Southern Africa
South African designers and their new product prototypes were recognised at the recent SABS Design Institute annual award ceremony. The Q500 cellphone, the Series 2100 Payphone system and the Zipad 600 have all won a prestigious SABS Prototype award. The Q500 cellphone is South Africa's first locally-designed cellular phone that offers extended features and functionality over and above basic voice and messaging (SMS), putting it in the smart phone category. The Series 2100 Public Payphone System is a range of attractive pre-payment card/coin-operated payphones designed for public use. The Zipad 600 e-commerce secure device provides user and data authentication for many e-commerce channels including the Internet, fax, network, cheque and message based systems.
Intelligent Secure Administration Systems (ISAS) a developer of technology-based management systems, has developed and installed a special biometric access and management security system at the Smiley Kids Primrose school in Germiston. Nursery and pre-schools are seen as soft targets by criminals and the system was installed to protect the children. It has a single fingerprint sensor that is read instantly by a special scanning device to establish identity. In addition to its role of controlling access to the school premises, it is also used to monitor a wide range of other school management requirements, says ISAS.
Spescom MeasureGraph's (SMG) broadcast division has won the contract to supply local TV production studios ZSE with equipment to support an extensive educational TV series being made for Ethiopian secondary schools. ZSE Television is one of South Africa's leading production and post-production facilities. The specialised Sony equipment includes three camera chains - that comprise everything from the lens to the camera and then on to the remote and desk controls - and the requisite monitors and video tape recorders (VTRs). In addition, SMG has supplied the necessary studio autocue prompting systems and five electronic news gathering (ENG) units that will be used in Ethiopia to gather local footage.
More than a third of South Africa's small and medium businesses that were connected to the Internet were at risk from the MyDoom virus that clogged up the world's networks recently. According to 'The Goldstuck Report: Internet Access in South Africa 2004', released by World Wide Worx, frequency of anti-virus updates among a large proportion of these SMEs was inadequate, and that one in every five Internet-connected SMEs was at high risk from viruses. The survey showed that just under half of all SMEs using the Internet were updating their anti-virus software on a daily basis. Under a third of the SMEs interviewed were updating on a weekly basis, placing them at medium risk, while 20% either were unaware of frequency or updated their protection only once a month or less, putting them in the high-risk category.
TempeTech has created a division within the company specialising in the recruitment and placement of electronic and electrical Engineers, technologists and technicians ranging from junior to senior management, as well as placements of those in auxiliary positions in engineering. TempeTech is managed by Doug McCusker, 011 452 0534, [email protected]
Lauren Manufacturing has moved to: 1 Caroline Street, cnr 15th Street, Eastgate Gardens, Commercial Park, Marlboro, Sandton. Tel: 011 444 9009, Fax: 011 444 9019, [email protected], www.magnumproducts.co.za
Overseas
Business
STMicroelectronics posted revenues for the fourth quarter of $2,113 bn, a 17,1% sequential increase over the 2003 third quarter, and 18,3% above the $1,786 bn of last year's fourth quarter. Net income equalled $144m for the 2003 fourth quarter, including impairment and restructuring charges, compared to a net loss of $49m reported in the prior quarter, and a profit of $161m in last year's fourth quarter. Net revenues for the year 2003 were $7,238 bn, up 14,6% reported in 2002.
Motorola's Semiconductor Products Segment (SPS) posted sales of $1,4 bn for the fourth quarter of 2003, up 2% compared with the year-ago quarter, and up 12% from the third quarter. It reported operating earnings of $25m, compared with $18m in the year-ago quarter. Orders increased 14% to $1,4 bn. The increase in sales and orders is primarily attributed to the segment's networking market, it said. For 2003, the chip unit lost $297m on sales of $4,86 bn, which compares to a loss of $1,51 bn on sales of $5 bn in 2002.
Agere Systems reported that revenues for Q1 of fiscal 2004 were $516m, up 18% from revenues in the year-ago quarter, and up 2% sequentially. The company reported a net loss of $39m, which includes a restructuring charge of $47m. This was an improvement over the year-ago quarter net loss of $146m.
Cadence Design Systems says that it has returned to growth this quarter with its subscription licensing model, posting higher quarter-over-quarter revenue in Q4. Cadence reported net income of $23,5m on revenues of $308 m for Q4 2003. That compares to Q4 2002 net income of $87,3m on revenues of $274m. Cadence received $261m from the Avant! settlement during Q4 2002. "We are now one year into our subscription licensing," said Ray Bingham, president and CEO of Cadence. "We posted a top-line growth of 11% and our profitability is up about 700%." For the year, Cadence saw a net loss of $16,7m on revenues of $1,11 bn, which compares to a net income of $67m on revenues of $1, 29 bn for 2002.
Altera has reported net income of $45,1m for its Q4 2003, up 66% versus net income of $27,1m for the same period in 2002. Revenues for Q4 were $217,4m - an increase of 20% compared to Q4 of 2002.
Companies
Infineon Technologies has signed an agreement to acquire ADMtek, a fabless, IC design company based in Hsinchu, Taiwan, for around Euro 80 million. Infineon will establish a new company, Infineon-ADMtek, that will focus on developing broadband customer premise equipment (CPE) ICs and enable Infineon to enter the home gateway market. This is Infineon's first acquisition of a controlling stake in an Asian semiconductor company.
Processor designer ARM Holdings is to acquire Triscend, a developer of configurable system-on-chip (CSoC) devices and customisable microcontrollers (MCUs), marking ARM's first moves into becoming a fabless chip company.
Philips Research announced an internal start-up company, Polymer Vision, to further develop its organic-based displays that can be formed into a roll for transportation and unrolled for viewing. The displays use organic transistors in combination with electrophoretic ink display material, which results in a reflective, low-power display with a paper-like appearance, said Philips Research.
The MathWorks and Advantech have announced a cooperation that gives more options when choosing I/O cards for The MathWorks' mathematical simulation software.
High Bandwidth Access (HBA), a specialty company for high speed FIFOs and Dual-Port RAMs, has been merged into AMIC Technology Corporation, a supplier of a wide range of memory components.
Siemens has joined the European Union's Motor Challenge Program (MCP) with energy-saving products and solutions for industry. This voluntary program, initiated by the European Commission's Directorate General of Energy and Transport, is intended to help reduce industry's energy consumption.
IBM and Royal Philips Electronics have announced that they will jointly work to address high-security smartcards and RFID technology in business and consumer applications. Philips' semiconductor division is to make the RF devices to be embedded in many consumer items while IBM is to provide computer systems and services that make use of the RF devices.
Motorola's Commercial, Government and Industrial Solutions Sector (CGISS), working with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) and Siemens, has been selected to provide the secure two-way radio communications system that will be used by public safety agencies during the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. The public safety communications system for the Games will be based on the TErrestrial Trunked RAdio (TETRA) standard.
Wavesat, a developer of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) broadband wireless access modem silicon, has chosen Atmel's SiliconCITY capability to design and manufacture the first WiMAX compliant IEEE-802.16d chips. Wavesat's ultimate goal is to create a single chip SoC.
Industry
The semiconductor market for datacom/telecom infrastructure is showing signs of renewed growth, according to IDC. The market is expected to grow 6,2% year-over-year to $3,7 bn in 2004, after a 4,5% year-over-year decline last year.
Unit sales of hard disk drives (HDDs) hit 254,3 million units in 2003, up 16,4% from 218,4m in 2002, according to iSuppli. The market will grow another 9,3% in 2004 to reach 278 million units, iSuppli predicts.
While the network processor unit (NPU) market is not quite where it had hoped to be by now, it still has a very bright future ahead of it, according to In-Stat/MDR. It reports that an increasing number of networking protocols, needs for more service-based revenues, and a resurgence of the importance of flexibility, will keep the NPU markets growing steadily. While 2003 is expected to finish up around $60m, there is still a strong potential behind remaining NPU makers, and this market is expected to outpace most other silicon markets for the next five years.
The consumer electronics industry, with a market exceeding $100 bn per annum, is attracting companies from various industry sectors seeking new opportunities. Among them, both cable set-top box (STB) manufacturers and direct broadcast satellite (DBS) providers, appear well positioned to draw upon consumers' appetite, according to technology research firm, ABI. With their ability to bundle products and services, they are able to cater to consumers' needs unlike other industries actively pursuing this market. ABI believes that STB providers and DBS operators have a better chance at competing in the new digital television (DTV) market than leading PC vendors. In an age of convergence and brand extensions, DTV is perhaps the last segment to join the bandwagon, it says. Many STB vendors, such as Thomson, Pioneer, Samsung, Sony and LG, also market DTV products, but three main STB players, Motorola, Scientific-Atlanta and Pace Micro, have not yet done so, though Motorola has announced plans to finally enter the DTV market.
IC Insights has released its forecast for the 2003 ranking of worldwide top 30 fabless IC suppliers. Of these, 20 are headquartered in the US, six in Taiwan, and four in Canada. There are no European or Japanese companies in the ranking.
Cambridge Silicon Radio (CSR) has announced that it intends to make an initial public offering (IPO) of shares in the company and to seek a listing on the London Stock Exchange.
Siliconix, the 80,4% owned subsidiary of Vishay Intertechnology, has filed a patent infringement suit against Advanced Analogic Technologies alleging that certain specified products infringe three Siliconix patents that relate generally to its Trench power MOSFET technology.
Interpol has honoured Motorola for its services to the international law enforcement community. Motorola's Commercial, Government, and Industrial Solutions Sector (CGISS) received the inaugural Interpol Outstanding Contribution Award. The company is recognised as a leading provider of advanced communications and information solutions for public safety.
Technology
PowerEscape, a California-based start-up, is releasing what it calls the first commercial tools to analyse software algorithms to reduce a system's power consumption. Its PowerEscape Analyzer and PowerEscape Analyzer+Cache have demonstrated power reductions of more than 80%, according to the company. Aimed at algorithm developers, system architects and system-on-chip platform designers, algorithms can be tuned to reduce power or try a different memory or cache architecture, or both.
National Semiconductor has introduced a new high-speed serial interface technology for cellphones and other mobile systems, called mobile pixel link (MPL), which it said it would make an open standard. MPL is based on National's WhisperBus, a new physical-layer interface using separate clock and data wires.
Infineon Technologies has announced that it has launched the world's first NAND compatible flash chip based on TwinFlash technology. The 512 Mbit flash chip was developed by Infineon Technologies Flash, the joint venture of Infineon Technologies and Saifun Semiconductors. TwinFlash is realised in Saifun NROM technology, a leading edge non-volatile memory technology proven as basis for NOR-Flash and EEPROM, which stores two (Twin) locally separated bits in one transistor cell. Compared to competing single-bit-per-cell floating gate technologies with equivalent process structures, the company says TwinFlash offers 40% smaller die sizes due to its two-bit-per-cell approach and less mask levels resulting in a competitive production cost position.
UK research and technology organisation QinetiQ recently secured a cross-licensing agreement with the Mayo Clinic in the US to co-develop software to solve the problem of patient movement during MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scans. Millions of pounds are wasted each year due to patients who move during an MRI scan, making the image unusable, according to the company. A full body scan requires a patient to remain absolutely still for up to one hour. QinetiQ says that the software, used in combination with the Mayo's, solves the problem and ensures accurate scan readings despite patient movement.
OQO is touting an 'ultra personal computer' (uPC) - a fully-functional Windows XP PC small enough to fit in a pocket, yet powerful enough to replace one's laptop. Measuring only 124 x 86 x 23 mm, it has a 1 GHz processor, a 20 GB hard drive, 256 MB of RAM, 800 x 400 colour transflective display, 802.11b wireless, removable li-polymer battery, and FireWire and USB 1.1 ports. For input and navigation it includes thumb keyboard with TrackStik and mouse buttons as well as digital pen and thumbwheel.
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