HSBC

For the history of the HSBC Group prior to the founding of HSBC Holdings in 1990, see The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.

HSBC Holdings plc

Type	Public (LSE: HSBA, SEHK: 005, NYSE: HBC, Euronext: HSB, BSX: 1077223879)
Founded	Hong Kong (1865)
Founder(s)	Thomas Sutherland
Headquarters	8 Canada Square, London, England, UK
Key people	Stephen Green, Group Chairman Michael Geoghegan, Group Chief Executive
Industry	Finance and insurance
Revenue	£49,759 million (2008)
Operating income	£5,072 million (2008)
Net income	£3,541 million (2008)
Employees	312,000 (9,500 offices in 85 countries and territories)
Subsidiaries	HSBC Bank plc, The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, HSBC Bank USA, HSBC Bank Middle East, HSBC Mexico, HSBC Bank Brasil, HSBC Finance
Website	www.hsbc.com

HSBC Holdings plc is a public limited company incorporated in England and Wales in 1990, and headquartered in London since 1993. As of 2009, it is both the world's largest banking group and the world's 6th largest company according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine. The group was founded from The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation based in Hong Kong, the acronym of which led to the current name. Today, whilst no single geographical area dominates the group's earnings, Hong Kong still continues to be a significant source of its income. Recent acquisitions and expansion in China are returning HSBC to part of its roots.HSBC has an enormous operational base in Asia and significant lending, investment, and insurance activities around the world. The company has a global reach and financial fundamentals matched by few other banking or financial multinationals.

HSBC is listed on the London, New York, Hong Kong, Paris and Bermuda Stock Exchanges, and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index and the Hang Seng

Semiconductor

Semiconductor is a material that has a resistivity value between that of a conductor and an insulator. The conductivity of a semiconductor material can be varied under an external electrical field. Devices made from semiconductor materials are the foundation of modern electronics, including radio, computers, telephones, and many other devices. Semiconductor devices include the transistor, many kinds of diodes including the light-emitting diode, the silicon controlled rectifier, and digital and analog integrated circuits. Solar photovoltaic panels are large semiconductor devices that directly convert light energy into electrical energy. In a metallic conductor, current is carried by the flow of electrons. In semiconductors, current can be carried either by the flow of electrons or by the flow of positively-charged "holes" in the electron structure of the material.

Silicon is used to create most semiconductors commercially. Dozens of other materials are used, including germanium, gallium arsenide, and silicon carbide. A pure semiconductor is often called an “intrinsic” semiconductor. The conductivity, or ability to conduct, of semiconductor material can be drastically changed by adding other elements, called “impurities” to the melted intrinsic material and then allowing the melt to solidify into a new and different crystal. This process is called "doping".

Microchip Technology

Microchip Technology (NASDAQ: MCHP) is an American manufacturer of microcontroller, memory and analog semiconductors. The company was founded in 1987 when General Instrument^[1] Its products include microcontrollers (PICmicro, dsPIC / PIC24, PIC32), Serial EEPROM devices, Serial SRAMKEELOQ devices, radio frequency (RF) devices, thermal, power and battery management analog devices, as well as linear, interface and mixed signal devices. Some of the interface devices include USB, ZigBee/MiWi, Controller Area Network, and Ethernet. devices, spun off its microelectronics division as a wholly owned subsidiary.

Corporate Headquarters is located at Chandler, Arizona with wafer fabs in Tempe, Arizona and Gresham, Oregon.

Among its chief competitors are Atmel, Infineon, Freescale, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments, Analog Devices and Maxim Integrated Products.

Microchip was a major sponsor of the FIRST, supplying most of the major electrical components in each kit as standard parts, until National Instruments became the primary provider of the electrical system. Microchip still provides, however, some components, such as an electronic relay and a PWM controller.

Mitsubishi

The Mitsubishi Group (三菱グループ, Mitsubishi Gurūpu), Mitsubishi Group of Companies, or Mitsubishi Companies is a Japanese conglomerate consisting of a range of autonomous businesses which share the Mitsubishi brand, trademark and legacy. The Mitsubishi group of companies form a loose entity, the Mitsubishi Keiretsu, which is often referenced in US and Japanese media and official reports; in general these companies all descend from the zaibatsu of the same name. A keiretsu is a common feature of Japanese corporate governance and refers to a collaborative group of integrated companies with extensive share crossholdings, personnel swaps and strategic co-operation. The top 25 companies are also members of the Mitsubishi Kin'yōkai, or "Friday Club", and meet monthly. The Mitsubishi.com Committee is meant to facilitate communication and access of the brand through a portal web site.

Ford

The Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) is an American multinational corporation and the world's fourth largest automaker based on worldwide vehicle sales, following Toyota, General Motors, and Volkswagen. Based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, the automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford, Lincoln, and MercuryVolvo Cars of Sweden, and a small stake in Mazda of Japan and Aston Martin of England. Ford's former UK subsidiaries Jaguar and Land Rover were sold to Tata MotorsIndia in March 2008. brands, Ford also owns of

Ford introduced methods for large-scale manufacturing of cars and large-scale management of an industrial workforce using elaborately engineered manufacturing sequences typified by moving assembly lines. Henry Ford's methods came to be known around the world as Fordism by 1914.

In 2007, Ford fell from the second-ranked automaker to the third-ranked automaker in US sales for the first time in 56 years, behind General Motors and Toyota. Based on 2007 global sales, Ford fell to the fourth-ranked spot behind Volkswagen. By 2009, Ford had become the second largest automaker in Europe (only behind Volkswagen), with large markets in the United Kingdom and Germany and sales that exceed those in the United States. Ford is the seventh-ranked overall American-based company in the 2008 Fortune 500 list, based on global revenues in 2008 of $146.3 billion. In 2008, Ford produced 5.532 million automobiles and employed about 213,000 employees at around 90 plants and facilities worldwide. Starting in 2007, Ford received more initial quality survey awards from J. D. Power and Associates than any other automaker. Five of Ford's vehicles ranked at the top of their categories and fourteen vehicles ranked in the top three.

Honda

Honda Motor Company, Ltd. (本田技研工業株式会社, Honda Giken Kōgyō Kabushiki-gaisha^?, Honda Technology Research Institute Company, Limited) listen (help·info) (TYO: 7267NYSE: HMC) is a multinational corporation headquartered in Japan.

The company manufactures automobiles, motorcycles, trucks, scooters, robots, jets and jet engines, ATV, water craft, electrical generators, marine engines, lawn and garden equipment, and aeronautical and other mobile technologies. Honda's line of luxury cars are branded Acura in North America. More recently they have ventured into mountain bikes.

Honda is the 6th largest automobile manufacturer in the world as well as the largest engine-maker in the world, producing more than 14 million internal combustion engines each year. In August 2008, Honda surpassed Chrysler as the 4th largest automobile manufacturer in the United States. Currently, Honda is the second largest manufacturer in Japan behind Toyota and ahead of Nissan.

CFL Bulb

A compact fluorescent lamp (CFL), also known as a compact fluorescent light or energy saving light (or less commonly as a compact fluorescent tube [CFT]), is a type of fluorescent lamp. Many CFLs are designed to replace an incandescent lamp and can fit into most existing light fixtures formerly used for incandescents.

Compared to general service incandescent lamps giving the same amount of visible light, CFLs generally use less power, have a longer rated life, but a higher purchase price. In the United States, a CFL can save over US $30 in electricity costs over the lamp's life time compared to an incandescent lamp and save 2,000 times its own weight in greenhouse gases.^[1] Like all fluorescent lamps, CFLs contain mercury, which complicates their disposal.

CFLs radiate a different light spectrum from that of incandescent lamps. Improved phosphor^[2] formulations have improved the subjective color of the light emitted by CFLs such that some sources rate the best 'soft white' CFLs as subjectively similar in color to standard incandescent lamps.