Southern Africa
South African electronic surveillance, security and image processing stalwart for the past 18 years, Thales Advanced Engineering, has adopted a new business strategy and direction and changed its name to Protoclea, trading as Protoclea Advanced Image Engineering. Managing director Dr Bennie Coetzer said there were two primary reasons for this: "Firstly, the company has over the past five years been confused with another 'Thales', a French company, which had a contract from the South African Government to construct combat suites for four corvettes being built in Germany. We formed and registered Thales Advanced Engineering in South Africa in 1987 and our company also operates in the defence industry. The French company, which used to be known as Thomson-CSF, elected to change its name to Thales in December 2000. While we hold the rights to the name in South Africa, the French Court did not support our rights in France. In short, to put an end to the confusion of the two companies here in South Africa, we decided it would better suit our long term interests to change our name." The second reason says Coetzer, is that the company is re-positioning itself to re-focus as a developer, manufacturer and supplier of a select range of both local and imported products for advanced CCTV surveillance and security solutions as well as a number of highly specialised advanced image engineering applications.
Control Instruments has acquired a majority shareholding in Tripmaster, a Dallas-based business that specialises in fleet management in North America. According to Richard Friedman, Control Instruments' CEO and managing director, 51% of the shares in Tripmaster have been acquired for $3,5 million and the purchase agreement includes an option to acquire the remaining shares over the next three years. Tripmaster is a leading supplier of onboard computers (OBCs) to the North American trucking market. Tripmaster has patented technology in respect of state line crossing calculations that will be incorporated into Control Instruments' Fleet Management products. Control Instruments designs, manufactures and owns the intellectual property for the Fleet Manager (FM) range of OBCs that have been sold outside the USA under the Siemens VDO FM brand for nearly 10 years. Control Instruments also operates an Internet-based fleet management Bureau Service for customers around the world from its offices in Stellenbosch. Friedman said that the plans were to bring the Tripmaster products and new products sold into the USA onto the Bureau Service in the second half of 2006.
Overseas
Business
National Semiconductor has reported net income of $130,1m, on revenues of $547,7m for the third quarter of its fiscal 2006. National's Q3 revenues were 22% higher than in Q3 of the previous fiscal year, and $3,7m higher than for Q2 2006. During the third quarter, revenues from broader markets served through National's distribution channel were strong, which more than offset an expected seasonal decline in revenues from products that serve wireless handsets, it said. National's Q3 GAAP net income was 13% higher sequentially and 68% higher year-to-year. National said its continued improvement in gross margin was a direct result of the company's focus on growing its higher-value analog product portfolio.
Companies
Laird Technologies has acquired Antenex, a company that designs and manufactures antennas and accessory products primarily for the US market. Laird Technologies is a designer and manufacturer of EMI shielding materials, thermal management products and wireless antenna solutions.
Lucent Technologies is buying Ethernet infrastructure provider, Riverstone Networks, for $207m.
Wind River Systems has acquired Interpeak, a Swedish provider of networking, security and mobility middleware that enables devices to connect to the Internet, for approximately $20m.
SiRF Technology Holdings, a provider of GPS-enabled silicon and premium software location platforms, has acquired TrueSpan, a communications systems IP company. TrueSpan is developing technology for high quality mobile digital audio and video.
California Micro Devices has entered into an agreement to acquire Arques Technology, a fabless manufacturer of analog semiconductor devices, in a deal valued at more than $8m. Arques makes white LED drivers for mobile handsets and DDR memory voltage regulators for digital consumer electronics products.
IMEC research centre spinoff, Essensium, has acquired Mind, a Belgian provider of embedded Linux and software integration services. Essensium is a fabless provider of SoC products and design services also based in Belgium.
Siemens has sold its remaining 18% stake in Infineon Technologies for about 1,1 bn Euros. Siemens' last remaining major position in high-tech electronics is through its 12,5% stake in electronic components group Epcos.
ATS Automation Tooling Systems has announced it will spin out its solar group into an independent subsidiary named Photowatt Technologies.
UMD Technology has integrated its three recent acquisitions, Wells-CTI, DB Design and Dimensions Consulting, and will go to market as UMD Advanced Test Technologies. With this integration, the company says it is the first back-end IC test consumables company to offer a single point of contact for burn-in sockets, ATE consumables and thermal management solutions.
Rambus has signed a patent licence agreement with Fujitsu, covering the manufacture and sale of systems and semiconductors worldwide.
Sanyo Electric has agreed to form a joint venture company with Taiwan-based Quanta Computer to make flat-panel TVs. Details of the JV must still be worked out, although operations are expected to begin in July. The move does not affect Sanyo's CRT-based TV business.
Following its acquisition in 2004, Racal Instruments Group has been officially relaunched as EADS Test and Services, and is reportedly the world's largest aerospace and defence test and services provider, holding 18% of the world market in test systems for aerospace and defence products.
Metalink, an Israel-based vendor of wireless and wireline broadband communication ICs, is working with Haier, a Chinese manufacturer of household electrical appliances. The two will work to develop consumer electronics products that link together wirelessly using the IEEE 802.11n standard.
A £20 million project has been awarded to the Institute of Advanced Telecommunications (IAT) and its partners. The Heterogeneous IP Networks (HIPNet) project will focus on the design and modelling of next generation ICT networks. HIPNet intends to develop the vision for a future telecommunications network landscape, taking into account the overall technological environment driving the evolution of converged IP-based networks and convergence of the application-communication sector over the next few years. Ericsson, Freescale and Artysan are the industrial partners that will provide design expertise at the component, system and network levels covering core IP networks, long-haul and submarine transport networks, metro, access and enterprise networks.
Industry
French telecoms technology provider, Alcatel and US equipment firm Lucent Technologies, have confirmed that they are considering a merger. This could create a group worth about $33 bn. In a brief joint statement which did not provide financial details, they said: "We can confirm that Lucent and Alcatel are engaged in discussions about a potential merger of equals that is intended to be priced at market." They also stated that "there can be no assurances that any agreement will be reached or that a transaction will be consummated."
The market for high performance multimarket analog products (standard linear) was down in 2005 by 1% from 2004, resulting in worldwide revenue of $11,7 bn. According to Databeans' figures, Texas Instruments remains the leader in this industry with 18% share of the market. The second largest supplier in this space is Analog Devices, followed closely by National Semiconductor with 13,4% and 12,8% share respectively. Maxim and Linear Technology are both estimated to have slightly grown share from 8% in 2004 to 9% in 2005. High performance analog includes amplifiers, interface, data converters, comparators, and power management ICs. Databeans estimates that 2006 will be a double digit growth year - well above 20%.
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has overwhelmingly rejected China's domestic wireless LAN technology, Wired Authentication and Privacy Infrastructure (WAPI), as an international standard, deciding instead to approve IEEE 802.11i as the basis for a more secure wireless protocol.
Revenues from worldwide sales of WLAN equipment showed healthy growth in 2005, according to a new report from Infonetics Research. Revenues were up 10% overall in 2005. WLAN switch and controller revenues grew 93%. Infonetics expects the growth trend to continue, with much of it being driven by the enterprise market, which it believes will expand 120% between 2005 and 2009. Cisco was the overall WLAN equipment revenue leader last year, followed by Symbol and 3Com.
Fabless semiconductor company revenue topped $40 bn in 2005 for the first time, according to a recent report by the Fabless Semiconductor Association.
The 'Golden Book' - a record of work undertaken to implement the goals of the World Summit on the Information Society and build the future 'Information Society' - has been published by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The Golden Book (www.itu.int/wsis/goldenbook) highlights some of the valuable work being done around the world to promote ICTs in projects, large and small, by governments, individuals or team effort, for the benefit of all.
Microsoft has announced that it is delaying general availability of 'Vista,' its next major upgrade to the Windows operating system, until January 2007.
After seeing shipments more than double in 2005, the Bluetooth market is expected to see a 71% increase in Bluetooth radio shipments to 500 million in 2006, according to market research firm ABI Research. It expects the market to grow at a compound annual rate of over 40% between 2004 and 2011, with equipment shipments expected to break the 1 billion mark by 2009.
Research and Markets has released a new study that assesses the global flexible and flex-rigid substrate supply chain. Flexible and flex-rigid substrates are now a key emerging technology in next generation electronic system design and development and IC packaging. Until now, flex technology was seen as a specialist and niche substrate technology. The demand for increased functionality, improved signal integrity and interconnect density is driving the requirement for flexible and flex-rigid substrates.
Kirk P. Pond, former CEO and current chairman of Fairchild Semiconductor, is set to retire from the chairman's post at the company's annual stockholders' meeting on 3 May 2006.
LSI Logic has revealed plans to focus its business on growth opportunities in the information storage and consumer markets, and increase associated R&D investments. LSI intends to fund additional R&D investments in its focus markets by redirecting ongoing investments in its RapidChip platform ASIC technology, and by selling its ZSP digital signal processor (DSP) unit. The ZSP unit provides licensed ASIC technology to the broadband and wireless communications markets.
Seiko Instruments is establishing a new R&D centre in Singapore to strengthen its storage and microelectronics offerings. Its primary purpose will be to nurture partnerships with local institutes under the Singapore government's Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (ASTAR), it said.
Technology
Samsung showcased new levels of connectivity for mobile phones at CeBIT. Using ad-hoc routing and ultra-wideband (UWB) technologies, the phones allow users to transfer large multimedia files such as movies and photos to another mobile phone without using GSM networks. Users can also transfer video to a set top box and display them on a TV. The UWB technology also allows users to send DVD films to the box equipped with an embedded miniPCI card. The ad-hoc network routing technology also enables users to chat, share video files, music and play multiplayer-games without using a GSM network or access points like wireless hot spots.
Samsung Electronics has revealed a 32 gigabyte NAND flash-based, solid-state disk intended for mobile computing applications. Dubbed the 32-GB Flash-SSD, it can serve the same purpose as a hard disk drive but is said to weigh only half as much as a comparably-sized, 1,8" hard drive. However, it reads data three times faster and can write data 1,5 times faster, according to the company.
EPOS Technologies has unveiled a smart pen using USB Flash drive technology. It enables users to capture and store handwritten notes and sketches wirelessly using a digital pen with flash memory capabilities. It uses 3D positioning technology based on the transmission of ultrasonic acoustic waves between the transmitter and pen. EPOS believes that its digital pen and USB Flash drive could replace bulky laptops and tablet PCs in meetings and classrooms.
Scientists in Korea claim to have developed the world's smallest transistor, according to a report in the 'Korea Herald'. The device, a three-dimensional FinFET, has a channel length of only 3 nanometers. It was built by scientists at the National Nano Fab Center at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.
XsunX, the developer of an innovative thin film solar technology called 'Power Glass' that is intended to allow glass windows to produce electricity from the power of the sun, has produced first samples of its technology on rolls of plastic film. The technology will allow manufacturers to apply the semi-transparent photovoltaic film to surfaces, which converts light energy into electrical energy for use as a power source.
BASF and Tekion are jointly developing formic-acid-based fuel cell technology to power portable electronic products. The two companies will also work together on the development of applicable codes and standards and share their expertise on materials compatibility for fuel cells. Tekion has developed a miniature 'power pack' capable of fitting inside, or attaching to, mobile electronic devices. The micro fuel cell/battery hybrid recharges the battery to allow extended operation.
Conexant Systems and Sharp have jointly developed a tiny low-power Wi-Fi module they believe will spur development of embedded and small consumer devices. The 100 mm² module uses Conexant's CX3110X wireless radio and its library of WLAN solutions and Sharp's packaging technology.
Seiko Epson has announced it has developed the world's first print head using an OLED (organic light-emitting diode) light source. Electrophotographic printing technologies generally use either laser or LED light sources. Epson claims that printout qualities are comparable to or better than those produced by conventional laser printers. The red material is coated on a glass substrate, and it can be applied directly onto a glass substrate, making it possible for a single substrate to have a linear light source. This enables the exact amount of light to irradiate a spot with extreme accuracy to form highly uniform images, claims Epson.
Lucent Technologies' Bell Labs has reported that is has achieved 100 Gbps Ethernet signal transmission over 400 km using dispersion-compensated fibre. According to Bell Labs, a hybrid amplifier using both erbium-doped fibre and Raman amplifiers was used, achieving an aggregate data rate of 107 Gbps.
Scientists demonstrated at CeBIT a brain-computer interface that translates brain signals into computer control signals. Fraunhofer FIRST and the Berlin Charité, both members of the Bernstein Center of Computational Neuroscience Berlin, demonstrated a 'mental typewriter' and a mentally-controlled computer tennis game. The interface uses the electrical activity of the brain in the form of an electroencephalogram (EEG). Electrodes attached to the scalp measure the brain's electrical signals, which the computer converts into control signals. Human patients can learn to manipulate cursors and such systems could provide greatly improved quality of life for quadriplegics, say the scientists. Other potential applications are in safety technologies, where the EEG activity is faster than conventional reaction time.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientists have developed a light detector claimed to be 57% efficient at 1550 nm, the same wavelength used by optical fibres to carry broadband signals. The detector may allow for super-fast broadband communications over interplanetary distances, allowing the transmission of large amounts of data from space in realtime. Existing wireless radio frequency technology can take hours to get useful scientific information back, but an optical link can do that much faster, they said. The researchers improved the efficiency of a single-photon detector by adding what they call a 'photon trap' to the detector as well as an antireflection coating to keep light from bouncing off its surface.
At the CeBit show, Samsung Electronics entered the mobile PC market with the launch of its Q1 ultra-mobile PC. The Q1 weighs 779 g and uses touch-screen technology on a 17,8 cm LCD. The 229 x 140 x 25 mm mini-tablet comes with a 40-Gb hard drive and 512 MB of DDR2 memory, Celeron M processor, 802.11b/g, Bluetooth 2.0, GPS and DMB options, and Windows XP Tablet with Touch Pack.
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