A pick of the main stories crossing the ElectronicsWeekly.com News Index this week, from a Wimax squeeze and a return of glory days for the semiconductor industry, to Intel making its third solar move and 3bit/cell NAND maybe transforming market economics...

Friday 1 August 2008

Nokia, InterDigital square up over 3G patents
Close on the heels of resolution of the Nokia-Qualcomm patent disputes, the patent peril engulfing the wireless industry reared its head in a New York appeals court yesterday, with Nokia losing a hearing against the Pennsylvania company InterDigital, which is asserting that Nokia infringed some of its 3G patents.

Nokia adds $150m to venture capital fund
Nokia Growth Partners will invest $150 million in companies focused on mobile services and software, including context and location based services, mobile payments, mobile advertising, and music and entertainment.

Thursday 31 July 2008

TSMC adds capacity, but is it enough?
TSMC is still adding capacity, despite widespread industry concerns that the foundry industry is cutting back on capex in order to squeeze higher prices per wafer.

Samsung puts H.264 into SD card camcorders
Samsung is boasting a low-power H.264 camcorder system chip. It is used in the firm's 720x480 pixel 34x optical zoom MX-20 camcorder, released this month.

Wednesday 30 July 2008

Return of glory days for semiconductor industry
It was an excellent May for the semiconductor market, reports Future Horizons, Europe's leading semiconductor market analyst company.

Wireless broadband growth, Wimax squeezed
Wireless broadband is the next big opportunity for mobile phone operators, according to a report from telecoms and IT specialist Analysts Mason.

Intel makes third solar move with thin-film materials investment
Marking its third foray into the solar energy arena this year, Intel Capital has invested $12.5 million in Voltaix, which will allow the company to accelerate its manufacturing capacity expansion.

Tuesday 29 July 2008

3bit/cell NAND may transform market economics
Horrible conditions in the NAND flash market have seen Micron Technology's shares sink to their lowest level for 15 years, and Toshiba and SanDisk, take losses, but 3-bit-per-cell and 4-bit-per-cell flash from Toshiba/SanDisk could give them the edge in the market.

Smallest comparators yet draw under 1.1microA
Claimed to be the industry's smallest, Maxim's MAX906x comparators are available in a 1x1mm four bump package.

UMC, Sematech partner to propel 300mm technology
Hsinchu, Taiwan-based semiconductor manufacturing foundry United Microelectronics Corp (UMC) has joined Austin, Texas-based Sematech, the consortium of semiconductor manufacturers focused on cooperative R&D for advanced semiconductor technology.

Monday 28 June 2008

LP DDR2 DRAM momentum begins to build
The JEDEC specification for the low-power DDR2 (LP DDR2) DRAM is likely to be published fairly soon, according to sources. But already at the Denali MemCon conference last week at least two vendors were discussing LP DDR2 products.

XMOS design kit available
The XMOS design kit is now available to anyone prepared to stump up $1,000. Built with the looks of a consumer electronics product, it allows developers using C to create applications on one of the company’s four-core XS1-G4 SDS (Software Defined Silicon) chips.

Let the latest news - and jobs, products and blogs - come to you, instantly. Get the Electronics Weekly News Feed via RSS, delivering stories as they are posted, whether to your browser or Feed Reader.