A court order forcing Qualcomm to pay royalties for use of the technology would be inadequate because the companies are competing for the same customers...(However) Broadcom's licensing agreement with Verizon Wireless, which allows the carrier to sell phones with the infringing Qualcomm chips, shows there is a commercial solution to the patent dispute, Chesler said. "If the Verizon license is a real agreement that allows Verizon to have our chips, there can't be an irreparable injury," he said.

Seeking to expand its product portfolio, Texas Instruments (TI) has acquired Integrated Circuit Designs (ICD), a developer of radio-frequency chips. This acquisition is the latest move by TI to strengthen its low-power RF portfolio. It follows the acquisition of Chipcon, a provider of short-range, low-power RF transceivers for ZigBee-based, wireless systems.

Samsung is the world's largest memory chip maker possessing around 30% of the computer memory chip (DRAM) market and 40% of the NAND flash chip market. But the firm's profit fell by 41% in the second quarter of the year from a year earlier due to the falling price of memory chips. Alarm bells rang a week ago when six manufacturing lines were hit by a sudden power outage. Operations resumed after 22 hours but the accident damaged Samsung's reputation as one of the most stable and reliable firms in South Korea.

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Strategic Marketing Associates (SMA) reports that Taiwanese companies will increase their semiconductor capital spending by $4 billion to $13 billion this year. "Industry wide, we're forecasting a capital spending growth of 5 percent this year," said George Burns, president of SMA, in a report. "Just about all the growth is in Taiwan."

"...There's talk that STM may bid 12.50 euros per share for Infineon, but I'm not so sure there's anything in it..."

"...70-65nm DRAMs conversion helps to boost productivity and lower costs by 30%...capital spending is likely to be kept down because only some equipment will require upgrades..."

Solar cells made from thin-film technologies could make up about one-third of the fast-growing solar photovoltaic market by 2015, a research firm predicted. NanoMarkets on Monday released a report that forecast a rapid uptake of thin-film photovoltaics with spending set to grow from US$1 billion this year to US$7.2 billion by 2015.

"...Qimonda said EEMS would dedicate a manufacturing site under construction in Suzhou, China, to making chips for Qimonda under a five-year renewable contract..."

"...Quoting SanDisk CEO Eli Harari, WSJ writes that the companies plan to invest jointly in the construction of a 300mm wafer fab for NAND flash products..."

"...the two companies also are negotiating a plan relating to transferring a part of Nokia's IC operations to STMicroelectronics...will enable STMicroelectronics to design and manufacture 3G chipsets based on Nokia's modem technologies..."

"...foundry customers about a possible shortfall of capacity at the major foundries by the end of 2007 and into 2008...Big 4 foundries are forecast to register 42% more wafer shipments in 4Q07 as compared to 1Q07..."

If AMD decides to keep part of its microprocessor product line in SOI and part in bulk, it would increase its own design complexity and could limit its ability to use microprocessor cores with the graphic processors it acquired as part of the ATI decision. Two separate processor design groups — one in SOI and another in bulk — would hurt AMD's design flexibility and cost structure, one source said, asking to remain unidentified.

In recent months, both have detailed plans to build energy-efficient microprocessors specially designed for portable electronic devices. The catch is that a mass-market for these devices is still largely nonexistent. But with the frenzy over Apple's iPhone, the chipmakers are keen to secure a central role in a class of product that some believe could soon rival the PC.

President Bush decided not to veto a US International Trade Commission ruling barring the importation of new 3G cell phones that contain Qualcomm chips found to have infringed on a Broadcom patent.