Prices on futures of the metal traded on the London Metal Exchange (LME) touched US$7,600 a tonne, the highest since 20 January. Officials in Chile - the world's biggest copper miner - have promised to honour its export commitments.

The hackers who broke into Google two months ago have gone after more than 100 companies, according to an estimate by security vendor Isec Partners.

The deal will end years of litigation between companies - like Micron Technology, Hynix Semiconductor and Infineon Technologies - and indirect purchasers of DRAM memory chips, which includes California and several other states.

SanDisk now expects first-quarter revenues will reach between NT$925 million and NT$1 billion, compared to the originally estimated NT$875-925 million. (and vs. consensus estimates of $942.4 million).

The contracts include a US$137 million follow-on order from a large Chinese customer, as well as orders from Tianwei New Energy, Phoenix Photovoltaic Technology, Yingli Green Energy, JA Solar, Taiwan-based Sino-American Silicon Products (SAS), and one other customer.

Applied Materials CFO George Davis recently remarked there is reason to think the second half will see orders from Tier 2 DRAM players, and from some additional segments of the market, in particular NAND flash.

Anyone who buys an electric car will be able to take advantage of a subsidy of up to 5,000 pounds (US$7,684) under plans to be set out by the government.

Hynix Semiconductor creditors named Kwon Oh Chul as the new CEO of the world's second-largest maker of computer-memory chips. They also plan to sell 8% of Hynix in the first half of 2010 and another 5% in the second half if they fail to find a buyer.

About this time last year, Intel and TSMC announced a groundbreaking deal. The deal was seen as a response by Intel to the growing popularity of customized ARM chips, but a lack of customer demand has put the partnership on hiatus.

The drives have arrived more than a year after SanDisk announced them, and more than six months after they were originally supposed to ship. A spokeswoman said the delay was due to a desire to "optimize" the product.

Elpida Memory aims to list subsidiary Rexchip Electronics on the Taiwan stock exchange in its fiscal 2010, according to a person familiar with the matter. Although the company had said it was considering listing Rexchip, it had yet to decide on concrete plans.

Now that Bloom Energy has unveiled its innovative fuel cell technology to the world, it appears the much-hyped Silicon Valley startup's "Energy Server" shows a lot of promise, particularly for Fortune 500 companies that can afford the parking lot-sized power boxes priced up to $800,000 apiece.

The lawsuit essentially alleges that the heavily funded startup runs an "extortion scheme" and has "unscrupulous sales practices" in place to generate revenue, in which the company?s employees call businesses demanding monthly payments in the guise of advertising contracts, in exchange for removing or modifying negative reviews.

Like others with a stake in EUV lithography development, maskmakers are being asked to contribute money to a Sematech effort to close the funding gap in mask inspection development. It's a tough question, however, given the low probability of a return on that investment anywhere in the near future.