The Internet of Things is about to get a little smaller. Make that a lot smaller -- so small you could put it on a pill and become a thing on the Internet yourself. Freescale Semiconductor (NYSE: FSL ) unveiled a new ARM Holdings (NASDAQ: ARMH ) -based microcontroller chip last month, dubbed the Kinetis KL02, that has everything necessary on board to produce, track, record, and analyze the essential information that device creators might need in a package smaller than your pinky toenail. That's it over to the left -- all 1.9 millimeters by 2 millimeters of it.
Freescale's hardly the first chipmaker to step into the Internet of Things arena. A number of chips are already working in a number of devices, from wearable fitness trackers to the upcoming Google�Project Glass, making the Internet feel more like a part of your body. Texas Instruments (NASDAQ: TXN ) has gotten small and simple with bare-bones Wi-Fi chips that could pair with Freescale's microcontroller to transmit information -- if only they were a little bit smaller. No one has come up with something this small yet, and there's a reason Freescale believes that the tiny new Kinetis micro-controllers could be used to track users' health from inside their own bodies:
Best Medical Companies For 2015: Intermolecular Inc (IMI)
Intermolecular, Inc. (Intermolecular), incorporated on June 16, 2004, is engaged in research and development and time-to-market for the semiconductor and clean-energy industries. The Company, through paid collaborative development programs (CDPs) with its customers, develops technology and intellectual property (IP) for its customers focused on advanced materials, processes, integration and device architectures. The Company provides its customers with technology through various fee arrangements and grants them rights to associated IP, primarily through royalty-bearing licenses. Through paid CDPs and its own development, the Company has established a portfolio of greater than 1,000 patents and patent applications. Its approach is broadly applicable to high-volume integrated device markets, which include the markets for semiconductors, flat glass coatings and glass-based devices, solar cells, light-emitting diodes (LEDs), flat-panel displays, advanced batteries and other energy efficiency applications.
As of December 31, 2012, the Company targets large, high-volume semiconductor and high-growth emerging clean energy markets, including DRAM, non-volatile memory (including flash memory and embedded memory), complex logic, flat glass coatings and glass-based devices, solar cells, LEDs and other energy efficiency applications. The Company�� customers include ATMI, Inc. (ATMI), Elpida Memory, Inc. (Elpida), First Solar. Inc. (First), GLOBALFOUNDRIES Singapore Pte. Ltd (GLOBALFOUNDRIES), Guardian Industries Corp. (Guardian), SanDisk Corporation (SanDisk), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and Toshiba Corporation (Toshiba). For the year ended December 31, 2012, the Company has received the majority of its revenue from customers in DRAM, flash memory, complex logic and energy-efficient applications in flat glass. The elements in HPC platform include Tempus HPC processing, automated characterization, and informatics and analysis software. Tempus HPC processing are used to process ! different experiments consisting of combinations of materials, processing parameters, sequencing and device structures. Automated characterization systems are used to characterize the substrates processed by its Tempus HPC processing tools. Informatics and analysis software are used to automate experiment generation, characterization, data analysis and reporting.
The Company�� HPC platform consists of its Tempus HPC processing tools, automated characterization and informatics and analysis software. The Company�� platform is purpose-built for Research and Development (R and D) using combinatorial process systems. Combinatorial processing is a methodology for discovery and development that employs parallel and other high-throughput experimentation, which allows R and D experimentation to be performed at speeds up to 100 times faster than traditional methods. The Company�� processing tools allows performing up to 192 experiments on a single substrate.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Jake L'Ecuyer]
Leading and Lagging Sectors
Technology shares gained about 0.68 percent in today's trading. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Intermolecular (NASDAQ: IMI), up 38.3 percent, and Infinera (NASDAQ: INFN), up 9.4 percent. In trading on Monday, utilities shares were relative laggards, down on the day by about 0.68 percent. - [By Jake L'Ecuyer]
Leading and Lagging Sectors
Technology shares gained about 0.68 percent in today's trading. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Intermolecular (NASDAQ: IMI), up 38.3 percent, and Infinera (NASDAQ: INFN), up 9.4 percent. In trading on Monday, utilities shares were relative laggards, down on the day by about 0.68 percent. - [By Lisa Levin]
Intermolecular (NASDAQ: IMI) shares touched a new 52-week low of $4.84. Intermolecular shares have dropped 45.09% over the past 52 weeks, while the S&P 500 index has gained 26.39% in the same period.
Best Semiconductor Companies To Invest In Right Now: Broadcom Corporation(BRCM)
Broadcom Corporation designs and develops semiconductors for wired and wireless communications. It provides a portfolio of system-on-a-chip (SoC) and software solutions for the manufacturers of computing and networking equipment, digital entertainment and broadband access products, and mobile devices, which enable the delivery of voice, video, data, and multimedia content to the home, office, and mobile environment. Its broadband communications products include cable modem SoCs; femtocell SoCs; MPEG/AVC/VC-1 encoders and transcoders; xDSL, passive optical network, and cable modem customer premises equipment and central office solutions; powerline networking SoCs; digital cable, direct broadcast satellite, terrestrial, and Internet protocol (IP) set-top box integrated receiver demodulators; high definition television and standard definition TV SoCs; and Blu-ray disc SoCs. The company?s mobile and wireless products comprise Wi-Fi and Bluetooth SoCs, wireless connectivity com bo chips, global positioning system SoCs, multimedia processors, applications processors, power management units, VoIP SoCs, mobile TV SoCs, and near field communications tags. Its infrastructure and networking products include Ethernet copper transceivers, Ethernet controllers and switches, backplane and optical front-end physical layer devices, security processors and adapters, and broadband processors. The company markets and sells its products through direct sales force, distributors, and manufacturers? representatives in the United States, as well as through regional offices, and a network of independent distributors and representatives in Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America. The company was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Irvine, California.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Ashraf Eassa]
There's value in designing custom processors
When Broadcom (NASDAQ: BRCM ) threw in the proverbial towel on its cellular efforts, a pretty strong argument could have been made that Apple was a likely buyer, as it has shown a tendency to want to keep as much non-trivial silicon as possible in-house.�
Best Semiconductor Companies To Invest In Right Now: Texas Instruments Incorporated(TXN)
Texas Instruments Incorporated engages in the design and sale of semiconductors to electronics designers and manufacturers worldwide. The company?s Analog segment offers high-performance analog products comprising standard analog semiconductors, such as amplifiers, data converters, and interface semiconductors; high-volume analog and logic products; and power management semiconductors and line-powered systems. Its Embedded Processing segment includes DSPs that perform mathematical computations to process and enhance digital data; and microcontrollers, which are designed to control a set of specific tasks for electronic equipment. The company?s Wireless segment designs, manufactures, and sells application processors and connectivity products. Its Other segment offers smaller semiconductor products, which include DLP products that are primarily used in projectors to create high-definition images; and application-specific integrated circuits. This segment also provides handhe ld graphing and scientific calculators, as well as licenses technologies to other electronic companies. The company serves the communications, computing, industrial, consumer electronics, automotive, and education sectors. Texas Instruments Incorporated sells its products through a direct sales force, distributors, and third-party sales representatives. It has collaboration agreements with PLX Technology Inc.; Neonode, Inc.; and Ubiquisys Ltd. The company was founded in 1938 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Dan Caplinger]
Next Monday, Texas Instruments (NASDAQ: TXN ) will release its latest quarterly results. The key to making smart investment decisions on stocks reporting earnings is to anticipate how they'll do before they announce results, leaving you fully prepared to respond quickly to whatever inevitable surprises arise.
Best Semiconductor Companies To Invest In Right Now: Tokyo Electron Ltd (TOELY.PK)
Tokyo Electron Limited is a company mainly engaged in the manufacture and sale of electronic products for industrial uses. The Semiconductor Manufacturing Equipment, Flat-panel Display (FPD) and Photovoltaic Cell (PV) Manufacturing Equipment segment provides coaters and developers for wafer processing, plasma etching equipment, thermal processing systems, single wafer deposition systems, cleaning systems, coaters and developers for FPD manufacturing, ashing devices and plasma chemical vapor deposition (CVD) devices. The Electronic Component and Information Communication Equipment segment designs, develops, purchases and sells semiconductor products such as integrated circuits (ICs), computer and network equipment and software. The Others segment involves in logistics, facility management and insurance businesses. On April 1, 2013, it merged with two subsidiaries. In January 2014, the Company established TEL-Applied Holdings B.V. and a Japan-based company. Advisors' Opinion:- [By Stephen Simpson, CFA]
Ultratech isn't the only game in town, though, and there are multiple technologies and process steps that are going to play significant roles in the production of FinFETs and 3D circuits. With that, I would take a look at Mattson Technologies (MTSN), as this company has already accomplished the not-so-easy task of gaining meaningful share in the dry strip, rapid thermal processing (RTP), and etch markets despite competing with giants like Lam Research (LRCX), Applied Materials (AMAT), and Tokyo Electron (TOELY.PK).
Best Semiconductor Companies To Invest In Right Now: Micron Technology Inc.(MU)
Micron Technology, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture and marketing of semiconductor devices worldwide. Its products include dynamic random access memory (DRAM) products that provide data storage and retrieval, which include DDR2 and DDR3; and other specialty DRAM memory products, including DDR, SDRAM, DDR and DDR2 mobile low power DRAM, pseudo-static RAM, and reduced latency DRAM. The company also offers NAND flash memory products, which are electrically re-writeable and non-volatile semiconductor devices that retain content when power is turned off. In addition, it provides NOR flash memory products that are electrically re-writeable and non-volatile semiconductor memory devices; phase change memory products; and image sensor products. Micron Technology?s products are used in a range of electronic applications, including personal computers, workstations, network servers, mobile phones, flash memory cards, USB storage devices, digital still c ameras, MP3/4 players, and in automotive applications. It sells its products to original equipment manufacturers and retailers through internal sales force, independent sales representatives, and distributors, as well as through a Web-based customer direct sales channel. The company was founded in 1978 and is headquartered in Boise, Idaho.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Russ Fischer]
Since barely a week before the show, Samsung (SSNLF.PK) announced that it was "in production" on a new 3D NAND process. Since 3D NAND is considered the holy grail of NAND technology of the future, you would think that Samsung would be a shoe-in for the product of the year at the 2013 Flash Summit. And If you though that, you would have been wrong. The actual winner of the Best of Show award was Micron's (MU) new 16nm planar NAND memory made with the HKMG (High K Metal Gate) process. In order for Micron to have won this award, the new 16nm must be a more elegant process than we thought.
- [By Paul Ausick]
Stocks on the Move: NQ Mobile Inc. (NYSE: NQ) is up 26% at $11.09 as the company fights back against a short-seller report. Celsion Corp. (NASDAQ: CLSN) is up 339.3% at $5.14 following a reverse 1:4.5 stock split. Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) is up 4.7% at $17.50.
- [By Selena Maranjian]
Soros Fund Management reduced its stake in lots of companies, including Micron Technology (NASDAQ: MU ) , which is trading near its 52-week high lately. Its advocates see growth in tablets and smartphones�driving demand�for memory chips, though a sputtering PC market isn't helpful. Bulls liked its second-quarter earnings report, too, which featured lower costs and rising margins that hinted at a return to profitability soon. Micron's purchase of Japanese manufacturer Elpida also seems promising, boosting its capacity and its relationship with�Apple. Bears worry about Micron losing market share, though, and don't like the commoditization of memory or Micron's debt.
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