Southern Africa
UEC technologies, the Durban-based Altech subsidiary, has won a three-year contract, valued at R302 million for the first year alone, from its Australian pay TV customer, Foxtel. In making the announcement, Altech CEO, Craig Venter, said the order was the single largest export deal in UEC's seven year history of remarkable export success. He said that following recent announcements by Foxtel regarding its intention to start digitising its cable network by early next year, the UEC team was able to secure the three-year contract with Foxtel to supply it with both satellite and cable set-top-boxes (STBs.) The new products being supplied to Foxtel differ from previous models supplied in that they incorporate UEC's latest technology required for interactivity and return path communication.
Kalliba, a local manufacturer of computer memory for the past six years, has announced that it is manufacturing DDR 400 MHz memory modules for Intel's new 865G chipset, based on industry-standard JEDEC designs. Bruce Murphy, Kalliba product manager at Axiz, says that the DDR 400 MHz memory modules are targeted at buyers of new, feature-rich PCs. Double data rate (DDR) memory is a faster form of SDRAM that is able to read data on both the rising and the falling edge of the system clock, thus doubling the data rate of the memory chip. Kalliba memory is produced in a focused module assembly plant in Johannesburg to tight design specifications.
Grintek Telecom and Oeight Development, the South African software development arm of London-based Oaxis Group, have joined forces to offer retailers the ability to save their customers' mobile phone book data onto a central server and retrieve it from any of the hundreds of point of sale terminals throughout the country. The service, called SaveSIM, is based on the Hypercom Interactive Consumer Environment terminals, which are currently used to issue pre-paid airtime PIN numbers at retail outlets throughout South Africa. SaveSIM allows users to retrieve their data from any terminal, should their mobile phone be lost or stolen, or if they have obtained a new number.
Linux-based projects within the Java developer community are gaining momentum, reports Sun Microsystems SA. This is underscored by several new initiatives on java.net, a unique, online global community established to foster Java technology collaboration and innovation, says the company. Since its launch in June 2003, java.net ( http://java.net) has gained over 16 000 registered users and initiated over 460 projects.
Altech Card Solutions (ACS) has announced that it has achieved EMV Level 2 certification for the SchlumbergerSema MagIC range of terminals.
Avnet Kopp has acquired the business interests of Analog Data Products, and also the distribution rights to Analog Devices, Rabbit Semiconductor, and the Crystal Clear Technologies lines. Analog Data Products will operate as a division of Avnet Kopp.
CHI Control has been appointed as a southern African distributor of Socomec, a French manufacturer of 'on-load industrial switches'.
Grafoplast Wiremarkers Africa has been appointed as the exclusive South African supplier for Canalplast, an Italian manufacturer of cable trunking systems.
Silver Telecom, a manufacturer of telecom ICs, has appointed Prime Semiconductors as its representative in South Africa.
Spectrum Concepts has been appointed the exclusive representative for Midcom in South Africa. Midcom manufactures standard and custom transformer products for analog modem, digital telecom, LAN datacom, and power applications.
Spescom MeasureGraph's Test Solutions division has announced that it has been appointed the sole southern Africa distributor for Le Croy test and measurement equipment.
The Pretoria branch of Electrocomp has moved to 169 Witchazel Avenue, Highveld Technopark, Centurion. Postal: Box 939, Pretoria, 0001. Tel: 012 665 0138/39/40/41, fax: 012 665 0105, [email protected].
Overseas
Business
Citing strong demand for its microprocessor lines, Intel has raised its forecast for the third quarter of 2003. Intel expects revenue to be between $7,3 to $7,8 bn in the third quarter, as compared to the previous range of $6,9 to $7,5 bn.
Marconi has reported full financial results for the three months ended 30 June 2003. Marconi had sales of £367m, down from £533m in the same period a year ago and down from £429m in the previous quarter. Losses at the firm increased to £43m, compared to £28m in the previous quarter. Marconi said it expected the next quarter sales to be flat or slightly up, and maintains a 'cautious view of near term market environment'.
Companies
Vectron International has announced it will take over the Temex SAW production site in Neuchƒtel/Switzerland. According to Vectron, this acquisition allows it to expand its range of front-end filters for the telecom market, and enable the group to cover all important SAW applications with its own products. So far the product range was mainly restricted to IF applications. This transaction is part of Temex's on-going initiative to reduce the number of its industrial centres. The production site in Switzerland will continue to be a design and wafer manufacturing site and operate under the name of Vectron Frequency Devices Swiss. The responsibility for all SAW activities of the Vectron group will remain with Telefilter in Teltow/Germany, it said.
Agere Systems it acquiring Massana, an Irish developer of Gigabit Ethernet-over-copper physical layer device (PHY) technologies, for $26m in stock. With this acquisition Agere will supply chips for enterprise networks at Fast Ethernet to Gigabit Ethernet speeds.
Thales has announced that Chelton, a Cobham group company, has acquired all the shares in Thales Antennas, a specialist manufacturer and supplier of tactical antennas, masts and ancillaries. The acquisition follows a restructuring by Thales whereby the antenna operations will be concentrated at the Southampton site in the UK, which Chelton has now taken over. The company will trade under its previous name of Racal Antennas and target growth in its traditional defence marketplace as well as retaining activities in the telecoms infrastructure market.
Light emitting polymer display firm Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) has sold a 50% interest in its Litrex subsidiary - that develops precision ink jet printing equipment - to Japanese company Ulvac. Litrex equipment is used to print displays based on CDT's technology.
Intel and China's biggest computer maker, Legend Group, have reportedly agreed to open a joint development centre for home networking and security applications.
STMicroelectronics has joined the Open Core Protocol International Partnership (OCP-IP), an association providing a common standard for IP core interfaces for plug-and-play SOC design.
Fujitsu has announced plans to merge its four semiconductor back-end assembly and test subsidiaries in Japan into a newly-formed company to reduce costs and improve its competitive position. The new company, to be called Fujitsu Integrated Microtechnology, will have annual sales of approximately $264m, Fujitsu said.
Industry
There are three possible scenarios for the semiconductor industry in 2003, which ranges from 8 to 12% growth this year over 2002, according to a new report from iSuppli. The 'probable scenario' is that the IC industry will grow by 9% in 2003 over 2002; the 'optimistic scenario' calls for the IC industry to grow by 12% in 2003; while the 'pessimistic' forecast is at 8%.
The odds for an IC recovery have slightly changed for the better in 2003, according to the latest IC Insights forecast. It believes there is a 65% chance that the IC market will grow 10 to 15% in 2003 over 2002. There is a 30% chance that the growth rates will go below 10% in 2003, and a 5% chance that the IC market will go above 15%. At present, IC Insights projects that the worldwide IC market will hit $160 bn in 2003, up 14% from 2002.
By the end of 2003 more than 55 million consumers worldwide will own camera-phone handsets, more than doubling from the 25 million mobile units sold in 2002, states a new report from the ARC Group. The GSM family currently holds around two-thirds of the handset sales market, and this is forecast to increase to 77% by 2008, due in part to the migration of TDMA operators' subscribers to GSM networks, it says. CDMA share is to rise from current levels of 16 to 17,5% by 2008, in line with subscriber growth forecasts for the technology.
Despite all of the recent hype and excitement surrounding the introduction of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology in retail markets, the automotive industry will spend nearly 30 times more on the technology this year, according to market research firm, Allied Business Intelligence. Key applications of RFID technology in vehicles include immobilisers, automatic vehicle identification, tyre tracking, and passive entry systems. Additionally, there are deployments where suppliers identify their components with an RFID tag prior to shipment to the automotive assembly line. From this point, the OEM can track not only the shipment, but also the inventory status of the component after it has been received.
Although a number of significant milestones were achieved in 2002, this past year was one of the toughest for those in the MEMS (micro-electromechanical systems) industry. High-tech market researcher, In-Stat/MDR, says that year over year revenues grew just 4,4% - from $3,8 bn in 2001 to $3,9 bn in 2002 - even though unit shipments increased 47,6%. However, according to senior In-Stat.MDR analyst Marlene Bourne, "a number of governments who believe that this technology of the future cannot be ignored, are well on their way to creating the infrastructure necessary to ensure that they will not be left behind." She says that future regional competitiveness may very well be a direct result of the significant level of spending that is taking place right now in China, India, Mexico, Taiwan, and other countries.
FlexRay and TTP (time-triggered protocol), two competing communication protocols designed to facilitate next-generation automotive control systems, are scheduled to appear in production vehicles for the 2005/2006 model years. Despite early traction gained by the FlexRay Consortium (most recently with Volkswagen's decision to leave the TTA-Group and support the FlexRay protocol), technology research firm ABI cautions that there is no official winner until either protocol is implemented into a production vehicle. ABI notes there are still several automotive OEMs (namely Asian automakers) that have not yet committed to either of the protocols.
Sensaura, an audio development and licensing specialist, has set up a centre of excellence for audio intellectual property (IP) brokering. The company says it has developed the world's most extensive portfolio of audio IP including its own products and proven third-party IP. Sensaura is targeting applications in the automotive, consumer and communication sectors. The IP products range from implementations of discrete algorithms such as Dolby and MPEG decoders through to complete audio IP solutions such as audio watermarking, text-to-speech and voice recognition solutions. Sensaura is sharing the product development risk with its customers with the introduction of a transparent royalty-based licensing model.
According to Dell'Oro Group, the Wireless LAN-802.11 market grew 2% sequentially, realising revenues of $419m in second quarter 2003. Similar to first quarter, total unit shipments increased 6% sequentially. While 802.11b revenues declined for the second consecutive quarter, 802.11g revenues grew 48% to comprise 24% of total market revenue. With 802.11g products reaching the market, vendors are becoming more aggressive in their pricing of 802.11b products. During the quarter, prices in each 802.11b product category declined by an average of 10%, it said.
According to market research firm Frost & Sullivan, the European market for in-car infotainment technologies looks set to dramatically expand by the end of the decade. Currently worth Euro 2,6 bn per annum, it predicts it will grow to Euro 9,2 bn in 2010. Frost & Sullivan expects the digital versatile disc (DVD) to replace mini disc and compact disc technologies in the long-term as the demand for advanced route guidance features rises steadily, eventually giving rise to wide-scale use of off-board navigation. This technology uses cartographic data via UMTS for destination finding and is poised to significantly alter the landscape of the European navigation market.
Strategy Analytics estimates that digital terrestrial TV (DTTV) receivers will be on sale for as little as £27 by 2007 in its latest report: DTTV devices: evolution, segmentation and scenarios. The report says demand for DTTV is showing real signs of life in Europe, and predicts that the number of European homes with DTTV will double by the end of this year, reaching 3,7 million.
Integrated Device Technology (IDT) has announced plans to deliver ICs compliant with the requirements of the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive. The company has completed the first phase of its '260°C compliant, lead-free and green products' initiative and is now shipping 'green' products in limited quantities. IDT also announced plans to provide selected green products in volume production in the first half of 2004.
Technology
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) claims to have developed a diamond semiconductor device that operates at 81 GHz, more than twice the speed of earlier devices. This advance promises to make amplification in the millimeter-wave band from 30 to 300 GHz possible for the first time, NTT says. Diamond is expected to be the next generation semiconductor material because of its high thermal conductivity, high breakdown voltage and high carrier mobility. Together, these characteristics makes diamond semiconductors most suitable for high frequency, high power devices.
Toshiba has introduced what it claims are the world's smallest and thinnest single-gate logic devices. The LMOS (logic-MOS) devices are supplied in the new super-miniature style 'fSV package' and measure just 1,0 x 1,0 x 0,48 mm. Toshiba's TC7SHxx LMOS line up includes two-input NAND, two-input AND, two-input NOR, two-input OR and two-input EX-OR single-gate logic functions, as well as a variety of inverter and buffer options. The 5-pin fSV package uses a flat lead design in which the leads are contained within a 1,0 x 1,0 mm mounting footprint.
The labs at RSA Security are reportedly developing a blocking technique to ease privacy concerns surrounding controversial radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. Called blocker tags - similar in size and cost to the RFID tags - they disrupt the transmission of information to scanning devices and thwart the collection of data. Still in concept, the intention is to balance consumer privacy needs with retail use, in an optimum and beneficial way.
The latest Boomer audio amplifier from National Semiconductor eliminates the bypass capacitor typically connected to the reference voltage pin. According to the company, the new architecture improves power supply rejection ratio and provides very fast turn-on times. Without output coupling capacitors or bootstrap capacitors, the LM4906, with an internal selectable gain of either 6 or 12 dB, is claimed to be capable of delivering 1 W of continuous average power to an 8 Ω bridge-tied load with less than 1% THD plus noise from a 5 V d.c. supply.
Via Technologies of Taiwan has rolled out what it calls its fastest x86-based microprocessor for embedded and 'multifunctional fanless devices'. The VIA Eden ESP7000 processor is a 733 MHz device, in low-profile EBGA package (only 1,5 mm high), based on the company's CoolStream architecture. It features the so-called PadLock Data Encryption Engine for secure applications in the entertainment, communications, commercial and industrial fields.
Sensor Electronic Technology (SET) has received a patent for its metal oxide semiconductor heterostructure field effect transistor (MOSHFET). This AlGaN/GaN device, which is expected to become the first commercially viable compound semiconductor MOS transistor, has demonstrated superior performance compared to conventional GaN-, GaAs- and InP-based transistors.
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