Microsemi Corporation, a leading provider of semiconductor solutions differentiated by power, security, reliability and performance, today announced a new, revolutionary non-dissipative LED backlight driver for LCD TV applications.

With DDR4 DRAM set to hit the market in 2013, two manufacturers took the opportunity at this year's ISSCC to demonstrate their DDR4 DRAM.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet endorsed plans on Wednesday to cut state-mandated incentives for photovoltaic electricity in the world's largest market for solar power by up to 30% on March 9, coalition sources told Reuters.

GE Energy Financial Services has announced 2011 was a record year for its global solar power investments, with the company doubling its solar spending commitments in the past year to $1.4 billion, reaching a total of nearly $5 billion in projects.

Brite Semiconductor, Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMIC) and ARM have jointly announced the first tape out of a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore test chip using SMIC's 40nm low leakage process technology.

Clearly, this action tends to cast doubt on the validity of all future data published by WSTS. That sort of uncertainty has a huge ripple effect. It will impact chip companies doing planning and forecasting, market research analysts who depend on WSTS numbers - interpret them and predict market trends, and broad-spectrum media outlets.

Intel and Micron Technology have entered into agreements to expand their NAND flash memory joint venture relationship. The agreements include a NAND flash supply agreement for Micron to supply NAND products to Intel and agreements for certain joint venture assets to be sold to Micron.

Qualcomm has announced the next generation of its Gobi line of wireless modems-on-a-chip.

Nualight, an Ireland-based specialist in LED lighting for food retail, has been selected by Sainsbury's, a UK-based supermarket chain, to be its partner for a significant LED lighting program in refrigerated cases across all new and refurbished stores.

BSW-Solar fears that, despite considerable opposition from the solar industry, the new legislation is likely to be passed in a meeting of the Federal Cabinet tomorrow.

China's first major solar tradeshow of the year, CIPV Expo 2012 in Beijing, ended this past weekend with continued optimism over the further development of China's solar industry, despite Germany's support cutbacks, announced during the show.

Elpida Memory, which filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday, intends to draw up a rehabilitation plan within six weeks, the Nikkei reported.

IBM fired more than 1,000 workers in North America this week, according to an employee advocacy group.

Marvell Technology's fiscal fourth-quarter profit slumped 64% on weakness in the market for the chip maker's hard-drive components.

Renesas has announced a strategic relationship with Nvidia to jointly develop a platform reference solution based on Renesas' SP2531 triple mode LTE modem and the Nvidia Tegra 3 processor.

"Industry experts - even the best ones - are often shortsighted, and sometimes outright wrong," said Eli Harari at ISSCC on Monday. "And therefore, perseverance in the face of naysayers sometimes does pay off. And in the case of NAND, big-time."