Infineon Technologies and Golden Gate Capital have announced that Infineon's wireline communications division will become Lantiq after the closing of the recently announced transaction.

Toshiba has said it aimed to expand its energy, healthcare and environment-related businesses as it targets a strong recovery in earnings within the next three years.

Toshiba has begun volume shipments of solid-state drives ranging up to 512GB in size. The drives are built on a 43nm manufacturing process using multi-level cell (MLC) technology.

Insolvent German chipmaker Qimonda's deal to sell its GDDR technology to Japan's Elpida Memory is valued in the low double-digit million euro range, a person close to one of the companies said.

Microsoft's newest operating system for PCs will launch in late October, but it won't boost PC sales enough to help the global DRAM memory chip market until the second quarter of 2010.

China is on its way to becoming a solar power - with financial incentives coming from every corner of the country - but a lack of experienced project developers and equipment installers may cast a shadow over the growing industry.

Elpida Memory may sign up today (August 7) with the Development Bank of Japan, becoming eligible for about 30 billion yen (US$314 million) in government aid, Nikkei English News said.

Canadian Solar, a Chinese manufacturer of solar power modules, jumped in early New York trading after reporting a profit that exceeded analyst estimates. "They blew away expectations and seem to have gained a lot of market share," said Colin Rusch, an analyst at ThinkEquity LLC.

The Central Weather Bureau forecast the storm to make landfall in northeastern Taiwan ton the evening of August 7.

Initially expected to be ready by the end of 2009, the PCI Express 3.0 specification has been officially delayed and will not see the light of day until second-quarter 2010, according to PCI-SIG.

GaAs epiwafer foundry Kopin is investing an additional US$6.3 million in its Asian foundry venture, Kopin Taiwan.

Seagate Technology said it will close its Singapore hard-disk-drive manufacturing plant by the end of 2010 and lay off 2,000 workers as a result.

GT Solar International's fiscal first-quarter profits jumped 51% on surging margins and higher revenues. The company said it was "on track" to meet its fiscal-year targets. But revenues grew at its slowest pace in roughly a year and sales came in far short analysts' expectations.

OCZ Technology has confirmed it will release its Colossus solid-state drive (SSD) in the next couple of weeks, delivering the first 3.5-inch form factor SSD with 1TB of capacity.

Chipmaker Altera has cut about 3% of its 2,700 person work force, according to a filing Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Toshiba has slashed a forecast for operating profit and sales next fiscal year made before the global recession drove the company to post its first net loss in seven years. It will also cut capital spending to 1.1 trillion yen for 2009 to 2011, from 1.64 trillion yen in the preceding three-year period.

First Solar has announced 2Q09 profits that exceeded industry expectations, but its share price fell on news that it would offer rebates in Germany and maintain, rather than raise, its full-year outlook.

Japan's Elpida Memory has said that it plans to more than double its output of advanced DRAM chips for high-speed computers and servers next month, pushing its shares higher on August 3.

GlobalFoundries spokesperson Jon Carvill responded to Chang's questionable analogy by reiterating GF's "total" commitment to fair competition.

"I don't think the memory companies are going to learn their lesson until the next cycle," said a Gartner analyst, conjuring up the vision of the memory companies as a room full of bad boys sitting in the principal's office

Taiwan plans to allow local flat panel makers and chipmakers to invest their advanced process technologies in China, the Economic Daily said on Wednesday, in the latest indication of warming business ties on both sides.

Japan's Elpida Memory has said that it was in talks about taking over German chipmaker Qimonda's high-end graphics DRAM operations to bolster its product lineup.

Spruce Pine, a modest, charmingly low-key town in the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina, is at the heart of a global billion-dollar industry.

Qualcomm CEO promotes "smartbooks" and says the US is ready to lose its reputation as a laggard in wireless.

Amkor swung to a profit of US$9 million in second-quarter 2009. "Overall unit shipments were up 43% sequentially with advanced laminate and flip chip packages up nearly 60%," said company COO Ken Joyce. "We are increasing our estimated capital additions for the full year 2009 to approximately $150 million."

Even if the STMicroelectronics assignment would be large enough to keep the utilization up far enough, it would not suffice to guarantee the company's competitiveness. But, as Buddha said: Every journey begins with the first step.

EDA's industry "big three" held a panel session at DAC on the future of EDA and agreed that this is not "your father's recession."

NEC Electronics, Japan's fourth-largest chipmaker, said its first-quarter loss widened as demand for semiconductors used in automobiles, flat-panel televisions and handsets slumped amid a global recession.

German semiconductor maker Infineon Technologies has posted a significantly-narrowed third-quarter net loss on improved wireless sales and manufacturing efficiency, and said it expects sales growth to continue into the fourth quarter.

ASM International saw its net loss for second-quarter 2009 widen to 55.7 million euro (US$78.3 million), from a loss of 9.6 million euro a year ago. The Dutch chip equipment maker recognized an inventory impairment charge of 20.6 million euro in the quarter.

Globalfoundries has announced a strategic customer relationship with STMicroelectronics.

Toshiba has reported a wider net loss in its fiscal first quarter due to restructuring costs and losses at its chip operations, as the electronics market's uncertain outlook continued to cast a shadow over the firm's earnings.

Q-Cells and MEMC Electronic Materials have formed a joint venture to construct solar photovoltaic (PV) generation facilities, in which each partner will have a 50% share.

Globalfoundries plans to introduce embedded silicon carbon (eSiC) to strain the nFET transistors at the 22 nm node, said John Pellerin, director of technology development.