Pliant Technology has released its first series of enterprise-class solid state disk (SSD) drives based on a proprietary ASIC design that the company claims can handle - without using any cache - more than twice the input/output operations per second as the top competitive drives.

The South Korean won against the dollar strengthened to a one-month high of 1220.50 in early Asian deals on September 11. On the upside, 1218.3 is seen as the next target level for the Korean currency.

Recent signs that recession has ended in some major economies, including China's major trading partner Japan, suggest that exports may pick up again.

"Despite positive earnings pre-announcements, the overall tone from companies remains relatively muted and cautious," said Doug Freedman, an analyst for Broadpoint AmTech.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao pledged to continue his government's aggressive stimulus efforts, saying the world's third-largest economy faces persistent problems and uncertainties from the global recession despite an upturn in growth.

Taiwan's former President Chen Shui-bian has been sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of corruption by a court in Taipei.

Last October, Doug Grose was given a daunting task–turning the semiconductor manufacturing operations of AMD into a service that would also serve other chip designers. Now it looks like his job may effectively double.

Premier Liu Chao-shiuan and his Cabinet (the Executive Yuan) resigned en masse Thursday (Sep 10) morning to assume political responsibility for the government's handling of the aftermath of Typhoon Morakot.

A slow and still-fragile recovery is taking hold across the US.

ASML has reported a business pick-up above previous guidance resulting mainly from the short- and mid-term needs in the DRAM memory and Logic segments.

CEO Mike Splinter said that his company must respond to the fundamental changes in the markets it serves.

The 50-page report from research firm Objective Analysis said that Braidwood's flash memory is less expensive to install because it resides directly on the motherboard and will offer all the same benefits of an SSD at a lower cost.

German chipmaker Infineon Technologies said it planned to repay early an issue of 2010 exchangeable bonds after the prinicipal amount outstanding fell below 43 million euros (US$61.9 million).

Investors have speculated about a Temasek exit from the chip industry since its failed attempt to buy out and delist Stats Chippac two years ago. Stats Chippac and Chartered Semiconductor have slashed costs to weather the global slowdown that came amid slumping semiconductor prices and more competition from Taiwan.

US consumers slashed their borrowing by a record amount in July as rising job losses and uncertainty about an economic recovery hit home.