Rumors circulated that Apple may have chosen to TSMC as their new fab in response to new competition from Samsung in the handset and tablet space. Based on analysis performed by UBM TechInsights Lab and Process Analysis personnel, we can say that the A5 in our possession is definitely manufactured by Samsung using their 45nm process.

Samsung Electronics won a US trade ruling in its efforts to block imports of flash-memory chips made by Spansion. Shares of Spansion fell after the close of regular-hours trading.

"We have identified a technical issue with the Windows Phone update process that impacts a small number of phones," a Microsoft spokesperson wrote in a Feb. 23 email to eWEEK. "In response to this emerging issue, we have temporarily taken down the latest software update for Samsung phones in order to correct the issue."

"Leading-edge capacity excess, driven by Globalfoundries' expansion primarily, means pricing is going to come down," said Intel CEO Paul Otellini. "As leading-edge pricing comes down, so does the trailing-edge [pricing], hollowing out the business. That means real trouble for Globalfoundries and TSMC over the next few years." He conceded that Samsung was a different case with its memory and logic operations.

Samsung Fine Chemicals agreed with MEMC to set up an equally owned venture for a poly-Si plant in South Korea. They will build the facility on an existing Samsung Fine Chemicals property in Ulsan, according to a joint e-mail statement.

The new naming system will be first applied to the dual-core processor codenamed Orion, which was announced in September 2010. Carrying the name Exynos 4210, Samsung's 1GHz dual-core application processor is scheduled for production in March.

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.

The recession caused fab tool vendors to de-accelerate their investments and programs in 450mm. As a result, 450mm production has been delayed at least to 2017 or 2018, said Trevor Yancey, an analyst with IC Insights.

it's being said that the first Facebook phones will be built by HTC, just like how the first Android phones were made by HTC...the HTC-sourced smartphones will "run a modified build of Google's Android operating system that will display information from a user's Facebook account on the home screen." So, it's like HTC Sense or Samsung TouchWiz... only with Walls, Pokes, and FarmVilles.

"DRAM prices were previously expected to rebound from the second quarter of the year, but that may be brought forward to the first quarter," Kwon Oh-hyun said at an industry event.

Toshiba is hammering out a deal to outsource fabrication of advanced system chips to Globalfoundries, the Nikkei business daily reported, citing company sources.

Samsung Electronics has announced that its new 4Gb-based 40nm-class DDR3 memory will be used in HP ProLiant G7 servers.

Tilera, among the first in a growing number of processor makers looking to manufacture non-x86 chips for servers in cloud computing and other high-performance environments, is getting more support from a number of capital venture companies and tech vendors like Cisco Systems and Samsung.

Amid a slowdown in DRAM, Samsung Electronics is reducing its capital spending by 14% for 2011.