A new nanocoating developed by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute gives most run-of-the-mill solar panels the ability to capture 96.2% of the sun's rays from any angle.

...Yeung said that "given the dramatic declines in chip stocks in the past 12 months, and in light of our analysis in this report, we believe the risk/reward has now become favorable to be long selective chip names...

Hynix Semiconductor, the world's second biggest chipmaker behind Samsung Electronics, said it expects prices of computer memory chips to decline by about 30% in 2009, and prices of NAND flash memory chips to fall 40% further from this year. "The slowdown in both personal computer and motherboard sales will weaken the demand for DRAMs, which will hurt prices," a Hynix executive told The Korea Times, Wednesday.

oshiba, the largest Japanese chip maker, reported a quarterly loss Wednesday as the global economic slowdown aggravated a glut in the market for chips used to store data in consumer electronics, helping drive down memory prices. The net loss was ¥26.8 billion, or about US$275 million, in the three months that ended September 30, compared with a ¥25 billion profit a year earlier, the Tokyo-based company said. Sales fell 7%to ¥1.88 trillion.

...Huang said that much of Global's work these days goes into gathering and validating IP-based platforms: libraries of functions, often in hard-macro form, that are necessary for a particular application space. If the functional IP is on the shelf, verified, outfitted for power management, are DfM-friendly, then creating a specific chip for a customer becomes mainly a matter of IP assembly rather than a physical design effort...

Toshiba said at a symposium that its 40nm and 45nm process technologies are ready and that the company has moved into "pilot line" production for those fabrication processors. However, Toshiba's main customer, Sony Computer Entertainment, has not yet designed 40nm or 45nm versions of its chips that are used inside Sony PlayStation 3 video game system.

Lam Research, which makes equipment used to manufacture semiconductors, said Thursday its third-quarter profit plummeted 94%, as restructuring costs and weaker demand weighed on the company's performance. Lam said earnings for the quarter ended Sept. 28 declined to US$8.9 million, or 7 cents per share, from US$148.6 million, or US$1.18 per share, in the same quarter last year.

..in July, there were plenty of executives who said they were dead set against 450mm, that it doesn't make economic sense, now or ever, that the industry should focus on reducing cycle times for 300mm tools, and so on. Executives at Applied Materials, ASML, Novellus, all have been adamant in their opposition to 450mm. But re the major IC makers that back the 450mm transition –Intel, Samsung, and TSMC –big enough to get what they want? If such companies control 60-70% of equipment spending, at some point will they get what they want?...

...Broadcom is aggressively expanding into the cell phone market where it competes with other players such as Qualcomm. But analyst Betsy Van Hees of Caris & Co. also pointed to broader industry concerns, saying, "...we think Broadcom will experience a challenging near-term macro environment impacting earnings and revenue growth."

Shares in Norwegian solar industry group Renewable Energy Corporation (REC) plunged more than 12% after it reported a smaller rise than expected in core earnings for the third quarter and said turmoil would hit demand in the short and medium term. But the group, one of the world's biggest producers of solar-grade silicon and wafers for solar energy systems, said its long-term market demand remained strong.

Unlisted Dutch chip maker NXP expects a sequential sales drop of 8-14%in the fourth quarter as economies slow and consumer confidence declines. "The financial crisis and semiconductor market conditions have caused a rapid deterioration of demand towards the end of the third quarter especially in sectors like automotive and consumer," NXP chief executive Frans van Houten said in a statement on Tuesday.

Samsung Electronics withdrew its US$5.8 billion offer to acquire SanDisk, saying it no longer believed SanDisk was worth the money it was offering and that SanDisk's refusal to entertain friendly discussions stymied hopes for a deal. In a letter to SanDisk's top executives, Samsung Chief Executive Officer Lee Yoon-woo said SanDisk's third-quarter loss and the subsequent restructuring of its chipmaking deal with Toshiba Corp. "point to a considerable increase in your risk profile and a material deterioration in value."