As part of STMicroelectronics and Ericsson’s break-up, the companies say they’ve found a buyer for their GPS and GLONASS receiver business. It’s a “leading semiconductor company” – but that’s all we know. Read more »
The smart TV market will grow from 67 million units shipped in 2012 to 134 million shipped in 2015. As it expands, a simultaneous transition to higher-speed Wi-Fi connections based on a new standard — 802.11ac — will translate to fast growth for the new wireless technology in the TV space. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
LED production has grown tremendously, accompanied by a significant fall in prices that will further propel the sale of this energy-efficient digital-lighting technology. But challenges remain on the road to widespread adoption. Figuring out ways to use power efficiently for lighting will be crucial for a future when the world’s population will likely be much larger. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Calxeda, the startup building ARM-based servers for the scale out data center, has sold 130 systems and expects customers to put its systems into production before the end of the second quarter of 2013. Plus, it’s finding success in a completely new market — storage. Read more »
Steve Appleton, chairman and CEO of semiconductor company Micron Technology passed away in a plane crash Friday morning. The small plane crashed near Boise, according to a company statement. Appleton, who joined Micron in 1983 and has been CEO since 1994, was 51 years old. Read more »
The biggest manufacturers of electronic devices spent more in total on wireless chips than on standard computer chips last year, according to a new report. Device makers spent $58.6 billion on chips for wireless devices, compared to $53.7 billion on chips for desktops and notebook PCs. Read more »
Apple spent the most on semiconductors in 2011, beating out Samsung and HP to take the crown. HP dropped from the top spot, thanks to overall weakness in the PC market, while Apple soared upward on the rising tide of smartphones, tablets and the MacBook Air. Read more »
One of the key components of Apple devices — the iPad 2- and iPhone 4S-powering A5 processor — is apparently now American-made. A new report from Reuters Friday says that the A5 processor is now being made by Samsung for Apple at a factory in Austin, Texas. Read more »
In the past decade supercomputers were dressed-up versions of Intel’s x86 machines, but increasingly supercomputers are borrowing innovations (and silicon in the form of ARM-based chips or DSPs) from the mobile and big data realms to add speed without guzzling too much power. Read more »
Surprisingly there are still semiconductor companies getting funding out there, as Quantance, a chip maker proved Monday when it scored $11 million in third-round funding from TD Fund, Granite Ventures, InterWest Partners and DOCOMO Capital. This money will help it expand beyond the mobile market. Read more »
Apple has another patent-related lawsuit on its hands, reports Bloomberg. VIA Technologies Inc., a Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturer, filed suit against Apple on Wednesday with the U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Del. over the alleged misuse of three of its microprocessor-related patents. Read more »
We are moving from the information age to the insight age. So the computer industry is building chip with more cores to keep up with influx of data and the need to process it faster. But more cores means new ways of programming. Read more »
For decades, innovation in the chip industry has largely been governed by the needs of personal computers. But thanks to the proliferation of connected mobile devices, the growth of the consumer web and services available online and on-demand, the PC’s influence on chip design is fading. Read more »
Stealthy startup SuVolta has pioneered an improvement in the chip-manufacturing process that will help cut the power usage of semiconductors by half while maintaining their performance. The process, which it plans to license, changes a few of the ingredients used to make chips. Read more »
Mobile hardware is progressing at a blistering pace, but to deliver the type of user experiences enabled by awesome hardware software must keep pace. This goes beyond the need for innovations in OSes and applications, to the underlying software that ties everything together. Read more »
