Germany has grounded air traffic across its northern airspace because of ash from an erupting volcano in Iceland.

The Atheros team will operate as Qualcomm Atheros, a wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm. The Qualcomm connectivity team will shift over to Qualcomm Atheros to combine resources and roadmaps.

Applied Materials reported a fiscal second-quarter profit that nearly doubled from the year-earlier period, as the company saw stronger sales of semiconductor capital equipment. But shares of the company slipped nearly 2% in after-hours trading after it posted a weaker-than-anticipated outlook.

General Electric Co and Cree Inc denied on Tuesday that the largest U.S. conglomerate has selected the lighting manufacturer to supply GE light-emitting diodes, disputing an analyst's assertion.

Near Field Communication (NFC) connectivity technology transforms smart phones and other mobile devices into wallets, tickets and keys. Infineon Technologies backs this development and is launching its latest security microcontroller for NFC applications.

The acquisition, valued at US$2.3 billion including net debt, will substantially enhance the scope of Toshiba's Smart Grid and Smart Community businesses and position the company as a global competitor with world-class capabilities.

Chip manufacturing firm Globalfoundries will begin construction of a new manufacturing plant in Abu Dhabi next year, the majority stakeholder of the company said on Friday.

Accelerometers and gyroscopes didn't attract much consumer notice until they found their way into smartphones. STMicroelectronics CEO Carlo Bozotti believes this business, known as MEMS, will soon generate 10% of the company's revenues.

Knowles has reached another major milestone in the history of its MEMS technology with the shipment of its two billionth SiSonic MEMS microphone. SiSonicTM microphones are found in all Tier 1 mobile phones and in many other consumer electronic devices including notebooks, headsets and digital still cameras.

Spreadtrum Communications has launched two low-cost multimedia chipsets for multimedia-rich mobile phones. The SC6610 and SC6620 possess Spreadtrum's highly integrated design, and combine PMU, multimedia accelerator, touch screen controller, backlight controller, 16M/32M pSRAM and up to four SIM card interfaces into one chip.

Sequans Communications has shipped its ten millionth 4G chip. Today, Sequans' chips are inside leading 4G devices, such as the HTC EVO 4G smartphone launched by Sprint in USA and the HTC EVO WiMAX smartphone launched by KDDI in Japan.

The Toronto District School Board is entering into a partnership with a solar energy company that will see aging school roofs repaired and solar panels put on the roofs of more than 400 schools.

Johnson Controls (JCI), the Milwaukee-based industrial systems conglomerate, wants to pull the plug on a joint ventures with French battery giant Saft.

GT Solar International has received the largest order to date for its polysilicon production equipment from South Korean firm OCI.

Microsoft will buy Nokia's mobile division for US$30bn, and the deal will be completed this year because "both companies are very much in a hurry."

CEO Paul Otellini called the MeeGo tie-in a mistake, and that the company would have been better-off choosing a different partner.