News

• Successor to DDR3 memory reaching devices next year, Micron says

  Micron on Monday said that DDR4 memory -- the successor to DDR3 DRAM -- will reach computers next year, and that the company has started shipping samples of the upcoming DDR memory type.

• Micron settles memory price-fixing lawsuit from Oracle

  Micron Technology has reached an agreement to settle a lawsuit filed by Oracle over an alleged conspiracy to increase DRAM prices, it said on Thursday.

• Micron settles memory price-fixing lawsuit from Oracle

  Micron Technology has reached an agreement to settle a lawsuit filed by Oracle over an alleged conspiracy to increase DRAM prices, it said on Thursday.

• Toshiba to launch SD memory cards with 90MBs write speeds this year

  Toshiba will launch high-speed SD memory cards this year in Japan and abroad that can read data at up to 95MB per second and write at 90MB per second.

• China approves conditionally Western Digital's acquisition of Hitachi

  China has approved with conditions Western Digital's planned acquisition of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (GST), requiring that the Hitachi entity operate independently for at least two years after the acquisition.

• Intel hopes for SSD boost in memory asset sale to Micron

  Micron Technology has bought out Intel's stake in two wafer factories that are part of a NAND joint venture between the two companies in a move they said will expand the supply of flash memory.

• Elpida, world's third-largest DRAM maker, files for bankruptcy

  Elpida Memory, the world's third-largest DRAM maker, filed for bankruptcy Monday in a Tokyo court, saying it had accumulated debts of 448 billion yen (US$5.5 billion) through March of last year.

• Toshiba and SanDisk shrink 128Gbit memory chips

  Toshiba said Thursday it has shrunk the size of its 128Gbit NAND flash memory chips, in the race to bring more and tinier storage to products like USB storage and memory cards.

• Price of DRAM plunges to all-time low of around $1

  Prices of DDR3 DRAM memory used in laptops and desktops have dipped to an all-time low of around US$1, and will continue to fall, which could help PC makers pack more memory into computers, analysts said.

• Intel ponders solar-powered CPU tech in graphics, memory

  Intel's experimental solar-powered processor may have started off as a fun project, but the chip maker is now looking to extend the technology to hardware such as graphics processors, memory and floating point units.

• Could MRAM ultimately replace DRAM?

  A new form of nonvolatile MRAM memory with the promise to eventually replace DRAM is slowly making its way into products, but analysts said it could be a long time before DRAM technology is cast aside.

• Fusion-io to cut flash storage latency again

  Fusion-io previewed a technology on Thursday that gives server CPUs more direct access to stored data, apparently achieving I/O performance far beyond that found in typical data centers.

• Samsung to build new NAND flash factory in China, production in 2013

  Samsung Electronics will break ground on a new NAND flash factory in China this year, a spokesman said Thursday, moving production closer to where many advanced devices are manufactured.

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  Wall Street Beat: IPOs, M&A, chip news stir tech optimism

  Zynga's initial public offering Friday, a raft of acquisition announcements this week from IBM, Salesforce and others, and some upbeat reports on the chip and hardware sector are putting a positive spin on year-end news for the tech sector.

• Tech stories of 2011: Jobs, Android and Anonymous rank in top 10

  In 2011, the increasingly mobile and socially networked world of technology became more intertwined than ever with politics and the law. Patent wars shaped competition in tablets and smartphones, hacktivists attacked a widening array of political and corporate targets, repressive regimes unplugged citizens from the Internet, and the U.S. government moved to block the giant merger of AT&T and T-Mobile USA. With the passing of Steve Jobs, the world lost a technology icon who redefined the computer, entertainment and consumer electronics industries. These are the IDG News Service's picks for the top 10 technology stories of the year: