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6 Oct 20083 Oct 20082 Oct 20081 Oct 200830 Sep 200829 Sep 200826 Sep 200825 Sep 200824 Sep 2008
South Korea, the world's top memory chip producer, suffered a drop in semiconductor exports for a third straight month in September amid a market glut and a slow US economy, data showed Sunday. Statistics at the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, disclosed by Yonhap news agency, showed semiconductor exports plunged 9.9% year-on-year to US2.96 billion in September, a consecutive fall since July.
AFP
The finding, reported on Sunday in the journal Nature Materials, offers a new way to process conventional silicon by slicing the brittle wafers into ultrathin bits and carefully transferring them onto a flexible surface. "We can make it thin enough that we can put it on plastic to make a rollable system. You can make it gray in the form of a film that could be added to architectural glass," said John Rogers of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who led the research.
Reuters
In light of recent advances, Kool said, ASML has concluded that EUV is the most likely successor to 193nm imaging. Accordingly, the company is investing in manufacturing space and developing a production exposure platform...
Solid State Technology
The Register
Hardware verification languages have been around for over ten years now, with steadily growing adoption throughout this entire period. This adoption has been driven largely by the inability of manual directed verification approaches to keep pace with the complexity of the verification space for leading-edge design.
EDN.com
Legislation extending tax credits for the solar, wind and biodiesel industries gained new life on Wednesday as Senate leaders said they plan to attach the tax bill to a US$700 billion economic rescue package.
Reuters
In 2007, the sector attracted US$2.2 billion in venture-backed investments, up 45% from 2006. Biofuels production jumped from 4.9 billion gallons in 2006 to roughly 6.5 billion gallons last year. Meanwhile, in 2007 the US added 314 megawatts of new solar energy systems to the grid, up by 125% from the previous year.
Forbes
The US Department of Energy (DOE) is investing US$17.6 million in six projects that aim to develop prototype photovoltaic (PV) components and systems that will be commercialised by 2010.
Energy Efficiency News
Micron Technology fiscal fourth-quarter net loss widened on a US$205 million write-down on memory chips as their prices continued to decline. As the company posted its seventh straight quarterly loss, it announced a 20% cut in salaries of senior executives. "The global memory market continues to experience severe oversupply and price degradation," said CEO Steve Appleton.
Wall Street Journal
TSMC has pushed out or delayed its initial high-k/metal-gate offering until 28-nm. In contrast, IBM and its partners plan to offer what they claim is a better gate-stack solution at 32nm. As previously reported, IBM, Chartered and Samsung plan to offer a high-k and metal-gate solution for 32nm. The companies in IBM's fab club will not offer a SiON option at 32nm and beyond.
EE Times
The incorporation documents of Tejas Silicon Holdings (UK) Ltd. show that two of the executives of the company that has just bought the Germany fab operation of Atmel, are based in the United States. And apparently one of them, at least, has experience of running a mature fab operation.
EE Times
A 36% stake in Hynix Semiconductor, the world's second biggest dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chipmaker, is going up for sale but there are few bidders on the horizon because of a down market. Samsung Electronics is currently the No. 1 contender.
The Korea Times
Tejas Silicon Holdings has agreed to acquire the Heilbronn, Germany fab operation, including equipment, but will lease the facility and license fab process technology from Atmel. About 300 Atmel employees associated with fab operations and other support functions will become a part of Tejas Silicon, Atmel said. Atmel and Tejas Silicon will also enter into a supply agreement whereby Atmel will continue to procure products from the Heilbronn fab over a three-year period, Atmel said.
EE Times
The New York Times
The semiconductor IP industry has been the virtual and ongoing punching bag in the IC business. Lack of standards, quality metrics and business models have hurt the IP industry for years. Profitability remains elusive for many IP vendors. And most, if not all of those problems continue to haunt the industry as a whole. In total, there are 300 to 400 semiconductor IP vendors of all shapes and sizes. ARM, Cadence, MIPS, Rambus, Virage and Synopsys are among the bigger players, but most IP vendors are small-sized shops.
EETimes Asia
This is a bubble, Maeda told Reuters in an interview, referring to the estimated 200 solar power firms now in the sector and their plans to ramp up capacity. The prices of solar panels need to fall to less than half of what they are now (for their use to spread without subsidies), and current technology doesn't make that commercially viable. The industry is in for large price falls, he said, adding that it was dangerous to invest prematurely in inefficient technologies. "Eighty percent of solar sector makers will fail."
The Guardian
Since ATMI last updated its 2008 guidance on July 14, 2008, market conditions have significantly deteriorated. The Company's reduced revenue outlook is the result of a marked slowdown in demand across all of ATMI's semiconductor and flat panel display end markets, a trend that accelerated in the past month.
Marketwatch.com (Dow Jones)
The world's biggest flash memory chipmaker said it has recently begun shipping 16-gigabit multi-level cell (MLC) flash chips to clients using the 42nm level. Samsung's bigger Japanese rival Toshiba and Hynix Semiconductor are still using 43-nanometer and 48-nanometer technology, respectively.
The Korea Times
Spain's Cabinet has ratified proposals to set a new limit on subsidised solar power at a capacity level of 500 megawatts, Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said on Friday. The approval ends weeks of wrangling over the new subsidy cap, which is far below the 1,200MW fixed in a current subsidy scheme expiring on Monday that helped make Spain the world's third-largest solar market after Germany and the United States.
The Guardian
Typhoon Jangmi is expected to lash Taiwan with massive amounts of rain and strong winds for a second day today after leaving a trail of destruction behind.
Taiwan News
..it will be discontinuing the operations of its GO Networks business unit, a supplier of wide-area Wi-Fi network equipment. Accordingly, NextWave today filed a request in Israel to seek bankruptcy protection for its GO Networks subsidiary located in Tel Aviv.
Company release
The Oregonian
South Korea's Hynix Semiconductor said on Thursday it would sell part of its stake in a Chinese joint venture plant to partner Numonyx for US$100 million by the end of this year. World No.2 memory chip maker Hynix said in a filing with the Korea Exchange its stake in the Wuxi plant will fall to 76.7% from the current 83.3% after the transaction.
Reuters
The SlotMusic cards, about the size of a fingernail, will feature music by artists from EMI Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group, the companies said in a statement Monday. Listeners can insert them into portable devices or copy the music onto a personal computer. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
Mercury News
NXP BV's announced restructuring plan has left analysts pondering the company's future and dusting off age-old European chip company merger ideas. The plan is expected to cost about $800 million but it is hoped it will save US$550 million annually
EETimes Asia
Solar companies' success in ramping up new production lines and factories could leave the fast-growing renewable energy market awash in solar panels next year, driving down prices and profit margins in the nascent industry. The recent move by this year's hottest solar market, Spain, to cut its cap on subsidies for new solar panels has sparked fears that big producers may see their selling prices drop by as much as 20% as they scramble to sell out their production.
The Guardian
Solar power, with its promise of emissions-free renewable energy, boasts a growing number of fans. Some of them, it turns out, are thieves. Just ask Glenda Hoffman, whose fury has not abated since 16 solar panels vanished from her roof in this sun-baked town in three separate burglaries in May, sometimes as she slept. She is ready if the criminals turn up again. “I have a shotgun right next to the bed and a .22 under my pillow,” Ms. Hoffman said.
New York Times
The WTO will examine whether Japan is complying with a ruling against its punitive import charge on South Korean computer chips. The WTO has twice ruled against a 27.2% charge Tokyo levies on dynamic random access memory made by South Korea's Hynix Semiconductor. Earlier this year, the WTO gave Japan until Sep 1 to bring the tariff in line with international trade rules. A third ruling against Japan in the dispute could lead to South Korean trade retaliation against Japanese goods or services.
AP
...The debate boils down to how much speed you need," Crump said. DRAM storage is faster, but that's at a cost that's much higher than Flash-based storage. For example, 2TB of Flash-based storage costs about US$180,000, compared to about US$1 million for the same amount of DRAM-based storage. "DRAM is faster, but if flash does it for you, why spend the extra money?" he asked. In that case, it depends on the needs of the business, he said...
Computerworld
Homeowners also would get a 30%tax credit for eight additional years for the cost of installing solar equipment. Homeowners could claim a tax credit of up to 10% of the cost of all qualified energy efficiency improvements, such as insulation, replacement windows, water heaters and heating and cooling equipment. To reduce demand for petroleum, the bill creates a tax credit for plug-in electric cars, whose buyers will get a tax break of from US$2,500-$7,500, depending on battery capacity of the vehicle.
The Guardian
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