Samsung has been named in a lawsuit filed by a Brazilian labor group, which said working conditions at the technology firm's assembly lines were in violation of Brazilian law.

"We are seeing a near-term slowdown in investment by our foundry customers as they focus on ramping (production using) new capacity installed over the past two quarters," said Applied CEO Michael Splinter.

Intel, AMD and ARM are looking to address new workloads fueled by such trends as cloud computing, mobility, big data and social networks.

Intel has confirmed that it acquired last month Fujitsu Semiconductor Wireless Products, the Tempe, Ariz.-based subsidiary of Fujitsu that developed an advanced multimode LTE RF transceiver. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The cuts will not come from among the employees acquired along with Elpida, Micron said.

Toshiba's new chief executive said he won't pull the plug on the company's unprofitable television and personal-computer operations, shunning the "easy option" of exiting cutthroat competition for a chance to reclaim its former prominence in the businesses.

A Taiwan government venture capital fund will sell more than 170 million shares in TSMC in 2014 to help fund Taiwan's budget, a source with direct knowledge of the sale said on Thursday.

Desktops, notebooks, tablets: Just five years ago, those three words defined three distinct classes of products. But now consumers are being asked to choose among all-in-ones, two-in-ones, convertibles, mini-tablets, ultraportables, and phablets. With Intel's new "Bay Trail" Atom chip, due this fall, you can expect the market to diversify even more.

Japan's Renesas Electronics said Friday it will close a plant that makes system LSI chips for Nintendo's game consoles and other consumer electronics after failing to find a buyer for the facility in Tsuruoka in northern Japan.

Ericsson and STMicroelectronics today announced the closing of the transaction for the split up of ST-Ericsson.

As we store more and more of our personal lives on smartphones, mobile security is becoming increasingly crucial. A password offers some protection, but it may not deter a serious hacker.

The US ITC expects to complete its investigation into allegations of patent infringement between Apple and Samsung at the end of next week (August 4-11).

Eight-core processors are "dumb," as the consumer wants an experience that comes from more than just throwing cores together, a Qualcomm executive said, referring to new eight-core chips announced recently.

The deal, which follows such prior chip investments as the 2008 purchase of PA Semi, comes as Apple is widely believed to be moving beyond smartphones and tablets to other kinds of devices that could need wireless chips, including smart watches.

TSMC recently held a job fair in upstate New York, helping to drive up expectations that the chipmaker is planning to open a chip fabrication plant in the area to build mobile processors for Apple.

Micron Technology anticipates the closing of its acquisition of 100% of Elpida's equity to occur on July 31, 2013, Tokyo time. Micron also anticipates concurrently closing its acquisition of a 24% share of Rexchip Electronics from Powerchip Technology and certain of its affiliates.

Qualcomm is to acquire a stake in Alcatel-Lucent as part of a far-reaching partnership agreement to develop the next generation of smaller mobile cell transmitters capable of coping with the rapid increase in mobile data.

When he founded Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) in 1987, Morris Chang recalls, "Nobody thought we were going anywhere."

KLA-Tencor forecast current-quarter revenue below expectations as slumping personal computer sales hurt demand for new chip-manufacturing gear, sending its shares lower.

Mali graphics IP core shipments are on course to be more than 300 million units in 2013, more than doubling the 150 million units shipped in 2012, according to Simon Segars, CEO of processor IP licensor ARM.

Struggling chip-maker Renesas Electronics Corp. is looking to close or shrink its major production base for system LSI chips in Tohoku after failing to sell it to a Taiwanese firm, company sources said Saturday.

Qualcomm rose 3% in after-hours trading Wednesday after the company booked US$6.2 billion in its third quarter, its twelfth straight quarter of double-digit gains, and raised its outlook for the full year.

Spansion has expanded its serial peripheral interface (SPI) portfolio with the introduction of FL-1K family.

Texas Instruments gave a third-quarter revenue forecast that was stronger than some analysts expected and said customers seem more confident about placing orders for chips.

Aptina has announced a new 13-megapixel sensor for smartphones, the AR1331CP.

Avago Technologies has announced that its 28nm Serializer/Deserializer (SerDes) core has achieved 32Gbps performance while withstanding up to 40dB of channel loss.

Wolfson's WM5102 HD audio hub has been adopted by Sharp for its new range of AQUOS smartphone and tablet devices.

Nova Measuring Instruments, the Israeli maker of equipment for semiconductor manufacturing, rebounded in New York after the chief executive officer said he's confident its largest customer won't pare back orders.

The only thing that counts against Globalfoundries is that, being a newcomer with a new US fab, it has yet to build up a long track record of consistent, successful execution. This is one reason Apple would not wish to have all its processor eggs in one foundry, as it does now with Samsung.

Samsung Electronics will supply 14nm A9 chips that will be used for Apple's iPhone 7.

There's now a rumor that the fruity iPhone maker will make its own chips, thus entering the fab industry thanks to a purchase of an unnamed chip fabricator. There's speculation that Taiwan-based chipmaker UMC was Apple's purchase of choice.

If Apple owned capacity at a fab, it would give the company the kind of control over both design and chip manufacturing that Intel has.

Consumer demand for sophisticated mobile devices creates profitable growth opportunities for Applied's semiconductor and display equipment businesses.

Amazon, Sony and Nvidia are emerging as potential customers who will replace Apple as key buyers of Samsung Electronics' semiconductors, sources said Tuesday.

ARM chipmakers TSMC and Globalfoundries plan to release ARM processor chips capable of running at 3GHz sometime in 2014.

Xilinx has worked with TSMC to infuse high-end FPGA requirements into the TSMC 20SoC development process, just as it had done in the development of 28HPL.