"You used to have myriad semiconductor companies building fabs. Now they are expecting a couple of foundries to do it all for them," said Malcolm Penn, founder and principal analyst with Future Horizons.

Yonhap news agency quoted sources at the local government as saying Samsung plans to build the lines by 2016, but the spokesperson said details have yet to be decided.

Under the agreement, IBM receives a five-year license to certain of Misaud patents. IBM's processor and ASIC products that contain embedded DRAM are licensed under the agreement.

The company terminated its employment of Manosha Karunatilaka on December 16, the day of his indictment. Karunatilaka was one of three technology company workers arrested in the US yesterday on charges of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud as federal prosecutors expanded a probe of insider trading to companies.

Smart Modular Technologies has said prices of DRAM chips were decelerating at 20-25%, hurting profits, especially in its key Brazil markets that account for over half of its revenues.

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory study reveals cost of solar PV installations in US down 30 per cent, but still around a third more than in countries which have pioneered solar panel deployment

Nokia sued Apple on Thursday in Britain, Germany and the Netherlands, alleging that the U.S. technology company used 13 of its patents, including a basic touch-screen maneuver, without its permission.

RIM on Thursday claimed another record quarter for the fall. It shipped 14.2 million BlackBerry phones, or just enough to top Apple's 14.1 million iPhones in the summer. The tally was 40 percent higher than a year earlier.

Broadcom now expects fourth-quarter revenues to reach about US$1.9 billion, the top end of its previous forecast range. "Our increased revenue guidance reflects stronger-than-expected demand for products in our Mobile and Wireless markets versus our initial expectations entering the quarter," said company president and CEO Scott McGregor.

Did TIME cave in to political pressure? I neither know nor care. What I do know is that this year's choice is simply ludicrous.

Nokia India and IBM will offer a solution for Nokia business phones to get direct, secure access to email and personal information through IBM Domino servers.

"We are working on LTE device for next year, 2011. We think the US mobile operator will be taking some leading and pushing the LTE 4G in the US market, but however, we are seeing the rest of world will be deploying LTE network elsewhere in 2011, could be second half of 2011," said Peter Chou.

With the acquisition of Avalon Microelectronics, Altera is allowed to expand its portfolio of customizable IP solutions for OTN (Optical Transport Network) applications, supporting data rates at 1.2G, 2.5G and 10G, as well as 40G and 100G.

The rise is partly because of good news: The outlook for growth has improved, putting less pressure on investors to keep their money in ultra-safe bonds. When there's less demand for bonds, their interest rates - or yield - go up to attract more investors.

Nokia plans to offer severance packages worth 5-15 months of regular salary but hopes some of the employees affected will be relocated elsewhere in the company.

Trina Solar, the world's No.2 solar panel maker by market value, aims to take a 10% or more share of the global market as it beefs up production with capital spending of up to $US400 million next year.

Nokia has warned that another of its new range of smartphones will be delayed, highlighting the difficulties facing the Finnish group as it struggles to regain lost ground in the fast-growing smartphone market.

The currency rose as much as 2.3% to NT$29.890 versus the greenback, its highest since October 1997, before trimming its gain to close at NT$30.45.