Categories: Chips

In Electronics, Japan Still Matters

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on March 17

In the global technology industry's pecking order, Japanese consumer electronics companies long ago surrendered their top spot to more nimble competitors like Samsung Electronics and Apple. Many of the country's...

Samsung Upbeat about Memory Chip Recovery

Posted by: Ihlwan Moon on October 28

A year ago, the global semiconductor industry was fraught with overcapacity. The situation was particularly bad for memory chips. But suddenly the tech industry is facing supply constraints for DRAM...

China vs Taiwan in U.S. Court

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on September 11

There’s no shortage of lawsuits in the chip industry, where it’s pretty common for semiconductor manufacturers or designers to accuse rivals of intellectual-property theft. Most of the time these cases...

Samsung’s Market Value Approaches Intel’s

Posted by: Ihlwan Moon on September 03

Samsung Electronics surprised the world in 2002 when its market value surpassed that of Sony’s. It marked Samsung’s emergence as a truly important player in the electronics industry and its...

Investors Shrug off Spansion Lawsuit against Samsung

Posted by: Ihlwan Moon on November 19

To hear Spansion’s claim filed in the U.S. against South Korea’s Samsung Electronics, the two companies face a legal battle that will have enormous repercussions in both semiconductor and consumer...

Samsung Drops Bid to Buy SanDisk

Posted by: Ihlwan Moon on October 22

Samsung Electronics on Oct. 22 withdrew its $5.85 billion bid to buy SanDisk, citing a declining value of U.S. memory card maker in the face of a supply glut in...

On the Downgrade of Chartered Semiconductor

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on August 14

Another example today of just how hard it is to make it in the semiconductor industry. Chartered Semiconductor, the Singapore-based chip foundry that’s long been considered one of the top...

South Korea Fines Intel

Posted by: Ihlwan Moon on June 05

Intel suffered a setback in South Korea where antitrust regulators ruled on June 5 that the world’s largest chipmaker abused its dominance to hamper competition. The Korea Fair Trade Commission...

Happy Days Ahead for Asian Chipmakers?

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on April 29

TSMC chairman Morris Chang, hailed in Taiwan as the father of the island’s chip industry, is predicting more good times ahead for Asia’s chipmakers. Why? As the cost of building...

India's Chip Dreams, Continued

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on April 28

Some good news for Indians hoping to build a semiconductor industry in the country. While plans to build India’s first serious chip plant seem to be stalled, the chip-design business...

Indians Teaming Up With Israelis

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on October 01

I’m on the record as a skeptic about Indian ambitions to build a semiconductor industry. As I’ve noted (see here, for instance) building even a chipmaking factory with lagging technology...

Little Impact Seen from Samsung’s New Legal Dispute

Posted by: Ihlwan Moon on September 18

The U.S. Justice Department’s investigation into possible price-fixing by makers of so-called NAND chips is certainly a psychological blow to Samsung Electronics. After all the South Korean company accounts for...

Is Samsung’s Chip Output Back To Normal?

Posted by: Ihlwan Moon on August 06

Samsung Electronics on Aug. 6 claimed that its production stoppage last week at its main plants for NAND flash chips will have little impact on the supply of the chip...

Chinese chipmaking woes and Indian chipmaking dreams

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on May 03

Does it make sense for countries like China and India to try to compete in the ultra-expensive semiconductor industry? Indian officials seem to think so. They’re putting together new policies...

Hynix Ends Legal Disputes with Toshiba, Forges Alliance with SanDisk

Posted by: Ihlwan Moon on March 21

South Korea’s Hynix Semiconductor, long embroiled in legal disputes with Toshiba over flash memory chip patents, has struck a cross licensing deal with the Japanese company to end the legal...

Intel's big China news

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on March 14

The company hasn’t confirmed the news yet, but it seems Intel is gearing up to build its first chip fab in China. As my BusinessWeek colleague Arik Hesseldahl reports,the government’s...

Flash Chip Price Falls Seen Continuing

Posted by: Ihlwan Moon on February 12

A Micron Technology executive’s forecast that prices of NAND flash memory chips could fall between 30% and 40% in the current quarter sparked plunges in share prices of Asian memory...

Samsung Settles DRAM Chip Anti-trust Case

Posted by: Ihlwan Moon on February 07

Samsung Electronics, facing legal headaches on a handful of issues, has agreed to pay $90 million to settle price-manipulation charges by about 40 U.S. states and consumers of products using...

A boost for India's chip industry

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on February 07

The world’s biggest chip foundry is Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., aka TSMC, and TSMC’s decisions on where to do business are good indicators of where the semiconductor industry as a...

Microsoft’s Vista to boost Samsung chip sales

Posted by: Ihlwan Moon on January 02

One of the biggest tech news this year is a sales launch on Jan. 30 of Microsoft’s Windows Vista operating system. And few other hardware manufacturers are expected to benefit...

Will Taiwan push back against Carlyle?

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on December 01

The uber-connected Carlyle Group may have some trouble getting deals done in China but is accustomed to having an easy time of it in Taiwan. The internationally isolated Taiwanese government...

Samsung Officials Accused of Price Fixing

Posted by: Ihlwan Moon on October 19

In connection with a major antitrust investigation in U.S. history, executives at Korea’s Samsung Electronics and Hynix Semiconductor, were indicted for conspiring to fix prices for computer memory chips, a...

Samsung's Chip Making Breakthrough

Posted by: Ihlwan Moon on September 11

Korea’s Samsung Electronics on Sept. 11 unveiled a new semiconductor using technology that the company says makes it possible to double the capacity of flash memory chips every year. The...

Intel's shakeup hits China group

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on July 21

Intel’s management shakeup, announced yesterday, has created a big question mark for the company in China, India and other big emerging markets. The headline changes involved Sean Maloney taking over...

INDIA'S QUEST FOR CHIP FABS

Posted by: Manjeet Krpalani on July 06

Just about everyone has heard of Nasscom, the powerful Indian software industry association. Now other groups are popping up along India’s technology corridor to try and mimic Nasscom’s success in...

More on China's chip scandal

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on May 14

Back in March, I blogged about Chen Jin, a professor at Shanghai Jiaotong University and head of the microelectronics school there. Chen had won acclaim a few years ago by...

A Chinese chip scandal?

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on March 26

It hasn’t generated global headlines like the South Korean stem-cell controversy, but China may be in the midst of an embarrassing high-tech scandal of its own. In 2003, Chen Jin,...

Big NAND Demand

Posted by: Ihlwan Moon on March 22

The popularity of music and video on the go is leading to explosive growth in demand for flash memory, especially the stuff the geeks call NAND. That's the kind that...

Samsung's Flashy Future

Posted by: Ihlwan Moon on March 20

Samsung Electronics President Hwang Chang Gyu loves to liken the sudden growth in demand for flash chips to the California gold rush of 1849. Hwang, who runs Samsung’s chip division,...

Is the flash chip party over?

Posted by: Ihlwan Moon on February 21

A sharp fall in prices of NAND flash chips in the past seven weeks has sparked concerns that there might be a supply glut for the semiconductors. But there’s no...