"...the Texas facility accounts for ~70% of MEMC's polysilicon production...SEMI estimates that the Pasadena facility accounts for ~6% of worldwide polysilicon production...MEMC said it can divert supply away from the spot market and keep its major customers in better supply...."

"...this 24-die stacked NAND flash memory chips is only 1.4 mm thick...enabling 16GB of memory density...Hynix said it aims to develop an MCP with 28 stacked NAND chips in the coming years..."

Broadcom announced that its integrated Blu-ray and HD DVD system-on-a-chip (SoC) has been selected by Samsung Electronics to power the dual format BD-UP5000 Duo high definition (HD) player.

Specialty chemicals maker Rohm and Haas said Tuesday it will cut 200 jobs and discontinue a digital imaging business line as part of a restructuring aimed at faster growth and more efficient operations.

A US federal appeals court on Tuesday revived part of Broadcom's antitrust lawsuit against rival chipmaker Qualcomm.

"... Owing to increased foundry orders, growing mass production of 70nm, and new capacity from Rexchip, PSC is optimistic about operations going forward..."

"...Tightening credit means that the kind of large deals the industry has seen lately will be more difficult. Flexible financing is particularly important to semiconductor industry deals because of the industry's volatility...Another risk is that the chip sector was seeing increased interest from private equity just as valuations in many subsectors reached multiyear highs..."

"...Some board members of HHNEC also prefer merging with SMIC rather than an originally planned Hong Kong listing... SMIC takes the merger as its attempt to bring in private equity investors stalled over SMIC board members' differing opinions earlier this year..."

"...IBM develops a technique for reading and writing digital ones and zeroes onto a handful of atoms, or even individual atoms...and also ability to use a single molecule as a switch, replicating the behavior of today's transistor...these are are the latest indication that computing technology is beginning to emerge that could replace today's microelectronics materials in the next decade..."

"...Researchers are trying to come up with ways to turn algae into diesel fuel. In landfills, startups are attempting to wring energy out of waste such as leaves, tires and car fluff from junked automobiles..."