South Africa
Eskom has announced that BMG (Bearing Man Group) is now a supplier of Fenner energy efficient electric motors for Eskom’s national energy efficiency programme. According to BMG, the new energy efficient EFF1 electric motors, if correctly used, can offer savings of between 1,1% and 7,6% on electricity consumption. When they are used in conjunction with other BMG energy saving products, like OST self tensioning motor bases, electricity savings can be as high as 10%.
Otto Marketing has launched a new website which makes it easy for users to browse the product range, search for products and prices, download data sheets and place online orders for many standard products. Online orders are confirmed and shipped within 24 hours. The website also offers the facility to send instant enquiries to the sales team, browse suppliers’ websites and inspect Otto’s various quality and BEE certificates.
First Distribution has been appointed the official distributor of Tripp Lite products in sub-Saharan Africa. Established in 1922, Tripp Lite is a world class manufacturer of power protection and connectivity solutions such as UPS systems, KNM switches, power distribution units and related cables and connectors.
Overseas
Business
Reporting financial results for the 2008 fourth quarter and full year ended 31 December 2008, STMicroelectronics announced that it completed the deconsolidation of its Flash Memory Group (FMG) segment. Fourth quarter net revenues totalled $2,28 billion, down 15,6% from the immediately prior quarter, and 17% below the result achieved in the last quarter of 2007. For the full year, net revenue was $9,84 billion, 1,6% less than reported for 2007, while net loss was $786 million or $0,88 per share in 2008, compared to a net loss of $477 million or $0,53 per share in 2007.
Teradyne has reported sales of $195 million for its fourth fiscal quarter of 2008. The preliminary GAAP loss from continuing operations for the fourth quarter was $55,3 million, or $0,33 per diluted share. For fiscal year 2008, sales were $1,1 billion. Income from continuing operations for the year was $32,4 million, or $0,19 per diluted share on a non-GAAP basis. The preliminary GAAP loss from continuing operations was $65,3 million, or $0,38 per diluted share.
NEC reported third quarter revenue of $10,5 billion and an operating loss of $718 million, compared to the same quarter a year prior when revenue was $11,6 billion and the company posted a $29,1 million loss. Particularly hard hit were the company’s semiconductor and component units, which saw revenue decline by 25,5% and 30,6% respectively, on a year-to-year basis. The company also announced a restructuring programme which will see it cut more than 20 000 jobs in an effort to save $889 million over the next two years.
Announcing its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended 31 December 2008, Freescale Semiconductor reported net sales of $940 million for the fourth quarter and $5,2 billion for the full year. Adjusted EBITDA was $94 million for the fourth quarter while trailing 12 month adjusted EBITDA was $1,4 billion.
In an attempt to return to growth through 2009, Renesas has announced a variety of structural reforms including downsizing the production capacity of its 5- and 6-inch front-end process lines, as well as moving to larger wafers. The company is also introducing a ‘special early retirement system’, specific details of which were not disclosed, and is reshuffling its personnel complement to strengthen its microcontroller business.
ON Semiconductor announced that total revenues in the fourth quarter of 2008 were $488,7 million, a decrease of approximately 16% from the third quarter of 2008. During the fourth quarter of 2008, the company reported a GAAP net loss of $519,6 million, or $1,27 per share. This net loss included net charges of $581,6 million, or $1,42 per share, from special items, the largest of which was $557,4 million arising from an annual goodwill impairment. During the third quarter of 2008, the company reported GAAP net income of $61,2 million, or $0,15 per share on a fully diluted basis.
Ramtron reported total revenue of $16,3 million for the fourth quarter of 2008, 14% higher than the $14,3 million for the same quarter last year. Net income for the fourth quarter of 2008 was $915 000, or $0,03 per share, compared with net income of $8,7 million, or $0,32 per share, for the fourth quarter of 2007. Fourth-quarter results also included a charge of $815 000 against cost of product sales that estimates a loss contingency to cover anticipated customer warranty and associated costs arising from previously announced infield failures of one of Ramtron’s products.
ARM Holdings posted revenues of £94,4 million for the fourth quarter of 2008, up 15% from the previous year’s result. Normalised earnings per share (EPS) were 54% higher than a year prior at 1,93 pence. For the full 2008 year, revenues were £298,9 million and EPS was 5,63 pence.
Atmel is pursuing strategic alternatives for its ASIC business and related manufacturing assets, including a potential sale. The company says this is no more than a step in its transformation plan, which is aimed at focusing on its core microcontroller business. Revenues for the ASIC business totalled $416 million for the 12 months ended 31 December 2008.
Epcos has reported a sharp decline in sales and earnings in its first quarter of fiscal 2009. Sales were 282 million Euros, which is 23% lower than in the same quarter a year ago and 26% less than in the last quarter of 2008. Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) were minus 19 million Euros, compared to plus 23 million Euros in the previous quarter and plus 28 million Euros in the same period last year.
International Rectifier announced revenue of $189,7 million for the fiscal second quarter of 2009, ended 31 December 2008. Excluding intellectual property and transition services segment revenue, fiscal second quarter 2009 revenue from ongoing customer segments was $175,8 million, down 17% compared with $212,1 million in the prior quarter and down 26%, compared with $237,4 million reported in the second quarter of 2008. Net loss was $186,1 million, or $2,56 per share, compared with a net loss of $4,5 million or $0,06 per share in the prior quarter, and net income of $313 000 or $0,00 per share in the second quarter of 2008.
Despite announcing recently that it expects to cut 6000 jobs, Intel is planning to spend $7 billion over the next two years on advanced manufacturing facilities in the United States. The investment funds deployment of Intel’s 32 nm manufacturing technology that is expected to enable faster, smaller chips that consume less energy.
Companies
Mentor Graphics will supply Freescale Semiconductor with select electronic design automation technologies designed to enhance semiconductor manufacturability and testability. The arrangement includes tools in the areas of design for test, field programmable gate arrays, physical verification and analysis, advanced resolution enhancement technologies, and pre- and post-tapeout design for fabrication and manufacturability. The new technologies will help expand on the work of an existing collaboration between Freescale and Mentor for developing design flows and methods to improve test and manufacturing capability.
In order to improve its financial position, SanDisk is reducing its equipment lease obligations with respect to its Flash manufacturing joint ventures with Toshiba. As part of the agreement, more than 20% of the joint ventures’ capacity will be transferred to Toshiba, and a cash payment will be made to SanDisk for the transfer of certain equipment currently owned by the joint ventures. The total value to SanDisk is approximately $890 million based on current exchange rates.
SAP and Landis+Gyr have signed a software development cooperation agreement for the integration of Landis+Gyr’s advanced metering infrastructure with the SAP for utilities solution portfolio. The integration will enable certain end-to-end business processes – from the meter to the business applications – and deliver a high level of transparency and availability of energy data that can enable higher process and energy efficiency for energy utilities.
After months of legal suits and counter-suits between the two companies, Seoul Semiconductor and Nichia announced that they have settled all litigations on patent and other issues, as well as other legal disputes currently pending between them in the United States, Germany, Japan, the UK and Korea. The settlement includes a cross licence agreement covering LED and laser diode technologies, which will permit the companies to access all of each other’s patented technologies.
Atmel has acquired all MeshNetics ZigBee intellectual property rights from LuxLabs for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition includes BitCloud ZigBee PRO software and ZigBit wireless modules. Currently, Atmel’s ZigBee technology roadmap includes ZigBee PRO and ZigBee Public Profiles support for the new AVR XMEGA and AVR32 microcontroller families.
The US District Court of Delaware has granted Power Integrations’ (PI) request for a permanent injunction against the infringement of its patents by Fairchild Semiconductor. More than 100 infringing Fairchild parts are listed in the court’s order and subject to the injunction, which takes effect immediately. The court further ordered Fairchild to provide notice of the injunction to all customers, distributors and other third parties that have purchased the infringing products. The court further awarded PI $6,1 million plus interest, representing lost profits resulting from the sale and importation of the infringing products into the United States.
SiRF Technology Holdings, a provider of GPS-enabled silicon and software location platforms, announced a definitive agreement under which it will merge with CSR in a stock-for-stock transaction to create a global leader in connectivity and location platforms. The boards of directors of both companies unanimously approved the transaction, which is expected to close in the second quarter of 2009.
Microchip has finally terminated its pursuit of Atmel and is withdrawing the slate of directors it had nominated previously for election at Atmel’s next annual meeting of shareholders. Microchip says the current economic crisis is to blame, as it makes it impossible to accurately value Atmel.
Texas Instruments has acquired Ciclon Semiconductor Device Corporation, a designer of high-frequency, high-efficiency power management semiconductors. Financial details were not disclosed.
Industry
The market for PC/104 family boards was $248,4 million in 2007 and projected at $262,7 million in 2008, according to the latest embedded stackables research from VDC Research Group. Actual 2007 dollar shipments of PC/104 family boards were 5,7% lower than had been projected in VDC’s most recent prior PC/104 study, published in 2006. This may be, in part, due to a delay in the release of a standard covering use of PCI Express as a module-to-module interconnect. The new PC/104 Express category is projected to show a very high growth rate. However, as base year 2007 shipments of these were only around $0,4 million, even a modest actual increase in revenue may result in a significant rate of growth.
According to a study by iSuppli, global revenue from shipments of MEMS for consumer and mobile electronics is expected to rise to $2,6 billion in 2012, up from $1,1 billion in 2006. Shipment revenue for MEMS in consumer electronics devices will increase to $1,1 billion in 2012, up from $699,9 million in 2006. Products in this segment include game controllers, digital still cameras, camcorders, MP3 players, personal navigation devices, remote controllers, rear-projection televisions, mini standalone projectors, sports equipment, white goods, toys, headsets and USB sticks. The major area driving growth will be video-game console controllers, an area that will grow to $240,6 million in 2012, up from $28,1 million in 2006.
Global sales of semiconductors were severely impacted by the worldwide economic turmoil in 2008, resulting in the first year-on-year drop in sales since 2001, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) reported recently. Total sales for 2008 were $248,6 billion compared to $255,6 billion in 2007, a decrease of 2,8%. Sales fell from $22,3 billion in December 2007 to $17,4 billion in December 2008, a decline of 22%. December sales declined by 16,6% from November when sales were $20,9 billion.
The Open NAND Flash Interface (ONFI) Working Group, the organisation dedicated to simplifying integration of NAND Flash memory into consumer electronics devices, computing platforms and industrial systems, announced the availability of the ONFI 2.1 specification. Like the previous instalments, ONFI 2.1 offers simplified Flash controller design, but pushes performance levels to between 166 MBps and 200 MBps. ONFI also announced that it has started a process to define the next specification, ONFI 3.0 that will reach speeds of up to 400 MBps.
With deteriorating global economic conditions making their impact felt in the wireless industry, handset OEMs and mobile network operators are looking to Linux-based operating systems to cut costs and diversify their handset portfolios. While Linux-based operating systems have had a presence in the mobile handset market for years, growth has been slow and steady until recently. However, recent announcements from Motorola, Vodafone, HTC and Huawei, among others, all stating that Linux-based operating systems will figure in to their upcoming handset releases, clearly demonstrate that OEMs and operators are ready to embrace Linux on a larger scale.
Technology
In a potential boost for the development of 4G cellular technologies, Motorola recently launched its LTE (long term evolution) trial network and testing lab in the UK. The occasion was marked with a live, over the air, standards compliant LTE call during which high-speed data services were streamed using Motorola’s LTE infrastructure operating in the 2,6 GHz spectrum and a prototype LTE device. This latest expansion of Motorola’s LTE trial facilities offers operators the ability to engage in LTE technology field trials and detailed real-world equipment testing at the UK site.
At the recently held International Solid State Circuit Conference, Holst Centre – founded by the Belgian nanoelectronics research centre IMEC and the Dutch research centre TNO – presented the world’s first 128 bit organic RFID transponder chip with Manchester encoding and anti-collision protocol. The chip demonstrated a record data rate of 2 Kbps, proving that the technology is approaching its goal of achieving the technical requirements for electronic product coding (EPC).
Google is developing a free online application called Google Powermeter that will allow users to display their power usage statistics on their Google home page. Of course, you cannot improve anything you cannot measure, so intelligent power meters will be required in order to make use of the technology.
Samsung Electronics has developed a new wireless universal serial bus (W-USB) system-on-chip designed specifically for the upcoming ultra-wideband (UWB) market. The chip combines the convenience of wireless connectivity, the security level of wired USB, and the high-speed performance of UWB to transfer mass storage data such as digital photos, movie videos or MP3 music files between electronic devices. As an example, it is capable of downloading a 700 MB movie in approximately one minute.
NXP recently announced that its secure contactless microcontroller chip – SmartMX – has been selected by the VDV-Kernapplikations to power future electronic transport ticketing schemes in Germany. Alongside card and inlay-manufacturer Cardag, NXP will provide SmartMX ICs for around eight million contactless cards to be issued throughout Germany by 2012. The aim of the scheme is to provide a single ticketing solution that will be used across all nationwide transport networks.
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