A pick of the main stories crossing the ElectronicsWeekly.com News Index this week, from Rambus retrials and carbon nanotube clusters to Apple joining the IC market, and Renesas research on reconfigurable RF transceivers...

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Friday 25 April 2008

IBM goes to racetrack with nanowire storage
IBM has managed to store data on a permalloy nanowire using a technique that could yield high data densities, according to the company.

Engineering body calls on Government to act over registration
The Government must take a lead in encouraging engineers to achieve professional registration, according to the Institution of Engineering and Technology.

Thursday 24 April 2008

Apple joins IC market with $278M PA Semi buy
Apple buys PA Semi, a fabless chip designer that specializes in low-power PowerPC microprocessors, for $278 million, according to reports. The move has raised questions as to Apple's future work with Intel, the consumer-electronics giant's Macintosh processor provider.

Carbon nanotube cluster successfully grown
A team of US scientists at Duke University in the USA say they have brought the commercial utilisation of carbon nanotubes in ICs a step further by using IC-like masking processes to align arrays of nanotubes.

Broadcom to pay $12M to settle SEC suit 
Communications chipmaker Broadcom has agreed to pay $12 million to settle the suit brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over charges that it falsified reported income by backdating stock-option grants over a five-year period.

Wednesday 23 April 2008

Rambus case sent for re-trial
Rambus has prevailed in an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, but only in so far as the case has been sent for re-trial.

ST-NXP deal to trigger wireless consolidation
Further consolidation in the wireless chip-making industry is inevitable, according to both the industry and sector analysts.

IMEC, Renesas research reconfigurable RF transceivers
To perform research on 45nm RF transceivers targeting Gbit/s cognitive radios, Tokyo-based semiconductor supplier Renesas Technology has entered into a strategic research collaboration with IMEC. It has joined the Belgian nanoelectronics and nanotechnology research centre's software-defined radio (SDR) front-end programme.

Tuesday 22 April 2008

Samsung swan song for boss and son
The boss of Samsung and his son, seen as the heir apparent to the Samsung empire, are reported to have resigned after elongated investigations into the company.

LSI joins NAND flash industry working group
LSI is the latest chip supplier to join the Open NAND Flash Interface (ONFi) Working Group, which is an industry group working on the integration of NAND flash memory into consumer electronics devices, computing platforms and industrial systems.

Monday 21 April 2008

Micron and Nanya form MeiYa
Today, a new DRAM company has been founded. Called MeiYa Technology, it is a joint venture between Micron of the US and Nanya of Taiwan and represents the end of the long-standing technology exchange deal with Qimonda.

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