A Taiwanese jetliner departed Monday for China to open a new era of direct air and shipping services with the mainland, formally ending a nearly six-decade ban on regular links between the rivals.

Leading shareholders of Hynix Semiconductor denied on Friday market talk the firm's capital could be reduced, boosting its shares, although persisting concerns over the sector outlook limited gains.

Fairchild Semiconductor said Friday it is cutting 12% of its workforce, or 1,100 people, in an attempt to reduce expenses.

Chip maker Cypress Semiconductor said late Friday that the US Department of Justice has closed its investigation into in a global price-fixing scheme involving a form of computer memory.

Infineon Technologies has indicated it could contribute 50 million euros ($66 million) to help rescue its loss-making chipmaker Qimonda, German magazine Focus said, citing sources close to negotiations.

No. 4 Pc maker Lenovo has confirmed speculation that it is talks towards a possible investment or acquisition. Lenovo did not reveal details of any third party, but media reports in Brazil have identified the country's largest PC maker Positivo Informatica as a potential target.

The US Government must create strategies to eventually dilute its involvement with private enterprise, Chairman of the Securities Exchange Commission Christopher Cox said in the Wall Street Journal.

Samsung Electronics is upgrading its memory technology and manufacturing processes, which could lead to price drops for the solid-state drives that are becoming more widely used in laptops. Samsung will introduce three-bit chips with a capacity of 64Gbit in the first half of 2009, manufactured using a 30nm process technology.

Texas Instruments expects its profit margin levels for analog chips to hold steady even as sales volumes decline, CEO Rich Templeton said on Thursday. "The key difference is that you don't have pricing moving down" for analog chips compared with other chip segments even as the entire chip industry sees volumes decline in the weak global economy."

Having launched production of its energy-saving buried wordline (BWL) technology, memory chip maker Qimonda intends to leverage this feature for its entry into the DDR3 market which is expected to take off in 2009.

Amtech Systems, a supplier of production and automation systems and related supplies for the manufacture of solar cells, semiconductors, and silicon wafers, posted a revenues jump of 104% on year in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Dark economic clouds shadowing businesses worldwide aren't discouraging solar companies from considering manufacturing in Oregon. A large European solar company has picked Gresham as its top US candidate while seeking a site for multiple factories that could employ more than 2,000, public officials confirm.

European semiconductor industry executives are launching a concerted push to convince European government leaders to increase support for chip manufacturing and the equipment and materials infrastructure.

IBM, Dell and Intel stand out among technology and consumer-products companies for their policies directed at averting climate change, according to a study released on Thursday.

Kim Jong-kap, CEO of the world's No. 2 memory chip maker, told the evening newspaper, Munhwa Ilbo, that the global semiconductor industry would face a big change such as a closure of a rival chipmaker by the first quarter of 2009.

Qimonda AG hopes to soon strike a deal to research chip technology with the German state of Saxony, where its main chip factories are located, a company representative said.

In a report assessing economic prospects, World Bank has predicted that the world's annual economic growth will slow to 0.9%, from 2.5% this year.

The fall in exports suggests China's economy has deteriorated despite a massive stimulus package meant to boost growth by encouraging Chinese consumers to spend more. The trade decline is also a setback for foreign exporters who hoped China might help support global demand as the United States weakened.

Taiwan's exports in November fell $5US.09 billion, or 23.3 percent, to $16US.78 billion from a year earlier, the biggest drop since October 2001, the Ministry of Finance said Monday.