The technology leader in high definition products and the world's no. 2 manufacturer of NAND flash memory chips, Toshiba Corp., plans to outsource a part of the production of its next-generation 28-nanometer (nm) system chips.

According to industry sources, the chips will be used in a wide range of electronics such as game consoles, digital cameras, flat panel TVs and other electronic gadgets starting in April 2010. To meet demand by that period, Toshiba will have to ramp up production. Its customers include IT giants like Apple (AAPL), which has already purchased $500 million worth flash memory chips from Toshiba.

Toshiba currently manufactures chips at its plant in Oita, southern Japan and plans to outsource to expand its production if capacity is insufficient.

According to sources, Toshiba is holding discussion with Singapore’s Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd. (CHRT) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) to spin off Globalfoundries

...

Kawasaki-based NEC Electronics Corp. and Renesas Technology Corp. (a joint venture between Hitachi Ltd. (HIT) and Mitsubishi Electric Corp.) pushed back the proposed merger of their business operations until the end of September for the second time this year.

Due to a delay in completing due-diligence on the companies' assets, including the manufacturing and sales sites worldwide, the companies had decided to postpone the contract to the end of July. Again in July, the companies decided to postpone the agreement to integrate business operations at NEC Electronics and Renesas until the end of August.

In April 2009, both NEC Electronics and Renesas had been negotiating to integrate business operations. The consolidation took place to weather the difficult economic conditions, weak demand and pricing pressure that weighed heavily on chipmakers. This merger would make the combined company Japan's largest chip maker with more than 30% market share, and the third-largest chip

...

a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_T9VXVyuEITg/SWmtZExgT4I/AAAAAAAAAnU/qUCH6PVlFiM/s1600-h/iphonecrowd.jpg"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_T9VXVyuEITg/SWmtZExgT4I/AAAAAAAAAnU/qUCH6PVlFiM/s200/iphonecrowd.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5289949883613073282" //a Considering how bad the economy is and in spite of the absence of Steve Jobs, the 2009 Macworld Conference and Expo, held at Moscone Center in San Francisco, California was very successful. This is also in spite of the fact that Apple (AAPL) announced that they wouldn't be back next year. But that isn't the only disappearing act. br /br /There were a couple other major companies that were conspicuous by their absence, such as Adobe (ADBE). Adobe used to be one of the anchor exhibitors at the Expo, and one of the noteworthy producers of Macintosh software. Another MIA was Sony (SNE). Does anyone remember the old Sony beige 3.5 inch floppy disks?br /br /So who was there in place of the biggies? There were approximately 400 exhibitors and ...