Electronics Supply Chain News & Analysis

M/A-COM to Buy Mindspeed Without Wireless

M/A-COM will pay about $272 million for most of Mindspeed. The communications processor business is being sold separately.

Tabula Teams with Belfast Startup for Networking

Tabula, which offers a time-sliced FPGA architecture, has formed a partnership with Titan IC Systems Ltd., a 2007 startup from Belfast, Northern Ireland, specializing in networking.

China's Rockchip Takes 64-Bit ARM License

Chinese fabless chip company Rockchip takes subscription licenses to broad range of ARM cores, including 64-bit processor cores and Mali GPU cores.

Chip Sales Hit Alltime High in Q3

The Semiconductor Industry Association reported that chip sales for the third quarter and for the month of September each set new records, largely on strength in the Americas region.

Qualcomm Buys Network-on-Chip Technology

Qualcomm snaps up interconnect IP technology and developer team to help with multicore moves after ARM signs licensing deal with rival.

Intel Launches LTE Modem with Samsung Design Win

Intel pushes forward with LTE modem IC and prepares for further steps in 2014.

Semiconductor Materials Vendor ATMI Seeks Buyer

Provider of specialty materials used in chip manufacturing confirms hiring of Barclays Capital as its financial advisor to help the company explore strategic alternatives.

Smart Meters: Smart Move for IC Vendors?

Replacing electric meters with more sophisticated units is a huge opportunity, but also a long process.

Russian Chip Firm Opens MRAM Fab

Crocus Nano Electronics expected to turn out 500 wafers per week by end of 2014.

Optical Pulse Can Change Metal to Semiconductor

MIT researchers have demonstrated that they can control the band structure of a material with an intense optical pulse, a find that could enable the creation of materials that could be "tuned" in real time.

Qualcomm’s Entry into Set-Top-Box Chip Market Poses Big Challenge to Incumbents

Qualcomm, a titanic force in semiconductors for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, is muscling its way into the chip market for set-top boxes (STB), hoping not only to expand its...

Common Blue Dye Probed as Material for Quantum Computing Technologies

Researchers at the London Center for Nanotechnology and the University of British Columbia believe a simple blue dye molecule has potential as a medium for quantum technologies.

On-Shoring, Counterfeit Parts in Spotlight at ECIA Conference

Electronic Components Industry Association's annual confab will examine trend of manufacturing moving from China back to Mexico and the U.S.

Semiconductor Equipment Orders Slipped in September

The semiconductor equipment book-to-bill ratio declined compared in September compared with August, the trade group SEMI said.

Corning to Buy Samsung's Stake in LCD Glass JV

Corning will take over full ownership of a joint venture with Samsung Display that manufactures LCD glass in Korea.

IBM Takes Broad ARM License at 32-bit

IBM is bowing, gradually, to the rising tide of processor licensor ARM.

Cypress to Make Quantum Processors

Minnesota fab operates as quantum computing component foundry for British Columbian pioneer D-Wave Systems Inc.

Did Apple Launch New iPad Mini Too Early?

Launching both the iPad Air and second-generation iPad mini in the fourth quarter may have been a mistake for Apple, which had success with a two-pronged launch strategy in 2012.

XMOS Adds ARM to its Multicore Mix

Privately held XMOS Ltd. has broadened its xCore architecture to include ARM microcontrollers alongside its own real-time event-driven processors. That has been effected by bringing a Silicon Labs Gecko MCU die into the xCore components.