October chip sales grew fastest in Europe
(06:01 AM EST, 12/01/09)

Semiconductor analyst adds affiliate in India
(04:48 AM EST, 12/01/09)
Semiconductor industry analyst Future Horizons (Sevenoaks, UK) is expanding in to the Indian market by signing up Pradeep Chakraborty as an affiliate.

Squeezable interface aims to grab 3-D content market
(04:30 AM EST, 12/01/09)
Product design and development firm Cambridge Consultants launched Suma, a uniquely intuitive and very low-cost squeezable user-interface technology aimed at 3D content interaction.

Plus Semi agrees to buy X-Fab's U.K. wafer fab
(04:00 AM EST, 12/01/09)
X-FAB Silicon Foundries Group and Swindon-based Plus Semi have agreed on the sale of X-FAB's wafer fabrication plant in Plymouth, UK, to Plus Semi. A technology license agreement ensures the continuation of the existing operation.

Giesecke & Devrient buys Nokia's share of NFC startup
(03:44 AM EST, 12/01/09)
Giesecke & Devrient (Munich, Germany) has become the sole shareholder in Venyon Oy (Helsinki, Finland) by acquiring the minority stake of shares held by Nokia (Espoo, Finland).

Semicon Japan: Axcelis, KLA roll tools
(08:42 PM EST, 11/30/09)
At the Semicon Japan trade show this week, Applied, Axcelis, KLA-Tencor and others have rolled out new products.

IBM achieves accurate brain simulation
(08:42 PM EST, 11/30/09)
IBM succeeds in simulating a human brain with as many neurons as a cat brain in its Synapse project for the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, for which it recently received $16.1 million in federal funding.

Osmotic power generators harvest energy from sea
(08:33 PM EST, 11/30/09)
The first pilot osmotic electricity generation plant built in Norway by Statkraft was enabled by the pressure exchanger inventions of Energy Recovery.

Inphi sues Netlist for patent infringement
(07:39 PM EST, 11/30/09)
Firing back at a competitor, analog IC vendor Inphi said it filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Netlist in U.S. District Court.

Altera bumps up Q4 sales target
(07:24 PM EST, 11/30/09)
Altera raised its sales target for the fourth quarter, saying it now expects revenue to improve by 15 to 18 percent compared to the third quarter.

D&R adds configurable documentation platform
(05:53 PM EST, 11/30/09)
Design & Reuse SA, a global collaboration network for sharing system-on-chip design resources, announced a configurable documentation platform as part of its Enterprise Intranet Platform.

Firm to lease New York fabs, facilities
(05:11 PM EST, 11/30/09)
Real estate firm Binswanger has been named exclusive agent by IBM Corp. for the lease of two fabs and industrial space located in East Fishkill, N.Y.

Broadcom to acquire Dune Networks for $178 million
(05:09 PM EST, 11/30/09)
Fabless chip vendor Broadcom plans to acquire Dune Networks, a developer of solutions for data center networking equipment, in a deal worth $178 million, the company said.

Analysis: Sleeping giant Applied wakes up
(04:30 PM EST, 11/30/09)
The sleeping giant woke up in the fab tool business, but will its rivals take notice or respond with a yawn?

Spansion MirrorBit module available for Spartan-6
(04:05 PM EST, 11/30/09)
NOR flash vendor Spansion saidits MirrorBit flash memory is now available as a verified configuration solution for Xilinx' Spartan-6 FPGA family.

Worst could be over for solar slump
(12:55 PM EST, 11/30/09)
The solar industry is seeing its first downturn, but the worst could be over in the arena.

Low-power FPGA startup hits volume production
(12:24 PM EST, 11/30/09)
Low-power FPGA startup SiliconBlue Technologies Corp. (Santa Clara, Calif.) has shipped production-volume quantities of its iCE65 mobileFPGA devices to more than 10 customers. The company claims it is the first new FPGA vendor to achieve this in 20 years.

Obducat's CEO resigns amid losses
(11:48 AM EST, 11/30/09)
Patrik Lundstrom, chief executive of Obducat AB, has announced his intention to leave the nano-imprint lithography supplier.

Wintegra samples wireless network processor
(11:08 AM EST, 11/30/09)
Communications chip developer Wintegra Inc. (Austin, Texas) has said that the company's third-generation network access processor, the WinPath3, is now sampling.

Survey shows how users want more on mobiles
(08:06 AM EST, 11/30/09)
Users of mobile computing and portable communications expect to access more multimedia content over time but are not prepared to pay much by way of a subscription for the right, according to a survey conducted by ABI Research on behalf of Mirics Semiconductor Ltd. (Fleet, Hampshire).

October's averaged chip sales beat expectations
(06:48 AM EST, 11/30/09)
The three-month average of global sales of semiconductors rose to $21.7 billion in October, ahead of expectations, up a 5.1 percent from September and down 3.5 percent from October 2008, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association.

Ceravision signs Toshiba for microwave lighting
(06:15 AM EST, 11/30/09)
Ceravision Ltd. (Milton Keynes, England), developer of a microwave-powered light bulb, has formed an alliance with Toshiba Electronics to accelerate development of magnetrons for lighting applications.

Apple accused of NAND price manipulation, says Korean report
(05:30 AM EST, 11/30/09)
Consumer electronics giant Apple Inc. is being accused of using its commanding purchasing position to manipulate NAND flash memory prices, according to a Korea Times article.

Where next? Debating the future of manned space flight
(12:01 AM EST, 11/30/09)
The future of U.S. manned spaceflight and exploration of the solar system looks bleak unless political and budget barriers can be overcome.

3-D radar data-capture innovation makes IEDs easier to spot
(12:01 AM EST, 11/30/09)
The use of improvised explosive devices in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts has made clear that the ability to survey objects underground rapidly and effectively.

2009 Salary Survey: Engineers take a bad year in stride
(12:01 AM EST, 11/30/09)
Despite the toll of the past year on the economy in general and tech in particular, most EEs still love their jobs, wish to stay in the field and do not regret their investments in the profession.

Chinese, Indian engineers expand wish list
(12:01 AM EST, 11/30/09)
Engineers in China and India want more--more money, more societal recognition, higher positions at their employers.

What ails Japanese engineers?
(12:01 AM EST, 11/30/09)
The struggle for relevance in a technology world that is rapidly shifting resources and manufacturing to China appears to be taking a heavy toll on Japanese engineers.

Join the conversation. Why standards still matter
(12:01 AM EST, 11/30/09)
Do industry standards still matter? With so many standards and so many standards bodies, where's the value?

Samsung SGH-J750: Handling complexity and time-to-market one step at a time
(12:01 AM EST, 11/30/09)
Let me get this out of the way up front--our teardown column here isn't about the hardware behind this week's hottest cell phone launch.

Smart grid hits snag over powerline standard
(12:01 AM EST, 11/30/09)
The U.S. government is grappling with one of the first big snags in the wake of awarding $4 billion in grants to build a smart electric grid—how to find a standard that would let consumer appliances plug into an intelligent power network.

Engineers take a bad year in stride
(12:01 AM EST, 11/30/09)
I tip my hat TO ENGINEERs.

'Hot' tech markets leave Chinese EEs cold
(12:00 AM EST, 11/30/09)
The globalization of engineering has made some geography-specific trends more difficult to spot.

Chinese processor firm licenses Dolphin's audio codecs
(10:21 AM EST, 11/27/09)
Chinese embedded microprocessor supplier Ingenic Semiconductor announced it is licensing the ultra-low power audio converter from Dolphin Integration.

Infineon extends LED lighting IC portfolio
(07:18 AM EST, 11/27/09)
Infineon Technologies AG is extending its portfolio of energy efficient lighting ICs with a new family of low cost linear LED drivers.