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The failure of an unmanned Russian space mission to Mars possibly was caused by the malfunction of counterfeit chips in the craft’s computer. NASA and the US Defense Department are suspicious of counterfeit chips because the chips used in the craft were less expensive and imported.
After revealing that its Armada chipset would be powering the new One Laptop per Child X0 3.0 tablets, Marvell Semiconductor has also announced its Smile plug development kit, to create “micro clouds” in classrooms. The kit will allow up to 60 students to connect their laptops, smartphones and tablets to a secure, teacher controlled micro cloud.
Lam Research has agreed to buy Novellus Systems in a $3.3 billion deal that marks a significant consolidation move in the semiconductor capital equipment market. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2012.
After three years of seeing its dominant position in the global semiconductor market whittled away by aggressive competition from Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Intel Corp. is set to reverse the trend in 2011.
Electronics and manufacturing giant Toshiba will shut three semiconductor factories in Japan as part of a reorganization of its business, as it grapples with falling profits. They also plan to slow production at a number of plants over the winter because of the drop off in demand for electronic goods in the West.