OCZ Technology, once primarily known for its DRAM/memory products, has in recent years expanded its product portfolio to include cooling products and power supplies. Another product category that has seen large gains for the company has been the SSD market.

The Certitude software enables engineers to raise the quality of verification environments and IP design components required to develop microcontroller unit solutions for automotive electronics applications.

Globalfoundries plans to double its capital spending to US$5.4 billion in 2011, said CFO Robert Krakauer. The money will go toward upgrading a plant in Dresden, Germany, building another in upstate New York and planning a factory in Abu Dhabi.

Two investment funds backed by the Chinese government are accelerating their purchases of stakes in major Japanese listed firms, with their total market value surging 10-fold to 1.5 trillion yen (US$18 billion) in less than two years, a recent study showed.

Nintendo says it will ship about 1.5 million units of its 3DS console in the first month after debut, promising to avoid the huge shortages seen with the launch of earlier versions, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata told the Nikkei in an interview ahead of the February 26 release in Japan of the device.

Elpida plans to finalize the business integration talks by the end of this month by obtaining approval from Taiwan authorities and securing support from financial institutions in Taiwan, sources said. Rexchip Electronics would become a holding company with Powerchip and ProMOS under its umbrella.

The monetary authority has been limiting gains in the Taiwan dollar toward the close of trading almost every day since April.

Facebook has told investors in a US$2 billion fundraising that its stock-exchange listing could come as early as April 2012, setting the stage for one of the most highly anticipated initial public offerings in recent years.

Fairchild Semiconductor will be closing the 6-inch manufacturing line in its South Portland, Maine manufacturing facility and transferring production to its 8-inch fab in the same site. The restructuring is expected to eliminate approximately 120 jobs at the facility over a nine-month period.

The deal is the largest takeover yet by Qualcomm. It also comes on the heels of Intel's US$1.4 billion purchase in August of Infineon's wireless chip business, which competes with Atheros. Many industry analysts believe Qualcomm's takeover of Atheros is the first of several potential deals in the semiconductor industry this year.

A video of Motorola demonstrating the new device

Amid a slowdown in DRAM, Samsung Electronics is reducing its capital spending by 14% for 2011.

Motorola showcased three new smartphones. Each of the devices is a potential game changer, not necessarily because they're the latest and greatest in smartphones but more because the company seems to have listened to consumers about what the features, the tools and the specs they're looking for.