South Africa
JSE listed Altron announced its interim results for the six months ended 31 August 2013: revenue increased by 6% to R13 billion and normalised earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased 5% to R871 million against the comparative period in 2012. Normalised headline earnings per share (HEPS) increased by 15% to 91 cents. Chief executive Robert Venter said that the corporation’s Altech UEC division produced excellent results off the back of good sales into Africa for Digital Terrestrial Television, and that the business plans to produce over 5 million set-top-boxes in 2013 and currently has an order book of over R2 billion.
Sibel Canli, Fluke’s marketing manager responsible for South Africa, paid a flying visit to the country during October to meet with the Comtest team and discuss marketing and advertising plans for 2014. Also here to present a paper at the NLA test and measurement conference, which was held from 6 - 9 October, was Mike Lawyer from Fluke Calibration. Pictured below from left to right are Mike Lawyer, Sibel Canli and Peter Verwer, managing director of Comtest.
A Malawian group of organisations including the Malawi Communication Regulatory Authority (MACRA) are collaborating on a project aimed at using white space television frequency spectrum to bring broadband Internet to rural areas of the country. The pilot project is expected to run until December this year.
Overseas
Business
In its unaudited results for the third quarter of 2013, ARM Holdings grew revenue by 26% year-on-year to £184 million, while earnings per share climbed by 38% to 5,11 pence on the same basis. The company sold 48 processor licences during the quarter, including 11 to new customers. Some 2,5 billion ARM-based chips were shipped over the three month period.
Texas Instruments reported third-quarter revenue of $3,24 billion, net income of $629 million and earnings per share of 56 cents. Compared to the same period in 2012, revenue declined by 4%, net income slumped by 20% and earnings per share shrunk by 16%.
Silicon Labs’ financial results for its third quarter of 2013 included revenue of $146,9 million, an increase of 3,8% sequentially and a 1,7% decrease compared with the same period a year ago. Diluted earnings per share were $0,15, down 48,3% sequentially and down 37,5% year over year due primarily to items related to the acquisition of Energy Micro.
RF Micro Devices reported financial results for its fiscal 2014 second quarter, ended 28 September 2013. September quarterly revenue increased approximately 6% sequentially and 48% year-over-year to a record $310,7 million, thanks primarily to improved penetration of the company’s products into marquee smartphone designs. On a GAAP basis, quarterly net income was $5,9 million, or $0,02 per share, compared to net loss of $16,5 million ($0,06 per share) in the second quarter of 2013.
For its third quarter of 2013, NXP Semiconductors recorded revenue of $1,25 billion and net income of $155 million or $0,60 per share. These results compare to the previous quarter’s revenue of $1,19 billion and net income of $111 million or $0,43 per share, and the third quarter of 2012’s revenue of $1,17 billion and net income of $115 million or $0,45 per share.
Net revenues for STMicroelectronics’ third quarter of 2013 decreased 1,6% sequentially and 7,1% on a year-over-year basis to reach $2,01 billion. Third quarter net loss was $142 million (or $0,16 per share), compared to a net loss of $0,17 and $0,54 per share in the prior and year-ago quarter, respectively. The company expects a return to profitability in the fourth quarter of 2013 thanks to its deconsolidation of the failed ST-Ericsson joint venture during the latest quarter.
Companies
Analog Devices signed a definitive agreement to sell the assets of its microphone product line to InvenSense, a provider of MEMS gyroscope and motion processing technologies for consumer electronics. InvenSense will acquire the assets related to analog and digital output microphones, as well as certain support operations, for $100 million in cash. These microphones were primarily used in consumer applications and are expected to represent less than 1% of Analog Devices’ total revenue in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2013.
IBM has licensed a broad range of ARM Cortex microprocessors which it plans to offer to its custom-chip clients, which include companies that build network routers, switches and cellular base stations. The Cortex-A15, Cortex-A12, Cortex-A7 and Cortex-M4 processors, as well as the ARM Mali-450 graphic processing unit (GPU), are covered by the deal.
ARM and Nordic Semiconductor announced an agreement to incorporate Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) solutions with the ARM mbed IoT device development platform. This collaboration will enable developers to quickly and easily create new Bluetooth-connected devices and applications that leverage Nordic’s system on chips (SoCs) which are based on the ARM Cortex-M processor series.
Ametherm has acquired the SURGE-GARD inrush current limiter product line, formerly manufactured by RTI Electronics, from Measurement Specialties. The acquisition will also include certain NTC thermistor products. Financial details have been withheld.
TTI announced the acquisition of Ray-Q Interconnect. Founded in 1969 as a Raychem subsidiary based in Israel with offices in Turkey and India, Ray-Q provides high-quality electrical interconnect solutions to military, aerospace and other high-reliability product industries.
Industry
In a dramatic sign of how consumer tastes have shifted to new, more exciting wireless products, global factory revenue for smartphones and tablets this year will rise to become larger than revenue for the entire consumer electronics (CE) market – the first time this has ever occurred – according to IHS. The market analyst firm predicts that worldwide OEM factory revenue for media and PC tablets and for 3G/4G cellphones – a category dominated by smartphones – will amount to $354,3 billion in 2013 – 3% more than the $344,4 billion for OEM factory revenue for the CE market, a broad category that includes hundreds of product types, including televisions, audio equipment, cameras and camcorders, video game consoles and home appliances.
For the third year running, Thomson Reuters has recognised Analog Devices as one of the globe’s most innovative companies by naming it to the Top 100 Global Innovators programme. The other companies on the list in the semiconductor and electronic components category are Advanced Micro Devices, Altera, Corning, Freescale Semiconductor, Infineon Technologies, Intel, LSI Corp., LSIS, Marvell, Micron, Omron, Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics, SanDisk, Semiconductor Energy Laboratory, Sharp, STMicroelectronics, TDK, TE Connectivity, Texas Instruments, TSMC and Xilinx.
IQRF Alliance, a consortium of companies linking manufacturers, system integrators and installation companies, has been launched to promote programming-free wireless mesh network technology making use of patented techniques it refers to as ‘direct peripheral access’ and ‘hardware profiles’. The group is targeting licence-free applications for indoor and outdoor lighting, and building and smart home automation.
Agilent Technologies has received Frost & Sullivan’s 2013 New Product Innovation Award for Handheld General-Purpose Test Equipment for its FieldFox handheld RF and microwave analysers. The products were cited for their ability to incorporate the capabilities of multiple test equipment in a single compact package, while also providing benchtop-level performance, high robustness and durability.
Technology
RF Micro Devices has commenced high-volume production of multiple new power amplifiers (PAs) and power management integrated circuits (ICs) that incorporate the company’s new envelope tracking (ET) technology, which enhances power efficiency in new LTE platforms and claims to provide enhanced battery life across all modes and bands, increased network coverage and higher data rate throughput.
By inserting platinum atoms into an organic semiconductor, University of Utah physicists have been able to ‘tune’ the plastic-like polymer to emit light of different colours, hailing this as a step towards more efficient, less expensive and truly white organic LEDs for light bulbs of the future. Instead of the established method of combining or converting other colours to achieve white light, this new polymer has all the requisite colours simultaneously, so there is no need for small pixels and complicated engineering to create them. The new polymer could also be used in a new type of solar power cell in which the platinum would help the polymer convert sunlight to electricity more efficiently. And because the platinum-rich polymer would allow physicists to ‘read’ the information stored in electrons’ ‘spins’ or intrinsic angular momentum, it also has potential for computer memory applications.
Texas Instruments’ Sitara AM335x ARM Cortex-A8 processor has been selected to power the newest Arduino board, the Arduino TRE. The 1 GHz chip is said to offer up to 100 times better performance on the Arduino TRE compared to the Arduino Leonardo or Uno. This level of performance allows the new board to run a full Linux operating system.
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