Leading chip-equipment maker Applied Materials warned that profit in the current quarter would fall far short of Wall Street expectations due to the weakening global economy. The company also said on Wednesday it would slash 1,800 jobs, or 12 percent of its workforce, to generate annual savings of $400 million.

ARM and Canonical, the commercial sponsor of Ubuntu, have announced that they will bring the full Ubuntu Desktop operating system to the ARMv7 processor architecture to address demand from device manufacturers. The addition of the new operating system will enable new netbooks and hybrid computers, targeting ARM technology-based SoCs.

DRAM makers have been cutting back their production in two waves already, but the economic downturn and reduced demand appears to make the situation even worse. DRAMeXchange said that it expects the industry to cut production by another 6% or 70,000 12” wafers in December, with more announcements possible in January.

National Semiconductor, hit by a downturn in wireless handset sales, cut its projected revenue for the fiscal second quarter Wednesday, and said it will cut 330 jobs.

German chipmaker Infineon said it would not honor a wage deal reached on Wednesday for the 3.6 million workers employed in the country's engineering sector. Only hours after employers and unions in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg agreed on a pilot deal for a 4.2% wage hike through April 2010 in two stages, Infineon issued a statement declaring its intentions and withdrew from the VBM employers' federation. For the current fiscal year to end-September 2009, Infineon would not increase any wages for some 6,000 engineering workers.

...if you understand the reasons why people move from one technology to the next, i.e., 45 to 32, what are the things you're looking for? You're looking for increased performance, reduced power, and above all, you're looking for increased density. Density means size, size means cost, and cost means profit. In SOI, you're taking two of the three of those reasons to move, and providing them without moving. IMoving from 45 bulk to 45 SOI, if your application demands it, probably gives you a better performance increase than moving from 45nm to 32n

In 2009, the MEMS market could face negative growth for the first time," said analyst Marlene Bourne of Bourne Research. "There will likely be at least 18 months of slow consumer growth. The killer app during the slowdown over the next 18 to 24 months will be specific to individual companies–those that succeed will be the ones that identify a significant need and provide a solution.

Microchip Technology and On Semiconductor stepped up their US$2.3 billion takeover attempt of Atmel Wednesday, saying they will nominate a dissident slate of directors for the chip maker's board.

Samsung Electronics is considering cutting its supplier-vendor relationship with Circuit City Stores, the No. 2 electronics chain in the United States, after the retailer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from the court.

Shares of microchip-design software maker Cadence Design Systems have lost almost 80 percent of their market value in the last 12 months as the company grapples with management changes, job cuts, a depleted cash flow and an aborted acquisition attempt. As expectations from investors seem to have bottomed and estimates have been cut significantly, the company is now positioned such that any positive incremental news can have a pronounced impact on the stock.

Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain said the global economy is in a deep slowdown and will not recover quickly, and the environment recalls 1929, the advent of the Great Depression. "Although things are starting to improve, this is going to be a long process," he said.

Chinese leaders are alarmed at a sharp drop in economic growth, which fell to 9 percent in the most recent quarter. That is the highest for any major economy, but below last year's 11.9 percent and dangerously slow for a government that needs robust growth to satisfy a public that has come to expect steadily rising incomes. "The global financial crisis has had a considerable impact on China's export growth, which will continue to show weakness with recession in the US and Europe," ...

Citing the IC downturn, Gartner has cut its forecast for the semiconductor assembly and test services (SATS) market. In the current forecast, the SATS market is expected to grow 1.6 percent in 2008, but the sector will fall 4 percent in 2009.

Like all chip makers, Renesas (Tokyo) faces the possible impact of the current economic crisis and IC slowdown. Renesas has not publically lowered its sales and profit forecasts for fiscal 2008. But clearly, the current economic crisis in the United States and elsewhere could have a "severe effect" on the semiconductor industry, warned Katsuhiro Tsukamoto, president and chief operating officer at Renesas. "Consumer demand will drop," Tsukamoto told EE Times in an interview. Worldwide capital spending "will slow down."

Things were looking better for Qualcomm than they had in a long time. Demand for its technology has been strong, and it had finally settled a long-running royalty dispute with top mobile phone maker Nokia. But that was before the economy started really falling to pieces, dragging the wireless-chip maker down with it.

Taiwan's ex-President Chen Shui-bian, who faces corruption allegations, has been formally taken into custody. Chen, an independence activist and staunch critic of China, was taken to jail after his detention was approved by a court overnight.

First-generation TD-SCDMA is designed to offer top speeds of 384k bps which, if attained, would be as fast as a typical ADSL (Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line) connection in China. However, the TD-SCDMA USIM cards issued so far have "128k" stamped on them, which points to lower speeds on the trial service.

Qualcomm’s fiscal fourth quarter results were boosted by payments from its recent deal with Nokia, but it was cautious about 2009, highlighting the pressure on the CDMA market and on handsets in general.