Southern Africa
Vodacom has announced group profit from operations for the period 1 April 2005 to 31 March 2006 was up 36,9% to R8,9 bn. Net profit after taxation was up 32,0% to R5,1 bn. Vodacom also said that over the period its group-wide customer base increased 51,9% to 23,5 million.
In line with its drive to ensure science is emphasised in South Africa's education system, IBM SA has contributed TryScience kiosks to science centres across the country. The centres join more than 400 similar facilities worldwide which have been set up by TryScience (TryScience.org), a partnership between IBM, the New York Hall of Science, and the Association of Science-Technology Centres. The science centres are: the MTN Science Centre in Cape Town, the Sci Bono Discovery Centre in Newtown, Johannesburg, the UniZulu Science Centre in Richards Bay, and the Old Mutual MTN Science Centre at Durban's Gateway Shopping Centre. IBM is currently installing a kiosk at the Museum of Science and Technology in Pretoria. According to Alfred Mandewo, IBM SA's corporate community relations manager, the science centres are unique resources for informal learning, a process central to forging knowledge, skills, and positive attitudes about science.
Comztek has announced that it has gained the exclusive rights to distribute Sygate Technologies' range of behaviour-based security solutions in southern Africa. According to the company, these solutions helps businesses enforce business policies and automate security practices to regain control of network security, reduce costs, and ensure compliance across the organisation.
Overseas
Companies
Silicon Laboratories has acquired Silembia, a privately-held French company that develops semiconductor intellectual property for digital demodulation and channel decoding, for approximately $20m. Silembia has expertise in advanced error control coding and has developed silicon solutions leveraging experience in multicarrier modulation used in many emerging broadcast and wireline communication standards.
Specialist electronics components distributor, Advanced Power Components, has acquired Hero Electronics for around £2m in cash.
Synopsys is expanding its presence in electronic system level (ESL) design by acquiring Virtio, a creator of virtual platforms for embedded software development. According to the companies, the combination of Synopsys' System Studio solution with Virtio's virtual prototyping technology will help accelerate systems to market by giving software developers the ability to begin code development much earlier than with prevailing methods.
Ducommun Technologies has acquired WiseWave Technologies, a privately-held US company that manufactures custom microwave and millimetre-wave products for both aerospace and non-aerospace applications.
Harris has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Aastra Digital Video, a business unit of Aastra Technologies, for $35m. Aastra develops and markets video networking, encoding, decoding, and multiplexing technologies used by television broadcasters, telecoms providers and satellite networks.
Zarlink Semiconductor has acquired the optical I/O business of Primarion, a supplier of digital power conversion ICs, for $7m. Primarion's optical I/O business supplies laser driver and optical receiver ICs.
Ultralife Batteries has completed the $4,2m acquisition of Able New Energy, a manufacturer of lithium batteries located in Shenzhen, China. Able produces non-rechargeable lithium-manganese dioxide and lithium-thionyl chloride batteries, and supplies a variety of other non-rechargeable and rechargeable battery chemistries.
Wi-LAN (Calgary) has completed the sale of its technology development division to Fujitsu Microelectronics of America for $2m, acquiring Wi-LAN's development staff and 802.16d-like media-access controller (MAC) and physical-layer technologies.
Fairchild Semiconductor has formed three new analog development teams, with approximately 25 individuals, to bolster its power analog business. These teams will focus on developing next generation analog IC solutions for both DC-DC and AC-DC power management applications, said Fairchild.
Giga Scale Integration Corporation (Giga Scale IC) has changed its name to Chip Estimate Corporation. The company says its new name reflects its focus on delivering integrated solutions for chip project planning to the semiconductor industry. The company's website, www.chipestimate.com, delivers access to information on semiconductor IP and process options.
Universal Display has signed an agreement with Mitsubishi Chemical and Mitsubishi Chemical Group Science and Technology Research Center to collaborate on developing materials for phosphorescent OLED displays accessible through ink-jet printing. Phosphorescent OLED technology is said to offer up to four times higher efficiency than conventional OLED technology. Printable phosphorescent OLEDs (called P2OLEDs) indicates that ink-jet printable PHOLED technology has real commercial potential, according to the company.
Hydrocarbon membrane and membrane electrode assembly supplier, Hoku Scientific, has announced it plans to manufacture and sell solar modules, in addition to the polysilicon used to produce solar modules. Hoku plans to invest $250 m to set up solar module and polysilicon production. The company said it will operate the solar module business as a separate business in Singapore under the name Hoku Solar.
MRAM developer Micromem Technologies (Toronto), and RFID component supplier, Omron (Tokyo), have agreed to collaborate on the investigation of viable MRAM technology. Under the terms, Omron will evaluate the performance and suitability of Micromem's MRAM memory as it relates to Omron's RFID products.
Samsung Electronics has announced it is supplying terrestrial digital multimedia broadcasting (T-DMB) phones to German mobile carrier Debitel. The phones will be used to launch Europe's first commercial DMB-based mobile TV service. Debitel's DMB service will enable users to view World Cup 2006 soccer matches on mobile phones.
Renesas Technology has licensed its capacitorless twin transistor RAM (TTRAM) technology to Ottawa-based Emerging Memory Technologies, which develops embedded memory intellectual property. Renesas' TTRAM technology features two serially-connected transistors, eliminating the need for a metal-insulator-metal capacitor implemented in conventional memory cells.
Google and Dell have announced a deal where Dell will sell PCs with Google software installed. The deal will see Dell pre-installing Google's search application for searching a computer hard drive and e-mails, and a Web browser toolbar linking to Google's online search engine and other services. It would also set the homepage of the computer's browser to a co-branded Dell/Google website, and make Google the default search engine.
Intel and Microsoft have announced a collaboration to engineer and deliver flexible, pay-as-you-go PC purchasing models for consumers in emerging markets. The pay-as-you-go model enabled by Microsoft's FlexGo technology makes PCs more accessible by reducing the initial cost and enabling customers to pay for computers through subscriptions or as they use them, via prepaid activation cards or tokens. The deal is part of Intel's World Ahead program to help speed access to uncompromised technology and education for people in developing regions around the world. German chipmaker Infineon Technologies has agreed to make the security integrated circuits for the FlexGo systems.
Samsung Electronics has announced an exclusive alliance with MTI MicroFuel Cells, a supplier of micro fuel cells for mobile applications. Under the plan, MTI Micro will develop next-generation fuel cell prototypes for Samsung's mobile phone business. MTI Micro's direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) technology, dubbed Mobion, has been chosen to power a series of prototypes for Samsung's mobile phone and mobile phone accessories.
Industry
The World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organisation has raised its global semiconductor market forecast, now expecting to grow 10,1% on an annualised basis to $250 bn in 2006. It previously estimated 8,0% growth for the year. Projected growth in the worldwide semiconductor market will accelerate to 11,0% in 2007 and 12,8% in 2008, according to the organisation.
According to DMASS (Distributors' and Manufacturers' Association of Semiconductor Specialists), the usually very strong first quarter of the year ended with a sizeable increase in sales of 15,34% - the strongest growth since mid-2004. The value of chip sales through distributors reached 1,38 bn Euros in the quarter, which is the highest sales number since 2001, according to DMASS.
The market for FPGAs and other programmable logic devices (PLD) is expected to grow from $3,2 bn in 2005 to $6,7 bn in 2010, according to a new Gartner Dataquest forecast. The market analyst firm forecasts that the FPGA/PLD will grow 14% this year to reach $3,7 bn and another 18% to reach $4,3 bn in 2007. According to Gartner, Xilinx and Altera accounted for more than 84% of the market in 2005.
Advanced Micro Devices now holds 25,7% of the x86 server processor market in the US, according to the latest Gartner figures. This is up 9% in the same quarter a year ago and 14,9% in the fourth quarter. According to Gartner, AMD has seen its most dramatic increases in the United States. Currently, AMD holds 15,3% of the worldwide server share.
According to market analyst iSuppli, the leading supplier of NOR-type flash memory in the first quarter, Spansion, achieved first-quarter NOR-type sales of $562m, down 6,5% from $601m in the fourth quarter of 2005. Intel was second with revenues of $537m, down 10,5% from the fourth quarter. STMicroelectronics remained in third place with revenue of $327m, a 2,4% decline from the fourth quarter.
The use of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) in mobile phone handsets reached $157m in 2005 and is set to exceed to $1 bn in 2010, according to market research company In-Stat. Microphones and bulk acoustic resonators have dominated the MEMS market to date but there are now emerging opportunities for inertial sensors, accelerometers, and radio frequency components. MEMS switches and MEMS-based digital tuning would appear in handsets in 2007, followed by MEMS-based oscillators in 2008, said In-Stat.
Communications network company Avaya has been selected as one of 10 companies to participate in a $4 bn US Army project that will overhaul voice and data communications infrastructures of US Army bases worldwide.
Sun Microsystems has announced it would cut up to 5000 jobs and exit several facilities in Silicon Valley in an effort to restore profitability. Sun will increase investment in core technologies and get rid of what it says are non-core businesses.
Osram Opto Semiconductors has filed a lawsuit against Kingbright Electronic of Taiwan, alleging that it is infringing fundamental patent rights related to the importing, selling and offering of certain white and surface-mountable LEDs in Germany.
The world's first RapidIO interoperability testing facility, Riolab, has established a qualified vendor programme (QVP), to ensure it uses the most advanced equipment to perform interoperability and specification compliance testing. Riolab has also announced the first four qualified vendors: Fabric Embedded Tools (FET), Nexus Technology, Silicon Turnkey Express (STx) and Tektronix.
The Mobile Industry Processor Interface Alliance (MIPI) has released the display serial interface specification (DSI) for mobile phones. DSI is based on upon MIPI's D-PHY physical layer specification, a high-speed, low-power scalable serial interconnect. The SLVS-based physical layer enables data rates as high as 1 Gbps per differential set of wires, while generating minimal noise.
Analog chip maker Austriamicrosystems is offering three cash prizes between 7500 euro to 2500 euro, for designers who come up with the 'most attractive' application ideas for its AS8500/1 data acquisition product family. A key feature of the AS8500/1 family is its ability to measure small voltage changes over a wide bandwidth without any offset.
Technology
Ceragon Networks of Israel has introduced a product that it claims doubles the speed of wireless communications for wireless carriers that want to provide data-rich services. Called FibeAir IP-Max, it enables high-capacity wireless communications between base stations and the main switch (backhaul). It is said to offer capacities of 50 to 800 Mbps, about double the maximum previous speeds. It has passed customer trials at phone companies and is now commercially available.
Seertech, a developer of advanced technologies for the display, signage, and power industries, has launched a project to develop paper-like displays based on its FASwitch electrostatic switches. Dai Nippon Printing (DNP) will help with the initial prototype development. The company expects to commercialise these displays in 2007.
Qualcomm has introduced a single-chip universal broadcast modem (UBM) solution supporting three of the world's leading mobile broadcast standards. The UBM chip supports FLO technology, as well as digital video broadcasting handheld (DVB-H) and one-segment integrated services digital broadcasting - terrestrial (ISDB-T). This creates a common platform enabling handset makers to address multiple standards.
Dow Corning has launched an expanded family of silicone materials for the light emitting diode (LED) market, including three new LED-protecting encapsulants and a mouldable resin said to combine the durability and transparency of silicone to make hard discrete lenses and other components for LED applications.
Advanced Micro Devices has launched the AMD Live! Entertainment Suite, a collection of services and applications designed to enhance the home PC experience. PC makers such as Acer, Alienware, Fujitsu Siemens, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard, Sahara, and Tsinghua Tongang are now starting to offer the AMD Live!-branded systems, which use AMD's Athlon 62 X2 dual processor. On Demand, one of the first services offered, streams live or prerecorded television programs, photos, music, and movies to Web-connected devices.
Fujitsu Hitachi Plasma Display Limited has announced it will commence mass production of a new series of 42-inch and 37-inch high-definition plasma display panels (PDPs) that utilise ALIS technology. ALIS (alternate lighting of surfaces) is an innovative method that alternately displays odd and even lines at high speeds. This technology makes it possible to create high-resolution images using about the same number of electrodes as used with conventional VGA technology. The 42-inch model boasts the world's highest resolution (1,11 megapixels) for its size, and also features the world's highest brightness level of 1400 cd/m², according to Fujitsu.
Samsung Electronics has unveiled the first commercial prototype of a hybrid hard disk (HHD) that combines NAND-based flash memory with rotating magnetic storage. The hybrid drive is intended for notebooks and leverages the benefits of both magnetic and solid state storage without compromising the cost of the computer housing it, according to Samsung. It claims the drives also boot or resume up to twice as fast as conventional HDDs, lasts 20 to 30 minutes longer on battery, and is up to five times more reliable.
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