Despite continuing global macroeconomic problems, there’s a great deal of upside for the semiconductor market, with analysts forecasting growth this year will be in the order of 3.4 percent, bringing in revenues of $296 billion, and with growth in 2012 expected at 3.1 percent with revenues hitting $305 billion.

Intel is working with European researchers to seek ways of massively increasing the processing power of supercomputers without similarly increasing their energy requirements.

IBM has unveiled a new chip technology that integrates electrical and optical devices on the same piece of silicon, claiming that it will enable a 10X improvement in integration density over current manufacturing techniques and the creation of 1Tbps electro-optical transducers just a few millimetres square.

Intel has announced a new version of its X25-M 2.5in SATA solid state drive (SSD) that uses a 34nm process for better performance and lower prices.

Number two microprocessor player AMD is gleefully digging the knife into its much larger rival Intel over the US$1.45 billion fine imposed by the European Commission for antitrust activities. AMD, which has never had much higher than 20% market share is playing the EC ruling for all its worth, stating every single case where Intel is said to have abused its dominant market position.

Not content with hiring ex-IBMer Mark Papermaster to head up its devices operation, Apple has now signed ATI and AMD alumnus Bob Drebin as a senior director.

Chip heavyweight Intel has announced a new line-up of its low power Atom processors specifically designed for in-car devices as well as Internet phones. The move comes as widespread processor usage spreads out of compute specific environment to Internet edge devices.

Rumour and speculation about the supposed iPhone nano continue with reports that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) are in line to supply Apple with chips for the mooted handset.

Apple has formally announced that it has hired ex IBM vice president Mark Papermaster as its senior vice president of devices hardware engineering. But IBM's efforts to enforce a no-compete clause in Papermaster's contract could throw a spanner in the works.

McGill University researchers say they have discovered a previously unknown state of matter that might have a momentous impact on creation of new electronic devices.