A Wolfson audio chip is included in Samsung's soon to be released smartphones, Wave and Galaxy S. Edinburgh-based Wolfson Microelectronics makes microchips for mobile phones, TVs and gaming consoles.

Hynix Semiconductor has said it would invest 456 billion won (US$373.4 million) to boost and upgrade its production capacity.

Korea Finance, a state-run financing group, plans to provide more than US$80bn in policy loans over the next five years to support Seoul's push into strategic industries such as renewable energy and nuclear power plants.

Altera has announced it is shipping in production the highest density member of its 40nm Stratix IV FPGA family. Featuring 820K logic elements, the device is for a variety of high-end applications including ASIC prototyping and emulation, wireless, wireline, military, computer and storage.

According to Semiconductor Industry Capacity Statistics (SICAS), total industry IC capacity dropped 2.9% in the first quarter of 2010 from the prior quarter.

LG Telecom Ltd., South Korea's smallest mobile-phone operator, forecasts smartphones will account for 40% of the company's handsets this year.

Taiwan and China on June 14 launched a new flight between Taipei and Shanghai that will cut the time travellers spend on their journey, according to officials. Three airlines from Taiwan and one from China will service the route, which links Sungshan airport, in downtown Taipei, and Hongqiao airport in Shanghai.

A new survey reveals that many experts feel that cloud computing and smartphones go together like vodka and Red Bull. What does that mean for IT managers?

The industry sees the N8 as an attempt by Nokia to win back customers moving on to a host of phones from Taiwan's HTC - whose phones are based on Android systems - Apple's iPhone 4, and Blackberry.

Samsung Electronics' foundry business, Samsung Foundry, has qualified 32nm low-power (LP) process with high-k metal gate (HKMG) technology. The process has successfully completed reliability testing at Samsung Foundry's 300mm logic fabrication line in Giheung and is now ready for production of customer designs.

The drive is available in 8GB and 16GB capacities, carrying suggested retail prices of US$34.99 and US$69.99, respectively.

Fujitsu and Toshiba are in talks to combine mobile-phone operations and create Japan's second-largest handset producer, two officials at the companies said.

An Abu Dhabi state-owned company on Wednesday announced plans for the biggest single solar power plant in the world, as the emirate tries to diversify energy supplies from oil.

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington has rescheduled hearings for Oct. 7. Rambus has been involved in long-standing disputes with Hynix and Micron over patent infringement as well as antitrust issues.

"The acquisition of Sound Design Technologies solidifies our position as a leading supplier of ultra-low-power digital signal processing (DSP) technology for hearing aids and audio processing applications," said Robert Tong, VP of ON Semiconductor's Medical Division.