Around the web
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Company release
The government is considering urging struggling Toshiba not to sell its semiconductor business to a Chinese or Taiwanese company, sources said March 22.
Asahi.com
Micron Technology gained more than 7% in late trading Thursday after the chipmaker reported better earnings than expected amid reported price hikes for its memory chips.
Marketwatch.com (Dow Jones)
Even if China doesn't build all of these fabs, there are still some worrisome signs. For example, a large percentage of the projected capacity from China's foundry vendors is slated for 28nm processes and above. So over time, some see a potential capacity glut, if not a price war, looming for these technologies.
Semiconductor Engineering
Samsung Electronics is considering large-scale marketing activities for the upcoming Galaxy S8, including unconditional refunds after up to three-month use.
The Investor
A joint venture led by Qualcomm and the Brazilian government will see the launch of a semiconductors factory producing high-complexity equipment. The consortium, which also includes semiconductor manufacturing firm ASE Group, is predicted to make a total investment of $200m in the initiative.
ZDNet
A big concern is a potential over-supply situation in display glass, as China slams on the gas for OLED capacity.
Barron's
Britain's House of Commons was in lockdown on Wednesday after what police assume is a terrorist attack in which an assailant stabbed a police guard soon after a car ploughed into number of pedestrians on adjoining Westminster Bridge.
The Financial Times
Samsung appears to be about a quarter ahead of TSMC with the ramp of 10nm process technology, according to a veteran chip analyst.
EE Times
Samsung Electronics said Tuesday its chip factory under construction in southern Seoul is expected to start production in the first half of 2017 as scheduled. The new line is expected to focus on the production of 3-D Vertical NAND (V-NAND) flash memory.
Yonhap News
Apple's iPhone 8 smartphone will include a 3D-sensing module to enable augmented-reality applications, Rosenblatt Securities recently said. Rosenblatt Securities named Austria's AMS AG as a likely supplier of 3D sensors to Apple.
Investor's Business Daily
Seagate is closing a design center in South Korea, according to its 8-K homework submitted to US financial watchdog, the SEC.
The Register
The Japanese government said it was not considering steps to support embattled Toshiba and will share information with Washington on developments involving the firm and its US nuclear unit Westinghouse.
Reuters
TSMC reports 76% yields on 256Mbit SRAM modules manufactured on 7nm.
WCCF Tech
The United States International Trade Commission (USITC) announced that it will conduct an investigation on certain graphics systems and computing products imported into the country as they allegedly infringe patents owned by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and ATI Technologies. The companies filed a complaint with the USITC and the federal agency has identified a number of respondents in the investigation, including LG Electronics, VIZIO, MediaTek, and Sigma Designs.
AndroidHeadlines
UK telecoms giant Vodafone has merged its Indian business with Idea Cellular, India's third-largest network, to create the country's largest operator.
BBC News
The technology sector in China is still not sophisticated enough to compete with the US in the global chip market, the chairman of China's top contract chipmaker said on Tuesday.
Nikkei Electronics Asia
Intel has announced the first Optane-branded product using its new 3D XPoint memory: the catchily named Intel Optane SSD DC P4800X.
Ars Technica
Samsung Electronics will invest about KRW10 trillion (US$8.7 billion) in Hwaseong Campus in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea to build a new line to produce memory DRAMs.
BusinessKorea
Qualcomm no longer refers to Snapdragons as processors, but rather as a platform. It says it is changing the terminology because "Snapdragon is more than a single component, a piece of silicon, or what many would misinterpret as the CPU."
Beta News
Trying to cover the waterfront, TSMC disclosed plans for new high-, mid- and low-end processes at an annual event here. They included an enhanced 7nm FinFET node using extreme ultraviolet lithography, a 12nm upgrade of its 16nm process and a 22nm planar technology - its answer to fully depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI).
EE Times
Executives at Chinese tech companies say that China's acquisitive forays into foreign chip sectors are now meeting resistance due to increasing wariness of overseas authorities and companies.
Nikkei Electronics Asia
Motley Fool
Japan's crisis-racked Toshiba has offered shares in its memory chip unit to creditors as collateral to secure debt refinancing, people briefed on the matter said on Wednesday.
Reuters
Apple has been found guilty of price-fixing in Russia, after the country's anti-monopoly agency said the US company had arranged for retailers to co-ordinate the prices of its iPhone models.?
The Financial Times
In filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission today, Yahoo laid out the severance packages for executives that will be leaving the company as it sheds its Internet business chrysalis and emerges as an Alibaba stock-holding company moth called Altaba. Marissa Mayer, Yahoo's chief executive officer, will receive a package of cash, stock, and benefits valued at a total of $23,011,325 at the completion of the deal, according to Yahoo's proxy statement. Of that, $3 million will be in cash.
Ars Technica
Samsung is going to make supplemental investments into its 10nm production lines in March 2017 and construct new 7nm semiconductor facilities in 2018. Its strategy is to secure ultra-fine processing technologies faster than its competitors.
ETNews.com
The Japanese government, fretting over the future of Toshiba's flagship memory chips unit, is prepared to block a sale to bidders it deems a risk to national security, sources said, a stance that gives US suitors a major advantage.
Reuters
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