The investment in semiconductor in the second half will concentrate on introduction of 40nm DRAM and 30nm NAND, and shifting main process to 50nm and 40nm NAND.

Cisco Systems has continued trimming its workforce at its San Jose, CA, headquarters. Sources close to the company say between 600 and 700 employees (about 1% of global workforce) at the networking giant received layoff notices.

Experts at Semicon West 2009 were in broad agreement that the industry must change its business model in the face of global recession and ever-advancing R&D costs.

The world's biggest mobile phone maker saw a 66% slide in quarterly profit as the economic downturn hit demand for handsets. Rival Sony Ericsson also reported a quarterly loss and warned that the rest of the year would remain difficult for the company.

ZTE has said it had won 34% of China Mobile Communications's third-round 3G network expansion tender.

Xilinx has announced net income was US$38.0 million for the quarter ended June 27, 2009, down 56% from US$86.3 million a year ago. The specialized chipmaker also saw its net sales for the quarter slide 23% on year.

Second-quarter net income was US$47.4 million, down from US$98.0 million in the second quarter of 2008.

Citing the embodiment of its concept of "holistic lithography," ASML has unwrapped two hardware/software components to help chipmakers improve lithography process windows while avoiding costly and timely steps and maintenance downtime.

Foxconn, the contracted iPhone maker for Apple, is manufacturing a 3G version of iPhone tailored to customers in China, disclosed sources familiar with the matter on July 15.

Kevin Turner, Microsoft's COO, told partners during his Worldwide Partner Conference keynote about how Apple's lawyers wanted Microsoft to take down their Laptop Hunter ads.

Q-Cells, the world's biggest manufacturer of solar cells, on July 14 blamed tough market conditions for its decision to scrap its full-year sales outlook and warned it would post a big loss in the second quarter. The update shocked investors, leaving the stock more than 14% lower...

William Ogle, who was most recently chief marketing officer at Samsung Telecommunications America, will head marketing, advertising and brand strategy for Motorola's flagship business.

One should not waste a crisis' opportunity to innovate. "Toward the tail end of the oil shock of the early 1970s the first cell phone emerged, produced by Motorola. The second oil crisis in the 1980s eventually led to IBM's PC," said Anand Chandrasekher, manager of Intel's ultra mobility group.

South Korea's unemployment rate hit a three-month high in June as the prolonged downturn discouraged companies from hiring workers.

The primary cause of China's ballooning foreign currency reserves is not the surplus of the country's exports over its imports, but the result of overseas investors pouring money into property and shares...

Semiconductor equipment maker Novellus Systems has posted disappointing margins and a wider-than-expected loss, but a robust forecast helped limit share losses in late trade.

Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML has reported a narrower second quarter net loss than in the first quarter as sales jumped, and said it expects to reach break-even by the end of 2009.

Taiwan hopes to sign an economic pact with China in 2010, Lai Shin-yuan, minister of the Mainland Affairs Council, said in Washington on Tuesday (July 14), according to a statement from the island's China policy-making agency.

While the current economic environment is imposing severe constraints on the semiconductor equipment industry, the primary driver for increasing profitability for leading-edge chipmakers is still Moore's Law...

The 1.8-inch hard disk market appears to be dying. Already, the market is down to two manufacturers, Toshiba and Samsung, and when the latter announced its new 250GB, US$200 1.8-inch HDD last week, the announcement had a rather stunning omission: IDE and SATA.

While the headlines on Mosaid Technologies are about the patent-infringement suit it launched against IBM, the case won't be resolved for years. Of more pressing concern is whether Mosaid can renew its patent-license agreement with Samsung Electronics.