Chip

IBM says it has made a breakthrough in converting electrical signals into light pulses that brings closer the day when supercomputing, which now requires huge machines, will be done on a single chip.

Microprocessor maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) sees pricing in the chip market remaining competitive, and aims to return to profitability soon, Chief Executive Hector Ruiz said on Thursday.

Intel Corp, the world's biggest microchip maker, unveiled fast new processors on Sunday made with new techniques that can etch circuitry nearly 200 times smaller than a red blood cell.

The chances of an economic recession are increasing as troubles in the housing sector and credit markets take their toll, according to a survey of economists released on Monday.

A recent flurry of deals shows the cell phone microchip market may be about to shrink as some small players take a step toward the big leagues and others get squeezed out.

North American makers of equipment to produce semiconductors saw orders fall 17 percent from a year ago to $1.44 billion in July, a U.S. trade group said on Thursday.

Tighter credit, broad deterioration in the housing market and skittish consumer spending will lead to a slower U.S. economy than earlier estimated, according to the most closely watched forecast by U.S. economists.

Worldwide sales of semiconductors grew to $121 billion in the first half of 2007, an increase of 2 percent from the $118.4 billion during the first half of 2006, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association.

After six months of microprocessor revenue market-share losses, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) managed to stabilize its share in this year’s second quarter, while Intel Corp. dipped slightly, according to preliminary results from researcher iSuppli.

The chip industry rebounded in May with worldwide semiconductors sales rising 2.4 percent from a year ago to hit $20.3 billion, according to a report by the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA).

Global microchip sales will grow by only 1.8 percent this year, much slower than an earlier projection of a 10 percent increase, as prices in key markets tumble, an industry group said on Wednesday.

Chip maker Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) said its researchers have built a chip with 80 processing cores capable of more than a trillion calculations per second (teraflop).

Demand for consumer electronics helped the global semiconductor market hit a new record in 2006, with sales topping a quarter of a trillion dollars.

Shares of semiconductor company Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NYSE: AMD) fell more than 4 percent on Tuesday after the company said its margins shrunk in the fourth quarter as a result of its brutal pricing war with rival Intel Corp., (Nasdaq: INTC). With both firms increasing capacity and becoming more aggressive, some analysts believe prices on CPU's will continue to decline.

Trading movies and other large data files through the popular BitTorrent delivery platform may soon happen on simple consumer devices, thanks to a pair of companies that are creating specifically designed processors that can handle what PCs can do today.

Worldwide sales of chip-making equipment in June posted the highest percentage growth in months, with demand expected to grow still further in the next quarter, an industry group said Monday.

The global semiconductor market is likely to grow 10.1 percent this year, World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) said on Tuesday, raising its earlier forecast of 8.0 percent growth due to brisk memory chip demand.