Chips – Semiconductor

ARMONK, N.Y.-International Business Machines says it has developed a low-power chip that can prolong battery life of cell phones, pocket computers and other wireless devices. The product, the PowerPC 405LP, pares down power consumption by 90 percent by shutting off …

TOKYO—Japanese chip maker Toshiba Corp. says it will roll out a mobile Internet phone in Europe next year. The phone is expected to be GPRS-enabled, according to the company.

HELSINKI, Finland—Nokia announced plans for a wide-ranging test of mobile commerce products and services, moves that include making secure credit card payments using a mobile phone wallet application. Nokia is teaming with IBM, Visa International, local banking and technology companies …

SALT LAKE CITY—Valence Semiconductor announced its VS7001 integrated circuit for GPS applications is now available. “The VS7001 represents a milestone in GPS design engineering and innovation moving toward the world’s first single chip GPS,” said Antony Beswick, vice president of …

SHERMAN, Texas-Texas Instruments Inc. said it has developed the fastest family chip that can enhance the overall speed of all networking systems including broadband, data storage and video imaging applications. The products, the 3.3-V DSP-Sync First-In, First-Out, ensures efficiency by …

EAST FISHKILL, N.Y.-International Business Machines Corp. said it has added two new chip technologies known as Radio Frequency CMOS and an enhanced silicon germanium to its pool of offerings to manufacture mixed-signal and radio-frequency devices for applications such as cell …

SAN DIEGO, United States—Qualcomm Inc. said it has shipped its 500 millionth CDMA chip for wireless communication.“Our latest generation of Internet-ready, multimedia chipsets and system software continues the tradition of leadership by enabling the most advanced CDMA handsets, products and …

NEW YORK—International Business Machines said it developed a logic circuit based on molecules called carbon nanotubes as semiconductors that are about 100,000 times thinner than a human hair.“Carbon nanotubes are now the top candidate to replace silicon when current chip …

WASHINGTON—Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld urged the Senate leadership that any decision to transfer the military’s 1700 MHz band to the mobile-phone industry for third-generation wireless services not be made until comparable spectrum has been identified and made available to the …

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Illinois, United States—Motorola said it might sell off its chip unit if it does not generate sufficient profit within an unspecified time period, according to Ed Gams, the company’s director of investor relations.“No segment of the company is …

TOKYO—On Aug. 21, NEC Corp., Matsushita Electric Industrial and Matsushita Communication Industrial, announced plans to combine forces in the third-generation (3G) mobile handset business. Based on the agreement, NEC and Matsushita will jointly develop a common architecture and application/software for …

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill.—Motorola Inc. said it might sell off its chip unit if it does not generate sufficient profit within an unspecified time period, according to Ed Gams, the company’s director of investor relations.“No segment of the company is sacred …

Japan Toshiba Corp. said it would slash production of its domestic dynamic random access memory chip by 60 percent as part of its response to a flagging economy. The company said it would shut down a production line at its …

Two of the world’s leading chip makers last week announced deals they said would lead to the creation of faster and more efficient processors for 2.5- and third-generation mobile devices. Texas Instruments Inc. and Intel Corp. separately said they would …

LOS ANGELES-Oberthur Card Systems announced that with $3.3 million, it has acquired the remaining 50 percent of Rapsodia Software from French customer relationship management company, Prosodie. “We set our sights a while ago on making the shift from being a …

Even though third-generation services are not yet available on mobile phones, one Belgium-based company is betting that 3G telematics services will be just as big, if not bigger. Acunia NV, Leuven, Belgium, crossed the Atlantic at the beginning of last …

TOKYO-In response to the economic slump, NEC Corp. has slashed its work force by 4,000 jobs, which amounts to 2.5 percent of its entire staff. Its cost-cutting measures include slicing in half its output capacity in its Scottish plant, removing …

TOKYO—In response to the economic slump, NEC has slashed its workforce by 4,000 jobs, which amount to 2.5 percent of its entire staff.Its cost-cutting measures include slicing in half its output capacity in its Scottish plant, removing 600 of the …

Palm Inc. last week announced a deal with some of the country’s biggest chip makers to design a pre-packaged chip architecture for Palm OS-based personal digital assistants, a move Palm said will speed up the design and development time for …

WASHINGTON-Congress’ interest in third-generation wireless and its potential impact on the military became more evident last week as congressional auditors warned a key senator against a hasty decision to move the military off of the 1700 MHz band and the …

As a counterfoil to a slackening economy, chip makers are striking up alliances, shrinking their product sizes and paring down prices to differentiate themselves in the face of layoffs, reduced spending and plant shutdowns. Some of the alliances are between …

SANTA CLARA, Calif.-The slump in the chip business was reflected in Intel Corp.’s second-quarter report as both sales and earnings dropped and little expected to cheer in the company’s anticipated third quarter results. Sales in the second quarter fell 24 …

WASHINGTON-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld last week told lawmakers no decision has been reached on future military spectrum requirements, a response starkly at odds with top brass and one that comes as Rep. Chip Pickering (R-Miss.) moves closer to introducing legislation …

WASHINGTON-A congressional report due out later this summer is expected to determine that a Pentagon study-which cast doubt on making military spectrum available for third-generation wireless services-is incomplete and needs further study, a finding that could help industry as momentum …

TOKYO-NEC Corp. said it could cut jobs at a semiconductor plant in Scotland and put off an increase in chip output at a Chinese joint venture as part of its restructuring efforts. NEC had said in April that the Scottish …