Net income fell to $62.6 million, or 9 cents a share, from $154.9 million, or 23 cents, a year earlier, the Boise, Idaho- based company said today in a regulatory filing. Sales increased 8.1 percent to $1.36 billion in the period ended Dec. 1.

M-Systems sold its 2% stake in Saifun for $15 million in an off-floor transaction.

...floating-gate flash will need to be overhauled at the 32-nm node, coming in at the end of this decade.

Japan's third-biggest automaker, plans to build a 10 billion yen ($86 million) factory to produce solar batteries. The plant would initially have a capacity to produce about 30 megawatts worth of solar cells annually, enough for 10,000 households/yr.

The high efficiency of Emcore's GaAs-based solar cells and a current shortage of the polysilicon used in more conventional solar panel designs will create a market opportunity for the US company next year, say analysts.

"The ratio was above the 1.0 mark for the second straight month with sales up 2.1% on month and 5% on year."

"Samsung will spend US$774.4 million to upgrade and expand lines for dynamic random access memory and flash chips, aiming to aims to boost its chip sales by more than three-fold to $61 billion by 2012. "

It sure is hard to imagine Jobs & Co. putting the chipmaker's ubiquitous logo on their gleaming machines -- or in their ads

...the Indian chip market is worth approximately $800 million and is slated to grow in the coming years. Industry officials have said that India has a chance of competing with China and Taiwan to get a share of the global US$220 billion chip market.

The nonvolatile semiconductor storage elements can be programmed at a power supply voltage of 1.5V and a low current of 100渙

South Korean chemicals giant DC Chemical Co. Ltd. has acquired a majority stake in Sodiff Advanced Materials Co. Ltd. The move could propel Korea into the polysilicon materials market for use in making silicon wafers and solar cells.

Ibiden Philippines is scheduled to invest 3.8 billion yen to increase capacity of semiconductor package substrates for personal computers. The new production capacity is 14 million pieces.

The supply agreement with PowerLight, a globalsolar systems provider, calls for the delivery of $330 million ofsolar panels from 2005-2009. A significant product to be supplied is a panel used for roof integrated systems for new home construction.

Royal Philips Electronics today announced its first TV-on-mobile solution for the US market, three months after launching its European solution.

TEL has high exposure to domestic chip makers, which are weaker than the foreign competitors. In addition, LCD equipment margins are below average.

Based in Wuxi, Suntech claims it took only 3 yrs to boost annual capacity for polycrystalline silicon wafers by 50-megawatt. However, its goal is to develop multicrystalline silicon solar cells conversion efficiency rate of as much as 16%.