Intel's latest effort to crack the smartphone market revolves around its new ultra low-power Atom chip code named Medfield and Google's Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich" mobile operating system, both of which reportedly appear in a new handset from Motorola that's due to be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress later this month.

Cisco came up with an interesting prediction in its latest forecast of global mobile data traffic: by the end of this year, there will be more Internet-connected mobile devices than people on Earth.

US retail sales rose in January, but were dragged down by an unexpected decline in auto sales, according to government data released Tuesday. Overall retail sales were up 0.4% compared to December.

Hynix Semiconductor jumped to an eight-month high in Seoul trading after Hyundai Securities said contract prices for DRAM chips increased and as financing delays at Japan's Elpida Memory raised the prospect of less competition.

Atomic Precision Systems (APS), a little-known semiconductor equipment vendor specializing in deposition technology, has filed a patent infringement suit against Intel, IBM and Micron Technology claiming that they willfully infringed on an atomic layer deposition (ALD) patent held by APS, according to a statement issued by the company's law firm Tuesday.

MagnaChip Semiconductor has announced its 0.35um mixed-signal process is in production for MEMS accelerometer applications.

Samsung Electronics is considering spinning off its LCD operations into a separate company, it said Tuesday, in a bid to strengthen the competitiveness of the business, which has been mired in losses due to a supply glut.

Apple is working with component suppliers in Asia to test a new tablet computer with a smaller screen, people familiar with the situation said.

President Obama has a date with China's Vice President Xi Jinping on Valentine's Day, and despite tensions between the world's two largest economies, they're both likely to put on a happy face. Like it or not, the economic fates of both countries remain closely intertwined.

Leaders from China and the European Union are holding a summit in Beijing set to focus on Europe's debt crisis, as the EU hopes for Chinese support.

Apple has filed a suit in San Diego federal court accusing Motorola of breaching its licensing agreement with Qualcomm over a chip used in the iPhone 4S.

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WiLink 8, which plugs into TI's upcoming OMAP5 chipset, combines Wi-Fi 802.11n, GPS/Glonass, NFC, Bluetooth and FM onto a single small chip using a 45nm process, dramatically reducing the space and price of NFC technology.

Micron Technology president Mark Adams said prices of computer memory have probably hit their lowest after a slump that caused losses at three of the four largest companies in the industry.

Renewable energy companies are losing their allure with top executives after profits and stock prices collapsed across the industry, making it more difficult for boards to replace underperforming managers.

In a bid to draw public awareness towards energy conservation, state government is all set to replace street lights in 65 streets in cities and peri-urban areas across the state with light emitting diode (LED) bulbs.

Taiwanese banks are urging regulators to raise a cap on stakes Chinese banks can hold in them to 20% from 5% as they push to get a bigger share of the huge mainland market at a faster pace and offset a lack of growth opportunities at home.

China's exports and imports both fell in January 2012, raising fresh concerns about the impact of a global slowdown on its economy.