...With the low-power mobile market space as the high-growth market opportunity, IBM Vice President Gary Patton highlighted the differences between the high-k/metal gate process that IBM and its Fishkill process development partners will offer compared with TSMC’s announced plans to introduce a 32 nm transistor with a nitrided oxide (SION) dielectric and polysilicon gate...

Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, in cooperation with national standards organizations, have taken the lead in developing the first two standards for solid-state lighting in the United States. This new generation lighting technology uses LEDs instead of incandescent filaments or fluorescent tubes to produce illumination that cuts energy consumption significantly.

Matsushita -which owns the Panasonic name brand- indicated to a Japanese business daily newspaper that it plans to beat competitors to the punch, by mass producing a 37-inch organic light-emitting diode (OLED) television within the next three years.

"...Nanya will issue up to 600 million new ordinary shares...PSC has also approved a plan to raise up to $3 billion through a private equity placement..."

Samsung Electronics and Hynix Semiconductor, South Korea's two largest chip companies and leaders in memory IC sales, have said they plan to co-develop and standardize spin-torque-transfer magnetic-random-access-memory (STT-MRAM) chips, and become the industry leaders in the processing of chips on 450-mm wafers, according to reports.

Chip designer Rambus Inc. has asked a federal judge in San Jose to rule that Hynix Semiconductor Inc. can't sell chips in the US. Rambus has filed similar suits against Samsung Electronics Co. and Boise, Idaho-based Micron Technology alleging they conspired to fix prices for memory chips.

While the rest of the world is gearing up to fight inflation, the US Federal Reserve seems sidelined by the puny American economy. The Federal Reserve kept its key federal funds rate at 2.0% after having lowered it at each of its last seven meetings, stretching back to September, when the rate was 5.25%. But easy money brings inflation, and with the rate so close to zero, the central bank has little scope to cut any further, regardless of slow economic growth.

he company said it added 2.3 million subscribers in the quarter, bringing its subscriber base to more than 16 million. RIM is expected to introduce a touchscreen BlackBerry, as well as a clam-shell version of the device later this year. The company has announced a BlackBerry enabled with so-called third-generation, or 3G technology, called the Bold that will be introduced by AT&T Corp. sometime this year.

...Today, wireless operators control content, but the power they wield is in subsidies for handsets. When Apple came along with its iPhone, it changed the trend. It told operators, 'Get lost, don't subsidize and don't tell us what to do. We can sell the handset with no problem and give unlimited Internet access.' The wireless companies are trying to stop it but WiMAX will change things. Content is king, so wireless networks are the ones that supply the pipeline. They're not interesting in the least."...

...But there could be an even bigger pothole in the road to electric vehicles: Battereis based on lithium ion technology may be hard to come by. Dr. Robin Tichy, product marketing manager at lithium ion battery pack vendor Micro Power Electronics, says that lithium ion cells have been in short supply since the infamous Sony laptop battery recalls which began in the summer of 2006.

..."We see further upward pressure on headline inflation that could be too much for the central bank's comfort," said Tony Phoo, an economist at Standard Chartered Bank in Taipei. "We now expect the CBC to hike 12.5 basis points to 3.625 percent in June and another 12.5 basis-point rise in September."

Reports have Japan's Matsushita aiming to mass-produce 37-inch OLED televisions within three years, potentially jump-starting the OLED market.

Taiwan home appliances maker Tatung Co. (2371.TW) said Tuesday it will set up a joint venture with GE Equity to sell consumer electronics in the North American market.

China Airlines and its Mandarin Airlines unit plan to launch, starting July 4, 29 direct weekend charter flights a month to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Xiamen, according to the report, while China Southern said it will fly four round-trip flights a week to Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, from Guangzhou and Shanghai.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) is scheduled to announce relaxation of the existing restrictions on investments by local enterprises in China in July, including the exclusion of the acquisition of Chinese enterprises from the calculation of their Chinese investment value, said Yiin Chii-min, economics minister yesterday (June 23).

udging the health of an industry can be complex. For the semiconductor industry, one indicator is the amount of manufacturing equipment sold, which fell by 37% year-over-year in North America for the month of May. While some market research companies had been expecting sales to pick up in the second half of the year, there are macro-economic issues at play that suggest otherwise.

Malaysian WiMAX broadband service provider Packet One Networks (Malaysia) has postponed its commercial rollout to sometime in the third quarter of this year. The rollout was originally scheduled for this month but chief executive Michael Lai told the press yesterday that Packet One is extending its user trials to make sure customers will be perfectly happy with its WiMAX service.

If nothing else, Nokia's moves to make Symbian a free and open mobile operating system should put pressure on the company's competitors to keep innovating and giving customers – device manufacturers, consumers, and carriers alike – what they want. Nokia said Tuesday that it aims to make Symbian – already the top smartphone operating system – the "most widely used software platform on the planet."

The deal involves electronic manufacturing services (EMS), which include the design and testing of electronic parts and assemblies for large computer makers. It also involves handling returns and repair services. The Commission said Foxconn was buying one plant in Szekesfehervar, Hungary and another in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Japan, the world's biggest supplier of solar cells, has watched domestic solar power demand dry up after it pulled the plug on subsidies in March 2006, hurting solar equipment firms' ability to invest in research and expansion abroad. The METI panel on new energy sources estimated that it now costs 2.3 million yen (US$21,330) to install a 3 kilowatt solar power system for a home. In the year that ended in March 2006, a household with such a system would have received 60,000 yen from the state.

Nokia said Sony Ericsson, Ericsson, Panasonic and Siemens have accepted the offer, and it also expects Samsung Electronics to accept the offer.

Texas-based United Supermarkets, LLC, has retrofitted low- and medium-temperature refrigerated display cases in all of its 47 stores with a GE ecomagination product - a LED solution from Lumination, a GE Consumer & Industrial business.