When the American subprime crisis first knocked the dollar off its pedestal last year, boosting the euro to record levels, European chip-maker STMicroelectronics felt the pain. So in some ways, the threat of a truly global downturn has come as something of a relief to STMicro as the currency environment becomes more favorable and allows its restructuring efforts to shine through.

The new QFN package family, referred to as QFNs-se, features a higher number of thin I/O terminal pads as compared to conventional single or dual row QFN or leadframe-based Quad Flat Packages (QFP). The QFNs-se can accommodate three or more rows of terminals in a fine fixed or variable pitch, providing a wider pin count range of 50 to 250 I/O as compared to standard QFN packages which have 4 to 156 I/O. The QFNs-se is also considered to be a cost effective alternative to lower ball count Fine Pitch Ball Grid Array (FBGA) packages.

Shares of Analog Devices Inc. slid Tuesday after the chip maker warned first-quarter earnings will miss Wall Street's expectations by at least 11 cents by share. Goldman Sachs analyst Craig Hettenbach said the company's reluctance to cut jobs in order to bring down expenses has dragged on the stock. But he reiterated a "Buy" rating on shares, focusing on the company's "leadership position in data converters, where revenue increased" 8 percent year-over-year.

Spansion, one of the world's largest makers of flash memory chips, on Monday offered a grim sales outlook for the current quarter, citing a slowdown in demand as customers shut down factories. Spansion also said it is cutting cost of goods sold by about 25 percent and cutting operating expenses.

Americans expect to limit credit-card purchases, seek out bargains and stretch spending as recession fears put a damper on their holiday cheer. If the gloomiest predictions come true, that could spell disaster for many more store chains and their employees, and provide insight on how long it may take the economy to recover.

The symbolism was hard to miss when the award was handed to Chang by Hector Ruiz, a longtime friend and the chairman of Advanced Micro Devices. AMD just became the latest U.S. company to make plans to divest its factories–to a new foundry venture that will compete with TSMC. “I never look at any competition lightly,” Chang said, but predicts problems for the new foundry because suppliers and customers will be far from its main locations.

The board of directors of the Empire State Development had been scheduled to vote on whether to transfer a US$1.2 billion package of state incentives from Sunnyvale-based AMD to The Foundry Co., a joint venture between AMD and UAE-based Advanced Technology Investment. Instead, that vote has been postponed until a December meeting, according to AMD and state officials. However, Travis Bullard, a spokesman for AMD, said the decision to push off a vote until the board’s December meeting does not delay the plant.

Amid a downturn in DRAMs, Samsung Electronics remains the top supplier in the arena, according to the new rankings from Gartner. In terms of sales, Samsung was the world's largest DRAM maker in the third quarter of 2008, followed by in order Hynix, Elpida, Qimonda, Micron, Nanya, Powerchip and ProMOS, according to the rankings. Germany's Qimonda AG gained share and took fourth place, surpassing Micron. But Qimonda's fortunes could be short lived.

German chemicals company BASF Wednesday said it will temporarily shutter 80 plants worldwide due to a "massive" demand decline in key industries, particularly the auto industry, as it warned of sliding profits. The move will affect 20,000 workers, including 5,000 in Ludwigshafen, Germany.

Siimpel announced today that it has completed an investment round in support of its groundbreaking MEMS technology and product development for mobile camera applications. DoCoMo Capital, the corporate venture arm of NTT DoCoMo, has joined Siimpel's existing strategic investors from the mobile market.

Market research group Gartner has lowered its forecast for semiconductor equipment manufacturing gear sales in 2009, just weeks after a previous downgrade.

In October, Qimonda sold its 35.6% interest in Korean chipmaker Inotera for US$400 million to Micron and is using those proceeds to restructure its core business. German newspaper WirtschaftsWoche said that after Micron has completed the restructuring process it could acquire Qimonda with the purchasing price of the Korean chipmaker being credited against the purchase of Qimonda.

...In the most precarious situation is ProMOS, which ended the third quarter with about US$76 million in cash, a third of what it started the year with. Investors in a US$350 million convertible bond issued by ProMOS in 2007 will be able to start selling the bond back to the company in February, although it isn't due until 2012. The company has another US$225 million bond due in June 2010, according to Dealogic.

...Microchip, which said it pulled out after On ended its pursuit of Atmel, may seek to team up with another company and make a new bid for Atmel, Suji De Silva, an analyst with Kaufman Bros., said in an interview. Microchip is still an interested buyer, De Silva said. There could be another partner or they may go it alone.

Gartner today lowered its capital and equipment spending forecast for the second time in as many months, warning that the next year could see a capital spending decline of about 17% and capital equipment revenue decline of 18%. The revised forecast comes after Gartner in October suggested 2009 equipment demand would be slower than anticipated.

Privately held semiconductor company Novafora Inc agreed to buy microchip designer Transmeta Corp in a cash transaction worth $255.6 million. The expected offer price of between US$18.70-19.00 per share is at a 7-8% premium to Transmeta's closing price on November 17. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2009. Transmeta also entered into an agreement under which Advanced Micro Devices will transfer 700,000 of Transmeta's preferred stock to the company.

Semiconductor company Intersil said Wednesday it is cutting its global work force by 9% because of the current economic turmoil. "Unfortunately, we are entering a period of significant uncertainty and we feel the prudent approach is to respond quickly," said Dave Bell, chief executive, in a statement.

Germany's state of Saxony and Infineon's loss-making unit Qimonda are in talks about a possible rescue plan, a spokesman for Saxony's Economics Ministry said on Monday. A company spokesman declined to comment on the report but said Qimonda and the state in eastern Germany were in constant contact. Qimonda runs a production plant in Dresden -- the capital of Saxony.

...financial institutions will be allowed to loan a total of NT$600 billion to businesses under the program, which runs until 2010. Sources have suggested that the government should be more audacious in trying to raise funds to stimulate industry and public construction.

Leading chip-equipment maker Applied Materials warned that profit in the current quarter would fall far short of Wall Street expectations due to the weakening global economy. The company also said on Wednesday it would slash 1,800 jobs, or 12 percent of its workforce, to generate annual savings of $400 million.

ARM and Canonical, the commercial sponsor of Ubuntu, have announced that they will bring the full Ubuntu Desktop operating system to the ARMv7 processor architecture to address demand from device manufacturers. The addition of the new operating system will enable new netbooks and hybrid computers, targeting ARM technology-based SoCs.

DRAM makers have been cutting back their production in two waves already, but the economic downturn and reduced demand appears to make the situation even worse. DRAMeXchange said that it expects the industry to cut production by another 6% or 70,000 12” wafers in December, with more announcements possible in January.

National Semiconductor, hit by a downturn in wireless handset sales, cut its projected revenue for the fiscal second quarter Wednesday, and said it will cut 330 jobs.

German chipmaker Infineon said it would not honor a wage deal reached on Wednesday for the 3.6 million workers employed in the country's engineering sector. Only hours after employers and unions in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg agreed on a pilot deal for a 4.2% wage hike through April 2010 in two stages, Infineon issued a statement declaring its intentions and withdrew from the VBM employers' federation. For the current fiscal year to end-September 2009, Infineon would not increase any wages for some 6,000 engineering workers.

...if you understand the reasons why people move from one technology to the next, i.e., 45 to 32, what are the things you're looking for? You're looking for increased performance, reduced power, and above all, you're looking for increased density. Density means size, size means cost, and cost means profit. In SOI, you're taking two of the three of those reasons to move, and providing them without moving. IMoving from 45 bulk to 45 SOI, if your application demands it, probably gives you a better performance increase than moving from 45nm to 32n

In 2009, the MEMS market could face negative growth for the first time," said analyst Marlene Bourne of Bourne Research. "There will likely be at least 18 months of slow consumer growth. The killer app during the slowdown over the next 18 to 24 months will be specific to individual companies–those that succeed will be the ones that identify a significant need and provide a solution.

Microchip Technology and On Semiconductor stepped up their US$2.3 billion takeover attempt of Atmel Wednesday, saying they will nominate a dissident slate of directors for the chip maker's board.

Shares of microchip-design software maker Cadence Design Systems have lost almost 80 percent of their market value in the last 12 months as the company grapples with management changes, job cuts, a depleted cash flow and an aborted acquisition attempt. As expectations from investors seem to have bottomed and estimates have been cut significantly, the company is now positioned such that any positive incremental news can have a pronounced impact on the stock.

Citing the IC downturn, Gartner has cut its forecast for the semiconductor assembly and test services (SATS) market. In the current forecast, the SATS market is expected to grow 1.6 percent in 2008, but the sector will fall 4 percent in 2009.

Like all chip makers, Renesas (Tokyo) faces the possible impact of the current economic crisis and IC slowdown. Renesas has not publically lowered its sales and profit forecasts for fiscal 2008. But clearly, the current economic crisis in the United States and elsewhere could have a "severe effect" on the semiconductor industry, warned Katsuhiro Tsukamoto, president and chief operating officer at Renesas. "Consumer demand will drop," Tsukamoto told EE Times in an interview. Worldwide capital spending "will slow down."

Things were looking better for Qualcomm than they had in a long time. Demand for its technology has been strong, and it had finally settled a long-running royalty dispute with top mobile phone maker Nokia. But that was before the economy started really falling to pieces, dragging the wireless-chip maker down with it.