Spruce Pine, a modest, charmingly low-key town in the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina, is at the heart of a global billion-dollar industry.

Qualcomm CEO promotes "smartbooks" and says the US is ready to lose its reputation as a laggard in wireless.

Amkor swung to a profit of US$9 million in second-quarter 2009. "Overall unit shipments were up 43% sequentially with advanced laminate and flip chip packages up nearly 60%," said company COO Ken Joyce. "We are increasing our estimated capital additions for the full year 2009 to approximately $150 million."

Even if the STMicroelectronics assignment would be large enough to keep the utilization up far enough, it would not suffice to guarantee the company's competitiveness. But, as Buddha said: Every journey begins with the first step.

EDA's industry "big three" held a panel session at DAC on the future of EDA and agreed that this is not "your father's recession."

NEC Electronics, Japan's fourth-largest chipmaker, said its first-quarter loss widened as demand for semiconductors used in automobiles, flat-panel televisions and handsets slumped amid a global recession.

German semiconductor maker Infineon Technologies has posted a significantly-narrowed third-quarter net loss on improved wireless sales and manufacturing efficiency, and said it expects sales growth to continue into the fourth quarter.

ASM International saw its net loss for second-quarter 2009 widen to 55.7 million euro (US$78.3 million), from a loss of 9.6 million euro a year ago. The Dutch chip equipment maker recognized an inventory impairment charge of 20.6 million euro in the quarter.

Globalfoundries has announced a strategic customer relationship with STMicroelectronics.

Toshiba has reported a wider net loss in its fiscal first quarter due to restructuring costs and losses at its chip operations, as the electronics market's uncertain outlook continued to cast a shadow over the firm's earnings.

Q-Cells and MEMC Electronic Materials have formed a joint venture to construct solar photovoltaic (PV) generation facilities, in which each partner will have a 50% share.

Globalfoundries plans to introduce embedded silicon carbon (eSiC) to strain the nFET transistors at the 22 nm node, said John Pellerin, director of technology development.

BTG International has accused several technology giants--including Apple, Dell and Sony--of infringing five patents related to flash memory technology by using chips from Samsung Electronics.

Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (GSMC) has announced the availability of its 0.18-micron cost effective OTP (One Time Programmable) process platform for applications such as voice controlled devices, remote controls, small home appliances or touch panels.

Shares of MEMC Electronic Materials fell the day after the wafer maker's second-quarter profits dropped 96% on another steep fall in sales, though its semiconductor business showed improvement even as its solar end continues to struggle.

Samsung plans to spend 70% of its total chip investment projected in the second half to sharpen the next DRAM chips, while Hynix will also use a great portion of its investment budget for the chips.

South Korea's Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics (LGE) and SK Telecom will work with other local companies to make semiconductors for hightech digital appliances that can replace imports, the government said Monday.

The foundry's goal is to have the first tool move in by October 2011, with qualification coming in early 2012 and commercial production by the second half of 2012.

Shares of solar-energy company LDK Solar rose sharply on July 24 after the Chinese company raised its second-quarter revenue and shipment forecasts. LDK plans to report its results on August 12.

Samsung Electronics reported its highest quarterly net profit in over two years on Friday as its semiconductor and LCD businesses returned to profitability.

"We are very pleased with our return to profitability in the second quarter, driven by increased pricing, higher royalty revenues and strong execution," said company CEO Eli Harari. "We remain cautiously optimistic about the second half of 2009."

Disney Japan plans to sell DVDs that include copies of the film on microSD cards for use in mobile devices. The extra format will cost 1,000 yen more.

Apple said that it has made a US$500 million prepayment to Toshiba for flash memory chips and indicated the market is stabilizing. Intel, which makes flash chips jointly with Micron, is also seeing a recovery in pricing.