Tokyo Electron Ltd. is now expected to generate a group operating profit of about 70 billion yen (US$652.05 million) for the year ending in March, down 58 per cent on the year and short of an earlier forecast for 84 billion yen. Chipmakers are scaling back capital spending, reducing orders for Tokyo Electron's equipment more steeply than expected.

IC Insights' recent research uncovered a big shakeup in the 1H08 top 20 semiconductor supplier ranking. There are eight US companies in the top 20 (including three fabless semiconductor suppliers), six Japanese, three European, two South Korean, and one Taiwanese company (IC foundry supplier TSMC) in the ranking. As shown, it required at least US$2.1 billion in 1H08 sales to make the top 20 ranking. Although the top four ranked companies remained the same, there were a number of "movers and shakers" up and down the remainder of the ranking.

Continuing on its acquisition spree, KLA-Tencor has entered into an agreement to acquire the inspection business unit of Vistec Semiconductor Systems. Meanwhile, the acquisition expands KLA-Tencor's product portfolio. Vistec's advanced mask metrology tools for registration metrology are among the leading products in this area. Other Vistec products include macro defect-inspection systems, overlay-measurement systems for MEMS applications, and software packages for defect classification and data analysis.

Quarterly sales grew to US$69.74 million from US$57.55 million in the comparable period a year ago. The company expects third-quarter revenue in the range of US$73 million to US$77 million. The company posted loss from continuing operations of US$812 thousand or US$0.01 per share, compared to loss from continuing operations of US$482 thousand or US$0.01 per share in the prior-year quarter.

After the cell phone giant reported a profit and better-than-expected cell phone shipments in the second quarter, its stock climbed 12.5% to close at $8.64. Speculation that Motorola would keep the cell phone business and spin off other units started earlier this week, when Motorola announced it will reorganize its home and networks mobility unit into three divisions.

Lynk Labs, a leading developer of AC LED technology, is expanding its product offering and entering the LED device market with AC LED devices under the brand name Tesla AC LEDs.

If you live in the US, you can be reasonably hopeful about both of those things. If you live in the UK, you may not get either in the near future. According to the WiMax Forum, "currently there are more than 305 deployments of WiMax services in 118 countries worldwide". Some are being rolled out in the UK - one is in Milton Keynes - but most mobile users will probably have to wait until Ofcom auctions its "4G" spectrum and the winner(s) get round to installing transmitters and developing service platforms.

"We are seeing ... that the slowdown in the U.S. hasn't spilled everywhere else. The world's economy is not as robust as it could be, but it's not a disaster."

Despite selling at least 35,000 Bravia HD LCD TV’s in July with its free Playstation 3 giveaway, Sony Australia still sees growth potential for plat panel TV in August.

Colour active matrix LCD module is a cost effective replacement for the Sharp LQ10D368 10.4in VGA colour TFT display.