Southern Africa
Spescom Limited announced headline earnings of R20,6m for the interim half year ending 31 March, 2004. The group reported a 50% increase in trading profits for the first six months, when compared to the corresponding period last year. Foreign exchange gains represent 20% of operating income as opposed to 50% for the first half of 2003. Spescom said that the sustained profitability can be attributed to improved margins on proprietary product revenues, combined with continued prudent management of operating costs.
Altron announced satisfactory results for the year despite challenging conditions in some of its market sectors coupled with the continuing effects of a strong rand environment and the ongoing stagnation of the global telecoms industry. Said chief executive Robert Venter: "The group's balance sheet remains strong with cash and cash equivalents increasing from R1,5 bn to break through the R2 bn mark for the first time, thereby enabling the group to be well-positioned to take advantage of further acquisition opportunities." Altron's power electronics and multimedia sector has maintained its contribution of 36% and contributed R229m or 32% to the group's total operating income compared to 41% for the previous year.
The return to profitability at Siemens Telecommunications, ATC and Panasonic contributed to Reunert increasing its headline earnings per share by 20% for the six months to March 31, 2004. Operating margin increased from 10,9% to 11,3%, boosting operating profits to R339,5m rand, it said.
Colin Rezek has been appointed alternate non-executive director to the board of Spescom Limited.
The South African Association of Consulting Engineers (SAACE) has announced that it has achieved ISO 9001 certification, making it the second service association in South Africa and one of the first consulting engineering member associations within FIDIC (International Federation of Consulting Engineers) to achieve this worldwide.
Intel has announced an expansion to its EMEA (Europe Middle East and Africa) channel network to include another 20 emerging countries to drive business opportunities for the channel in mobility, the digital home and enterprise refresh. This was revealed by John Lonergan, Intel's worldwide channel marketing director, at the EMEA Intel Solutions Summit in Madrid in May. Lonergan said Intel will further increase investment in its channel programme to help its resellers and distributors achieve continued growth.
Eletec has been appointed a sole representative for Zetech in the Cape Town area under the management of Neville Hearn. Zetech supplies manufacturing equipment, materials, systems integration services and technical support to the electronics industry. Eletec's contact details are 021 551 6675/6, eletec@telkomsa.net.
Johannesburg-headquartered mobile solutions developer, Harmonic Group, has established a presence in Cape Town, under the responsibility of Anton Steyn, managing director of Harmonic Cape.
The South African IT-In-Security management group, DEX, has developed a concept that it says uses off-the-shelf, existing technology in such a way that any person or document can be identified and data verified anywhere in the world and over any distance. According to the company, the three-in-one concept uses cellphone technology for document and biometrics identification, enabling users to authenticate the identity of the creator as well as the contents of a document. The biometrics identification technology (fingerprint and eye) exploited by DEX, allows secure, positively-identified booking and ticketing, with fraud protection. A cellular telephone reservation can be made by keying in a code, place, date and time. The finger of the caller is then placed on a scanner connected to the cellphone. When the ticket is collected, the biometric information is compared to verify authenticity.
If you head an innovative company or have developed an inventive product or service, now is the time to enter the 2004 T-Systems Age of Innovation & Sustainability Awards ( www.axius.co.za). Says Wolfgang Jakob, CEO of T-Systems SA, the main sponsor of the award: "The core objective of the awards is to identify and recognise initiatives, undertakings, projects and products that are outstanding both in innovation excellence and long-term sustainability." The main winner of last year's award was Daimler Chrysler for its public/private partnership HIV/AIDS workplace project. Other ingenious projects that won awards included: an automatic combustion management system; a satellite-linked IP multicasting system; submersible pumps; an access for justice for women and children initiative; a partner relationship management solution; the N-Tyre system and a pension biometric integrated solution.
The winners of the Intel-sponsored award for the 2003 Eskom Expo for Young Scientists, held in October last year, have left South Africa to compete at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in the USA. The winners, Waterkloof High School's Peet van Wyk and Michel Mouton with their 'Multipixelled disk' project and Domino Servite's Isak Du Preez with his 'Robosoccer robotic soccer player', will represent South Africa at the 6-day event which attracts more than 1200 like-minded young inventors. Scholarships worth more than $3,5 million in 14 categories of science, ICT and engineering research will be awarded to winners.
RF Design has new telephone numbers: Cape Town, 021 763 4700; Johannesburg, 011 695 2200.
Overseas
Business
Agilent Technologies announced second fiscal quarter revenues of $1,83 bn, up 25% from the like period a year ago. Second quarter net earnings were $104m, compared to a loss of $146m, in last year's second quarter. Orders were $1,89 bn for the quarter, up 24% from a year ago. Orders for semiconductor products were $523m, up 25% from last year. Second quarter revenues of $527m were 40% above one year ago compared to a 32% increase in worldwide semiconductor industry shipments through March.
Zarlink Semiconductor announced fourth quarter revenue of $51,2m, compared with $47,0m in the third quarter, and $52,8m in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2003. Improvements from the previous quarter were driven by strength in the company's network communications and ultra low-power communications business units. The company recorded revenue of $198,5m in 2004, an increase of 2% from fiscal 2003. The company's net loss in 2004 was $38,6m, an improvement on a loss of $57,9m in 2003.
Recently listed CSR (Cambridge Silicon Radio) has published unaudited financial results for its first quarter. Revenue increased by 38% to $36,8m ($26,7m in Q4 2003). Profits before tax were $7,0m ($4,0m in Q4 2003), and the net proceeds from CSR's flotation were $56,1m. Commented CEO John Hodgson, "Our Q1 results represent a strong start to our life as a listed company. This is our third profitable quarter in a row and our ninth consecutive quarter of revenue growth. We are also pleased with our increasing momentum, as evidenced by our share of design wins of new Bluetooth end products which was at a record level for CSR in the quarter."
Companies
Lockheed Martin has announced that Intelsat will acquire its COMSAT General business for a purchase price of $90m in cash, with an option for Intelsat to substitute up to $40 m in stock for cash. Additionally, Intelsat will purchase an Atlas launch vehicle from Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services, a subsidiary, for the launch of a future satellite. The COMSAT General business provides satellite-centric telecom services and equipment, concentrating on international fixed and mobile satellite systems.
Micronas of Germany has acquired Linx Electronics, a fabless semiconductor company that develops digital television solutions for improved reception of high-definition television signals, for approximately $26m.
Enea Embedded Technology and Alcatel have signed an extended, worldwide framework agreement. In addition to Enea's OSE realtime operating system, the agreement will include new products such as IP networking technology and the Polyhedra database for the development of embedded end-to-end communication equipment. The agreement regulates all aspects related to extensive licensing of Enea products by the Alcatel group worldwide.
Marvell has signed a broad architectural licensing agreement with ARM for long-term strategy of providing unified embedded microprocessors for high-volume SoCs targeting consumer entertainment, networking and storage applications. The new microprocessors incorporate advanced RISC design techniques normally found in high-end microprocessors and achieve 500 MHz operating frequencies using standard foundry CMOS processes, says Marvell.
British Telecommunications' research, technology and IT operations business, BT Exact, has signed a wide-ranging cross-licence agreement with Samsung Electronics that would enable both companies to use each other's patents to develop products and services in the telecommunications market. BT has also sold several patents relevant to the GSM mobile standard to Samsung.
The Ministries of Defence of France, Italy and the United Kingdom have been jointly selected by NATO to provide its new satellite communications capability from 2005 through to 2019. The Nato Satcom Post-2000 capability requirement for the SHF and UHF space segment is to be provided through the existing national programs - Syracuse in France, Sicral in Italy and Skynet in the UK.
Alcatel of France and TCL of China signed a memorandum of understanding to set up a joint venture to develop, market and distribute cellular phones and related services. TCL is the top handset supplier in China.
Royal Philips Electronics has joined the Symbian Platinum Program. Symbian develops and licenses Symbian OS, a global industry standard operating system for smartphones.
The ZigBee Alliance, an association formed to promote low-cost wireless networking based on the Zigbee standard, has announced 27 new member companies. New members include Renesas Technology, STMicroelectronics and Silicon Wave. Its total membership is now over 70 companies, it said.
Nordic Semiconductor has changed its company name from Nordic VLSI. The new name identifies the company as a semiconductor component supplier, it says. Founded in Norway in 1983, the company started as a traditional ASIC design house, selling consulting services to individual customers. Over the last 10 years, Nordic has gradually and purposely transitioned itself from design services to component delivery, first because of the goal to become a supplier of standard RF components.
Industry
According to In-Stat/MDR, the continued need for broadband sharing and a growing interest in entertainment networking will drive the total value of equipment with a home networking connection of some type from $8,3 bn in 2004 to $17,1 bn by 2008. Home networking entered mainstream in 2003 and early 2004, as large numbers of broadband users installed home networks to share Internet connections and electronics vendors delivered new entertainment products. In-Stat/MDR also says that the wireless LAN market has evolved from being 802.11b dominated, to one where 802.11g and multiband 802.11 represented nearly 50% of shipments in the fourth quarter of 2003. New technologies such as MIMO and wireless 1394 will make WLAN technology an increasingly viable alternative for multimedia networking, it says.
After declining by over 40% between 2000 and 2002, the market for power supply equipment in Western Europe bottomed out in 2003 with sales of Euro 3,51 bn, according to a recent Reed Electronics Research report. A modest recovery is expected in 2004, although it predicts caution as the continuing loss of production to East Europe and Asia and the relentless reduction in prices will dampen growth. However, even modest growth will be a relief for many suppliers, says Reed. The market is forecast to reach Euro 4,2 bn by 2008, an average growth of 3,7%.
Despite a slow start with consumers, personal video recorder (PVR) products are finally making headway, according to In-Stat/MDR. It gives two primary reasons for the recent growth: first, the integration of PVR capabilities into DVD players and recorders has been a big success. Second, there has been rising demand from satellite and cable TV operators for PVR-enabled settop boxes. Many pay-TV service providers are rolling out PVR products now to increase subscriber revenues and to keep their current customers from defecting to competitive services, it says.
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has set a global standard for a new optical fibre that it says will make it easier for network operators to deploy bandwidth to maximise technology in their core networks. The new G.656 allows more economical deployment of optical transport networks. It permits easier deployment of coarse wave division multiplexing (CWDM) in metropolitan areas, and increases the capacity of fibre in dense wave division multiplexing (DWDM) systems. G.656 allows operators using CWDM to deploy systems without the need to compensate for chromatic dispersion. It also means that at least 40 more channels can be added to DWDM systems says the group.
The ITU recently conducted a survey to obtain views on the perceived importance of agreed upon targets for improving connectivity and access in the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). The results are available at www.itu.int/newsroom/press_releases/2004/12.html
The World Semiconductor Council (WSC), held its eighth annual meeting in Busan, Korea, to address a number of public policy issues. The WSC created a new intellectual property (IP) Task Force and adopted a policy paper that sets out a multipronged approach to provide IP for layout designs of ICs. This form of IP protects the layout of circuits on a semiconductor chip, and is included in the World Trade Organisation's IP agreement.
The European Union has adopted a strategy that it expects will make the region the world leader in the field of nanotechnology, according to a statement published by the European Commission. The publication, 'Towards a European Strategy for Nanotechnology,' calls for Europe to triple nanotechnology research and development spending by 2010 within the context of the Sixth Research Framework Programme (2002-2006) which has set aside Euro 1,3 bn for nanotechnology and a proposed doubling of the European Union research budget in the 2007-2013 period.
ITU has reached agreement on a new global standard that specifies the application of the two main technologies used for encoding signals for DSL - discrete multitone (DMT) technology and quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) - to VDSL (very high-speed digital subscriber line) technology. VDSL gives multimegabit network access via ordinary telephone subscriber lines, allowing operators to offer a 'triple play' of services - multiple high-quality digital video streams, high-speed Internet access and voice.
Alcatel Canada has filed a $143,8m suit against Fairchild Semiconductor over apparent problems with IC-encapsulation material. The company has been named, along with three product distribution companies. The lawsuit alleges breach of contract, negligence and other claims. Fairchild said it believes that it has strong defences against all the claims and intends to vigorously defend the lawsuit. In a related action, Fairchild filed a lawsuit in August 2002 against Sumitomo Bakelite Singapore, a supplier of mould compound, and other related parties.
MPEG LA announced that several leading electronics companies have filed suit against Sagem Société d'Applications Générales d'Electricité et de Mécanique (SAGEM) for infringing 11 patents that are essential to the MPEG-2 digital video compression standard. Included among the plaintiffs are Matsushita Electric Industrial, Mitsubishi Electric, Philips Electronics, Sony, Thomson Licensing, and JVC.
Maxim has announced that the US District Court in San Diego has entered partial summary judgment in its favour in the patent infringement suit filed against Maxim by Qualcomm.
Micro fuel cell (MFC) technology will power nearly 15% of the world's laptop computers as early as 2012, according to a recent ABI Research study. In 2005, the new power source should be seen in a limited number of laptops and PDAs, and in certain niche applications, it predicts. One of the study's significant findings is that if micro fuel cells are going to enter commercial markets in even a small way in 2005, manufacturers must demonstrate their prototypes along with efficient refuelling mechanisms before the end of 2004.
Technology
Atmel has announced what it claims is the industry's first turnkey solution for ZigBee systems. ZigBee is a low data rate, low power, networked wireless standard for control and monitoring applications based on IEEE Standard 802.15.4. Atmel's Z-link solution consists of the AT86ZL3201 Z-Link Controller, the only dedicated, ZigBee-ready, full function device for 900 MHz and 2,4 GHz frequency bands, an AT86RF210 Z-Link 868 MHz/902-928 MHz 802.15.4 radio, and plug-and-play ZigBee and 802.15.4 protocol stacks.
MathStar has announced samples of its field programmable object array technology. It says it has chips for customer demonstration that operate at clock frequencies up to 1 GHz. The architecture is claimed to offer the performance of ASICs made with a 130 nm process with the development costs of field programmable gate arrays.
ARM has announced embedded signal processing core technology that is optimised for the efficient implementation of domain-specific applications. OptimoDE Data Engine cores employ a VLIW-styled architecture with a fully user-definable data path. Data path configurability enables the designer to completely define and extend the type and number of data path resource units, the data path widths, instruction widths and the number of I/O to the exact requirements of the application domain, said ARM.
University of Florida electrical engineers have installed a radio antenna less than 2,5 mm long on a computer chip and demonstrated that it can send and receive signals across a room. The achievement is another step in the team's continuing efforts to build an 'ultrasmall radio chip' - a transceiver, processor and battery all placed on a chip not much larger than a pinhead.
LG is commercialising a health care mobile handset for diabetics. The LG-KP8400 handset will be able to monitor blood sugar level. With a built-in blood sugar measurement tool and calorie meter in the battery pack, users will be able to measure their blood sugar level anywhere and connect wirelessly to a database.
Seiko Epson has developed a 40" diagonal organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display prototype and announced that it will offer polymer-based OLED products beginning in 2007, perhaps including a 40" OLED TV. The 40" panel was made by attaching four diagonal 20" low-temperature LCD panels and then printing polymer organic electronic luminescence materials using ink-jet printing technology.
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