Citigroup analyst Timothy Arcuri asserted in a research note that that FormFactor has received a "major order" from Elpida Memory for wafer probe cards.

Iwate Toshiba Electronics will start to ramp-up production lines from March 28. However, Toshiba Mobile Display (Saitama Pref.), a wholly-owned subsidiary and manufacturer of mid- and small-sized LCD displays, expects to take about a month to secure recovery of its manufacturing line. Toshiba has started to supply some products alternatively from the Ishikawa Works, the company's another production facility located in Ishikawa Pref..

Toyota Motors, the word's biggest carmaker, will slow production at some of its factories in North America due to a shortage of parts. Toyota has already halted production at all of its 12 assembly plants in Japan until 26 March.

Renesas Electronics has resumed operations at the factory sites in Aomori and Yamagata prefectures, northern Japan. The facilities were shut down following a massive earthquake and resulting tsunami on March 11.

Micron Technology is trying to secure its supply of crucial silicon wafers following Japan's devastating earthquake and said it was too soon to gauge the disaster's impact on its business.

Globalfoundries expects revenues to rise at least 14% to more than US$4 billion in 2011, and aims to overtake United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) of Taiwan to be the world's second-largest contract chipmaker by revenues, CEO Douglas Grose said in an interview.

Verigy has said that an acquisition offer from Advantest is better than an earlier deal Verigy made to buy rival LTX-Credence. Advantest is offering US$15 per share for Verigy. Based on Verigy's 60.7 million outstanding shares as of March 1, the deal is worth US$910.8 million.

Renesas's semiconductor plant in Yonezawa, Yamagata Pref., re-opened on March 19.

Xilinx has begun shipments of its 7 series FPGA, built with 28nm technology.

JEDEC Solid State Technology Association has announced a broad spectrum of ongoing standards development work related to 3D-ICs.

General Motors has announced plans to temporarily idle its pick-up truck plant in Louisiana due to a parts shortage stemming from the crisis in Japan.

Analysts at Barclays and UBS had speculated that shutdowns at Mitsubishi Gas would deprive some chipmakers of a chemical resin used to package their products, causing supply disruptions.

Rambus has renewed its patent license agreement with Toshiba. This five year agreement covers Toshiba's products with DRAM memory controllers for SDR, DDR, DDR2, DDR3, and other DRAM devices. Rambus will receive royalty payments based on the shipment of these memory controllers.

A spike in radiation levels at Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear plant has forced workers to suspend their operation, a government spokesman says.

Rumors circulated that Apple may have chosen to TSMC as their new fab in response to new competition from Samsung in the handset and tablet space. Based on analysis performed by UBM TechInsights Lab and Process Analysis personnel, we can say that the A5 in our possession is definitely manufactured by Samsung using their 45nm process.

March quarter sales are expected to be flat to up 5% sequentially, consistent with the company's previous guidance. Xilinx said the guidance assumes that its shipments to customers in Japan are not affected by the recent events there.

Toshiba said it will cooperate with Tokyo Electric Power Company's (TEPCO) request to cut electricity consumption by operating only those of its businesses related to provision of essential services required for social and economic activities.

Shares and other risky assets from the Australian dollar to commodities such as copper and oil slumped on Tuesday while safe-haven assets like US Treasuries rallied as Japan's nuclear crisis worsened.

The amount of loss and effects on profits as a result of the earthquake are currently unknown. Fujitsu will promptly make an announcement should these effects be significant.

Renesas Electronics has confirmed that seven out of 22 of its factories in Japan has temporarily shut down production. Among these factories, Renesas Yamagata Semiconductor Tsuruoka Factory is currently beginning its startup procedures to restart its manufacturing.

Brent crude fell by almost US$3, reaching a two-week low near US$111 on investor pessimism that economic growth will slow in the wake of Japan's earthquake and tsunami, while easing unrest in the Middle East threw the focus back onto ample oil supplies.

The devastation in Japan is set to worsen the negative short-term sentiment gripping a vulnerable US stock market, with companies exposed to Japan and the nuclear energy sector likely to take the biggest hits.

A second explosion has hit the nuclear plant in Japan which was damaged in Friday's earthquake, but officials said it had resisted the blast.

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.

The two Toshiba-SanDisk JV semiconductor manufacturing plants, Fab 3 and Fab 4, were down for a short period of time due to the earthquake and were back up and operational as of Friday morning, Pacific Time. SanDisk's current assessment is that there has been minimal immediate impact on wafer output due to the earthquake.

Japan's biggest-ever earthquake halted production briefly at Toshiba's chip plants on Friday and could delay crucial shipments. Toshiba and SanDisk share cutting-edge facilities in Yokkaichi, where they make NAND chips increasingly in demand by Apple and other mobile device makers.

Fusion-io, a maker of NAND flash memory cards that enhance the performance of data center servers, has announced that it plans an initial public offering it hopes can raise US$150 million.

Korea-based chipmaker MagnaChip Semiconductor is expected to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on March 11 under the symbol "MX."

Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average plunged 1.7% in Tokyo, extending declines after an 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck northeast of the capital.