A new research report predicts that the number of solid-state drives (SSD) in enterprise servers and storage systems will explode over the next five years, increasing by a factor of 50.

Apple has bought Intrinsity, the Texas-based chip outfit that (supposedly) played a role in the design of the chip driving the iPad.

Net income for the first quarter of 2010 was US$27.5 million, compared to net losses of US$51.1 million a year ago. "We were pleased with the successful ramp into high volume of new technologies such as embedded wafer-level ball-grid array (eWLB) and the continued growth of our business in advanced technologies such as hybrid flip-chip and wafer level packaging..."

SanDisk swung to net profits of US$235 million for the quarter ended April 4 from losses of US$208 million a year ago. "We delivered SanDisk's first ever billion dollar Q1 in total revenue. This performance was driven by several factors including our OEM business which grew to 63% of product revenues balancing out Q1 retail seasonality..."

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies is poised to secure net profits for the fiscal year ended December 21, 2010, according to company president and CEO Steve Milligan. Brisk demand for PC hard drives and fixed-cost reductions will contribute to its profit outlook.

Toshiba, one of Japan's largest electronics companies, has said it expects net losses of 20 billion yen (US$215 million) for the fiscal year ending March 2010. That's down from its previous estimtae of 50 billion yen.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet approved plans on Wednesday to grant 100 million euros in support for the solar power industry to overcome resistance in parliament to its plans to cut state-mandated incentives.

The sources said parliamentary experts in Chancellor Angela Merkel's centre-right administration agreed that so-called feed-in tariffs for new rooftop solar installations will be cut by 16 percent from July as planned. Most open-field installations will be cut by 15 percent, with support for farmland solar systems to be scrapped completely, the sources said.

Target will become the first retailer to carry the US$259 Kindle on Sunday. At first, the Kindle will only be sold at Target's flagship store in downtown Minneapolis, plus 102 stores in South Florida. Target plans to offer Kindle at more of its stores later in the year.

Currently, Apple pays royalties for ARM's chip designs used in its products. If the company acquired ARM, it could conceivably raise licensing costs to rivals or even take ARM designs off the market.

Ultimately, only ramped up production will drive SSD prices down, and that is not expected to begin until 2011.