Semiconductor

While waiting to pry loose of Motorola Inc. later this year, Freescale Semiconductor Inc. will be walking the path of other companies like Agere Systems Inc. and Infineon Technologies Inc., which were previously parts of bigger behemoths. These three companies …

PALO ALTO, Calif.-Agilent Technologies Inc. said its second fiscal quarter 2004 results reflect the highest order and revenue levels of the past three years. Orders for the company’s Test and Measurement division were up 23 percent from a year ago …

SCHAUMBURG, Ill.-Motorola Inc. has put its semiconductor business on track to become a separate, publicly owned company by announcing its chairman and chief executive officer. Michel Mayer is the new helmsman at Freescale Semiconductor. He was most recently the general …

Barely two years after entering the market, Microsoft Corp. said it is quitting the Wi-Fi space, otherwise known as 802.11b. “After careful evaluation, the Microsoft hardware group has decided to scale back its broadband hardware and networking business,” a representative …

Other than worries among chipmakers over Cisco System Inc.’s quarterly earnings, the sector continues to purr with good news. However, some analysts caution against overheating with inventory overload. Chipmakers that supply Cisco products suffered slides in their stock prices when …

SCHAUMBURG, Ill.-Motorola Inc. said it has raised up to $316 million from selling shares in chipmakers Broadcom Corp. and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. Motorola will spin off its chip business, which is named Freescale Semiconductors Inc., later this year. The …

AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands-Royal Philips Electronics said it joined the Symbian Platinum Program, which the semiconductor maker said is part of its commitment to mobile multimedia. Philip’s offerings include solutions that support mobile multimedia features, such as audio, video, imaging and …

Freescale Semiconductor said it is collaborating with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s testing laboratories to determine the interference potential of the various Ultra-Wideband waveforms. The waveforms include the direct sequence and multi-band orthogonal frequency division multiplex. Freescale, which is …

DALLAS-Now a wholly owned subsidiary of Motorola Inc., Freescale Semiconductor has made a series of chip announcements covering areas such as voice over Internet Protocol and system on a chip. The company said it has extended its PowerQUICC processor-based VOIP …

With bigger net incomes and increasing orders, wireless vendors blossomed with more optimism and richer cash flows than a year ago, signaling what industry watchers see as better times ahead. However, stock-market gains remain modest. L.M. Ericsson edged out market …

Motorola Inc. announced its first-quarter results to market enthusiasm, generating its best stock momentum in three years.Its shares rose $3.11 to $19.33, representing a 20-percent leap. The vendor reported net earnings of $609 million, or 25 cents per share, in …

SAN JOSE, Calif.-The CellularRAM specification co-development team has welcomed Renesas technology to its fold of chipmakers in the Asian market. Other members include Cypress Semiconductor Corp., Infineon and Micron Technology Inc. The team works in markets such as China, Japan, …

News from RF Micro Devices Inc., Intel Corp. and Skyworks Solutions Inc. reflects the flurry of activities in the semiconductor world. RFMD announced what it described as a strategic focus on three core business units, including cellular, wireless connectivity and …

While market watchers sounded their disapproval of Nokia Corp.’s handset sales in the first quarter, the Finnish vendor witnessed sound activities in its infrastructure business, including a 16-percent increase in net sales to $1.68 billion, compared with $1.4 billion in …

Samsung Electronics set records in its operating and net profits as it unveiled its first-quarter results for the year. But the good news sent the company’s stock down 3 percent over jitters about a possible slow second quarter. The mobile …

NEW YORK-Texas Instruments Inc. brought more cheer to the semiconductor industry with a first-quarter result featuring higher profits, revenue and sales in line with Wall Street expectations. The chipmaker reported net income of $367 million, or 21 cents a share, …

If Motorola Inc.’s position as the No. 2 handset maker has remained tenuous during the past two years, the company just lost that same spot in another space in the semiconductor world-digital signal processors. DSPs process voice and video signals …

WASHINGTON-The Bush administration last week stepped up criticism of South Korea for pursuing wireless Internet standards it regards as discriminatory and harmful to U.S. companies, a move that comes as top U.S. officials prepare to meet with Chinese government representatives …

Although Aura Communications Inc. executives maintain that the company’s technology is merely an ancillary part of the massive wireless industry, the potential of the company’s offerings is certainly noteworthy. Founded in 1995, Aura is a fabless semiconductor vendor. The company …

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.-Jazz Semiconductor said it has entered a partnership to manufacture Magnolia Broadband’s chipset known as DiversityPlus with a view to improving coverage and doubling subscriber reach for operators. “Using this chipset, Magnolia is the first to improve both …

KFAR SABA, Israel-M-Systems’ Fortress Security Division and Emblaze Semiconductor have teamed to develop embedded security solutions for next-generation multimedia processors for the mobile industry. Emblaze will integrate M-Systems SuperMAP low-power cryptographic coprocessors, software protocols and application program interfaces into its …

TOKYO-NEC Electronics Corp. said it has licensed the semiconductor products of Transmeta Corp for low-power technology and to manage transistor leakage. Transmeta’s product, known as LongRun2, will be in the 90, 65 and 45 nanometer packages. NEC also announced it …

The future market for mobile-phone memory will total almost $6 billion, according to some in the industry, and could surpass the potential of the massive desktop computer industry in just three years. Indeed, the amount of storage available in next …

WASHINGTON-The Bush administration today said it filed a complaint at the World Trade Organization about China’s tax treatment of integrated circuits imported from the United States, likely raising the stakes in a separate trade dispute between the two countries over …

Texas Instruments Inc. may have experienced the flip side of optimism when its stock fell on its guidance last week. But a recent study assures the industry that the semiconductor space is not on the verge of a slowdown. In …