As predicted in our post of January 23rd, Intel is to out-source Atom. The reasons are very simple, Atom has to be a low margin part as it competes for slots in end-user products now costing around $400 but expected to decline to $100-200 within a year.

Inspired by comments made on one of the Electronics Weekly blogs, I thought I would have a go at estimating which led-collimators combination would not dazzle on-comers if used in a vehicle headlight.

Jean Hoerni, one of the ‘treacherous eight’ who left Shockley Semiconductor to co-found Fairchild Semiconductor, was Swiss. At Fairchild, Hoerni invented the planar transistor which was the key to Bob Noyce’s invention of the integrated circuit. Hoerni left Fairchild to found successively Amelco, Union Carbide and Intersil. When he founded Intersil he tapped a couple of Swiss watch companies, Omega and ...

Qualcomm and TI are extending their leading position in the wireless baseband market and Qualcomm is set to extend it further, according to US analysts iSuppli. In Q4, Qualcomm accounted for 40.6% of worldwide revenue from shipments of mobile handset baseband semiconductors, up from 36.3% in Q3, according to iSuppli. TI, the No.2 supplier, had 20.9% share up from 14.1% ...

The catalogue and online component distributor has seen its sales in Europe more than double in the last 12 months, according to Mark Burr-Lonnon, Mouser’s v-p for Europe and Asia

The €46.5m programme will develop a range of solar energy technologies, from the production of silicon to the module for obtaining solar energy

A bit of fun for a Friday, courtesy of Wallace & Gromit. The duo, in association with the Intellectual Property Office, are appealing for aspiring young inventors to get involved with a new exhibition at Science Museum.

ITT Interconnect Solutions has developed a range of APD connectors that resist high vibration and attack by aggressive liquids.

ARM’s going to have get down to the grubby business of fighting for slots now that Intel has made it clear that its aiming its 45nm Atom squarely (but probably not fairly if history is any guide) at the smartphone market.

Analyst, iSuppli thinks Qualcomm is likely to solidify its place in the market for mobile handset baseband chipsets