In early lab experiments on rabbits, eyedrops laced with nanoparticles appear to combat bacterial keratitis, a serious infection of the cornea which can, in severe cases, cause blindness. Researchers hope that these nanoparticles could someday offer a non-toxic alternative to antibiotics, which have the undesirable side effect …

Worldwide semiconductor sales slid last year, as chipmakers were hit by sliding currencies, slumping PC shipments, and supply gluts in key markets. Gartner’s just published take on the 2015 semiconductor market shows overall revenues slipping 1.9 per cent to $333.7bn. Just to really rub it in, this compares to 2014’s 7.9 per …

Samsung has officially apologised to over 200 semiconductor workers who suffered from leukaemia and other cancers – for which their families blame the Korean firm. The company has also promised to compensate "affected" workers and their families, according to local news agency Yonhap. "Several workers at our production …

Plans for an “Airbus of chips” – aimed at doubling the number of processors made across Europe by 2020 – will be unveiled next month. A group of 11 tech sector chiefs commissioned by the EU will publish a detailed roadmap designed to expand the block’s manufacturing between 2020 and 2025. The goal is for European technology …

SC13 The general chair of the SC13 supercomputing conference thinks the semiconducting industry has reached a tipping point more radical – and uncertain – than it has gone through in decades. "We've reached the end of a technological era where we had a very stable technology," Bill Gropp, Thomas M. Siebel Chair in Computer Science …

US boffins have documented a transition from metal to semiconductor that can be controlled by exposure to light. The researchers, from Washington University in St Louis, created a thin film of gold nanorods coated with zinc oxide. The result: with no illumination, the gold/zinc oxide mix conducted electricity as a metal, but …

Samsung looks close to concluding a six-year dispute over conditions in the firm’s chip plants, which have been blamed for scores of worker deaths from leukemia and other diseases. The Supporters for the Health And Rights of People in the Semiconductor industry (SHARPS), which represents the ill workers and family members, …

War tech agency DARPA is not happy with the pace of progress in semiconductors, so it has been funding primary research through a program called Semiconductor Technology Advanced Research Network - or STARnet for short, for the past several years. And it has now announced that it is kicking in another $194m over the next five …

Ailing Japanese chipmaker Renesas Electronics is set to receive a ¥200bn (£1.6bn) investment boost to help prop up the company, the majority of which will come from the government, according to new reports from the Far East. The state-backed Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ) will plough around ¥150bn (£1.2bn) in …

HPC blog While at IBM’s Smarter Computing Summit last week, I had the great pleasure of hearing Big Blue's Bernie Meyerson talk about limits to today’s tech, and the associated implications. Bernie is IBM’s VP of Innovation and one of the rare technologist-scientist types who can clearly and directly explain highly technical concepts …

The chip market is growing again after slumping a bit in the past several months, holding out hope for semis that the growth rate in the second half of the year will be sufficient for the industry to eke out some increases for the full year. It all hangs on whether the global economy and the insatiable desire of consumers for …

Asian countries led by China are responsible for the vast majority of reports of counterfeit electronics parts, which have reached 12 million over the past five years in a potentially lethal development for the global supply chain, according to analyst IHS iSuppli. Citing data from supply chain monitoring organisation, ERAI, …

India’s semiconductor consumption is set to grow 20 per cent this year to reach revenue of over $9bn – the fastest growing market in the world thanks to an explosion in mobile phone, LCD TV and PC production. The new figures, which come from Gartner’s latest update to its Semiconductor Consumption forecast, reveal a booming …

The chip heads at market watcher IHS iSuppli have tallied the sales figures for the world's semiconductor makers for 2011, and guess what? Intel won while just about everybody else, with a few notable exceptions, lost some ground. iSuppli said in a statement that worldwide chip revenues rose by 1.3 per cent in 2011, to $311. …

Japan’s creaking semiconductor industry is struggling to stay relevant on the world stage and may face extinction if it can’t make a name for itself in the cutting-edge sub-28 nanometer manufacturing space, according to analysts. Market watcher IHS iSuppli is arguing that the damage was done to the country’s once proud …

The market watching wizards at Gartner have taken another gaze in the crystal ball, and after some buffing and polishing have decided that the outlook for the semiconductor industry in 2012 is a bit better than they had expected as 2011 came to a close. According to the latest forecast, Gartner now expects for global chip …

Almost a year to the day after a huge earthquake and devastating tsunami rattled the north-east corner of Japan, crippling the supply chain of key technologies, the production at some components plants is reportedly still not back to 100 per cent while some tech firms are accelerating their plans to leave the archipelago. The …

The chip biz didn't do as badly as many had feared it might last summer, closing out 2011 with $299.5bn in worldwide sales, up four-tenths of a per cent from the record $298.3bn revenue level set in 2010. All the news was not good, however, since global semiconductor sales took a big hit in December, according to stats …