A conversation on August 20 with Joseph Sawicki, VP and GM of the Mentor Graphics Corp.'s Design to Silicon Division, provided a snapshot of the conundra facing foundries and EDA vendors as they approach sub-20nm process geometries. The landscape is filled with uncertainties, Sawicki warned, but there is no time left to wait for resolution.

The group aims to end a long and heated debate about the next big leap in disk technology and is expected eventually to include all drive makers and their component vendors.

"Targets will be companies that have technologies that Fujitsu doesn't have or that have customers that Fujitsu has never been able to reach so far," company president Masami Yamamoto said in an interview. "We would like to get engaged very actively in M&A activities."

Korea-based specialty IC foundry Dongbu HiTek has revealed plans to open sales offices in France and Italy, gearing to expand its customer base in Europe.

Marvell's net income for the second quarter ended July 30 nearly quadrupled to US$219.8 million, compared with US$58 million a year ago. The results gave it confidence to start buying back stock, according to the chipmaker.

A roundup of news from Indian media regarding the possible BlackBerry ban.

Consultancy Frost and Sullivan said smartphones would account for 54 percent of the Asia-Pacific mobile market in five years, up sharply from five percent in 2009.

In 2005, chairman Lee Kun-hee's youngest daughter also committed suicide in her apartment in New York, where she was studying arts management as a graduate student at New York University.

Start-up Fusion-io has snagged Dell as an OEM for its ioDrive PCIe flash card accelerators.

Verigy, which makes products that test flash memory, high-speed computer memory chips and SoC devices, previously posted seven straight quarters of red ink, though recent losses had narrowed.

ZTE Corp., China's second-biggest maker of telephone equipment, is expanding in the US with an agreement to sell a handset through Verizon Wireless.

LG Electronics plans to release an Android-based tablet under the Optimus name in time for the holidays. Ten Optimus phones are also on the way this year.

Intel has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire security specialist McAfee, through the purchase of all of the company's common stock at US$48 per share in cash, for approximately US$7.68 billion.

Display manufacturer ViewSonic has announced that all of its PC displays will feature Light Emitting Diode (LED) technology by early 2011.

Applied Materials has forecast quarterly results that beat Wall Street estimates, with demand for its chip-making gear holding up despite fears of weakening technology spending. But the company warned that sales of solar and energy equipment would slide 10-20% this quarter.