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According to yesterday’s EETimes daily newsletter, ASML, the lithography tool supplier headquartered in the Netherlands, is having a tough week. Applied Materials thinks that the company’s offer to buy it was at a fair price, and Nikon has now taken the complete Intel Corp. account for immersion tools - a potential scoop for EETimes yesterday. Read more >>

Microprocessor market share data from iSuppli Corp. highlights that Intel and AMD are as far apart as they can be in terms of each company’s share of the MPU business. Intel continues to be in control of around 80 percent of the market with only slight fluctuations at that level for over a year. Read more >>

Only yesterday, Semico Research said that the usual boost given to the NAND flash market by Apple each year, dubbed the ‘Apple effect’ as it ramps new products, hasn’t happened this time around, aggravating the oversupply situation in the NAND market. Read more >>

In a not uncharacteristic move, the SIA tried to generate a bit of positive PR spin about the memory market in its latest May semiconductor sales report. Citing words of wisdom from Micron Technology’s latest financial conference call, the SIA claimed that DRAM demand remained strong, due to the continued increase in bit content for PCs that should see around a 50 percent growth and reach 2Gb per computer. Add to this the fact that DRAM sales were actually up 6.4 percent, compared to the industry’s 2.8 percent for May 2008, and you have a nice pretty picture! Read more >>

A deal to buy the front-end operations of ASM International hit a small hurdle with ASM’s rejection of Applied Materials' second offer. However, there seems to be no outright show-stopper emerging at this point as ASM’s executives have their backs against the wall over previous lacklustre performance of the division for nearly a decade. Read more >>

It’s not the debate over the 450mm wafer transition that is boring me, rather the fact that the majority of recent stories written concerning the larger wafer size have focused on asking a range of companies about it - companies that quite simply are not going to be at the forefront of the move. In fact, many will probably never make the move! Read more >>

Veteran hack David Manners has a great story over at Electronics Weekly about the ongoing battle between ARM Holdings and Intel Corp. over low-power microprocessors. Read more >>

Many years ago, a market research report on the lithography equipment supplier market share positions stood out like a sore thumb because Canon’s share had suddenly shot up inexplicably. I wasn’t alone in seriously questioning the figures, as the then-news editor at European Semiconductor, Mike Cooke, also thought the figures were wrong and went off to do his own checking. Read more >>

A video commentary on the merger/acquisition of Jazz by Tower by venerable veteran journalist Mark LaPedus at EETimes may well become a classic, viewed on YouTube by millions. Read more >>

According to Toshiba’s Senior Vice President Shozo Saito, the NAND flash producer is anticipating price erosion of 50 percent in 2008. Is that being optimistic? It seems to be so when you consider that ASPs fell by 36 percent in 1Q08, according to iSuppli Corp. Read more >>