Lazard Capital Markets analyst Daniel Amir said he believes SanDisk gained market share of about 3% at the expense of rivals in the MicroSD memory card market during the second quarter.

Converge also reports that demand for DDR3 modules remains strong, with supplies limited, and that Xeons and AMD Opterons are the drivers for cost savings in the CPU space.

German computer chipmaker Infineon Technologies AG said Thursday that its revenue for the most recent quarter fell 18 percent as customers placed fewer orders.

The investment in semiconductor in the second half will concentrate on introduction of 40nm DRAM and 30nm NAND, and shifting main process to 50nm and 40nm NAND.

Experts at Semicon West 2009 were in broad agreement that the industry must change its business model in the face of global recession and ever-advancing R&D costs.

Xilinx has announced net income was US$38.0 million for the quarter ended June 27, 2009, down 56% from US$86.3 million a year ago. The specialized chipmaker also saw its net sales for the quarter slide 23% on year.

Second-quarter net income was US$47.4 million, down from US$98.0 million in the second quarter of 2008.

Citing the embodiment of its concept of "holistic lithography," ASML has unwrapped two hardware/software components to help chipmakers improve lithography process windows while avoiding costly and timely steps and maintenance downtime.

Q-Cells, the world's biggest manufacturer of solar cells, on July 14 blamed tough market conditions for its decision to scrap its full-year sales outlook and warned it would post a big loss in the second quarter. The update shocked investors, leaving the stock more than 14% lower...

One should not waste a crisis' opportunity to innovate. "Toward the tail end of the oil shock of the early 1970s the first cell phone emerged, produced by Motorola. The second oil crisis in the 1980s eventually led to IBM's PC," said Anand Chandrasekher, manager of Intel's ultra mobility group.

Semiconductor equipment maker Novellus Systems has posted disappointing margins and a wider-than-expected loss, but a robust forecast helped limit share losses in late trade.

Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML has reported a narrower second quarter net loss than in the first quarter as sales jumped, and said it expects to reach break-even by the end of 2009.

While the current economic environment is imposing severe constraints on the semiconductor equipment industry, the primary driver for increasing profitability for leading-edge chipmakers is still Moore's Law...

The 1.8-inch hard disk market appears to be dying. Already, the market is down to two manufacturers, Toshiba and Samsung, and when the latter announced its new 250GB, US$200 1.8-inch HDD last week, the announcement had a rather stunning omission: IDE and SATA.

While the headlines on Mosaid Technologies are about the patent-infringement suit it launched against IBM, the case won't be resolved for years. Of more pressing concern is whether Mosaid can renew its patent-license agreement with Samsung Electronics.

Governments across Asia have launched massive stimulus packages focused on renewable energy in recent months, and some analysts think the new infusion of cash could reshape a solar industry reeling from the economic downturn.

With more automation processing, the solar industry can cut the amount of human labor needed dramatically.

NEC Electronics will likely outsource more production of semiconductors used in consumer electronics to outside foundries to insure against a sudden plunge in demand following losses last year tied to a rapid drop in orders.

At the Semicon West trade show here, fab tool vendors rolled out a plethora of products. Here's some of the hot product introductions at the show.

Semiconductor makers are often among the first to see sales and earnings fall when a recession like this one comes along. But as the recession comes to an end, chip companies are usually among the first to come out of it.

Charlie Gay, the president of Applied Solar (APSO.OB), the solar arm of semiconductor-equipment-maker Applied Materials (AMAT), says solar panel makers are experiencing steady cost reductions by making solar panels steadily thinner. Manufacturers can't reduce the X and Y dimensions of the solar cell easily – that would reduce the surface area exposed to the sun, which in turn would reduce the power that a given panel could produce. But by producing thinner wafers, the amount of raw material gets reduced without reducing performance.

VLSI Research has revealed its Top-10 PV manufacturing equipment supply companies for 2008, with Applied Materials leading the pile.

The global semiconductor equipment book-to-bill-ratio rose above parity in June for first time in 11 months, according to VLSI Research.

Israeli start-up 3GSolar says it has developed the world's first commercial-size solar energy system that uses colored dyes to turn sunlight into electricity.

There has still been no word from Elpida on what appears to be a pandemic of Hyper memory chip failures, despite the fact that firms seem to be dropping the chips faster than a hot potato.

A delegation of Chinese Government officials and technology companies are in the UK this week looking for technology expertise and business partnerships.

...Cash flow is improving while Rivals are shutting factories. Perhaps most important, Micron has been cutting its production costs, betting that increased financial efficiency will help it survive any further shakeout along with the market leader Samsung Electronics.

Chipmaker Infineon Technologies has announced plans to launch a rights issue of up to 337 million shares with a subscription price of Euro 2.15 per share.

3Com has reported fourth-quarter and full-year results that indicated the networking supplier has settled down. The firm said it recorded a net income of US$20.2 million on sales of US$295.1 million.

Hynix Semiconductor has said it would cut its investment in a new production facility by 45% and extend the investment period.

"The Company continued to be impacted by the effects of the global economic slowdown and the NAND flash shortage that our customers have been facing...," said Wallace Kou, President and CEO of Silicon Motion.

Tokyo Electron, the world's second-largest chip equipment maker, said orders for machines that make semiconductors and flat-panel displays rose 82% sequentialy in the company's first quarter of fiscal 2009.