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.

Citing the "deepening global recession" and the stronger dollar, Kodak said on Wednesday its 2008 revenue growth, digital revenue growth, earnings from continuing operations, and cash generation would all fall short of its forecast.

As downward revisions of December quarter guidances flow as steadily as pink slips this month, reports are swirling of company-enacted manufacturing plant shutdowns in what seems to be a heavy trend compared to previous years. Samsung, Spansion, TI, and TSMC are among those reportedly shutting down manufacturing sites at the end of the year for up to three weeks. Such action is nothing new...

The new center is expected to provide design and extended sales and engineering support for the company's growth in the Asian market. The company stated that the new office opening is a major strategic initiative as part of migrating its business model to that of a wholly owned Chinese enterprise.

The aim of the Agreement is to open up as much of government procurement as possible to international competition. It is designed to make laws, regulations, procedures and practices regarding government procurement that is covered by the Agreement more transparent and to ensure they do not protect domestic products or suppliers, or discriminate against foreign products or suppliers.

Shares in Hynix Semiconductor rose sharply on Wednesday on expectations of an imminent US$560 million in funding from shareholders, which analysts said would help keep the chip maker afloat for a while.

Chu Woo-sik, the Korean electronics giant's executive vice president in charge of investor relations, said at an investor conference that capital expenditures will drop from about 10 trillion won (US$6.91 billion) expected this year to a range of 7 trillion won (US$4.84 billion) to 8 trillion won (US$5.53 billion) next year.

WinHEC is the only Microsoft conference that is exclusively focused on designing PCs, servers, and devices that run and interface with Windows. This year, the inclusion of Windows Mobile and Windows Embedded Devices into the conference agenda shows a further determination of Microsoft to extend the application of the much familiar operator interface and design logic to mobile commerce and smart home environment.

Hyderabad's plan to become the semiconductor manufacturing capital of India has run into trouble and this could impact Andhra Pradesh's image as a vibrant investment destination. SemIndia, an integrated semiconductor company, has decided to put its plan to set up a US$3-billion chip manufacturing facility (fab) on the backburner. But the company's proposed plant on assembly, testing, marking and packing (ATMP) in the city will start production in the second quarter of next year.

Samsung Electronics, the world's largest maker of memory chips and LCD panels and TVs, says the global recession is wiping out profits at those businesses in the fourth quarter.

Forecast downgrades from American chipmakers Texas Instruments and Broadcom sapped yet more investor confidence from technology stocks in Europe on Tuesday, with German semiconductor firm Infineon bearing the brunt of the sell-off.

Research shows that this trend towards power-hungry applications is only set to continue. According to Strategy Analytics, voice call, MP3, FM radio and other handset activities are forecast to remain relatively constant through 2015. However, the use of multimedia functions will increase.

There are phones with cameras, and then there are cameras with phones, and a new badboy reportedly making its way to T-Mobile seems to be the latter.

Texas Instruments, a major provider of processors for mobile phones and other devices, has pulled down its profit forecast for the December quarter by as much as two-thirds on Monday. The company also cut its revenue expectations, saying the economic downturn is having a powerful impact on the market for its chips.

"The bottom is yet to come," said Jae H. Lee, an analyst at Daiwa Securities. "Oversupply is a given fact until next year and chip companies will have to cut down capacity." "We currently see no reason to be invested in the memory sector," said Robert Lea, an analyst with UBS. "We believe the industry recovery has been pushed out to 2010."

Fourteen of the world's largest mobile phone and chip makers, including Sony Ericsson, Vodafone and ARM, joined the Open Handset Alliance on Tuesday to support the Android mobile device platform developed by Google Inc.

Yahoo will tell 1,500 employees on Wednesday they are losing their jobs, after announcing in October that layoffs would occur by year's end, a person familiar with the situation said on Tuesday.

Spansion said in a statement that the decision is consistent with other chip manufacturers in the industry that are also suffering from decreased demand for flash memory.

Vodafone has spent 24 million euro to aquire Sweden-based Wayfinder, a company that develops mobile applications that use GPS functionality.