"Since Mike joined SMIC last year, he and his team have brought in record-breaking sales from the Americas region," said SMIC CEO Tzu-Yin Chiu. "We are excited to have him leading our sales force as we partner with new and existing customers and expand our service offerings."

Memory chipmaker Micron Technology is preparing to lay off about one third of its workforce at its wafer fab in Israel, according to local news reports.

Qualcomm has said that a shortage of its advanced smartphone processors is almost resolved as manufacturing partners including Samsung Electronics boosted production.

AMD has reduced chip orders from supplier Globalfoundries as it tries to cut costs to preserve cash amid a PC-market slump.

Taiwan's TSMC will produce the LG-designed chips with using a finer 28-nanometer processing technology.

Despite long term plans for expansion in Singapore, foundry chipmaker Globalfoundries said that it is cutting 300 jobs there due to a "softening of the current macro-economic climate."

OmniVision Technologies' fiscal second-quarter profit dropped 50% as high manufacturing costs pressured the chip maker's margins, masking a jump in revenue.

RBC Capital Markets speculates that Intel could build ARM-based chips for future iPhones and, in return, Apple could use x86 processors in next-generation iPads.

An investment fund controlled by Japan's government has agreed to rescue Renesas Electronics by buying a majority stake in the lossmaking chipmaker for about JPY180 billion (US$2.2 billion), people familiar with the deal said.

Sony is in talks with suitors including Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision over the sale of its battery business, a Nikkei report said Thursday, as the Japanese firm tries to repair its dented balance sheet.

The Galaxy S3 E210s was released in Korea recently and with its launch, Samsung sent a message to the chipset giant Qualcomm by dropping the Qualcomm modem in favor of its home grown solution.

ARM's market share for traditional or tablet computers will rise to "double digits" in 2013, with market share for traditional PCs alone exceeding 10% by 2015, according to Ian Drew, company executive VP for marketing and business development. Drew said the company's traditional PC market share is in single digits now.

Evidence is starting to mount that foundry chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) could be about to follow Globalfoundries in building a wafer fab in up-state New York.

Samsung Electronics said an internal audit of suppliers in China found "inadequate practices" that include employees working more overtime than allowed by law.

Samsung Electronics has earmarked Malaysia to be its largest operations base outside South Korea by 2015.

Apple is exploring ways to replace Intel processors in its Mac PCs with a version of the chip technology it uses in the iPhone and iPad, according to people familiar with the company's research.

Some analysts said that the latest decision by the court, giving Samsung access to Apple's deal with HTC, may have a big impact on Samsung's legal battle with Apple.

Micron Technology and AgigA Tech, a subsidiary of Cypress Semiconductor, have signed an agreement to collaborate to develop and offer nonvolatile DIMM (NVDIMM) products.

Earlier this year, Intel chief executive Paul Otellini announced the Leixlip factory was one of three selected to produce its next generation 14 nanometer microchips, known within the group as the "1272 process".

British microprocessing firm Imagination Technologies' US$60 million pursuit of the operating business of MIPS Technologies faces competition after the US company received a higher bid from a rival firm.

A tectonic shift from PCs to mobile devices is remaking the DRAM market, moving a historically volatile business onto firmer, safer ground.

China will take the wraps off its latest 8-core Godson processor early next year to show its chip-making ability compared to Intel, Advanced Micro Devices and ARM.

Samsung will describe the first mobile applications processor to use ARM's big.little concept at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference in February.

ARM has announced availability of a rapid prototyping developer kit for the Internet of Things (IoT) market that integrates the Sprint Mobile Broadband USB 598U Modem by Sierra Wireless with the mbed microcontroller development platform, which is based on the ARM Cortex-M3 processor.

The troubled solid-state drive company OCZ Technology has sharply reduced its staff as it works to refocus the company.

Smart TVs, LED technology, emerging markets will help boost the IC market for TVs.

Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs said that the largest seller of mobile-phone semiconductors can continue to grow earnings in double digits over the next five years.

Foundry chip manufacturer Globalfoundries is expected to be a profitable and self-sustaining business by 2015, one that does not require additional funding from its present parent Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC).

Infineon Technologies plans to cut costs and reduce investments in anticipation of weaker demand from industrial customers.

Spansion has announced what it claims is the industry's first single-die 8Gb NOR flash memory product at 45nm. The 8Gb Spansion GL-T delivers high-quality, fast random access read performance to enable a better user experience with interactive graphics, animation and video in games and industrial applications.

Samsung has made no secret of the fact that it provides a number of the key components inside Apple's flagship iPhone and iPad devices, even while actively competing against them with its own Galaxy line of Android competitors. A major change in that relationship has now been reported out of Korea, however, where the Chosun Ilbo says Samsung has increased the price of manufacturing Apple's application processor by nearly 20%.

The maker of wireless chips posts quarterly results much better than it anticipated, and the numbers stand in stark contrast to those of other companies, such as Intel.

The collaboration will focus on the carbon-nanotube-based memory developed by Nantero, NRAM, and its application in high-density next-generation memories with a size under 20nm. NRAM arrays will be manufactured, tested and characterized in imec's advanced nanoelectronics facilities.

ARM is part of a consortium buying the rights to MIPS' portfolio of 580 patents, contributing US$167.5 million to the total US$350 million purchase price. As for ARM itself and its consortium colleagues, its part of the deal will reduce the risk of any infringement of MIPS' patents.

MIPS Technologies has entered into separate definitive agreements with Bridge Crossing, an acquisition vehicle of Allied Security Trust, and Imagination Technologies with net proceeds of approximately US$7.31 per share in cash to each holder of MIPS common stock. The total value of the transaction represents a 40% premium to the closing price on April 11, 2012, the day prior to the first public rumor of a potential sale of MIPS.

Booming sales in Asia have helped German car firm BMW shrug off the gloom in Europe to report a record third quarter pre-tax profit.

Knowledge Economy Minister Hong Suk-woo said these were "non-core" parts and were not a safety threat

Abu Dhabi's Advanced Technology Investment (ATIC) expects to earn its first profit by 2015 as it scales up operations overseas, but plans to set up a chip manufacturing facility at home remain on hold, its chief executive said on Wednesday.

Toshiba is expected to report a 10% drop in consolidated operating profit for the April-September period as a strong yen hurt sales, the Nikkei reported.

MediaTek's MT7620 Wi-Fi SoC has been selected for the new ASUS RT-N14U N300 wireless router, debuting globally this quarter.