ACL Semiconductors Enters Memorandum of Understanding with Strategic Partner

ACL Semiconductors the leading China-based distributor of Samsung memory electronic products in Southern China and Hong Kong, announced the establishment of a memorandum of understanding with an independent third party that is a successful trader and procurement network specialist of memory products. An acquisition is expected within 60 days upon the completion of a satisfactory due diligence exercise.

Alan Yang, Chairman and CEO of ACL, commented, “Asia’s true potential is in its 3 ‘C’ markets — computer, consumer electronic appliances and communications. ACL Semiconductors is well equipped with the knowledge and reserves to tap this potential as the economies of China and India continue to grow. This memorandum of understanding is the first step in propelling ACL from being the leading distributor of Samsung memory components in Southern China and Hong Kong to the leading Samsung distributor in Asia.

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Critical Alerts For Pepsi, Bunge, ON Semiconductor, Cree, and KB Home Released By Seven Summits Research

To see what our analysts have discovered about these stocks read the Seven Summits Strategic Investments’ PriceWatch Alerts at http://www.iotogo.com/s/021012B (Note: You may have to copy this link into your browser then press the [ENTER] key.)

Today’s PriceWatch Alerts cover the following stocks: PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP), Bunge (NYSE: BG), ON Semiconductor (Nasdaq: ONNN), Cree (Nasdaq: CREE), and KB Home (NYSE: KBH).

In today’s unsure markets these brief PriceWatch Alerts contain concise, detailed strategies for each covered stock and include position protection tactics designed to potentially defend investors from unexpected market shifts. While other market reports only provide stock news and opinion, we offer strategies that position investments against uncertainty and increase chances of making a profit, even if a stock goes down.

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ON Semiconductor Showcases Breakthrough Power Products For Reducing Energy Consumption In Standby Mode At APEC 2012

ON Semiconductor (Nasdaq: ONNN), a premier supplier of high performance silicon solutions for energy efficient electronics, continues to develop innovative technology and products that allows it to offer a broad portfolio of power semiconductor solutions to the market. 

Among the new ON Semiconductor products to be demonstrated at APEC this year are:

  • The NCP1246 fixed-frequency current mode controller achieves extremely low no load input power consumption in AC-DC adapters. This device contains integrated X2 capacitor discharge circuitry, which eliminates the need for the X2 capacitor discharge resistors. The NCP1246 is also capable of entering a low consumption sleep mode when used in conjunction with the NCP4353 or NCP4354. This combination of products provides a market leading no load input power consumption of <10 milliwatt (mW) in a 65 watt (W) notebook adapter.

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Volterra Semiconductor Has Returned 21.4% Since SmarTrend Recommendation

SmarTrend identified an Uptrend for Volterra Semiconductor (VLTR) on December 2nd, 2011 at $24.79. In approximately 2 months, Volterra Semiconductor has returned 21.42% as of today’s recent price of $30.10.

In the past 52 weeks, shares of Volterra Semiconductor have traded between a low of $18.09 and a high of $31.08 and are now at $30.10, which is 66% above that low price. Over the last five market days, the 200-day moving average (MA) has gone up 0.6% while the 50-day MA has advanced 2.4%.

Volterra Semiconductor Corp. designs, develops, and markets proprietary, high performance analog and mixed-signal power management semiconductors for the computing, storage, networking and consumer markets. The Company’s core products are integrated-voltage regulator semiconductors and scalable voltage semiconductor chipsets.

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Samsung is Virtually Tied With Apple, Sells 36.5M Smartphones in Q4

Samsung’s semiconductor unit also posts a strong quarter; company loses 3G anti-Apple lawsuit in Germany

Samsung Electronics Comp., Ltd.’s (KS:005930) created a lot of excitement, when it hinted at a blowout quarter, in pre-earnings talk.  But that excitement has since been overshadowed by Apple, Inc.’s (AAPL) own record-setting 3 months.  Now Samsung has popped back into the picture, with its actual earnings results.  
 
I. A Virtual Tie With Apple

After jumping out to a substantial 65 percent sales lead over Apple in Q3 2011, Samsung is now in a virtual tie with its surging rival in global sales.  Samsung moved 36.5 million units in Q4 2011, compared to 37 million from Apple.

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These semiconductors are cooled with laser light

Researchers at the Niels Bohr Institute have managed to successfully combine two worlds: quantum physics and nano physics.

The joining of two very distinct universes has already led to the discovery of a new method for laser cooling semiconductor membranes.

As you probably already know, semiconductors are vital components in solar cells, LEDs and many other electronic devices.  These semiconductors are cooled with laser lightAs such, the efficient cooling of components is critical for the design of future quantum computers and ultrasensitive sensors.

So how does the new cooling method work?

Quite paradoxically – by actually heating the material! Indeed, using lasers, researchers cooled membrane fluctuations to minus 269 degrees C.

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Why the semiconductor industry will rise again

People ask me is there something wrong with the semiconductor industry if apparently good companies with good technologies such as SiliconBlue Technologies Inc. and PicoChip Ltd. are being sold for less than the venture capital invested in them over several years.

I don’t think there is anything fundamentally wrong with the semiconductor industry – but it is in a process of resetting approaches to the market and technology, expectations of investors and transforming itself from something that was just hitching a ride down the escalator of Moore’s Law in a race towards the bottom.

What had happened is that many protagonists had got hooked on Moore’s Law as a way to get superior performance and reduced unit cost and therefore as a way of making sales by displacing their rivals. This made sense in the past and started in a time when chip companies all made similar building-block components. So, for those chip companies back in the day, the added value was not in the design but in the manufacturing expertise.  

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Semiconductor Startup SuVolta Collects $17.6M In Second Funding Round

Last month we highlighted some work by SuVolta, a startup in tech that is not involved with the web or social media, but rather is taking aim at the foundational technologies of computing. The small team has reportedly put together a new process for manufacturing transistors that reduces their power requirements dramatically, making the resultant chips especially good for devices like handsets and tablets.

They caught the eye of Fujitsu, which has helped them execute the technology, and now they’ve drawn a hefty second funding round, raising $17.6 million from new and old investors.

Their original funding was $22 million in 2010, and they came out of stealth mode in June of that year. The original investors were Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, August Capital and NEA; Bright Capital, Northgate Capital, DAG Ventures, and some others not mentioned have been added to the list.

Presumably the original investment funded the primary R&D, and this new cash will enable a bit more work in the production and promotion of the Powershrink technology. While they have a friend in Fujitsu, maintaining financial independence ensures they won’t be preyed upon later on in the process when, inevitably, various semiconductor companies begin to sniff about Suvolta with money in their eyes.

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Product Was Developed to Meet Growing Requirements of Altair’s OEM/ODM Customers Transitioning into Mass Production

Altair Semiconductor ( http://www.altair-semi.com ), the world’s leading developer of ultra-low power, small footprint and high performance 4G LTE chipsets, and Rohde & Schwarz, announced today the release of a production line tool that enables effective testing of LTE terminals built on Altair’s FourGee chipsets.

The introduction of the production tool comes in response to Altair’s growing number of OEM and ODM customers currently transitioning into mass production. As LTE gains momentum around the world, demand for production tools that can quickly and effectively test LTE terminals is greatly increasing.

“The functional interaction of the Altair 4G LTE chipset and the R&S test equipment provides high value to the cost sensitive production market,” said Terje Schröder, Managing Director of Global Customer Management at Rohde & Schwarz. “We are looking forward to expanding our relationship with Altair to meet the demand of the increasing numbers of their terminal vendors, introducing LTE products to the market.”

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Semiconductor Equipment Industry Turns Into a Hotbed of Merger Activity

 

 The Semiconductor Equipment and Materials industry was a hotbed of mergers and acquisitions last year. With competition picking up, and margins getting squeezed, several industry heavyweights looked towards mergers to create cost synergies. The Bedford Report examines the outlook for companies in the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials industry and provides equity research on Applied Materials, Inc. and Lam Research Corporation . Access to the full company reports can be found at:

www.bedfordreport.com/AMAT

www.bedfordreport.com/LRCX

Last month the semiconductor equipment maker Lam Research Corp. agreed to buy rival Novellus Systems Inc. for $3.3 billion in stock. Lam said that the acquisition will help it cultivate more advanced chip making technology and increase its revenue faster than either company could on its own. The company also expects it to speed up its earnings growth.

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