Samsung, which saw its operating profits jump five-fold to 2.5 trillion won in the second quarter, is expected to report 3.8 trillion won in the third, analysts said. The growth can be attributable to increases in chip and panel prices.

Nakaya Microdevices, Amkor Technology and Toshiba have jointly announced the start of their joint venture will be postponed. The operation was initially scheduled to begin on October 1.

"Semiconductor shipments rose to meet current OEM demand, after an overcorrection earlier this year, driving an increase in our variable royalty payments and consequently higher expected revenue for the quarter," said Harold Hughes, president and chief executive officer at Rambus.

Samsung Electronics has taken its first step towards the mass-production of its solar cells with the launch of a pilot production line for solar cells in Giheung. The vendor held a ceremony on September 13 to mark the opening of its R&D and testing facility for crystalline silicon solar cells.

The trial of former Infineon CEO Ulrich Schumacher has started today (Sept. 14) in Munich. Schumacher is charged with corruption in connection with Infineon's motor sport sponsoring business.

Cymer, the world's leading supplier of light sources used by chipmakers to create advanced semiconductor chips, now anticipates revenues for third-quarter 2009 to increase around 30% sequentially.

The European Semiconductor Sales index climbed 1.2% in July, says market research company e-forecasting.com. The indicator has increased month over months in a row over the last six months.

TSMC and SMIC reached a US$175 million deal in 2005 to settle a claim by TSMC. But the Taiwan-based company now alleges SMIC reneged on the deal, and oral arguments began yesterday in Oakland.

National Semiconductor's fiscal first-quarter profits dropped 63% as revenues fell by a third, but the analog chip maker indicated demand was rebounding.

Pliant Technology has released its first series of enterprise-class solid state disk (SSD) drives based on a proprietary ASIC design that the company claims can handle - without using any cache - more than twice the input/output operations per second as the top competitive drives.

"Despite positive earnings pre-announcements, the overall tone from companies remains relatively muted and cautious," said Doug Freedman, an analyst for Broadpoint AmTech.

Last October, Doug Grose was given a daunting task–turning the semiconductor manufacturing operations of AMD into a service that would also serve other chip designers. Now it looks like his job may effectively double.

ASML has reported a business pick-up above previous guidance resulting mainly from the short- and mid-term needs in the DRAM memory and Logic segments.

CEO Mike Splinter said that his company must respond to the fundamental changes in the markets it serves.

The 50-page report from research firm Objective Analysis said that Braidwood's flash memory is less expensive to install because it resides directly on the motherboard and will offer all the same benefits of an SSD at a lower cost.

German chipmaker Infineon Technologies said it planned to repay early an issue of 2010 exchangeable bonds after the prinicipal amount outstanding fell below 43 million euros (US$61.9 million).

Investors have speculated about a Temasek exit from the chip industry since its failed attempt to buy out and delist Stats Chippac two years ago. Stats Chippac and Chartered Semiconductor have slashed costs to weather the global slowdown that came amid slumping semiconductor prices and more competition from Taiwan.

"In the US, energy policy is made on the state level," CEO Mike Ahearn said. "Every state has a different approach." In contrast, Ahearn said China has designated a region within the country for renewable energy production and transmission.

Creditors of South Korea's Hynix Semiconductor have started the sale process for their controlling stake in the second-largest memory chipmaker.

Toshiba is in talks with Singapore's Chartered Semiconductor and Globalfoundries about outsourcing production of some of its next-generation system chips to help cut costs, two company sources said.

A new super central processing unit (CPU), jointly developed by Japan's big chipmakers and funded by the Tokyo government, is coming up to challenge Intel.

Despite its increased cost cutting course, Infineon plans no further job cuts.

Elpida Memory said it has developed a copper through-silicon via technology (Cu-TSV) and applied it to an 8Gb DRAM with vertical connections among eight memory die and an interface chip.

Japan's Sumco, the world's No.2 maker of silicon wafers used to make chips, said it tumbled to a first-half loss on weaker wafer demand from chipmakers.

Word on the street is that Micron is seeking to enter the NOR flash market. Some also speculated that Intel wants to unload its interest in Numonyx.