In a deal likened by company representatives to the relationship between Microsoft and IBM at the beginning of the PC boom, virtual system prototyping technology provider Vast Systems Technology said last week that NEC Electronics' U.S. subsidiary has agreed to distribute Vast virtualization technology with automotive microcontrollers.

Intel Corp.'s top executive told employees in an internal communication that the company could potentially report its first loss in more than two decades in the current quarter.

Japan's Elpida Memory said on Wednesday it was in talks with Taiwanese DRAM makers including Powerchip, ProMOS Technologies and Rexchip, on a possible merger as well as some other options.

LED maker Cree said it posted a 24 percent year-over-increase in revenue for the fiscal second quarter.

North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted a book-to-bill ratio of 0.93 in December, down from 0.97 in November, according to SEMI.

The light-emitting diode market is expected to be a rare bright spot in what is predicted to be an otherwise dismal year for the semiconductor industry in 2009, according to market research firm iSuppli.

Analog Devices, Inc. said quarterly sales may decline 25 to 30 percent for its first quarter of fiscal 2009 ending January 31, an additional 5 to 10 percent worse than its previous projections.

IBM Corp. posted mixed results in the quarter amid a dramatic drop within its chip unit.

Microsoft is expected to post a quarterly profit that misses its own target and announce thousands of job cuts this week as the global economic slump hurts even the technology industry's biggest players.

EDA vendor Mentor Graphics announced a scalable design methodology based on transaction level model that, according to the company, allows a single model to be taken from design concept to implementation.

Will Taiwan DRAM maker Nanya Technology Corp. throw in the towel?

Up to 30% performance Improvement and 20% area reduction achieved in actual designs using new capabilities in Synfora's algorithmic synthesis design tools.

Citing the downturn, Rohm and Haas Co. has disclosed a second set of actions to adjust its operations and cost structure, including the elimination of 900 more jobs.

Taiwanese IC-packaging and test house ChipMOS Technologies Ltd. has delivered a notice of breach and notice of intent to terminate a service agreement with Spansion Inc.

Qualcomm Inc is paying about $65 million for the graphics and multimedia IP and assets of what was AMD's handhelds business.