Confidence is beginning to return to UK and mainland European businesses but it has still not reached levels seen in the autumn last year, according to a quarterly business survey released on Tuesday.

Cypress Semiconductor has announced it is sampling SRAM devices on 65nm linewidth. The new 72-Mbit QDR2 and DDRII memories leverage process technology developed with foundry partner UMC.

In my opinion, it's time for Taiwan's DRAM makers to merge, consolidate--or give up. The time is now. Not next quarter or next year. Now! There is a plan to consolidate Taiwan's DRAM makers, but so far, no one has budged.

Nearly 5,000 firms in England and Wales went into liquidation and a record number of people succumbed to insolvency in the first three months of 2009, as the deepening recession claimed more victims.

Consumers felt more confident about the economy last month than at any time since the September failure of Lehman Brothers that pushed global banking to the brink of collapse, a survey showed Friday.

"The global economic slowdown continues to limit demand for all semiconductor devices," said Mario Ruscev, CEO of FormFactor.

Asia's governments must spend more on social safety nets and reduce their reliance on export-driven growth as they grapple with an economic meltdown that will keep tens of millions trapped in poverty, finance officials said Sunday.

Last year, for the first time, the US Patent & Trademark Office issued more patents to foreigners than to Americans. And the rest of the world is expected to widen its lead over the US as manufacturing and research and development continue to migrate to emerging markets.

The president announced the establishment of a new Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or ARPA-E. With a proposed budget of US$400 million, ARPA-E will focus on research into clean alternatives for carbon-based energy.

Apple is building a significant capability to design its own computer chips, a strategy shift that the company hopes will create exclusive features for its gadgets and shield Apple's work from rivals.