The latest toxic gas leaks may not have caused serious physical harm, but the fact that the culprit companies failed to promptly report to state authorities is raising suspicions of corporate negligence.

Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMIC), for the first time in a long time, has a good story to tell.

Manufacturing activity in China picked up speed in March, an initial HSBC survey has indicated, adding to hopes of a sustained recovery in its economy.

The deal aims at building a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship between Renesas and J-Devices as strategic partners in the semiconductor production business. The two companies intend to complete the transfer on June 1, 2013.

ARM has announced that CEO Warren East has decided to retire from the company, effective 1 July 2013. Simon Segars, currently president of ARM, will become the company's new CEO.

STMicroelectronics and Ericsson have agreed to split up their unprofitable ST-Ericsson chip venture after failing to find a buyer for the business, cutting about 1,600 jobs as they divide the assets.

Each time in recent years that the Federal Reserve has paused in its efforts to stimulate the economy, it has come to regret the decision as premature.

"We are proud to say that the newest Snapdragon 600 processor is at the heart of the GALAXY S 4 in select regions," Qualcomm said in a blog post.

Seven O-S-D product categories and device groups reached record-high sales in 2012 compared to 14 new records being set in 2011.

Cadence Design Systems has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Tensilica, a leader in dataplane processing IP, for approximately US$380 million in cash.

China is over-reliant on imported goods for its semiconductor industry, and local chip companies supply only about 10% of its domestic needs as they remain in the development stage despite years of investments.

Despite continued rumors that Apple has been working very hard to transition away from Samsung for production of A-series chips, it appears that Apple has not yet been able to make that step on a mass production basis, as this new smaller A5 is still being fabbed by Samsung.

The reason is quite understandable really: demand for DRAM is still dropping, so how can there be a price improvement?

Fab equipment spending for front-end facilities is expected to be flat in 2013, remaining around US$31.7 billion, increasing to US$39.3 billion in 2014 - a 24% increase.

Intel's next CEO is likely to shepherd the top chipmaker into a growing contract-manufacturing business, a strategic shift that could lead to a deal with Apple Inc and give it a fighting chance to make inroads in the mobile arena.

Spansion and United Microelectronics (UMC) have announced the joint development of a 40nm process that integrates UMC's 40nm LP logic process with Spansion proprietary embedded Charge Trap (eCT) Flash memory technology. As part of this non-exclusive agreement, UMC is licensed to manufacture products based on this technology for Spansion.

"Led by continuing strength in the Americas, the global semiconductor industry has built on its momentum from the end of 2012 with an encouraging start to 2013, but ongoing economic uncertainty is holding back more robust growth," said Brian Toohey, president and CEO of Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA).

Texas Instruments, the largest maker of analog chips, raised the lower end of its forecasts for first-quarter sales and profit, as customers increase orders ahead of a projected rebound in electronics demand.

Industry consolidation to just three big DRAM suppliers and a reduction in capital expenditures among these manufacturers helped propel DRAM average selling prices (ASPs) up 13% year over year in January. Capex budgets are also being trimmed for NAND flash (though not nearly as much as DRAM), and that, along with ongoing unit demand, has put upward pressure on ASPs for these memory devices as well.

SanDisk has announced that the iNAND Extreme Embedded Flash Drive (EFD) supports tablet reference designs based on the Nvidia Tegra 4.

The board of directors of Toshiba has nominated Hisao Tanaka, corporate senior executive VP of Toshiba, for the post of president and CEO of the company.

Growth in the giant China manufacturing sector in February withdrew from the highest point in nearly two years despite a fourth consecutive month of expansion, a private survey showed Monday, as foreign demand remained unsteady.

JEDEC Solid State Technology Association has announced that its board of directors appointed two new members, Jong H. Oh of SK hynix and Hung Vuong of Qualcomm.

Qualcomm has announced a pair of new mobile processors designed for entry-level and mid-range smartphones. Expected in handsets later in 2013, the Snapdragon 200 and 400 balance the high-end 600 and 800 processors introduced in January.

The 55nm LPe 1V is especially suited for high-volume, battery-operated mobile consumer devices, as well as a broad range of green or energy-saving products. PDK and EDA tools are available now, along with MPW shuttle availability.

South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix has appointed its research and development (R&D) chief Park Sung-wook as the new chief executive.

Wireless is set to be the leading growth segment for semiconductor spending among original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in 2013, with expenditures rising by a double-digit margin to support the burgeoning markets for smartphones, tablets and mobile infrastructure gear, according to IHS iSuppli.

GlobalFoundries is expected to ramp up to 7nm process technology by 2017.

As part of its broader restructuring measures, Fujitsu said it will cut 5,000 jobs, including 3,000 workers in Japan and 2,000 overseas, partly through early retirement offers. Fujitsu currently has about 170,000 workers world-wide.

Cymer and ASML continue to expect the transaction to close in the first half of 2013.

Globalfoundries has announced a partnership with Adapteva to offer the company's Epiphany IV microarchitecture to customers using Globalfoundries' leading-edge 28nm-SLP process technology.

Fujitsu and Panasonic are in the final stage of talks to go ahead with a merger of their large-scale integrated chip (LSI) operations into a new company, NHK reported Friday.

Toshiba has subsequently brought this high level performance to its original microcontrollers and to ARM core-based microcontrollers. The newly-developed NANO Flash-100 achieves a zero-wait cycle during random access at 100MHz operation.

ARM, the designer of chips for leading smartphones, beat analyst expectations with full-year profits up 20%. A presentation to investors by CEO Warren East was dominated by talk of the 'post-PC' era, in which the market for Internet-enabled devices will spread into areas such as security and healthcare.

It's clear Samsung is serious about expanding its footprint in Silicon Valley. In December the Korean company announced it is building a 1.1-million-square-foot R&D center in San Jose and an incubator in Palo Alto. This week it also unveiled a "Strategy and Innovation Center" in Menlo Park, which Sohn oversees.

As expected, Qualcomm cashed in on smartphone sales and the chipsets that go with them. In a statement, Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs said the company is positioned for strong growth courtesy of its Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 and 600 processors.