Overseas
Business
Fujitsu has announced its decision to pursue the reorganisation of its LSI business divisions into a new subsidiary scheduled to be established in March 2008. The company also announced that development and mass-production prototyping of its advanced process technologies for the 90-nm generation and beyond will be consolidated to its Mie plant located in Mie prefecture of central Japan. Leveraging this consolidation, Fujitsu will strive to accelerate development of process technologies for 45-nm generation and beyond. The transfer of equipment to the Mie plant is expected to cost approximately 10 billion yen.
Freescale has established an advanced microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) 200 mm production line to address growing sensors' market demand. The newly added line in Austin, Texas, complements the company's existing 150 mm MEMS capacity in Sendai, Japan. The advanced 200 mm capacity will allow the company to explore and integrate new MEMS capabilities and address major competitive challenges, such as power consumption, cost effectiveness and form factors.
RF Micro Devices (RFMD) has updated quarterly expectations for its fiscal third quarter ended 29 December, 2007. The revised revenue expectations include a partial quarter of revenue from Sirenza Microdevices, which was acquired by RFMD on 13 November, 2007. Based upon a preliminary review, RFMD expects the combined company's revenue for the fiscal third quarter to be approximately $268 million, of which approximately $254 million is attributable to RFMD's historical operations excluding Sirenza. This forecast is far below most expectations, a fact that RFMD attributes to lacklustre demand from Asian customers. RFMD currently expects combined company earnings per share on a GAAP basis to be approximately minus $0,04 to minus $0,05.
Samsung Group is being investigated by South Korean prosecutors on suspicions that the company bribed public officials responsible for probing its management practices. Following accusations by former Samsung legal executive Kim Yong-Cheol, who said the company used illegal practices to create a $213,4 million slush fund, South Korea's parliament approved a special counsel in November 2007. Kim claims that the company hid money for slush funds by setting up accounts in employees' names. Soon after Kim's allegations, financial experts said that banking rules had been broken with regard to account holder names in certain accounts set up for Samsung. Samsung has dismissed the accusations as being groundless.
Matsushita Electric Industrial, which is changing its name to Panasonic Corporation in 2008, is planning to invest $858,8 million to expand its image sensor and charge coupled device (CCD) production. Construction of the new facility in Toyama Prefecture is expected to start in September 2008, with production slated to commence in August 2009.
Intel has announced record fourth-quarter revenue of $10,7 billion, up 10,5% year-over-year, and operating income of $3 billion, up 105% year-over-year. Net income was $2,3 billion and earnings per share (EPS) were $0,38. Operating income for 2007 grew 45%. Intel attributed these gains to record shipments of its microprocessors and chipsets.
Companies
ON Semiconductor and AMI Semiconductor (AMIS) have announced the signing of a merger agreement providing for the acquisition of AMIS by ON Semi in an all-stock transaction with an equity value of approximately $915 million. The acquisition is aimed at furthering ON Semi's transformation into an analog and power solutions leader. Under the terms of the agreement, which has been approved by both boards of directors, AMIS shareholders will receive 1,15 shares of ON Semi common stock for each share of AMIS common stock they own. Upon completion of the transaction, ON Semi will issue approximately 104 million shares of common stock on a fully diluted basis to complete the transaction. ON Semi and AMIS stockholders will own approximately 74% and 26%, respectively, of the combined company.
RF Micro Devices (RFMD) and Filtronic PLC have announced a definitive agreement, pursuant to which RFMD will acquire Filtronic Compound Semiconductors, a wholly owned subsidiary of Filtronic PLC, for an acquisition price of approximately 12,5 million pounds in cash. The acquisition price includes the purchase of Filtronic's six-inch GaAs wafer fab at Newton Aycliffe, United Kingdom, which is currently a major supplier of GaAs pHEMT semiconductors to RFMD. The acquisition price also includes the purchase of Filtronic's millimetre-wave RF semiconductor business.
Infineon has announced an agreement with IBM to broaden the availability of Infineon's proven, high-volume Embedded Flash process. Infineon's 130 nm Embedded Flash technology will be licensed to IBM and will be available for new chip designs manufactured by IBM in North America. Additionally, Infineon will utilise IBM foundry services for future products based on this process. The 130 nm Embedded Flash process, which has been in volume production at Infineon plants since early 2006, is used for advanced microcontroller chips across applications ranging from automotive systems to low-power chip card devices. Along with related non-volatile memory (NVM) intellectual property also licensed to IBM, the 130 nm Embedded Flash process expands IBM's foundry capability to address applications requiring custom logic and high-density flash memory on a single chip.
NXP Semiconductors will acquire GloNav, a US-based fabless semiconductor company developing single-chip solutions for global positioning systems (GPS) and other satellite navigation systems. NXP will purchase the company for $85 million in cash plus up to $25 million in cash contingent upon GloNav reaching certain revenue and product development milestones over the next two years. The transaction will give NXP immediate access to market-proven GPS products and technology. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2008, subject to regulatory approvals.
Intel has withdrawn its support from the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program, a project aiming to bring low-cost computers to millions of children in developing countries. An Intel spokesperson stated that the decision had nothing to do with the fact that the OLPC machines used an AMD chip. Intel has an inexpensive laptop design of its own - the Classmate - which it will continue to market to the same potential customers as OLPC.
Industry
According to a report by In-Stat, the market for ultra-wideband (UWB) silicon finally began to take off in 2007. Though regulatory hurdles still persist worldwide, the first UWB-enabled notebook PCs shipped last year from Dell, Lenovo, and Toshiba. In addition, hub and dongle solutions are shipping in the aftermarket from vendors such as Belkin, D-Link and IOGear. According to the report, the primary question for UWB now is whether other product segments will follow where PCs lead. UWB is a very flexible technology in that it supports multiple standards, including WUSB, Bluetooth 3.0, IP-over-UWB and Video-over-UWB. This should enable the technology to gain design wins in a wide range of product segments, including PC peripherals, consumer electronics and mobile phones.
The WirelessHD organisation, currently comprised of Intel, LG Electronics, Matsushita, NEC, Samsung Electronics, SiBeam, Sony and Toshiba, has completed the development of the first wireless specification for high-definition baseband video transmission and will present the format to adopters in early 2008 WirelessHD or WiHD, is a wireless high definition digital interface standard operating in the unlicensed and globally available 60 GHz frequency band and represents the first consumer application of 60 GHz technology. It is suitable for a wide range of devices including televisions, HD disc players, set-top boxes, camcorders, gaming consoles, adapter products, as well as other source devices.
In the UK, research and development into the integration and advancement of more energy efficient lighting technologies is set to be stimulated through a £10 million investment by the Technology Strategy Board. The Board has allocated the money to invest in industry-led, highly innovative collaborative research in areas such as lasers, high brightness LEDs and displays. The investment will provide partial funding for winning projects in one or more of these areas, and which involve businesses working collaboratively with other businesses and/or with research organisations and academic institutions.
The EDA Consortium announced that the electronic design automation (EDA) industry revenue for Q3 2007 grew 7,2% to $1412,1 million, versus $1317,2 million in Q3 2006. The four-quarter average growth rate, which compares the most recent four quarters to the same four quarters in the prior year, was 12,3%. Companies that were tracked employed 27 254 professionals in Q3 2007, up 8,1% from the 25 214 employed in Q3 2006.
The worldwide market for contactless technology in transportation ticketing and contactless payments grew more than 15% in 2007, as the technology made greater inroads into consumers' lives around the world. The market now stands at a value of more than $200 million but will reach more than $820 million by 2013, according to the latest market analysis from ABI Research. Positive growth in contactless card rollouts took place during the last half of 2007, while the uptake of contactless capabilities in mobile handsets - dubbed NFC (near field communication) - continued to be stymied by difficulties in bringing the technology to the consumer market. Accordingly, NFC handsets did not ship in any volume toward the end of 2007 and the market is expected to remain limited for the first half of 2008.
According to the Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA), worldwide semiconductor revenues for the third quarter of 2007 were $71,9 billion, representing a quarter-over-quarter increase of 13%. North American semiconductor companies represented 52% of revenues, followed by Asia with 37%, Europe with 11% and India with less than 1%. The top 15 companies, which together accounted for 59% of total revenues, were ranked as shown in the accompanying table.
Cadence Design Systems and Mentor Graphics have announced the immediate availability of the Open Verification Methodology (OVM), which was recently awarded a '2007 Best' award for EDA technology from Electronic Design Magazine. Distributed under the standard open-source Apache 2.0 licence, the OVM source code, documentation and use examples may be downloaded free of charge from www.ovmworld.org. The OVM Website is the central point of access for the OVM source code, providing information about partners, events, seminars, training, how-to instructions and future plans. The OVM, based on IEEE 1800-2005 SystemVerilog standard, is the first open, language interoperable, SystemVerilog verification methodology in the industry.
Technology
The Iona 'Cube' is a new concept in low-cost, Wi-Fi enabled Internet radio.
In a radical departure from the traditional 'pushbutton' user-interface, Cambridge Consultants' intuitive new design allows the listener to personalise the Cube to play just their favourite radio stations or podcasts. By simply turning it onto one of its four available sides, it will change to the desired radio station. A fifth side is dedicated to the speaker and the final remaining side is dedicated to switching the radio off. Even the volume button has been removed; the user simply twists the Cube clockwise to increase and anti-clockwise to decrease the volume.
A ruggedised LED from Marl has been tested by the FIA, the governing body for Formula One motor racing, before being approved as an indicator light to show race marshals attending an accident that a driver has been exposed to potentially damaging levels of shock during a crash. The FIA's system consists of a number of sensors around the car that measure the forces on the driver during a crash. If these exceed a specified level, the indicator light illuminates, and the driver is subjected to a compulsory medical examination.
A research team led by Donald Ingber, professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School, has demonstrated a method of using a magnetic field to stimulate cell functions on a physical level, an act which was previously only possible using chemical stimulation. The team demonstrated the technique by making a cell take up calcium, then stop, and then take it up again. By refining the technique, it should be possible to stimulate many other cellular functions, leading to new therapies that rely on cells themselves to produce and release drugs.
A company called SiBeam demonstrated at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, a system capable of streaming high-definition 1080i video wirelessly from a media player to a television. The company says its first commercial chips - expected to be available in Panasonic displays in early 2009 - will double the available bandwidth to four gigabits per second, enabling streaming of the best high-definition video quality, 1080p. To get around the challenge of signal attenuation, which is a major factor at the system's 60 GHz operating frequency, the radio utilises innovative beam-steering technology that can switch between different physical paths in order to form an optimal link.
Chemistry professor Peidong Yang and his colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley, have developed a method of using silicon nanowires to generate electricity when a temperature differential is applied across them. So-called 'thermoelectric' materials are not new, but the materials traditionally used are inefficient and bulky; this, combined with an already existing silicon infrastructure, makes this new technique highly advantageous. Potential applications are vast and include farming of solar energy, using a car engine's radiated heat to generate electrical energy, and more energy-efficient electronic circuits.
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