DRAM sales will probably climb 21% to US$22.4 billion in 2010, the first gain in four years, a Seoul-based analyst at Morgan Stanley wrote in a report.

The serial-ATA (SATA) SSDs, from Samsung Electronics, are aimed at supporting virtualized environments and I/O intensive applications.

Samsung, which saw its operating profits jump five-fold to 2.5 trillion won in the second quarter, is expected to report 3.8 trillion won in the third, analysts said. The growth can be attributable to increases in chip and panel prices.

Samsung Electronics has taken its first step towards the mass-production of its solar cells with the launch of a pilot production line for solar cells in Giheung. The vendor held a ceremony on September 13 to mark the opening of its R&D and testing facility for crystalline silicon solar cells.

Shares of memory chip developer Rambus rose 8% on September 4 on speculation that Samsung Electronics would buy the company, but Samsung said it had no such plans.

Because "LED TV" implies that displays are comprised totally of LEDs, which is not the case, the Advertising Standards Authority wants Samsung to change its ads in the UK.

The antitrust trial between memory chip designer Rambus and several chip makers, including Micron Technology, has been postponed, according to reports.

"The third quarter will be better from the previous quarter as chip prices are in the normalization stages after a years-long slump," said Kwon Oh-hyun, president of Samsung's chip division.

South Korea's Samsung Electronics said in a disclosure that it is no longer pursuing a plan to purchase SanDisk.

Lead times for immersion lithography tools are being extended from approximately nine months to about 12 or more, thanks to aggressive tool buying by the likes of Samsung and TSMC, according to analysts at Barclays Capital.

Samsung Electronics will produce 1.5 million 40nm DDR3 DRAM memory chips in September, and 20 million such chips every month afterwards until December.

Hynix is expected to swing to an operating profit in the July to September period, ending its seventh consecutive quarterly loss. Samsung may also see profits rise further in its semiconductor unit in the third quarter.

Samsung Electronics and Toshiba said they have received notices from the US Justice Department informing them that an antitrust investigation into the flash-memory chip market had ended.

"The operation of our 8-inch DRAM line in Austin, Texas, will be stopped from October due to production inefficiencies. We will upgrade the line to a 12-inch facility," company spokesman Kenneth Hong told The Korea Times.

The world's Number-2 handset maker is focusing on improving its weaknesses - low-priced phones and high-priced smartphones

Samsung Group's former chairman Lee Kun Hee was found guilty of breach-of-duty for his role in causing losses at Samsung SDS.