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| European economy still weak |
5/24/2018 |
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Purchasing managers' index for the eurozone — a broad gauge of business activity — fell in May to an 18-month low of 54.1 points from 55.1 the previous month.
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| A shortage on 200mm fab. capacity |
5/23/2018 |
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Amazingly, 200mm fabs are expected to remain viable at least until 2030 or so. As before, the challenge is to procure 200mm equipment, which is still in short supply.
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| STMicro steps up enviromental saving effort |
5/23/2018 |
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Absolute energy consumption decreased by 12% compared to 2016 in normalized terms. By the end of 2017, 26% of energy purchased by ST came from renewable sources. More than 91% of waste was reused, recovered or sent for recycling
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| Samsung Foundary to setup R&D |
5/22/2018 |
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Samsung opened the R&D center under the crucial device solution arm, which oversees the company's critical chip business. The new center is focused on bolstering Samsung's capabilities in the foundry business.
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| Facebook agreed to use Qualcomm's 60GHz WiFi |
5/22/2018 |
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Facebook has agreed to use 60GHz technology from Qualcomm Technologies that harnesses unlicensed spectrum, and the pair will work with other partners — such as telecom operators and manufacturers — to ready the system for deployment.
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| Intel's 10nm Cannon Lake processors debutes |
5/21/2018 |
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Intel's first 10nm silicon was originally slated for release in late 2016, but technical challenges encountered in shrinking transistors to ever smaller scales led to the launch being delayed until 2017. The firm confessed that the company was pushing back volume production from the second half of 2018 to some point in 2019 after suffering "yield issues".
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| U.S. asked ZTE to change management as a condition |
5/21/2018 |
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Chinese telecom company ZTE Corp. will have to change its management, including by possibly appointing new board members, to win a reprieve from U.S. sanctions that shut it off from key suppliers.
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| Tsinghua Unigroup to expand cloud center |
5/21/2018 |
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Tsinghua Unigroup just signed a strategic cooperation pact with the Tianjin government to build a CNY12 billion (US$1.88 billion) base in the northern Chinese city as its national headquarters for cloud business.
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| Chip resistor demand outpace supply |
5/18/2018 |
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At present global demand for resistors is massively outstripping supply. Shortages and price increases are already heavily impacting the supply chain.
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| Toshiba chip unit realized record annual profit |
5/17/2018 |
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Toshiba record consolidated net income of ¥804 billion for fiscal 2017 due mainly to asset sales of bankrupt U.S. nuclear plant maker Westinghouse Electric Co., a former subsidiary. The figure compares to a loss of ¥965.6 billion a year earlier.
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| Trump asked the U.S. Commerce Dept. to help ZTE survive |
5/17/2018 |
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U.S. President Donald Trump asked Commerce Dept. Secretary Wilbur Ross to explore "alternative remedies" to punish ZTE for violating the terms of a settlement agreement and shipping equipment with U.S. components to Iran and North Korea.
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| Intel plan $5 billion expansion in Israel |
5/16/2018 |
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Intel is one of the biggest employers and exporters in Israel, where many of its new technologies are developed. The new investment will upgrade its Kiryat Gat manufacturing plant in southern Israel.
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| ASE/SPIL make final move to merge |
5/16/2018 |
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“It was certainly no surprise that ASE and SPIL came together, because of the increasingly challenging OSAT business environment and the major consolidation we’re seeing in our customer base,” says Hal Lasky, senior vice president of sales.
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| Nvidia beat estimate with advance in AI and gaming |
5/16/2018 |
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Nvidia has been riding a strong data center wave as companies upgrade their GPUs for artificial intelligence and machine learning. The company's core gaming business is doing well due to a shortage of supply, higher prices and new releases.
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