Electronics firm Sony is considering the purchase of a Japanese chip plant from Renesas Electronics so that it can enhance production of smartphone image sensors, reports said.

More than 20 Japanese and US semiconductor-related companies are teaming up to develop a mass production method for next-generation memory chips.

Chipmakers including Broadcom and Renesas Electronics are ramping up in-car entertainment with faster processors and networks for wireless HD movies and navigation, aiming to keep drivers informed and passengers entertained.

Broadcom has announced a definitive agreement to acquire LTE-related assets from affiliates of Renesas Electronics.

Japan's Renesas Electronics said Friday it will close a plant that makes system LSI chips for Nintendo's game consoles and other consumer electronics after failing to find a buyer for the facility in Tsuruoka in northern Japan.

Imec and Renesas Electronics have entered into a new strategic research collaboration at Holst Centre. Together, the companies will collaborate to enhance ultra-low power (ULP) wireless technologies for short range communication, targeting sensor networks for automotive and industrial purposes.

The president of struggling Renesas Electronics said Thursday that the chipmaker is in talks with overseas companies on selling its loss-making mobile device chip operations as part of efforts to streamline its business.

The deal aims at building a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship between Renesas and J-Devices as strategic partners in the semiconductor production business. The two companies intend to complete the transfer on June 1, 2013.

Renesas Electronics announced that its latest USB 3.0 hub controller (part number uPD720210) has passed USB 3.0 compliance and certification testing by the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF).

There's nothing surprising about Japan going out of its way to bail out Renesas Electronics. The obvious objective is to maintain a steady flow of Renesas chips into domestic products, especially Toyota and Nissan automobiles.

An investment fund controlled by Japan's government has agreed to rescue Renesas Electronics by buying a majority stake in the lossmaking chipmaker for about JPY180 billion (US$2.2 billion), people familiar with the deal said.

US private equity firm KKR & Co has approached struggling Japanese chipmaker Renesas Electronics and its shareholders with an offer of investment, people with knowledge of the proposal said Wednesday.

Struggling Japanese chip firm Renesas Electronics has forecast it will make a net loss of JPY150 billion (US$1.91 billion) driven by restructuring costs for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2013, as it published sales down 11% sequentially for the first fiscal quarter, ended June 30.

Renesas Electronics said its alliance with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) will help boost market share and operating margin.

Japan's NEC will not provide a fresh capital injection to support loss-making chipmaker Renesas Electronics, a senior NEC executive said in a newspaper interview.

Problems at two Japanese microchip makers highlight the potential dangers in a gathering effort to reshape the country's tech industry, as struggling conglomerates try to revive their fortunes by shedding unprofitable businesses.

Japanese chipmaker Renesas has seen its shares tumble to a record low amid reports it is planning to raise cash and cut jobs.

The confirmation came after a Yomiuri Shimbun report that the chipmaker would likely outsource some microchip production to TSMC under a tie-up.

Loss-making Japanese chipmaker Renesas Electronics plans to cut 6,000 jobs, about 15% of its workforce, and raise JPY50 billion (US$630 million) through a third-party share allotment, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported on Tuesday.

Renesas announced semiconductor sales revenues of $9.8bn for the year to the end of March 2012. Back in 2003, the first full year of Renesas' operations after the company was formed by merging the semiconductor operations of Hitachi and Mitsubishi, the company had revenues of $9bn and was the world's No.2 semiconductor supplier.

Renesas has announced a strategic relationship with Nvidia to jointly develop a platform reference solution based on Renesas' SP2531 triple mode LTE modem and the Nvidia Tegra 3 processor.

Renesas Electronics and two other big Japanese chip makers have begun talks to combine their system chip operations and outsource production in a government-backed deal, sources said.

Nearly every mobile handset manufacturer is looking for one thing: A chip platform that can be used immediately as leverage in price negotiations in order to compete with industry leader Qualcomm. Renesas Mobile's Manfred Schlett insists the company is up to the task.

Renesas Mobile will initially deploy Imagination's technologies in its cellular platforms for high-performance smartphones, tablets and in-car infotainment, but the technology will also be used by Renesas Electronics in its SoC lineups for other consumer markets.

The Japanese semiconductor industry, which has been in decline for more than 20 years, needs to select key technology areas and refocus to rise again, Junshi Yamaguchi, former chairman of Renesas Electronics, told the International Electronics Forum being organized here.

It took just three months to put the microcontroller manufacturer's hard-hit Naka facility back in operation.

The company announced plans to double production of USB 3.0 host controllers to six million units a month starting June to satisfy the rising demand.

Disruptions and shortages continue to loom over MCU product suppliers who are already facing severe pressure in the supply chain.

Renesas Electronics expects to restart production at a quake-hit factory in east Japan in mid June, about two weeks earlier than initially planned.

Consumer electronics giant Sony, chipmakers Elpida Memory and Renesas, and electronics firms Panasonic and Toshiba have all said that production at some plants in northern Japan had been halted again due to power cuts triggered by a major aftershock that shook the region on April 7.

Renesas Electronics America will sell its semiconductor wafer fabrication facility in Roseville, California, to Telefunken Semiconductors. The sale price is approximately US$53 million, and the closing for the sale is planned for May 2, 2011. Telefunken also will enter into a supply agreement with Renesas for manufacturing services at the Roseville factory.

Renesas is in talks to outsource production of auto microcontrollers to Globalfoundries Singapore, and some mobile phone semiconductor production to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), Shino Inokuma, a spokesman for Renesas, said by telephone.

Renesas Electronics has resumed operations at the factory sites in Aomori and Yamagata prefectures, northern Japan. The facilities were shut down following a massive earthquake and resulting tsunami on March 11.

Renesas's semiconductor plant in Yonezawa, Yamagata Pref., re-opened on March 19.

Renesas Electronics has confirmed that seven out of 22 of its factories in Japan has temporarily shut down production. Among these factories, Renesas Yamagata Semiconductor Tsuruoka Factory is currently beginning its startup procedures to restart its manufacturing.

Net income for the fourth quarter of 2010 was US$33.1 million as compared to net losses of US$20.6 million in the prior quarter and losses of US$23.3 million a year ago. Net profits for 2010 were US$150.9 million, compared to losses of US$92.2 million in 2009.

This agreement covers the use of Rambus patented innovations in a broad range of logic IC products offered by Renesas Electronics.

Rambus saw its results improve in the third quarter of 2010 thanks to a licensing deal signed earlier this year with former legal opponent Samsung Electronics. It is negotiating to renew deals with Toshiba and Renesas Electronics after their patent licenses expired.

"Although discussions are ongoing with Sony and Renesas Electronics to secure their continued access to our semiconductor packaging technology through a licensing relationship with us, these discussions have not sufficiently advanced, thus necessitating this lawsuit," said Henry Nothhaft, chairman and CEO of Tessera.

The recent dust-up between China and Japan suggested how neighbours can have incompatible interests. But in business, things are often rather different. In one example, China's emergence as a producer of sophisticated technology is helping strengthen one of the few big microchip businesses left in Japan.