semiconductor

Intel smartphone and mobile Internet device concept designs have potential. So, as Intel prepares to enter the smartphone market with LG Electronics and others, will these designs be realized? And would you buy one?

One thing is certain. A re-badged Apple iPhone running Windows isn't going to upset the Apple cart (pun intended).

So, one obvious challenge is for Intel to get its considerable weight behind a new smartphone or mobile Internet device (MID) design that resets the market.

Just so happens there's a design that Intel has been brandishing for a couple of years now (see photos). … Read more

Taiwan's economic affairs minister has retreated from previous statements that suggested a merger of the country's ailing memory chipmakers was likely, saying it's "too complicated," according to reports.

Instead, Taiwan Memory Co., the new government-backed entity, will focus on acquiring technologies and tapping existing manufacturing plants in Taiwan, according to a Bloomberg report.

Economic affairs minister Yiin Chii-ming and John Hsuan, a former United Microelectronics Corp. executive who was appointed by the state to oversee the formation of Taiwan Memory, are also saying that the scale of the aid plans will be pared back, Bloomberg … Read more

National Semiconductor said Wednesday it would slash 1,725 jobs, or about one-fourth if its workforce, as earnings dropped sharply in its most recent quarter.

The Santa Clara, Calif.,-based company reported on Wednesday that its fiscal third-quarter profit plummeted 71 percent, to $21.1 million from $72.9 million a year ago. Revenue dropped 36 percent to $292.4 million.

Job cuts will take place across the company, which currently has a workforce of about 6,500, and will involve, in coming months, the shuttering of facilities in Arlington, Texas, and Suzhou, China.

The chipmaker will incur charges of $… Read more

Taiwan named a chip industry veteran to head a state-backed company that will merge six memory chipmakers, following pleas from domestic companies desperate for financial aid.

Previous reports had cited an approval for loans, but on Thursday the economic affairs ministry took this a step further and named former United Microelectronics Corp. executive John Hsuan to head a state-backed company, according to Bloomberg. Taiwan's government will hold less than a 50 percent stake.

Taiwan Memory Co. will be established within six months. It has not been decided yet what role Japan's Elpida Memory or U.S.-based Micron … Read more

Updated at 10:50 a.m. PST with additional information from announcement and Intel-TSMC conference call.

Intel and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. will collaborate on Atom chip production, the companies announced Monday.

For its part, Intel is eying big markets--such as smartphones--where it is currently not a player, but TSMC is. "Many of our customers already had an existing IP (Intellectual Property) infrastructure on TSMC that they would like to take advantage of as they ramp Atom-based products. That's essentially what the agreement is about," said Anand Chandrashekar, senior vice president at Intel, speaking Monday morning in … Read more

Market researchers IDC and Gartner made their cases on Wednesday for worsening chip sales in 2009, with both firms predicting that chip revenue will fall by more than 20 percent.

The worldwide semiconductor market will not recover until 2010, primarily due to a very weak fourth quarter, according to IDC. The market researcher expects a decline in global chip sales of 22 percent in 2009, due, among other things, to low chip factory utilization rates and price erosion.

Memory revenue (DRAM and NAND flash) should stabilize by the second half of 2009, but revenue growth will not return until 2010, … Read more

The U.S. Supreme Court handed chip designer Rambus a victory Monday, when it refused to hear an appeal by the Federal Trade Commission that alleged the chip designer violated antitrust laws under the Sherman Act.

For Rambus, it ends a seven-year battle with the Federal Trade Commission over its Sherman Act litigation, which alleged in 2002 that the chipmaker intentionally withheld its patent plans from a standards body, which later gave the green light to some of its technology that is now found in the vast majority of PCs and servers around the world.

"It's a good … Read more

Things are gloomy all around, the global chip industry included. And as much pounding as the semiconductor market has taken, it hasn't hit bottom. The good news? It's "pretty close," Morris Chang, chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., told The Wall Street Journal in an interview Friday.

"I think it will be 2012 before the total revenue of the semiconductor industry gets back to the '08 level," said Chang, who has worked in the industry for more than 50 years. He founded TSMC, the world's largest contract chip manufacturer, in 1987.

Last month, … Read more

Update at 1:50 p.m. PST, with information from American Guarantee's lawsuit against Intel in the Delaware Chancery Court.

Intel has filed a $50 million lawsuit against insurance carrier American Guarantee and Liability Insurance, alleging breach of contract.

The alleged breach involves the insurance firm's failure to pay for Intel's legal defense related to antitrust lawsuits filed by rival Advanced Micro Devices and consumers.

Intel, in the lawsuit filed last week in the U.S. District Court for Northern California, alleges that American Guarantee did not step up to the plate and begin paying for the … Read more