"Yes, Samsung is still in (merger) talks with SanDisk," Kwon Oh-hyun, head of the company's semiconductor division told The Korea Times on the sidelines of a business forum held at the National Assembly. "Samsung's legal team has reviewed measures to calm down a possible anti-trust issue in the United States if the deal succeeds," Kwon said. U.S. financial regulators would most likely reject the proposed deal because it would create a near monopoly in the flash memory market, analysts say.

...Eventually the industry will need an entirely new technology, and SanDisk believes it has the solution in 3D memory, the technology it gained through the January 2006 acquisition of Matrix Semiconductor. The concept behind 3D memory is that you can simply stack arrays of cells vertically to increase storage density rather than increasing the size (and cost) of the chip. It’s like building a skyscraper rather than expanding the footprint of a building. SanDisk says it has more than 200 patents around 3D memory...

At VLSI 2007 Symposium, Samsung promised new materials and structures for 56nm. Samsung plans to make a number of changes to the basic transistor design – both for the cell access transistor in the memory array and the peripheral support transistors used to design the control logic. 56nm devices get a "lift" with raised source drains to improve transistor drive current.

Samsung Electronics introduced a series of new frames with more sophisticated and premium functions.

...In order to beat their Korean rivals and regain past glory as global leaders in the display segment, leading Japanese display makers recently formed a united front with support from the Japanese government. Sony, Sharp, Toshiba and Panasonic joined forces in the development of technology for the mass production of larger-sized AM OLED panels over 40 inches financed by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

"We are opting either to combine it with an envisioned joint venture with Samsung SDI on AM OLED displays or send the mobile LCD unit to Samsung SDI's Mobile Display Business Unit," a high-ranking Samsung Electronics official told The Korea Times.

Samsung Electronics and Hynix Semiconductor, South Korea's two largest chip companies and leaders in memory IC sales, have said they plan to co-develop and standardize spin-torque-transfer magnetic-random-access-memory (STT-MRAM) chips, and become the industry leaders in the processing of chips on 450-mm wafers, according to reports.