"During the boom, there were significant capacity increases. There were also, by the way, significant announcements of capacity that may or may not have happened..."

Applied Materials said orders for wafer fab equipment spiked in the final month of its third fiscal quarter, ending July 26. Foundries increased spending sharply, and display manufacturers are also looking at better times driven by flat panel TV sales, according to company CEO Mike Splinter.

Inspur, a China-based IT solutions provider and server manufacturer, has agreed to acquire Qimonda's Xi'an R&D center for 30 million yuan (US$4.4 million).

The latest rumor: Japan's Elpida Memory is looking to buy Spansion's wireless chip unit for US$200-300 million. A spokeswoman from Elpida declined to comment. Spansion did not respond to e-mails.

A US federal court has ordered Microsoft to pay over US$290m for wilfully infringing on a patent by Canadian firm i4i.

A technologist from Sun Microsystems has commented NAND vendors are going down the wrong path by racing each other in process technology--at the expense of customer needs. He was also critical of SSDs for servers, saying the emerging technology is still too expensive.

China-based foundry Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing has announced the successful development of its 0.13-micron embedded flash process.

Intel said it had issued updated firmware for the Intel X25-M consumer SSDs that resolves the password bug. The firmware is available on Intel's Web site.

India expects one trillion rupees (US$21 billion) of investments over a five-year period ending March 2012 for renewable-power generation, according to the chairman of Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency.

Demand for semiconductor equipment is showing signs of a return, but it remains too early to say that a broad-based recovery is at hand, said Applied Materials CEO Mike Splinter.

China's exports and new loans tumbled in July and industrial output rose less than estimates, underscoring government concern that the economy is yet to establish a solid recovery.

Singapore revised slightly higher its economic growth in the second quarter, but warned US consumption must pick up to sustain the recovery.