Samsung Electronics' foundry business, Samsung Foundry, has qualified 32nm low-power (LP) process with high-k metal gate (HKMG) technology. The process has successfully completed reliability testing at Samsung Foundry's 300mm logic fabrication line in Giheung and is now ready for production of customer designs.

The drive is available in 8GB and 16GB capacities, carrying suggested retail prices of US$34.99 and US$69.99, respectively.

Fujitsu and Toshiba are in talks to combine mobile-phone operations and create Japan's second-largest handset producer, two officials at the companies said.

An Abu Dhabi state-owned company on Wednesday announced plans for the biggest single solar power plant in the world, as the emirate tries to diversify energy supplies from oil.

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington has rescheduled hearings for Oct. 7. Rambus has been involved in long-standing disputes with Hynix and Micron over patent infringement as well as antitrust issues.

"The acquisition of Sound Design Technologies solidifies our position as a leading supplier of ultra-low-power digital signal processing (DSP) technology for hearing aids and audio processing applications," said Robert Tong, VP of ON Semiconductor's Medical Division.

German solar energy company Q-Cells SE (QCE.XE) raised prices for its key products in the second quarter due to higher material costs and can't rule out further price hikes, said Chief Executive Officer Nedim Cen.

Samsung Electronics has said due to projected heavy demand for its advanced logic chips, it will invest US$3.6 billion to expand capacity at its plant in Austin, Texas, and hire 500 more workers there by 2011.

Goggle's mobile-advertising chieftan is none too happy about a recent tweak to Apple's developer agreement that locks his service's ads out of Cupertino's iOS devices - "magical and revolutionary" or not.

Altera now expects second-quarter revenues to be at the high end of previous guidance, growing 10-12% sequentially.

TI now expects profits of US$0.60-0.64 per share in the current quarter. Revenue should be US$3.45-3.59 billion.

Creditors rescued Hynix after it almost collapsed in 2001 under the weight of its debts. However, they have since struggled to find a local strategic buyer for Hynix, having excluded foreigners from the auction because of worries about sensitive technology information leaking outside of the country.

Protesters picketed Foxconn's annual general meeting in Hong Kong on Tuesday, accusing both the Apple Inc. supplier and computer giant of poor corporate ethics after a spate of suicides at Foxconn factories in mainland China