Southern Africa
Spescom has announced a headline loss of R11,8m for the six months ending 31 March, 2006, as compared to the R10,9m loss for the corresponding period last year. According to Spescom's chief financial officer, Jene Palmer, the decline in revenues can be attributed to the deconsolidation of the US operation and the discontinuation of the test and measurement division. Palmer adds that forecasting revenues is difficult: "Best estimates indicate an improved full year performance due to pipeline opportunities and orders on hand. However, the telecoms arena is an example of the unpredictable nature of our business. Despite deregulation, this sector continues to be volatile. A conservative view of the market would be that revenues are only expected to begin flowing in 2007," she explains. "A major issue that the group is faced with is that in many instances we are ahead of our time in terms of strategising for market changes that have not taken place in the anticipated time frame."
Alcatel has signed a 41,5m euro GSM expansion contract with Angolan mobile operator Unitel. Under the expansion contract, the company will deploy its Evolium multistandard radio access solution over a large number of sites throughout the operator's network. It is expected that the project should be completed by the end of 2006.
The installed base of personal computers in South Africa will pass the 5 million mark for the first time this year, according to a new study released by World Wide Worx. The 4,5 million mark was reached at the end of 2005, and it is expected to grow by 17% to 5,3 million by the end of 2006. Conducted by Kirsty Laschinger and Arthur Goldstuck, the study moved beyond conventional counting of computer sales to establish how long PCs, laptops and servers remain in use once they are in the market, and how many are in active use. "We found that PCs have a life span ranging three to six years, while laptop computers tend to be used for only up to three years," says Laschinger, who interviewed most of the country's major PC manufacturers and distributors for the project.
Saab Grintek has become the first company in Africa to be awarded Nortel EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Gold Partner status in four categories. It says the highest accreditation in Africa until now has been three Golds. The Nortel programme requires that a partner employs a minimum of four Nortel certified persons in each of the prescribed disciplines from pre-sales to after-sales. The Nortel partnership programme builds a comprehensive framework to ensure successful partnering and provides a basis for a close relationship between Nortel and its EMEA partners. Saab Grintek has established Technical Training Solutions (TTS) Africa as a recognised Nortel Education Partner to provide training for information communication and technology professionals on Nortel products.
Mobile message carrier, Clickatell, has expanded its European business with the establishment of UK headquarters in Richmond, Surrey, and the appointment of Deon van Heerden as UK country manager.
Overseas
Business
Verigy, the automatic test equipment spin-off from Agilent Technologies, is currently estimating that its upcoming initial public offering (IPO) price per share will be between $16 and $18. All of the 8,5 million ordinary shares are being sold by Verigy and it expects to raise approximately $134m after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions.
National Semiconductor has reported net income of $118,8m on revenues of $572,6m for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2006. Q4 revenues were 22,6% higher than the figure recorded in the same quarter of the previous year, and 4,5% higher sequentially. Annual revenues were $2,16 bn, compared to $1,91 bn in fiscal 2005. For 2006, the company reported net income of $449,2m. This compares to the $415,3m net profit reported for 2005.
Companies
Analog Devices has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire South Korean RF device manufacturer, Integrant Technologies for $127m. Integrant develops high-performance analog circuits designed for RF signal processing such as tuners that allow mobile consumer devices to receive digital TV and digital radio.
Silicon-on-insulator wafer supplier Soitec has concluded an agreement to acquire TraciT Technologies, a company specialised in thin layer transfer technologies that leverage molecular adhesion and mechanical, as well as chemical, thinning processes for the production of MEMS and power circuits.
AMD has sold its MIPS-based AMD Alchemy embedded processor product line and operations to Raza Microelectronics (RMI) as part of a wider business relationship between the companies. AMD will become an investor in RMI.
Indian firm Wipro Technologies has agreed to buy Finland-based wireless communications design firm, Saraware, for 25m Euro. Saraware has expertise in basestation controllers and mobile communication platforms for GSM, 3G and Tetra markets.
Powerwave Technologies has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the majority of Filtronic's Wireless Infrastructure division business. The specific product lines included comprise transmit/receive filters, integrated remote radio heads and power amplifier products, all for use in commercial wireless infrastructure base station equipment. The acquisition will not include point-to-point radio backhaul equipment, nor Filtronic's Compound Semiconductors and Defence Electronics divisions.
ADC and Andrew have announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement to create a global leader in wireline and wireless network infrastructure solutions. According to the companies their combined strengths include: broad-based connectivity solutions for copper, coaxial, fibre, RF, broadcast and enterprise networks, combined with broad-based wireless solutions for antennas, cable products, base station subsystems, in-building and distributed coverage, geolocation systems and satellite communications.
KEC of South Korea has acquired the chip patents and technology of Vishay Siliconix related to trench metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (mosfets). The company will manufacture the low-voltage power mosfets at its fab in Gumi.
EADS Astrium and Lockheed Martin are working together to ensure interoperability of the Global Positioning System III and the European Galileo satellite navigation systems. The companies will perform systems engineering and technical assistance tasks for each other in the areas of interoperability, integrity and optimisation of joint constellation performance. Additionally, they will offer reciprocal bids on operational hardware and software within the policy and export constraints of both programs.
National Semiconductor has announced that Himax, MagnaChip and STMicroelectronics have licensed its point-to-point differential signalling display technology for LCD TVs. In addition, Chi Mei Optoelectronics of Taiwan has agreed to incorporate National's PPDS technology into its upcoming LCD TV modules. PPDS display interface technology is said to improve visual performance, lower system cost and provide increased flexibility in the design of LCD panels.
Aaeon and Seco are two more companies that have now signed on to support Kontron's new 3.0 specification of the ETX Computer-on-Module (COM) standard. It is already supported by MSC, Evalue and Adlink. ETX 3.0 introduces 2x Serial ATA without changing any of the ETX pins, making new modules 100% pin-to-pin compatible with previous versions and ensuring long-term support for existing embedded application solutions.
Cambridge Display Technology and Litrex are teaming up to produce a new generation of high resolution polymer organic light emitting displays (P-OLED) through the development of an inkjet printing solution capable of producing P-OLED displays at up to 200 pixels per inch (ppi).
Industry
The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) has upped its sales projection of chips for 2006, and now suggests worldwide growth of 9,8% to $249 bn - up from its previous estimate of 7,9% growth to $245 bn. It said the correction is mainly due to better than anticipated demand for chips by the mobile phone sector. The revised forecast suggests analog products will be one of the fastest-growing segments this year, with growth driven by strong demand from wireless communications and industrial and medical equipment applications. It now projects growth in this segment for 2006 of 17,3% to $37,4 bn. For 2006, the SIA expects: flash memory will grow fastest at 20,0% to $22,3 bn; DRAM sales will increase at 9,1% to $27,9 bn; optoelectronic device sales will grow by 11% to $16,5 bn; discretes by 4,9% to $16,0 bn; microprocessors by 4,3% to $36,4 bn; DSPs by 18,5% to $9,0 bn; and MOS logic devices by 7,6% to $62,1 bn in 2006.
Global PC shipments grew 12,6% in the first quarter of 2006, ahead of March projections of 11,8% growth, says IDC. According to the market research firm, it now expects PC shipments for 2006 to rise 10,8%, up from its March projection of 10,5%. For 2007, IDC expects shipments to rise 11,7%, up from 10,7% previously. Total shipment volume is expected to reach 284,5 million in 2008 and 333,7 million in 2010.
The ITU, the UN specialised agency for telecommunications, and infoDev, a multidonor programme focusing on ICT for development, have launched the second module of their collaborative online ICT Regulation Toolkit, the Legal and Institutional Framework. The free online resource (www.ictregulationtoolkit.org) includes in-depth analysis of the key issues, and real examples of how best practices have been put into action in over 50 countries in both the developed and developing world. It contains a portfolio of over 500 references to laws, regulations, regulatory consultations, proceedings, decisions, licences and case studies.
AMD has announced that it plans to expand its microprocessor manufacturing capacity over the next three years by adding additional 300 mm wafer production capabilities in Dresden, Germany, through the implementation of three new projects. It plans to invest a total of $2,5 bn in the Dresden expansion projects.
Acacia Research has announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, IP Innovation, has entered into a licence and settlement agreement with Royal Philips Electronics, covering patents that apply to audio/video enhancement and synchronisation, and image resolution enhancement technologies. The technologies generally relate to the use of a noise reduction filtering system for digital video compression and audio.
Samsung has launched an online service to assist with RoHS compliance to meet European environmental regulations. Samsung is providing access to documentation necessary for compliance, including declaration letters and material declaration sheets. The online support site provides an overview of its RoHS compliance program along with a search index for environment-friendly products.
Technology
Researchers at the DOE's Ames Laboratory have developed software that they claim can quickly analyse and detect whether a digital image has computer data hidden within it. Criminals or terrorists can use readily available steganography programs to secretly embed payload files within ordinary digital images. The payload files can be almost anything from illegal financial transactions to sleeper cell communications or child pornography. Using a form of artificial intelligence called an artificial neural network, researchers taught the program to statistically distinguish altered images from normal images with a database of more than 10 000 images.
Intel has disclosed details of new trigate transistors that the company has been doing research on for several years. At the recent VLSI Technology Symposium, the company said it has succeeded in integrating high-k dielectrics, metal gate electrodes and strained silicon in the new transistor with a three dimensional structure. The result, it claims, is a transistor that consumes significantly less power than today's planar transistors. The trigate transistors allow for a better off-current and so when implemented in ICs, waste less power due to leakage. Intel hopes to introduce trigate transistors by 2009.
Dialog Semiconductor has announced it would develop display drivers for consumer products requiring paper-thin displays from E-Ink. The two companies have defined a specification for an electrophoretic display driver producing a very thin IC package to minimise the thickness of the display module. E-Ink's electronic ink technology uses an electrically addressable ink embedded in a polymer matrix, resulting in a reflective display technology that requires no front or backlight, is viewable in direct sunlight, and requires no power to maintain an image.
University of Cambridge spin-off company, Adventiq, has revealed details of its first product, a system-on-a-chip for remote KVM (keyboard, video and mouse) control of PCs and servers. Targeted at manufacturers of KVM switches, the ARQ3 device is also suitable for a broad range of embedded and industrial applications.
Samsung Electronics announced what it claims is the industry's first 1,98" LCD panel to achieve VGA resolution at the recent SID conference. A mobile phone with a VGA (640 x 480 pixels) display will be able to produce the same quality as most desktop or notebook PCs. Samsung is using its proprietary amorphous silicon gates to achieve maximum efficiency in module processing. The transmissive 400 pixels per inch (ppi) LCD is said to yield images that exhibit 250 cd/m² (nits) of brightness, a contrast ratio of 300 to 1, and 16 million colours.
Intel has announced that it will expand its portfolio of NOR flash memory products for the embedded space. The company is using its StrataFlash Embedded Memory architecture in a new 3 V version of its multilevel-cell (MLC) NOR technology for embedded applications. Applications include consumer electronics devices, industrial applications, PCs and wired communications equipment.
Israeli company, Matteris, is developing a removable, high speed and capacity holographic storage system for the enterprise archive and backup market. The storage system achieves high capacity by using the volume instead of the surface of the medium. It expects its holographic technology to be able to store Terabytes on a CD-sized disk instead of a maximum of 27 GB as in Sony's blu-ray DVD. For huge capacities, there is also a need of high speed data transfer. By writing every millisecond in parallel, millions of bits grouped in holograms (1000 x 1000 bits each), writing/reading speeds of Gbps can be reached, it claims. The company is using holographic material based on nano-materials - an entirely different concept to that of the commonly-used photo-polymers.
Chemical engineers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln have developed a high-resolution touch sensor that they claim has a sensitivity comparable to that of the human finger. The researchers built a film that glows when a force is applied to it. By training a special camera on the electroluminescent film, the force is translated into a picture. The film can be made to cover an area of a metre square or larger, and is flexible enough to cover complex shapes. It consists of alternating monolayers, layers of gold and cadmium sulphide nanoparticles, separated by alternating layers of polymers that act as dielectric barriers.
The illustration above shows a penny pressed against a sample device and, using a CCD camera, fine features such as wrinkles in Abraham Lincoln's clothing can be seen. The device has potential uses in robotics and surgery, such as when surgeons use touch to find tumours or gallstones.
Micron has introduced a new flash-memory technology specifically designed for mobile electronics. The company's 'managed NAND' combines flash memory with a high-speed multimedia card (MMC) controller, which has an industry standard interface. NAND flash is popular for mobile phones and portable media players mainly for longer battery life and durable storage. Micron claims the new NAND devices handle data transfer rates of up to 52 MBps, and will be available in densities starting at 1 GB.
The first working model of MIT Media Lab's $100 laptop was unveiled last month at the Seven Countries Task Force meeting in Boston. Nicholas Negroponte showed the $100 laptop computer for the 'One Laptop Per Child' programme designed to bring inexpensive computing to children in undeveloped and developing nations around the world. At the event, Negroponte, co-founder of the MIT Media Lab, said that the machine would use less than 2 W of power.
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