Intel was in talks to buy SiFive for US$2 billion, according to reports.The move is seen as Intel’s counter to Nvidia’s planned acquisition of Arm.Both Intel and SiFive declined to comment on the matter, according to Reuters.SiFive offers its own open source RISC-V chip core, an alternative to Arm’s

X-ray inspection company Xavis was chosen by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy to get government making to develop a chip inspection kit.Xavis will receive 3 billion won in funding up to 2024 to develop its under 25-nanometer high-resolution 3D X-ray nondestructive semiconductor inspection

DRAM and NAND flash prices are expected to increase again in the third quarter as they did in the second quarter, according to market research firm TrendForce.DRAM prices are expected to increase between 3% to 8% in the third quarter, the firm said.DRAM prices increased between 18% to 23% in the sec

Surplus Global, a South Korean pre-owned fab equipment seller, said on Wednesday that it was seeing explosive demand for equipment from the chip industry in light the global chip shortage.CEO Brian Kim told TheElec that Surplus Global’s growth this year is expected to exceed that of the average grow

Samsung on Tuesday said it has developed an 8-nanometer (nm) foundry process for RF chips.RF chip changes the digital signal from the modem chip into analog, converting them to the wireless frequency we can use.Samsung said its 8nm RF foundry makes the RF chip 35% smaller compared to the 14nm proces

SK Hynix on Tuesday denied online rumors that alleged the company suffered billions of dollars in losses due to defective DRAMs.An online post claiming the Korean memory giant suffered 2 trillion won in losses due to 240,000 DRAM wafers turning up defective recently during production spread in vario

Semiconductor packaging firm Hana Micron was in talks to buy semiconductor testing company APACT.Hana was seeking to acquire APACT to win a large, long-term order to handle semiconductor backend process work from South Korean memory giant SK Hynix, people familiar with the matter told TheElec.Those

Abov Semiconductor will be given 5.5 billion won in financial support for the next three years from the South Korean government to develop its wireless charging technology.The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said on Friday that it has selected the company as one of the fabless chip firms it s

Fab equipment sales from South Korea reached US$7.31 billion in the first quarter of 2021, according to SEMI.This was an 118% increase from the US$3.36 billion of the year prior.It was also an increase of 82% from the previous quarter’s US$4.02 billion.The surge is likely due to the increased spendi

South Korean chemical firm Miwon Commercial is likely to supply more krypton fluoride (KrF) photoresist polymer to Samsung as the latter upgrades its 3D NAND from Gen 6 to Gen 7, TheElec has learned.Samsung is preparing to start manufacturing its Gen 7 3D NAND, which has more layers than the previou

Hyundai Mobis, the component arm of Hyundai Motor Group, was in talks with South Korean fabless chip and design house companies to develop its own automobile semiconductor, TheElec has learned.The project is called ES Project internally. ES stands for Eui-sun, the first name of Hyundai Motor Group c

South Korean memory packaging and testing companies saw their earnings drop in the first quarter of 2021 as SK Hynix continues to internalize more of its own packaging and testing.In contrast, packaging and testing companies that services logic chips saw their earnings improve in the same time perio

Prices of DRAM and NAND flash that spiked in April has flattened in May.Fixed price of DDR4 8Gb PC DRAM was US$3.8 in May, same as it was in April, according to DRAMeXchange.Conventionally, the price of memory in the second month of a quarter remains the same as the first month when new contracts ar

System semiconductor firm Telechips said on Tuesday that it is supplying its automobile system-on-a-chip (SoC) Dolphin Plus to Avtovaz, the Russian car brand under Renault Group.Dolphin Plus is used to power audio, video and navigation (AVN) system on cars.The SoC is applied to Avtovaz’ Lada Enjoy P

Silicon photonics market was worth US$87 million in 2020 but will grow to be worth US$1.1 billion by 2026, according to market research firm Yole Development.The market will grow on average 49% per year during that time, the firm said.Data center will account for the most in the global silicon photo

LB Lusem said on Monday that it has finalized its share price to 14,000 won for its upcoming IPO on KOSDAQ.The first last week commenced a demand forecast for 4.5 million shares for institutional investors.A total of 1,596 investors partook in the forecast, Korea Invest & Securities, which is underw

Chip component and material firm Mecaro said on Monday that it was merging with its subsidiary KVTS.The new shares will be issued. The merger will be completed in August 1. KVTS is a wholly owned subsidiary of Mecaro.KVTS makes special valves, RTP lamp housing and Hot N2 for semiconductors.It had su

More consumers are showing interest in smartphone audio and OEMs are working to improve audio sound quality in their products, according to audio chip firm Cirrus Logic.This has increased the number of amplifiers in smartphones and tablets throughout the years, Cirrus Logic vice president of mixed-s

System semiconductor design company Coasia said on Friday that it will sell its majority stake acoustic component subsidiary BSE.The company will sell its 68.75% stake to an unknown party for 31.8 billion won.Earlier in December, it had sold 31.25% stake for 14 billion won.Coasia said it was selling

SK Hynix’s acquisition of Intel’s NAND business unit has been approved by South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission (FTC) on Thursday.The approval follows that of those made in the US and Europe earlier. South Korea’s FTC said it approved the deal quickly as it considered there to be little anti-competiti