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| U.S. industrial production rebounds |
12/19/2019 |
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The Federal Reserve said Tuesday that industrial production — which includes output at factories, mines and utilities — rose 1.1% in November, reversing a 0.9% drop in October and recording biggest jump since October 2017.
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| UltraSense Systems turn any surface into sensing user interface |
12/19/2019 |
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UltraSense Systems (San Jose, Calif.) introduced what it claims is the smallest ultrasound sensor-on-chip for touch and gestures through any material and any material thickness. Dubbed TouchPoint and TouchPoint Z, its initial products are sampling now and are expected to be incorporated into several consumer and industrial devices in 2020.
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| Semiconductor equipment order rebounded |
12/18/2019 |
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The rebound snaps a global slowdown in fab equipment spending that saw total investments drop 10% in the second half of 2018 and 12% in the first half of 2019, SEMI indicated. During the first six months of 2019, fab equipment spending for memory fell 38% to below US$10 billion.
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| Mexico raised its national minimum wage 20% |
12/18/2019 |
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The Labor Department said the lowest legal wage will be 123.22 pesos a day starting Jan. 1, or about $6.50 at current exchange rates. That is a boost from the 120.68-peso minimum wage prevailing this year.
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| Boeing halted MAX production |
12/18/2019 |
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The ramifications are likely to ripple beyond the factory floor of Boeing's plant in Renton, Washington, across both the aviation and manufacturing sectors. It could ultimately alter the country's trade balance.
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| Wisconsin governor warned Foxconn that the promised tax credits can be cancelled |
12/17/2019 |
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Foxconn originally proposed building a massive flat-screen plant in Mount Pleasant that would eventually employ 13,000 people. Enamored with the thought of a monumental economic boost going into the 2018 elections, then-Gov. Scott Walker and Republican legislators approved an unprecedented $3 billion state incentives package in 2017 for the factory. Democrats complained at the time that Walker and the GOP were giving away too much for a project that might never materialize.
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| DRAM spot market prices have begun to rebound |
12/17/2019 |
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DRAMeXchange indicated. Although downgraded chips are currently still being returned, memory module makers and channel brokers have become more willing to raise their inventories. With the stockpile of downgraded 1Xnm chips being quickly digested, spot prices have also started rising.
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| Lattice Semiconductor launched new low-power FPGA based on FD-SOI |
12/17/2019 |
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Lattice announced its intention to transition to FD-SOI for new products a couple of years ago, in order to take advantage of the process technology’s inherent strengths in power consumption and reliability. The company’s Nexus FD-SOI platform continues its focus on small form factor, low power FPGAs, and is optimized for devices with 10-200k logic cells.
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| Xiaomi's smartphone goes for side-mount fingerprints reader |
12/16/2019 |
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Swedish firm Fingerprint Cards AB (Fingerprints) has just rolled out the FPC1540 slim side-mounted capacitive touch sensor for biometric authentication. Placed on the side of Xiaomi’s Redmi K30 smartphone inside the power button, the sensor is also suitable for the latest smartphone designs, including borderless and foldable phones.
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| U.S. reached Phase 1 trade deal with China |
12/16/2019 |
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Chinese have agreed to "massive'' purchases of American farm and manufactured products. . The office of Trump's trade representative said China had consented to "structural reforms'' that would improve intellectual property protection and curb the practice of forcing foreign companies to hand over technology as the price of admission to the Chinese market.
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| Cisco to sell switcher chips to major data-center operators |
12/13/2019 |
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Cisco is now offering the chips, which it says are the fastest in the industry, to all of its customers, regardless of whether they buy its networking machinery. Previously Cisco’s chips were only available as components of its machines.
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| Everspin Technologies offers 32-Mb Toggle MRAM |
12/13/2019 |
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It’s designed to enable critical applications that need a higher density option, such as storing configurations, setup and data logging in embedded systems and Internet of things (IoT) devices, as well as anticipating device requirements driven by 5G networking,
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| Toyota North America CEO to retire after 38 years |
12/13/2019 |
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Now, after 38 years in a number of leadership roles with Toyota, Jim Lentz is retiring, effective April 1. Lentz, 64, will step down as CEO of Toyota Motor North America, and will be replaced by Tetsuo “Ted” Ogawa, who currently chief operating officer.
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| Original GPS inventors to receive Top-Engineer Award |
12/12/2019 |
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Prince Charles presented the award to Dr Bradford Parkinson, Hugo Fruehauf, Richard Schwartz, and Anna Marie Spilker, who accepted the award on behalf of her late husband, Professor James Spilker, Jr. They were honored for their work in creating the first truly global, satellite-based positioning system, GPS.
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| Apple sued former employee for breach of employment contract |
12/12/2019 |
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When Gerard Williams bolted from Apple early in 2018 to become CEO of a startup processor company, he was tempting fate, given how common it is for corporations to induce employees to sign non-compete agreements. Unsurprisingly, fate just came calling in the form of a lawsuit against Williams from his former employer, charging him with breach of contract.
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| November Consumer prices up 0.3% |
12/12/2019 |
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Inflation is in line with the Federal Reserve's target of 2% a year. The Fed has cut the short-term interest rate it controls three times this year, partly to protect a record-breaking U.S. economic expansion from the effects of President Donald Trump's trade war with China.
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| General Motors to assemble big SUV in Texas |
12/12/2019 |
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The length of the Tahoe will grow nearly 7 inches (18 centimeters) to almost 211 inches (536 centimeters). The Suburban gains just over an inch (2.5 centimeters) in length to nearly 226 inches (676 centimeters). The extra length, though, enabled engineers to raise the Tahoe's cargo space behind the third row by 67% to 25.5 cubic feet (0.72 cubic meters). Suburban rear cargo space rose about 5% to 41 cubic feet (1.2 cubic meters).
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