memory chips

Hewlett-Packard Co.'s cost-cutting and push into new markets is helping soften the blow from weakness in the company's mainstay businesses.

HP on Monday reported big revenue declines in four of its main divisions -- PCs, servers, software and printers -- in the latest quarter. A bright spot was technology services, a division HP beefed up last year with the $13.9 billion acquisition of Electronic Data Systems and which posted better profits. HP is eliminating 24,600 jobs as part of that takeover.

Fountain Valley [Calif.]'s Kingston Technology Co. is looking to spur sales of a new type of data storage drive with a low-cost version that is targeted at niche users.

Kingston, the largest maker of computer memory products, is selling a drive that stores 40 gigabytes of data in flash memory chips. The drive is going for less than $100 after promotions at some online stores.

Similar but smaller drives sell for about $120. Intel Corp. sells one that's nearly $400.

Kingston Technology Co. is emerging from a rough patch of plummeting prices and a glut of memory chips.

The Fountain Valley[Calif.]-based company is the biggest maker of memory modules -- circuit boards loaded with memory chips that speed the performance of computers and consumer electronics.

Kingston's growth has been crimped by a year-long surplus of memory chips made by big chipmakers in Asia and Europe.

As the price of these chips fell, so did prices -- and profits -- on Kingston's products.

Solid-state drives (SSD) -- computer data storage units with no moving parts -- are becoming the new standard in computer data storage.

Indeed, a recent report from iSuppli, a US marketing company, showed that more than half of all mobile computers are expected to come with SSDs in 2010, as the new drive slowly edges out traditional hard drives.

But beware. Experts say SSDs aren't quite ready for prime time. Although they might perform well, it might not yet be time to purchase.

Bill Watkins, the outspoken former chief executive of Seagate, wants to make a thinner iPod.

Watkins, a Silicon Valley veteran, has joined the board of Vertical Circuits, a start-up that has come up with a technique for cramming large amounts of flash memory into a tight space. By using technology from Vertical Circuits, device makers can fit lots of high-speed memory into their products and leave more room for bigger displays and larger batteries.

SanDisk, a developer of flash storage cards, is ramping up to develop flash memory chips in collaboration with Toshiba. The companies announced at the 2009 International Solid State Circuits Conference in San Francisco that they will develop 32-nanometer, 32-gigabit flash memory chips based on SanDisk's X3 and X4 technology.

Milpitas, Calif.-based SanDisk's move toward multi-cell flash memory chips using 32nm technology came on the same day Intel announced a ramp-up to develop new processors using the same 32nm technology.

Samsung Electronics Co. announced a major restructuring Friday, consolidating business operations into two divisions as South Korea's most powerful and iconic corporation deals with the slowing global economy and expectations of looming red ink.

The new organization was included in an announcement of personnel changes at the company as well as at the broader Samsung Group of which it serves as flagship.

The U.S. semiconductor industry, notoriously volatile even without the shock of a global economic downturn, was badly hurt in 2008 as prices for memory chips continued their dizzyingly rapid fall and demand for PC microprocessors dropped off amid weaker demand.

There are more than 700 products on the market today that are touched, worn and used -- ranging from cosmetics to electronics -- that involve nanomaterials. In the next decade a number of products, including food and medical therapies, will also be derived from nanomaterials.

There's not enough funding, leadership and research being conducted to study the health and environmental risks that might come with products made from nanomaterials, according to a report released Wednesday by the National Research Council (NRC).

Micron Technology Inc. will cut about 15 percent of its global work force as part of a restructuring of its computer memory chip operations, the company said Thursday.

The bulk of the job losses will be in Boise, where the semiconductor company is headquartered.

A company statement said the cuts were a result of declining customer demand and product oversupply, which has driven the selling price for NAND flash memory below manufacturing costs. Micron will shut down the NAND flash memory plant in Boise it operates as part of a joint venture with Intel Corp., it said.