The weak demand for TI's wireless products such as smartphones and tablets is mainly in its OMAP applications processors and connectivity products, said TI vice president Ron Slaymaker.

Texas Instruments said it would close two older factories in Japan and Texas with 500 workers to cut costs. The company added it saw a broad resumption of demand in December that continued into January.

Chipmakers Texas Instruments and Altera have both cut their forecasts for the fourth quarter.

An open-source hardware group on Monday announced a US$89 credit-card sized motherboard based on an ARM processor that could be used for robotics, gaming and medical devices.

"Economic uncertainty continues to weigh on demand in almost every major market segment in which we operate," said CEO Rich Templeton. "Our revenue for the third quarter was higher than we expected though, overall, the quarter was below the seasonal average. We expect the same in the fourth quarter."

TI will include National's contribution to financial performance in the company's third-quarter earnings announcement on October 24. TI's Analog semiconductor business now represents more than 50% of the company's revenues.

Optoma introduced Thursday the PK120 pico-class video projector based on Texas Instruments' new nHD digital micro-mirror device for micro DLP light engines.

Texas Instruments has narrowed and lowered its expected ranges for revenue and earnings per share (EPS) for the third quarter of 2011. The reductions are due to broadly lower demand across a wide range of products, markets and customers.

Texas Instruments (TI) has shipped more than 30 million units of its PowerStack packaging technology, which significantly boosts performance, lowers power and improves chip densities in power management devices.

Texas Instruments sounded a warning for the holiday season as it reported lacklustre activity from manufacturers in computing and consumer electronics, including TVs and gaming machines.

Texas Instruments has agreed to license two patents from Eolas Technologies, which two years ago sued more than 20 companies for alleged patent infringement including TI, Google, Yahoo, Apple and Amazon.com.

Texas Instruments has lowered its revenue forecast for the second fiscal quarter due to lower demand for its products from Nokia.

The chips will run applications faster and turn tablets into multimedia powerhouses. However, quad-core chips could be power hogs, and tablet applications may need to be rewritten to take full advantage of the hardware features, which could be a challenge, according to analysts.

Intel is considering buying Texas Instruments' OMAP division, according to a highly placed executive at another fabless semiconductor firm.

Texas Instruments has announced it would sell a multi-tranche debt offering to partially fund its merger with National Semiconductor.

"In the near term, both companies should benefit by cross-selling their products to largely non-overlapping customer bases," writes Linley Gwennap with The Linley Group. "For the longer term, the acquisition gives Nvidia an opportunity to expand the market for "Tegra" by developing single-chip products that combine the application and baseband processors."

Dutch chip maker NXP is not in takeover talks, its chief executive said, although he would consider an offer like the one Texas Instruments made for National Semiconductor.

Apple's next-generation iPad contains chips made by Toshiba, Broadcom and Texas Instruments, according to an initial tear-down report by gadget-repair site iFixit. Toshiba supplied the device's storage chips, iFixit said, while Broadcom made the chips used for wireless Internet access. TI chips were used to control the iPad's touchscreen.

Hans Stork joins ON Semiconductor after three years with Applied Materials as Group VP of the Si Systems Group and six years with Texas Instruments as the company's CTO and Senior VP of Si Technology Development.

The TI OMAP 5 offers quad-core computing at up to 2GHz with power consumption barely breaking into double-digit wattage figures. In terms of raw figures, that level of performance is very near that of current Intel and AMD desktop chips.

Texas Instruments has admitted that Nvidia beat it to market with the first dual-core processor for tablets. This is surprising statement from a company that has been in the business of building power-efficient chips based on the ARM design for close to two decades.

Texas Instruments has narrowed its fourth-quarter financial forecasts that match analysts' projection, citing higher demand for communications equipment.

ZTE, one of China's largest network equipment and phone suppliers, is set to buy US$3 billion worth of semiconductor components from five US technology vendors. It has signed the purchase agreements with Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, Freescale Semiconductor, Altera and Broadcom.

ARM shares, up 120% since the start of 2010, fell to their lowest in nearly two months after a statement overnight from Texas Instruments that end-demand for chips could be weakening.

Disappointing sales forecasts from National Semiconductor and Texas Instruments triggered the sell-off. The letdown comes just two weeks after Intel warned its sales for July through September would fall below its earlier projections.

Analog chip vendor Texas Instruments has lowered the upper end of its forecast range for third-quarter profit and sales, indicating that semiconductor demand may be slipping as economic growth slows.

Battery Ventures, Flybridge Capital Partners and Highland Capital Partners represent the traditional venture capitalists behind Smooth-Stone. They have been joined by ARM, Texas Instruments and Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC).

Texas Instruments has said weaker-than-expected orders from one mobile phone customer, identified as Nokia by some analysts, caused second-quarter revenues to miss Wall Street forecasts.

TI now expects profits of US$0.60-0.64 per share in the current quarter. Revenue should be US$3.45-3.59 billion.

STMicroelectronics could make some analog ICs on 300mm wafers at its Crolles-2 wafer fab near Grenoble, France, according to CEO Carlo Bozotti.

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) is still in talks with Texas Instruments (TI) about taking over the operation of a 200mm fab in Chengdu, China, according to sources.

Spansion CEO John Kispert also said he could not confirm a recent Nikkei report indicating Texas Instruments was in final talks to buy two plants owned by Spansion Japan, as Spansion Japan is now a separate entity from Spansion.

Texas Instruments said it is ramping up a second phase of expansion at a factory near its Dallas headquarters. The expansion will double the plant's capacity to produce chips that go into products such as cell phones, computers and telecommunications equipment.

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) has been talking to Texas Instruments (TI) about taking over operation of the government-owned factory, according to company sources. It was not immediately clear whether TI was interested in only taking over management of the facility, or in buying it as well.