The Korean-based company will introduce on Tuesday new ultralight notebooks designed to appeal to potential buyers of Apple Inc's ground-breaking MacBook Air and smaller "netbook" models from the likes of Asustek Computer.

Elpida, which trails Samsung and Hynix, said it would allocate half of the funds raised by the one-year, zero-coupon bond issue to produce smaller versions of existing chips at its factory in Hiroshima, western Japan. The other half of the funds will be used on new equipment to make 50nm chips with Taiwan partner PSC to stay competitive, an Elpida spokesman said. Using 50nm circuits would allow Elpida to make even tinier chips that would halve the cost of making a semiconductopr compared with the company's existing chips.

Orange UK has stopped selling BlackBerry Bold handsets, after concerns were raised over potential software problems with the snazzy-looking device.

Samsung Electronics, the world's No. 1 maker of liquid crystal display (LCD) screens, said Monday it has been lowering its panel output by around 5% since August to cope with excess inventory amid lackluster demand from global markets.

A new report says that a complete switch to LED lighting in twelve niche markets could save consumers $22 billion in electricity costs. Plus, DOE has released the latest SBIR funding call.

Plasma panels continue to maintain a price gap with equivalent LCD TV panels. For example, 42" HD plasma panels (including power supply and optical filter) are now 25% less than 42" 720p LCD panel prices and 31% less than 1080p (including power supply). A similar comparison shows that 50" HD plasma panels are 45% less than 52" 1080p LCD panels (and 29% less than 50" 1080p plasma panels).

Taiwan's Central Bank said Thursday it was cutting a key interest rate for the second time in two weeks, amid slowing economic growth. The cut on the 10-day loan rate to 3.25% from 3.5% percent came because Taiwan's exports have declined while consumer and investment expenditures dropped, the Central Bank said. The announcement helped to stabilize the Taiwan stock market early Thursday after the benchmark index fell 9.3% in the last three trading days in the wake of the financial crisis in the U.S. and Europe.

SanDisk may have just concluded a multibillion-dollar patent licensing lawsuit with Samsung which could determine the future of both SanDisk and the flash industry at large. As SanDisk considers a US$5.8 billion takeover offer by the flash giant, private arbitration has given Sandisk rights to a technology that may well hold the future of flash memory.