semiconductor

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world's largest contract chipmaker, said Thursday its fourth quarter profit more than doubled after a rebound in global demand for computers.

Net income for October-December surged 162 percent from a year earlier to 32.67 billion New Taiwan dollars ($1 billion) on revenue of NT$92 billion ($2.9 billion), TSMC said.

Fourth quarter sales jumped 43 percent from a year earlier, the company said, and it forecast a double-digit expansion in sales this year as the global economy recovers.

In what may signal brighter days ahead for PC manufacturers, worldwide PC microprocessor shipments in the fourth quarter of 2009 rose modestly compared to the third quarter, according to IDC's latest PC processor study. But despite the down economy, worldwide PC microprocessor shipments set all-time records for a single quarter in the October through December period.

Consumers will be able to fix their automobiles while the car gives step-by-step advice, attack their ailments by making computer models of various treatments to find the best one, and duck into virtual fitting rooms to try on a store's clothes without leaving home.

Close to 60 percent of the energy produced by burning fuels or generated by power plants is lost as excess heat.  Computers, cars and cell phones all have to get rid of excess heat to run properly, creating a significant energy waste.  Researchers at MIT believe they've developed a way to reclaim a majority of that wasted energy and turn it into electricity.

 
Kenneth Chang in the New York Times:

In the last few years, electric vehicles have gone from a dream to the next logical step for vehicles. Of course, the future of EVs is still being debated, but IBM is using its cash and influence to push for an electric vehicle battery that can carry a car 500 miles without recharging.

Several chip stocks took a hit Wednesday after a Broadpoint AmTech analyst downgraded the semiconductor sector, saying there is a "good risk of inflated expectations" for the industry.

"Our downgrade today to equal weight is in response to a faster-than-expected recovery to demand levels in both the PC and handset space," analyst Doug Freedman wrote in a note to investors. He lowered his rating on the sector to "equal weight" from "overweight."

Freedman lowered Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Nvidia Corp. and Analog Devices Inc. to "neutral" from "buy" as part of the sector downgrade.

IBM Research and the California Institute of Technology on Monday announced a scientific advancement that could make way for the semiconductor industry to build more powerful, faster, tinier, more energy-efficient computer chips. The breakthrough draws from lessons scientists have learned from DNA.

Together with Caltech's Paul W.K. Rothemund, IBM researchers reported an advancement in combining lithographic patterning with self-assembly. This method of arranging DNA origami structures on surfaces compatible with today's semiconductor manufacturing equipment could reduce production costs.

Apple is poised to acquire 2.2 million new shares of Imagination Technologies on July 1 at $2.36 per share. Those shares, together with Apple's latest purchases on the open market, will boost the iPhone maker's ownership interest in Imagination to 9.5 percent -- up from just 3.6 percent in December.

Apple's deal follows in the wake of Intel's announcement that it had upped its stake in Imagination to 16 percent.