Southern Africa
Altech reported revenue increased 34% to R5,6 bn, with operating income increasing by 48% to R493m, in its financial results for the year ended February 2005. Significant highlights had been achieved during the year, said Altech CEO, Craig Venter. This included the seamless integration of NamITech into Altech, and the successful implementation of the Econet Wireless Global (EWG) transaction, in which Altech had invested $40m to become a substantial shareholder and joint controlling partner. UEC Multi-Media had experienced pressure on its results, said Venter, due to the strengthening of the rand against the dollar. "This was despite an 8% increase in unit volumes and an increase in US dollar turnover of 18% on the previous year," he said. In order to re-position and defend the company from a strengthening rand, a focused company-wide re-engineering and process redesign had been undertaken. "Implementation of this programme began in the fourth quarter and immediate benefits have already been experienced," said Venter. He noted that the company's order book was strong, with orders in excess of R140m having already been received within the first two months of the new financial year.
Electronics and electrical group Reunert continued its strong financial performance, increasing turnover by 9% to R3,3 bn and operating profit by 28% from R340m to R433m. Reunert chief executive, Gerrit Pretorius, said all businesses, with the exception of defence, benefited from the favourable economic conditions. Strong consumer demand fuelled by low interest rates boosted the performance of the consumer division. The electrical group gained greatly from the increased spends on infrastructure. Telecommunications was holding its own, he said, while the troubled defence industry was unlikely to improve. African Cables maintained its growth as the market for power cables remained firm, while Circuit Breaker Industries performed well. Although the market for telecom cables remained subdued, ATC traded profitably. The electronics division grew turnover by 7% to R3,1 bn and operating profit by 2%. Nashua and Nashua Mobile contributed positively to group profits, while associate company Siemens Telecommunications' profits were down slightly, reflecting the effect of the strong rand. Defence division Reutech continues to suffer from a low order intake and reported a loss of R4 m.
MB Silicon Systems has been appointed as sole local dealer for the following agencies; Myrra, a manufacturer of transformers and chokes for electronic and industrial equipment; Powertip, an LCD manufacturer; Raltron Electronics a manufacturer of frequency management devices; and Ristra, a manufacturer of chokes, filters, current transformers and HF transformers.
ADEC recently hosted a breakfast function at the Sandton Sun, with an interesting and informative presentation by Rudolf Gouws of RMB. With the wealth of background information gained from this presentation, ADEC noted that members would be able to follow the variations in interest rates and currency moves with new insight. Rudolf Gouws commented that in all his 35 years of studying the South African economic situation, he was never more confident of the country's future than now.
ADEC has announced its plans to hold a one-day 'trade show' on or about 14 September at the Eskom Convention Centre at Midrand. The venue is well situated, easily reachable, has excellent facilities, and most importantly, is inexpensive, it says. The concept of the show is that of a one-day event, with exhibitors having simple 'cost-effective' stands consisting of only a few trestle tables. The idea is to 'just show some products, and make 'contact' with your visitors'. More details will be published at a later date. Similar events are also being planned for Cape Town and Durban. For more information contact +27 (0)11 809 6249, adec@icon.co.za
Overseas
Business
Affected by losses in its automatic test equipment business, Agilent Technologies posted revenues of $1,69 bn for its second fiscal quarter, down 8% from the like period a year ago. Second quarter net earnings were $95m, compared with $104m in last year's second quarter. The company's ATE business posted revenues of $181m in the period, down 32% from last year but up 17% sequentially. For Agilent's semiconductor business, orders of $464m were up 5% for the quarter from the year ago period and up 22% sequentially. Revenues were down 9% from last year's period, and up 9% sequentially. Segment profits of $12m were $38m below last year. For test and measurement, orders of $757m were 2% above last year and up 16% from the prior quarter.
Despite a drop in DSP revenues, Analog Devices (ADI) reported sales of $603,7m for Q2, up 4% from the previous period but down 11% from the same period a year ago. ADI posted a profit of $117,6m in the period, compared to $107,4m in the previous period and $152,6m a year ago. By end market, approximately 41% of second quarter revenue was from industrial applications, 31% from communications applications, 15% from consumer applications, and 13% from computer applications. DSP revenue declined 4% sequentially, it reported.
Companies
Interconnection manufacturer, Radiall, has expanded its US portfolio with the acquisition of Applied Engineering Products (AEP), one of the largest independent designers and manufacturers of subminiature coaxial connectors and cable assemblies used in high reliability radio and microwave frequency applications.
Cognex has acquired machine vision vendor, DVT, for $115m.
Zoran, a digital consumer electronics IC provider, has agreed to acquire Oren Semiconductor, for $44,6m. Oren is an Israeli provider of demodulator ICs for digital television.
CVD Equipment has acquired First Nano, a supplier of chemical vapour deposition process equipment for the synthesis of a variety of nanomaterials.
National Semiconductor has signed an agreement to sell the company's cordless business unit to HgCapital, a private London-based investor. The sale of this unit is consistent with National's ongoing focus on core analog businesses, it said. HgCapital will acquire the IP, assets and 70 engineers, all of whom are based at National's cordless business unit in Hertogenbosch and its design centre in Hengelo, The Netherlands.
Japan's Sumitomo Chemical has purchased the Lumation light-emitting polymers (LEPs) business from The Dow Chemical Company.
Vishay Intertechnology has acquired 4,5 million additional shares of Siliconix, boosting its total ownership of Siliconix common stock to 95%. Vishay however, still faces a pending legal challenge from a group of investors in California Superior Court who is seeking damages and injunctive relief for alleged wrongdoing by Vishay since it acquired the majority of Siliconix in 1998.
Maxim Integrated Products has announced a corporate re-organisation that centres around two new business groups. Under the new structure, the 'portable, computing, and instrumentation electronics' group will comprise 10 business units, each headed by a vice president or managing director. The 'multimedia, automotive, and telecommunications electronics' group comprises seven business units. Worldwide manufacturing will remain centralised, said Maxim.
Emcore, a manufacturer of compound semiconductor components, has spun-off its gallium nitride power electronic devices efforts into a startup company named Velox Semiconductor. Velox will commercialise fast, high-voltage diodes for the power supply industry.
Intel has licensed a PowerVR graphics and video processing IP core architecture - codenamed Eurasia - and a next-generation multistandard video codec core, from Imagination Technologies of the UK. Currently under development, Imagination says the Eurasia architecture includes advanced shading technology and is scalable to address applications in the mobile, consumer and computing segments.
Atmel has agreed to partner with Israeli pure-play foundry Tower Semiconductor to develop CMOS image sensor technology. The two companies will jointly develop advanced photodiode structures to be used mainly in consumer products.
Industry
The instrument market is growing after a long hiatus according to market researcher, Prime Data. After declining 57% from peak sales in 2000, declining in 2001, 2002 and showing no growth in 2003, test instrument sales grew by 12% in 2004. General purpose test instruments, which include bench instruments like oscilloscopes, spectrum analysers, network analysers and the like, accounts for the largest portion of the instruments market. This segment grew 14% from 2003 to 2004. Dedicated communications testers, such as mobile radio testers, protocol analysers and fibre-optics test equipment, grew 9%, while logic analyser sales grew 8%.
Worldwide shipments of structured ASIC products are forecast to soar from the $209,8m reached last year to $2,53 bn by 2009, reports research firm In-Stat. While the use of this technology will be dominated by ASIC designs throughout the forecast period, In-Stat says it will find growing applications in the world of application-specific standard products (ASSPs), whose revenues will reach nearly 30% of the market's total by 2009. Communications, as is the case for most products of this type, will dominate the consumption of structured ASIC products, with the majority of applications being in the networking infrastructure, telecom, and cellular basestation segments. The research firm's recent report found that of the three major structured ASIC configuration categories - embedded array (embedded in a cell-based design); embedded FPGA (also embedded in a cell-based design); and reconfigurable CPU - the embedded array (or eArray) segment will dominate dollar shipments, albeit continually losing ground to the other methodologies. Also, the second largest end-use category for structured ASICs will be industrial, with the largest applications being in the medical, factory automation and instrumentation arenas.
Research firm IC Knowledge has radically revised its semiconductor forecast for 2005, saying the market will grow by 17,6% this year, not decline by 2,7% as it previously announced. The revised forecast is based on stronger-than-expected average selling prices (ASPs) for ICs, it said.
Market research firm, S2 Data, expects the camera-based cellular phone market to increase from 213 million units shipped in 2004, to 410 million in 2005 - or 58% of all handset shipments. By 2006, some 70% of the cellular phones shipped will include built-in camera functions, increasing to 90% by 2009, according to its report.
Demand for mixed-signal devices is increasing in the growing $2,4 bn automotive ASIC sector, says research firm Strategy Analytics. The firm predicts that growth in demand for automotive ASICs will be driven by mixed-signal applications, as electronic control is increasingly dispersed around vehicles with growth in the use of networks and smart sensors. Both niche and major semiconductor players are finding success with automotive demand, said the company. Strategy Analytics said its research found that designers frequently use ASICs to optimise cost, performance and time-to-market in specialised functions, beyond that provided by the wide range of catalogue ICs and automotive application specific standard products.
According to West Technology Research Solutions, mobile and fixed WiMAX will supplement communication structures in the developed world, but will 'truly revolutionise' basic technology systems throughout the developing world. Says WTRS principal analyst, Kirsten West: "The fixed WiMAX boom will come in Africa, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe. By 2010 shipments in less-developed areas will be twice those in the developed world. WiMAX may prove to be the most significant tool in unleashing rapid vitalisation in nascent economies."
According to a new study from ABI Research, annual global sales of 'dual-mode' mobile phones - which can connect to either a conventional cellular service or a Wi-Fi network - are likely to exceed 100 million during the final year of this decade. ABI analyst, Philip Solis, said that the advantages of dual mode handsets and services, when they arrive 'can be summed up in two words: seamless and economical'. "When the services are mature you will be able to start a phone call at home (where your phone connects to your residential Wi-Fi network and then to your broadband Voice over IP phone service), continue it in your car (where the phone switches to your cellular provider's network), and wind it up at work, where the phone once more switches to your organisation's 802.11 LAN, and VoIP."
Renesas Technology has been ordered by a US District Court judge to stop selling in the US, microprocessors that have been found to infringe on a patent held by Translogic Technology. Renesas cannot sell or import into the USA 18 different microprocessors found in Renesas' SH-3 and SH-4 product families. Renesas is the semiconductor business spin-off from Hitachi. On 6 May Translogic was awarded $85,6m in damages after a prior ruling that the microprocessors infringe on Translogic's transmission gate patent.
On 13 May, more than 1200 military and civilian personnel from 43 countries started an intense 13-day exercise dubbed 'Combined Endeavour 2005' (CE-05) - the largest and most complex communications and information system (CIS) military exercise in the world. It was conducted in both Lager Aulenbach, Germany, and at a forward operating site in Constanta, Romania. The purpose of the multinational exercise was to plan and execute interoperability testing of command, control, communications, and computer equipment systems from participant nations, in support of future combined humanitarian, peacekeeping, and disaster relief operations.
Technology
Motorola Labs has unveiled a working 127 mm (5") colour video display prototype based on carbon nanotube (CNT) technology. The technique could create large, flat panel displays with superior quality, longer lifetimes and lower costs than current offerings, said the company. The development of such a flat panel display is possible due to Motorola's nano emissive display (NED) technology - a scalable method of growing CNTs directly on glass. The prototype is less than 3,2 mm thick and is said to have comparable or better viewing characteristics than CRT displays. Motorola Labs hopes to develop NED-based displays optimised for large screen HDTV that are under 25 mm thick.
Microsoft launched its new new Xbox 360 video game console, that uses three custom 3,2 GHz dual-threaded PowerPC cores, each of which includes a 128-bit vector graphics unit with a full 128 registers and 1 Mbyte cache. In addition, the console includes an ATI Technologies graphics chip that processes 500 million triangles per second. It packs 10 Mbytes of embedded DRAM and 512 Mbytes of external GDDR3 memory running at 700 MHz. Microsoft claims it delivers 1 teraflop of system-level, floating-point performance.
Analog Devices is introducing a suite of amplifiers designed to meet the demanding signal conditioning requirements of high-voltage industrial and instrumentation equipment. The products are manufactured on the company's new 'iPolar' trench isolation process technology, which it claims is the industry's most significant re-engineering of 36 V bipolar technology in nearly 20 years. iPolar is a stable, high-voltage manufacturing methodology that replaces the bulky diffusion layers of traditional bipolar processes with a deep trench technique that greatly increases transistor density and performance. With up to ±18 V operating voltages, these analog components increase performance relative to conventional bipolar amplifiers, while reducing package size by as much as 75% and power consumption by up to 50%, according to the company.
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