National Instruments debuts integrated RF testing
National Instruments debuts integrated VST for RF tests
Beware technology bearing gifts; turn off the light
Beware technology bearing gifts; turn off the light
SMIC hits new quarterly revenue high
SAN FRANCISCO—Chinese foundry Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) Wednesday (Aug. 8) reported a new quarterly revenue record for the second quarter, posting sales that exceeded anal ...
Replace Cirrus’ design slots in Apple? Fuhgeddaboudit!
Replace Cirrus’ design slots in Apple? Fuhgeddaboudit!
LabVIEW FPGA innovation award
The folks at Xilinx honored the winner of the NI LabVIEW FPGA Innovation Award last night at the Graphical System Design Achievement Awards ceremony at the Hilton Hotel during the NIWeek 2012 Worldwid ...
Synopsys launches verification IP community website
Synopsys launches verification IP community website
Startup works with NASA to develop low mass lighting
Startup works with NASA to develop low mass lighting
ational Instruments debuts integrated VST for RF tests
National Instruments debuts integrated VST for RF tests
Loss-making Peregrine prices IPO to raise $77 million
Loss-making Peregrine prices IPO to raise $77 million
UMC July sales bounce
2012-08-08 18:00:07UMC July sales bounce
LONDON – Sales revenue at foundry United Microelectronics Corp. (Hsinchu, Taiwan) bounced strongly into annual growth in July after being in negative territory for the first five months of 2012.UMC's ...
AMD names new sales chief
2012-08-08 15:00:15AMD names new sales chief
SAN FRANCISCO—Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Tuesday (Aug. 7) promoted John Byrne, a sales executive who joined the company in 2007, to fill the vacant position of senior vice president and chief sales o ...
Apple v Samsung: Reading other people's emails
SAN JOSE -- One of the guilty pleasures of covering a multi-billion dollar patent infringement case like Apple v. Samsung is you get permission to read the emails of industry executives. So, go ahead ...
Analyst: Strong mobile DRAM market drove Micron's Elpida buy
Analyst: Strong mobile DRAM market drove Micron's Elpida buy
Market expert: Samsung diluted copied Apple
SAN JOSE – A marketing expert testifying for Apple said he believes Samsung blurred and tried to copy the iPhone and iPad trade dress. Apple entered into evidence a Samsung internal report saying it n ...
Updated: NASA releases first color image from Curiosity
WASHINGTON – NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has released the first, murky color image from its Curiosity rover showing the north wall and rim of Gale Crater, where Curiosity landed early Monday (Aug ...
London Calling: Former IBM Globalfoundries execs rising
London Calling: Former IBM, Globalfoundries execs rising
Report: Nikon to work with Intel to develop 450-mm wafer steppers
Report: Nikon to work with Intel to develop 450-mm wafer steppers
Samsung argues over icons user confusion
SAN JOSE – Samsung’s lead attorney tried to draw the conclusion that icons are by their very nature, well—iconic. The images represent basic functions all smartphones need to use, he suggested in cros ...
NASA releases first color image from Curiosity
WASHINGTON – NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has released the first, murky color image from its Curiosity rover showing the north wall and rim of Gale Crater, where Curiosity landed early Monday (Aug ...
Samsung phones confused graphics expert
SAN JOSE – As many as 13 Samsung phones use “substantially similar” icons and display screens as protected in an Apple iPhone design patent, said an expert witness testifying for Apple. Another 11 Sam ...
3-D technology to improve cancer treatment
PARIS – As part of a a three-year project, researchers at the University of Lincoln in Great Britain said they will develop 3-D imaging technology for cancer patients receiving proton therapy. The res ...
MaxLinear returns legal fire at Silicon Labs
LONDON – Mixed-signal and RF chip company MaxLinear Inc. (Carlsbad, Calif.) has filed counterclaims against rival fabless chip firm Silicon Laboratories Inc. (Austin, Texas) in U.S. District Court in ...
Sharp LCD-based support plan is up for renegotiation
Sharp LCD-based support plan is up for renegotiation
Yoshida in China: Apple falls to No.5 in China; Pearl River woes
Yoshida in China: Apple falls to No.5 in China; Pearl River woes
Reports: Wafer discounts rush orders from MediaTek Nvidia
Reports: Wafer discounts, rush orders from MediaTek, Nvidia
3D technology to improve cancer treatment
PARIS – As part of a a three-year project, researchers at the University of Lincoln in Great Britain said they will develop 3D imaging technology for cancer patients receiving proton therapy. The rese ...
London Calling: Wind River Marconi and Mars
LONDON: What a small solar system we live in. The state-owned China South Locomotive & Rolling Stock Corp. Ltd. (Beijing, China) has just helped Dynex Semiconductor Ltd. (Lincoln, England) build a ...
Analyst: Apple Samsung snagged over 100% of Q2 handset profits
Analyst: Apple, Samsung snagged over 100% of Q2 handset profits
MediaTek cracks top 5 in smartphone apps CPU sales
MediaTek cracks top 5 in smartphone apps CPU sales
Frustrations bubble over in Apple v Samsung
SAN JOSE – Mountains of design and legal details bubbled into frustration as Samsung attorneys tried to discredit an expert witness for Apple and the judge wrestled with attorneys.Apple attorneys aske ...
Diverse application base fuels sensor growth
SAN FRANCISCO—The market for magnetic sensors is projected to grow by 13 percent in 2012 after surging by more than 22 percent last year, according to market research firm IHS iSuppli.Thanks to use ac ...
Cypress Ramtron continue standoff
Either Cypress Semiconductor Corp. is practicing a siege mentality, or it is waiting for shares of Ramtron International Corp. (Nasdaq: RMTR) to sink so low that the company will have no choice but to ...
Power Integrations settles with IRS
SAN FRANCISCO—Analog chip vendor Power Integrations Inc. (PI) Monday (Aug. 6) announced it would make a one time payment of $42.6 million to the U.s. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for taxes and inter ...
MEMS enable 'human body on a chip'
PORTLAND, Ore.—Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and elsewhere have embarked on an ambitious $32 million " human body-on-a-chip" research project that will us ...
Curiosity’s bold engineers delivered the goods
WASHINGTON – Human beings are capable of great things when they work together.The engineers and scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory JPL who designed, built and flawlessly landed the Curiosi ...
Expert says Samsung phones tablets infringe
SAN JOSE – An expert witness testifying for Apple said as many as 11 Samsung phones and two tablets infringe Apple design patents.Peter W. Bressler—a consultant and teacher of industrial design who ho ...
IPhone created ‘crisis of design’ at Samsung
SAN JOSE – A Samsung executive said the company had a “crisis of design” because the difference in user interfaces on the iPhone and Samsung handsets were like “Heaven and Earth.” The executive spoke ...
Startup demos 60-GHz Wi-Fi
2012-08-07 02:07:02Startup demos 60-GHz Wi-Fi
LONDON – Nitero Inc. (Austin, Texas), a fabless chip company with Australian roots, has announced it has begun demonstrating 60-GHz, multi-gigabit Wi-Fi ICs for mobile devices to selected companies. T ...
Yoshida in China: Leveraging one billion smartphones
Yoshida in China: Leveraging one billion smart phones
Xilinx spotlights All Programmable Technology at NIWeek 2012
Xilinx spotlights All Programmable Technology at NIWeek 2012
High-profile ex-Intel exec joins Qualcomm as new marketing chief
High-profile ex-Intel exec joins Qualcomm as new marketing chief
Samsung plans ARM-based CPU for servers says report
Samsung plans ARM-based CPU for servers, says report
Mali cores first to adopt new Khronos spec
SAN JOSE – ARM announced the first three members of the second generation of its Mali T600 graphics cores. The T624, 628 and 678 cores are the first to support Adaptive Scalable Texture Compression, a ...
Chip market could fall by 5% in 2012 says ABI
LONDON – Market researcher Allied Business Intelligence Inc. has decided that a lack of confidence in the global economy and a past lack of investment in semiconductor manufacturing mean the chip mark ...
ADI offers front end chip for medical apps
MANHASSET, NY -- Analog Devices, Inc. introduced a low-power, single-lead, heart-rate monitor analog front end (AFE) for a wide range of vital sign monitoring applications. The AD8232 AFE is 50 percen ...
TSMC to invest in ASML
2012-08-06 20:04:44TSMC to invest in ASML
LONDON – Leading Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (Hsinchu, Taiwan) has opted to take a 5 percent stake in lithography equipment maker ASML Holding NV (Veldhoven, The Netherlands) as part o ...
Apple v Samsung: Rights and Wrongs
There’s enough greatness and pettiness to go around in the cramped courtroom of Judge Lucy Koh of San Jose Federal Court where Apple and Samsung are suing each other for patent infringement.Apple dese ...
ST buys picoprojector display tech from bTendo
Smartphone projector display ready for market, says ST
Updated: Curiosity rover lands on Mars
WASHINGTON – The Curiosity rover has landed in the lowlands of Mars. The Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft carrying the 1-ton rover reached the surface at Gale Crater at about 1:32 a.m. eastern time ...
London Olympics photograph album
Click on image to enlarge.Click on image to enlarge.Click on image to enlarge. ...
Court hears of Jobs’ penchant for secrecy
SAN JOSE – Apple’s penchant for secrecy came into the spotlight in testimony in its patent infringement case Friday. Scott Forstall, Apple’s senior vice president for iOS, also talked about the genesi ...
Court scrutinizes email from Steve Jobs
SAN JOSE – Samsung’s attorneys suggested the late Steve Jobs saw an idea that could be useful for the iPhone in a Samsung design in the trial where Apple is seeking $2.5 billion from Samsung for infri ...
E Ink to buy e-reader tech competitor SiPix
MANHASSET, N.Y. -- Electronic paper display specialist E Ink Holdings has signed a definitive agreement to buy shares of SiPix Technology, a provider of rival electrophoretic technologies. E Ink will ...
Schiller ‘shocked’ at ‘copycat’ Samsung phones
SAN JOSE – Apple’s head of marketing said he was “shocked” when he first saw Samsung’s “copycat” products of the iPhone and iPad that he said have impacted Apple’s sales. An attorney for Samsung sugge ...
Judge cracks whip during Apple v. Samsung
SAN JOSE, Calif.--Pressures of the patent infringement battle boiled over Friday morning (Aug. 3) as Judge Lucy Koh admonished Apple and Samsung in front of the jury for deluging the court with object ...
Microchip closes SMSC deal discusses integration plans
Microchip closes SMSC deal, discusses integration plans
Does Samsung deal leave CSR out in the cold?
NEW YORK -- The recently announced CSR-Samsung deal, under which Samsung Electronics will acquire CSR’s handset connectivity/location development operations and its technology, was an easy sell to the ...
Adam Steltzner NASA's hipster rocket engineer
NASA engineer and media sensation Adam Steltzner is the face of the Mars Science Laboratory mission scheduled to land on the Red Planet early Monday morning (Aug. 6). So far, media attention to Stelzn ...
June global chip sales stay soft on U.S. weakness
LONDON – Worldwide sales of semiconductors reached a three-month average of $24.38 billion in June for the month of June 2012, a decrease of 0.1 percent from the prior month when the averaged sales we ...
Wearable monitoring system for Parkinson's patients
Wearable monitoring system for Parkinson's patients
Synopsys to buy SpringSoft for $406 million
LONDON – EDA software leader Synopsys Inc. (Mountain View, Calif.) has agreed to purchase IC debug and verification software company SpringSoft Inc. (Hsinchu, Taiwan) for $406 million, or approximatel ...
Yoshida in China: Windfall orders from smartphones in China?
Yoshida in China: Windfall orders from smartphones in China?
Is Synopsys helping chip making return to its roots?
Is Synopsys helping chip making return to its roots?
Writing drawing with eyes
2012-08-03 18:04:25Writing, drawing with eyes
PARIS – It is now possible to draw and write using just eye movements, claimed France's National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS).French CNRS researcher Jean Lorenceau said that subjects sufferin ...
Component prices plunging on economic uncertainty says IHS
Component prices plunging on economic uncertainty, says IHS
Multicore 'string processor' firm sold to Ericsson
Multicore 'string processor' firm sold to Ericsson
Foundries soar Japanese IDMs slide in IC sales rankings
Foundries soar, Japanese IDMs slide in IC sales rankings
London Calling: Mirror mirror on the EUV machine
LONDON – Despite the economic calamity in Europe some governments still have good chunks of cash to back technology development.The German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is backing a projec ...
What's in a name? Plenty says CEO of former austriamicrosystems
What's in a name? Plenty, says CEO of former austriamicrosystems
ON Semi's CFO resigns
2012-08-03 07:05:20ON Semi's CFO resigns
SAN FRANCISCO—ON Semiconductor Corp. said Thursday (Aug. 2) that Chief Financial Officer Donald Colvin will resign after the company identifies a replacement.ON Semi (Phoenix) said Colvin and the comp ...
ON Semi plans more job cuts
2012-08-03 06:01:04ON Semi plans more job cuts
SAN FRANCISCO—ON Semiconductor Corp. plans to cut additional jobs as part of a plan to save the company between $10 million and $15 million per year, company executives said Thursday (Aug. 2).In a con ...
ON Semi's CEO resigns
2012-08-03 05:05:12ON Semi's CEO resigns
SAN FRANCISCO—ON Semiconductor Corp. said Thursday (Aug. 2) that Chief Financial Officer Donald Colvin will resign after the company identifies a replacement.ON Semi (Phoenix) said Colvin and the comp ...
Yoshida in China: Is China’s manufacturing sector slowing down?
Yoshida in China: Is China’s manufacturing sector slowing down?
Animated characters brought to life by 3-D printing
Animated characters brought to life by 3-D printing
From small contributions come big successes
Among nature’s tiniest and shortest-lived particles, the Higgs Boson has fame and influence extending far beyond its physical attributes. The search for this particle has brought together huge numbers ...
Renesas forecasts flood of red ink
LONDON – Struggling Japanese chip firm Renesas Electronics Corp. has forecast it will make a net loss of 150 billion yen (about $1.91 billion) driven by restructuring costs for the fiscal year ending ...
Report: Lenovo not interested in buying Nokia
LONDON – The price of shares in mobile phone company Nokia Oy was volatile amid heavy trading on Wednesday amid rumors that the company might be bought by Chinese computer maker Lenovo. "This mus ...
London Calling: Intel Delfassy back gesture firm
LONDON – Intel likes MEMS and gesture recognition it seems. Movea SA (Grenoble, France) has raised 6.5 million euro (about $8 million) in a funding round led by Intel Capital, joined by existing inves ...
Sharp to slash 5000 jobs
2012-08-02 18:04:38Sharp to slash 5,000 jobs
PARIS – Japan's Sharp Corp. reported a significantly wider fiscal first quarter loss and unveiled its intention to cut 5,000 jobs by the end of March 2013. This will be the company's first personal do ...
Venture capitalist named chairman of Cirrus Logic
SAN FRANCISCO— Al Schuele, a venture capitalist and former semiconductor industry executive, was appointed chairman of the board of directors of Cirrus Logic Inc., the company said Wednesday (Aug. 1). ...
Chip stocks hanging tough says analyst
SAN FRANCISCO—Semiconductor stocks are showing surprising strength in spite of difficult global macroeconomic conditions, thanks to lower than expected estimate declines by chip firms and Wall Street, ...
Taiwan approves MediaTek's MStar buy
SAN FRANCISCO—Taiwan's Fair Trade Commission has approved MediaTek Inc.'s proposal to acquire up to 48 percent of rival MStar Semiconductor Inc., saying the combination would not hamper market competi ...
Fusion-io code makes servers storage appliances
SAN JOSE – Fusion-io is shipping its Ion Data Accelerator, software to enable it flash memory cards on a server to act as a storage networking array or appliance. The code opens up a new front in comp ...
ARM signs 64-bit deal with Cavium
LONDON – Fabless networking chip firm Cavium Inc. (San Jose, Calif.) has announced that it is planning to deliver a family of multicore system-chips based on full custom cores designed to implement th ...
Samsung lays out countersuit against Apple
SAN JOSE – Samsung sketched the outlines of its countersuit case against Apple in opening statements here Tuesday. The Korean giant showed prior art on all the patents Apple claims it infringes and de ...
New sim testing tools used to design Mars lander
WASHINGTON – When engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) realized they had to start from scratch in order to safely land a Mini Cooper-sized rover on the surface of Mars, they realized si ...
Startup raises $30 million to bring MRAM to market
Startup raises $30 million to bring MRAM to market
Wolfson predicts return to profit in 2H12
LONDON – Audio and MEMS mixed-signal chip company Wolfson Microelectronics plc (Edinburgh, Scotland) has announced a reduction in its net loss in the second quarter as it has increased its sales reven ...
AMD recruits Apple processor guru as chief chip architect
AMD recruits Apple processor guru as chief chip architect
RF test startup raises funds
2012-08-01 20:04:33RF test startup raises funds
LONDON – Mesuro Ltd. (Cardiff, Wales), a startup RF test company founded in 2008 as a spin off from Cardiff University, has announced it has raised £700,000 (about $1.1 million) in a funding roun ...
Smart energy interoperability group formally incorporated
Smart energy interoperability consortium formally incorporated
Japan revives mobile chip joint venture
LONDON – Japan has revived plans for a mobile equipment chip joint venture but has come up with something smaller and less ambitious than a previous plan that was cancelled earlier this year.NTT Docom ...
China clears Microchip's SMSC acquisition
SAN FRANCISCO—China's antitrust regulatory body rubber stamped Microchip Technology Inc.'s $939 million acquisition of Standard Microsystems Corp. (SMSC), clearing the way for the deal to close this w ...
A look inside Apple’s kitchen table group
SAN JOSE – A 17-year veteran of Apple’s small but powerful industrial design team provided a glimpse of the design process at Apple in the first testimony of the company’s patent infringement case aga ...
Spansion Q2 2012 earnings
2012-08-01 09:00:32Spansion Q2 2012 earnings
SUNNYVALE, CALIF.--Memory maker Spansion, which reported strong second-quarter earnings today, has an "aggressive" roadmap to boost its product-introduction rate and break its latest design- ...
London Calling: Infineon's Bauer bows out
LONDON – Peter Bauer, is CEO of Infineon Technologies AG (Munich, Germany) until the end of the fourth fiscal quarter on September 30, 2012. He has been one of the more successful chip company CEOs on ...
Apple v. Samsung kicks off innovation debates
SAN JOSE – The Apple v. Samsung case now starting here has already raised two broad questions: What’s the line between aggressive benchmarking and copying of a competitor’s product? And what’s the lin ...
Indian firm launches $125 MIPS-based Android 4.1 tablet
Indian firm launches $125 MIPS-based Android 4.1 tablet
Toshiba to commence volume production of white LEDs
Toshiba to commence volume production of white LEDs
Amy Farrah Fowler helps Texas Instruments teach
LONDON – Mayim Bialik, the Emmy-nominated actress who plays neurobiologist Amy Farrah Fowler on the television show The Big Bang Theory, is going to be doing teaching gigs at schools as part of workin ...