Electronics Industry News & Analysis | Market Outlook & Trends

SK Hynix Pushes 16-nm NAND to 128-Gbit

South Korean memory vendor has commenced mass production of a 64-Gbit multi-level cell NAND flash memory implemented in a 16-nm manufacturing process and designed another chip at twice the memory capacity.

Troubled Soitec Waits for Solar

Soitec made a net loss larger than sales in the first half of its fiscal year, as silicon-on-insulator wafer business contracted. The company is hoping to add to sales through the generation of electricity at a solar power farm in South Africa.

Exclusive Video Teardown: Sony Close to Breakeven on PS4

IHS teardown analysts pull apart Sony's PlayStation 4 to find Sony much closer to turning a profit on each unit than was the case with the PlayStation 3.

IBM, Nvidia to Pair Power CPUs, Tesla GPUs

Two stalwarts of high-performance computing are putting their CPUs and GPUs together to try to repel the threat from the likes of Intel and ARM.

Microchip Rolls New Family of MIPS-Based 32-bit MCUs

Fourth-ranked microcontroller vendor launches a new family of MIPS-based 32-bit microcontrollers for embedded applications, claiming best-in-class performance and code density.

Digital Signage Lighting Up LED-Driver Opportunities

The ubiquitous flat displays are the visible indication of the growth in digital signage; for IC vendors, the opportunity is the "behind the screen" providing LED drivers.

Global Spending on Industrial Chips Shifts to China and Asia-Pacific

Semiconductor spending by original equipment manufacturers (OEM) on industrial electronics will shift from traditional strongholds with mature economies to fast-growing emerging...

Imagination Offers 'Raptor' ISP Cores

Based on its acquisition of Nethra Imaging in 2012, Imagination is extending its family of purpose-designed image signal processing (ISP) cores with the introduction of Raptor.

Micron Preps Memory-Based Automata Processor

Memory maker has developed a processor that implements a computer architecture known as automata processing that addresses problems associated with large data sets such as security, image and video analytics and bio-informatics.

Spansion Launches Family of MCUs for Internet of Things

Spansion, a chip vendor that formerly focused exclusively on flash memory, launched a family of ARM-based microcontrollers targeting machine-to-machine communications and the so-called Internet of Things.

Applied Materials' 4Q Results Show Uptick in Revenue, Orders

After down year in 2013, chip gear maker looks forward to strong growth in silicon systems orders, net sales in the first quarter of 2014.

High-Power ARM Spin-Off Adds Engineering Support

Adapter box offered to help proliferate the Amantys digital control of high-voltage, high-power systems.

Microsoft Will Up Semiconductor Spending Next Year, While Dell Continues Flat

Two giants in the computing space are showing divergent spending patterns on semiconductor chips this year as they retool strategies in a once-flourishing PC industry humbled...

U.S. Manufacturing Index Rises Again

U.S. manufacturing activity rose in October for the fifth consecutive month, according to the Institute of Supply Management.

Billion-shipping ARC Core Gets 28-nm Upgrade

Synopsys announced an upgrade to its ARC family of configurable processor cores, the second most pervasive embedded processor architecture behind ARM.

Startup Preps OS for the Internet of Things

A one-year old startup whose founders are experienced in low-power computing has prepared an operating system that can fit in just a few hundred bytes of memory, yet still supply full internet connectivity.

Global Processor Market on Track to Grow Shipments

The global market for processors is set to finish 2013 on a strong note, helped by a splashy across-the-board increase in chip shipments to smartphones, tablets, PCs and servers...

OLEDs Forgo Noble Metals to Generate Light with Little Heat

Researchers in Germany and the U.S. have demonstrated a novel type of organic light emitting diode which shows potential for high conversion efficiencies without having to resort to noble metals, thus leading to less costly OLED displays.