NEC will spin off its semiconductor division in November, the company confirmed yesterday. The chip business, worth some 680 billion Yen ($5.8 billion), will be called "NEC Electronics Corporation".

NEC will also spin off its displays division, under the slightly more exciting moniker NEC Electron Devices. In the dim and distant past, NEC was the Nippon Electric Company. Both the semiconductor and display divisions will remain owned by the parent.

The company vowed to continue investments in SOI and copper technology. If you must know more, there's a presentation here, which explains exactly what a "pull-type operation" is.

NEC's chief architect made headlines recently with an assessment of Intel's Itanium processor, which using standard diplomatic euphemisms, could be described as "brutally frank". ®

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