Intel Eyes Smartphone Chip Market

Intel has been rather successful at carving out a larger percentage of the netbook market with their low power Atom processor. Moving forward, Intel's executives believe there's a good potential to increase Atom's traction in adjacent markets by targeting its low-cost, energy-efficient chips at various multifunctional consumer gadgets including smartphones and other portable devices that access the Internet. Code-named Moorestown, a new version of the chip will offer a 50x power reduction at idle and reportedly will deliver enough horsepower to handle 720p video recording and 1080p quality playback. It is with this upcoming chip, that Intel will begin targeting the smartphone market In 2011. Intel also plans to introduce an even smaller, less power hungry version of the chip known as Medfield, which will be built on a 32nm process with a full solution comprising a PCB area of about half the size of a credit card.[Via Slashdot]

Why the layoffs if we're still profitable?

This is the most common question being asked among engineers and rather should be asking if you are not. EDN Executive Editor Ron Wilson Explores "We see giant companies like IBM and Microsoft announce great fourth-quarter and annual results, and then follow up with a layoff announcement." We see smaller companies in the fabless world staying on track on product development, successfully sampling to key customers, and ramping revenue products—doing everything right—suddenly making significant cutbacks, either laying off people or cutting back on projects that lead to layoffs elsewhere. And we see, if we look carefully, start-ups who are on track and meeting milestones just shutting their doors. What gives?" Read Ron's complete post on EDN to understand behind the scenes financial opera of a typical Industry Giant!

Layoff Watch!

Announced Worldwide Layoffs As of 30th January 2009

Infineon - 3000
Qimonda - 3000 (Bankrupt: 23 Jan 09)
Renesas - 150
ST - 4500 (Updated)
TI - 3500
Corning - 4900(New)
NXP - 4000
Philips - 6000
ST+NXP(Wireless) - 500
Toshiba - 500
FreeScale - 400
Brooks - 10%+350 (New: Exact # not known)
AMD - 500
Broadcom - 300
Xilinx - 200
LsiLogic - 500
Trident - 9%
Entergis - 200
Cadence - 625
IBM - 200
NOVA M - 250
Anadigic - 100
Intersil - 9%
Nortel - 5000
Sun Microsystems - 6000
Sandisk - 3000


Disclaimer: This information has been compiled from various news sources and the authenticity cannot be fully verified. This information shall only be used primarily to get a feel of the overall job outlook and any analysis beyond this is shall be the whole responsibility of the person who is embarking on this research.