an antitrust investigation into the flash-memory chip market had ended.