PicoChip, Lime team on femtocell reference design
(08:53 AM EST, 12/04/09)
Lime Microsystems and PicoChip Designs have announced they are collaborating to develop a reference design for 3G and 4G femtocells.

October 'actual' chip sales up 14% on a year ago
(07:26 AM EST, 12/04/09)
October's global market for semiconductors was $22.05 billion, up 13.8 percent on the $19.38 billion sales recorded in October 2008, according to "actual" data from the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics organization.

Samsung plans to rival TSMC in foundry, says report
(05:51 AM EST, 12/04/09)
South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. plans to double its production of chips for others, so called foundry production, every year until it rivals market leader Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd., according to a Chosun Ilbo report that referenced an un-named company spokesman as its source.

Panelists question fabless model viability
(05:40 AM EST, 12/04/09)
Is fabless still fabulous? In a panel session at the IP-ESC 2009 Conference this week in Grenoble, France, panelists discussed the evolution of semiconductor business models and confronted views on whether the fabless model is dead or alive and kicking.

3D TV comes to the World Cup
(04:54 AM EST, 12/04/09)
Up to 25 of the 2010 FIFA World Cup matches South Africa will be produced in 3D TV.

Acer rises in rankings amid PC rebound
(07:39 PM EST, 12/03/09)
Market research firm revised its 2009 PC sales forecast thanks to better-than-expected third quarter shipments and said Taiwan's Acer moved into the No. 2 position in global PC sales in the third quarter.

Report: FTC to expand Intel probe
(07:39 PM EST, 12/03/09)
Intel Corp.'s legal woes continue. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is expanding its probe against Intel, according to BusinessWeek and other outlets.

Marvell tops analyst estimates
(06:29 PM EST, 12/03/09)
Chip maker Marvell Technology Group reported revenue for the quarter ended Oct. 31 that exceeded analysts' expectations and the company's own revised sales target for the period.

Mentor, Magma beat targets; outlooks disappoint
(05:31 PM EST, 12/03/09)
EDA vendors Mentor Graphics and Magma Design Automation reported quarterly revenue which exceeded Wall Street estimates and their own sales targets, but both offered outlooks for the current quarter that fell short of analysts' expectations.

Cree buys IP, claims LED records
(05:06 PM EST, 12/03/09)
Cree Inc. has acquired a portfolio of patents related to ''semi-insulating'' silicon carbide (SiC) material and power device technology from Daimler AG.

Motorola invests in touchscreen firm
(04:51 PM EST, 12/03/09)
The touchscreen frenzy continues, as Motorola Inc. has made an investment in Sensitive Object Inc.

Is design and reuse an impossible dream, ask panelists
(04:03 PM EST, 12/03/09)
A panel session at the IP-ESC 2009 Conference this week in Grenoble, France, examined IP design and reuse from a business and technology perspective and urged IP and SoC providers to reach compromises.

Seven hard lessons on writing a grant proposal
(02:31 PM EST, 12/03/09)
What I learned in my ten-day marathon applying for an economic stimulus grant for smart grid training.

Analog Devices' CEO:'Our enemy is us'
(01:30 PM EST, 12/03/09)
Leading analog chip vendors have all recently come out with "better than expected" quarterly results. Analog Devices CEO Jerry Fishman talked to EE Times of the market, the company's recent reorganization and what it takes to navigate the company in a global recession.

Remaking Freescale is a 'work in progress'
(12:55 PM EST, 12/03/09)
Freescale Semiconductor Inc. executives said they are moving quickly towards returning the company to long-term viability. Here are some factors that could potentially derail or delay that objective.

Osram introduces first OLED lighting panel
(10:15 AM EST, 12/03/09)
Osram Opto Semiconductors GmbH (Regensburg, Germany) has said it is introducing its first OLED lighting panel, a unit called Orbeos.

AMD co-founder joins board of Scottish startup
(08:55 AM EST, 12/03/09)
John Carey, co-founder of Advanced Micro Devices Inc. in 1969 and lead investor in Integrated Device Technology Inc. in 1980, has joined Elonics Ltd. (Livingston, Scotland) as a non-executive director.

ASML, ST intensify work on 28-nm patterning
(07:09 AM EST, 12/03/09)
ASML Holding NV (Veldhoven, The Netherlands) has announced a project with STMicroelectronics to accelerate 28-nm and 22-nm manufacturing process node development.

ST reorganizes regional structure
(05:26 AM EST, 12/03/09)
STMicroelectronics NV (Geneva, Switzerland) has announced changes in its global sales and marketing organization, consolidating ST's regions in Asia to two: Greater China & South Asia, Japan & Korea, with effect from Jan. 1, 2010.

SpringSoft, Magma cross-check their 65-nm EDA tools
(04:32 AM EST, 12/03/09)
SpringSoft and Magma Design Automation have completed cross-tool validation using TSMC's 65nm interoperable process design kit (iPDK).

Altium adds peripheral support to FPGA Nanoboard
(04:04 AM EST, 12/03/09)
Altium has released a prototyping peripheral add-on board for its NanoBoard FPGA-based development boards. The board works with both the fixed-FPGA NanoBoard 3000 and the fully-configurable NanoBoard NB2.

ST-Ericsson plans more job cuts
(03:44 AM EST, 12/03/09)
Following the reorganization announcement made in July this year, ST-Ericsson announced a plan to further improve financial performance and increase its competitiveness in the market, by reducing its work force.

HTC joins defensive patent pool
(12:01 AM EST, 12/03/09)
Taiwanese mobile phone maker HTC Corp. has become the twentieth company to join startup RPX Corp. a defensive patent pool service started a year ago in a sign the hunger to lower costs and risks of patent infringement litigation is still keen among established electronics companies.

Cascade Microtech's CEO resigns
(08:24 PM EST, 12/02/09)
Probe-card maker Cascade Microtech Inc. said that its chief executive, Geoff Wild, has resigned.

Observatory detects first water in distant galaxy
(08:08 PM EST, 12/02/09)
The Herschel Space Observatory (HSO) launched earlier this year by the European Space Agency (ESA) in cooperation with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has detected water outside our galaxy for the first time ever, located in a location where two galaxies have collided called Arp 220.

Update: Synopsys' revenue, profit fall
(05:15 PM EST, 12/02/09)
EDA and IP vendor Synopsys narrowly missed consensus analyst sales expectations for its fiscal fourth quarter, as revenue fell on both a sequential and year-to-year basis.

Updated: Intel revamps teraflop MPU efforts
(01:21 PM EST, 12/02/09)
Intel Corp. has re-positioned tera-scale processor R&D efforts and is moving towards a more mainstream multicore design.

Dubai no threat to AMD, Globalfoundries, says analyst
(12:47 PM EST, 12/02/09)
Neither Advanced Technology Investment Co. LLC, the majority shareholder in foundry chip maker Globalfoundries Inc., nor Advanced Micro Devices Inc. are likely to be affected by the Dubai debt crisis, according to a note from financial analysts FTN Equity Capital Markets Corp.

Update: EU clears Renesas-NEC merger
(12:20 PM EST, 12/02/09)
The proposed merger between Japanese chip makers Renesas Technology and NEC Electronics has been approved by the European Commission, the executive body of the European Union.

China blamed for decline in base station sales
(11:51 AM EST, 12/02/09)
The market for cellular infrastructure gear declined 10 percent in the third quarter to $9 billion due in large part to fewer 3G deployments in China, according to a new report from market watcher Dell'Oro Group.

Comment: Phase-change memory goes on conference circuit; what's missing?
(11:19 AM EST, 12/02/09)
Up until now nonvolatile memory supplier Numonyx BV (Switzerland, Geneva) has been tight-lipped about the engineering detail behind its phase-change memory technology. Now we have six papers at two conferences, but is something missing?

Cray studies exascale computing in Europe
(11:12 AM EST, 12/02/09)
Cray Inc. has announced three European partners for a new program aimed at delivering by the end of the decade a supercomputer capable of performing an exaflop, a quintillion calculations per second.

ISSCC preview: Sensors make all the difference
(11:06 AM EST, 12/02/09)
Sensor technologies and sensor circuit developments are taking front and center seat at next February's International Solid State Circuits Conference. Much of the discussion will center around MEMS sensors.

Material world: The growing synergy between nanomaterials, chips
(10:41 AM EST, 12/02/09)
Materials science experts advance their world for our gain, and we advance ours for theirs.

ISSCC preview: Non-volatile memory goes commercial
(08:14 AM EST, 12/02/09)
Non-volatile memory technologies promise to break important ground at the International Solid State Circuits Conference, due to be held in San Francisco in February as the technologies move closer to market.

Inphi suit without merit, says Netlist
(08:08 AM EST, 12/02/09)
Memory subsystem vendor Netlist responded to a patent infringement suit filed by rival Inphi, saying the suit is "without merit and will fail in court."

Samsung plans a $6 billion capex for 2010, says report
(06:22 AM EST, 12/02/09)
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. is planning to spend around 7 trillion won (about $6 billion) on expanding its semiconductor business in 2010, according to a Korea Herald report that cited an un-named source.

Alchimer eliminates seed step from TSV process
(05:35 AM EST, 12/02/09)
Alchimer SA (Massy, France), a provider of wet deposition processes for semiconductor interconnects and 3-D through-silicon vias (TSV), has said it has found a way to eliminate the seed-layer step from the standard isolation-barrier-seed process flow.

Philips borrows $300 million to spend on healthcare R&D
(04:19 AM EST, 12/02/09)
Philips secured a EUR 200 million loan (about $300 million) from the European Investment Bank to fund research and development activities across a range of innovative healthcare projects, including image-guided intervention and home healthcare, in Europe.

SEMI: No new fabs expected in 2010
(09:14 PM EST, 12/01/09)
Fab tool spending is expected to increase by 65 percent in 2010, but plans for new fabs will remain on hold for next year, according to SEMI.

Nokia sues LCD makers over price fixing
(07:29 PM EST, 12/01/09)
Cell-phone giant Nokia Inc. has filed a suit against LCD and monitor makers over alleged price fixing, according to reports.

Single-chip TV receiver supports analog, digital
(07:03 PM EST, 12/01/09)
Fresco Microchip is rolling out a single-chip solution that supports universal analog audio and video demodulation as well as digital intermediate frequency processing for global terrestrial and cable television markets.

Aquantia, Xirrus obtain VC funding
(06:45 PM EST, 12/01/09)
Two firms have obtained venture capital funding.

ARM exec gives hints for IP business model optimization
(06:24 PM EST, 12/01/09)
In a keynote at the IP-ESC 2009 Conference this week in Grenoble, France, Eric Schorn, vice president of marketing, processor division ARM Ltd, compiled a How-To list of basic steps to optimize IP business models and better deliver value to the customer.

Piezioelectric scheme seeks to reap the wind while driving
(05:43 PM EST, 12/01/09)
Piezoelectric wind harvesters mounted on vehicles could generate electricity to charge batteries or power on-board electronics, according to a researcher.

Startup ready to license silicon anode for battery
(11:53 AM EST, 12/01/09)
Nexeon Ltd. (Abingdon, England), a company formed in 2006 to commercialize battery research conducted at Imperial College in London, is getting ready to license its silicon-anode technology for use with lithium-ion batteries.

Analyst: Taiwan foundries on allocation
(11:33 AM EST, 12/01/09)
Contrary to one report, the foundry business is hot, as Taiwan vendors are sold out and leading-edge yields are improving, according to an analyst.

Chip equipment market to grow 50% in 2010, says SEMI
(10:27 AM EST, 12/01/09)
After the worst ever annual decline in the semiconductor equipment market, the industry's trade organization is predicting two years of booming growth.

MindTree algorithm stitches video
(09:57 AM EST, 12/01/09)
MindTree Ltd. has unveiled a real-time video stitching algorithm as part of a video surveillance product.

Semefab to spend $11 million building a CMOS fab
(08:50 AM EST, 12/01/09)
Semefab (Glenrothes, Scotland) has started building its CMOS3 wafer fab to support front end processing of MEMS structures.

Analyst raises forecast on soaring October chip sales
(08:04 AM EST, 12/01/09)
Bruce Diesen, analyst with Carnegie ASA (Oslo, Norway), has raised his forecast for the 2009 chip market, for the second month in a row. Carnegie asserts the market will still be down but the shrink will be less than Carnegie previously predicted.

Samsung ramps production of 30-nm NAND memory
(06:40 AM EST, 12/01/09)
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has begun volume production of 3-bit, multi-level-cell NAND flash chips using a 30-nm manufacturing process technology.

October chip sales grew fastest in Europe
(06:01 AM EST, 12/01/09)
The European and Americas regions grew fastest according to the October three-month average chip sales released by the Semiconductor Industry Association on Monday (Nov. 30), when compared with the previous month.

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).

Actel extends core8051s processor support
(11:39 PM EST, 11/30/09)
Core now available for its RTAX, Axcelerator and IGLOO Families

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.

Update: 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.

Salary Survey: 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.

Salary Survey: 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.

Salary Survey: '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.