Daily News Briefs

Samsung Electronics has joined the International Sematech Manufacturing Initiative (ISMI), effective today. Other new ISMI members are Panasonic and Spansion LLC, which joined ISMI in October 2004 and January 2005, respectively. ISMI, a subsidiary of Sematech, of Austin, Texas, was formed last year as a consortium to help chip manufacturers improve factory productivity and reduce cost per wafer, and ultimately cost per die. ISMI's nine other members originated as Sematech member companies.