South Africa
Actum Electronics recently moved premises to Unit A8, The Stables, 13 Third Road, Linbro Park. The company’s new telephone number is +27 (0)11 608 3001, and the new fax number is +27 (0)11 608 1918.
Teknoflex has appointed Hiconnex as its agent in South Africa. With over 50 years’ experience in PCB manufacture, Teknoflex has a reputation as the UK’s largest supplier of flexible and flex-rigid multilayer circuits and assemblies. The company has a breadth of technological capability and in-house design, assembly and testing facilities.
Overseas
Business
The European Investment Bank has granted a 250 million Euro loan to Nokia Siemens Networks for the development of radio access network (RAN) technology. The loan is for investments in R&D to develop the hardware as well as the software platform for the implementation of RAN technology for mobile communication systems. The project aims to develop technology which will allow mobile telecommunication operators to use a single base-station platform for their second generation (2G), third generation (3G) and long term evolution (LTE) networks. The R&D activity under this project will take place in Finland, Poland, Germany and Italy.
Companies
Intel and Nokia have announced a long-term relationship to develop a new class of Intel architecture-based mobile computing device and chipset architectures which will combine the performance of powerful computers with high-bandwidth mobile broadband communications and ubiquitous Internet connectivity. The effort includes technology development and cooperation in several open source software initiatives in order to develop common technologies for use in the Moblin and Maemo platform projects, which will deliver Linux-based operating systems for these future mobile computing devices. Intel will also acquire a Nokia HSPA/3G modem IP licence for use in future products.
Samsung Electronics and Numonyx are jointly developing market specifications for phase change memory (PCM) products, a next generation memory technology that will help enable makers of feature-rich handsets and mobile applications, embedded systems and high-end computing devices to meet the increasing performance and power demands for platforms loaded with content and data. Creating common hardware and software compatibility for PCM products is expected to help simplify designs and shorten development time, enabling manufacturers to quickly transition to high-performance, low-power PCM products from both companies. Phase change memory produces very fast read and write speeds at lower power than conventional NOR and NAND Flash memory, and allows for bit alterability normally seen in RAM.
IDT has completed its acquisition of Tundra Semiconductor. The acquisition strengthens IDT’s product portfolio of serial switching and bridging using PCI Express, Rapid IO and VME interconnect standards. Additionally, the Tundra technology, combined with the IDT mixed signal product portfolio and channel capabilities, will further reinforce IDT’s position in interconnect solutions for the communication, computing and embedded segments. The acquisition is expected to be financially accretive to IDT’s non-GAAP EPS in the second full quarter of combined operations.
RF Micro Devices has entered into a cooperative agreement with the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to develop a commercially viable and high volume-capable compound semiconductor-based process for high-performance photovoltaic (PV) cells. The successful execution of the multiyear cooperative research and development agreement is expected to result in the production of PV cells in RFMD’s high-volume compound semiconductor fabs, as early as calendar year 2012. NREL’s technology has demonstrated one of the world’s highest reported solar cell conversion efficiencies, at 40,8%, and continued substantial improvements in efficiency are anticipated.
Vishay and International Rectifier have finally entered into a settlement agreement to resolve long-standing disputes related to Vishay’s acquisition in 2007 of IR’s Power Control Systems (PCS) business. Under the settlement, IR has refunded $30,0 million of the purchase price associated with the acquisition, and Vishay has released IR from claims relating to certain outstanding disputes regarding the acquisition. In addition, the companies clarified and revised the covenant-not-to-compete associated with the acquisition to permit IR to, under certain conditions, develop, design, manufacture and sell certain additional products that incorporate technologies sold or licensed to Vishay in the acquisition. As part of the settlement, Vishay will continue as a supplier of certain products to IR and will receive a licence to certain additional technology developed in the future by IR.
Industry
A recent report by VDC Research indicates that embedded system manufacturers’ requirements and end-consumers’ expectations continue to drive substantial investment in embedded software and development tools. The embedded and realtime operating system market, in particular, has fared better than many other sectors of the broader embedded market, with 2008 revenue demonstrating 9% growth over 2007. However, even this achievement is qualified with the expectation of the first industry contraction in 2009 since 2002. VDC expects the retail segment to rebound significantly after showing modest growth in 2010 to grow in excess of 20% in 2011 as companies such as retail stores begin to parlay increased cash flow into investments in enhancing efficiencies and consumer experiences.
LEDs have been a hot topic in the TFT LCD market due to their rapid adoption in notebook PC displays and the high potential in LCD TV panels. In 2012, 34 billion LEDs will be used in TFT LCD backlights, in sizes ranging from 1 inch to more than 70 inches, up more than 300% from 8 billion in 2008, according to a new report by DisplaySearch. A total of 70,8 billion LEDs were shipped in 2008. There are two categories of LEDs used in display applications; active outdoor displays, which used 11 billion LEDs or 15% of the total in 2008, and LCD backlights, which consumed 8 billion or 11% of the total. Within LCD backlight applications, five key types are adopting LEDs: small/medium, notebook PC, desktop monitors, industrial applications and most notably TV.
According to a new research report from the analyst firm Berg Insight, the installed base of smart electricity meters in Europe will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 16,2% between 2008 and 2014 to reach 96,3 million at the end of the period. The strong uptake of intelligent metering puts within reach the EU-wide target that 80% of the households should have smart meters by 2020. The adoption of smart meters started in Italy and has continued in the Nordic countries where Sweden decided to make smart meters mandatory from July 2009, starting a trend for the rest of Europe. The Netherlands, meanwhile, has postponed the rollout of smart meters following a heated debate over the potential risk that remote monitoring of energy consumption would lead to privacy violations, and in Germany the government is reluctant to impose what could be perceived as a surveillance technology.
The European Union is poised to adopt a universal cellphone charging standard as early as next year. Samsung, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Apple, Texas Instruments, LG, Motorola, Research In Motion, NEC and Qualcomm have all signed an agreement to cooperate on development of a Micro USB-based solution that will be compatible with all makes of data-enabled mobile phones, with the aim of mitigating the environmental impact of cellphone chargers. The same, or similar, technology could also become a standard for consumer products such as cameras and laptops in the future.
Worldwide sales of semiconductors rose to $16,5 billion in May, an increase of 5,4% from April when sales were $15,6 billion, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) has reported. May sales were 23,2% lower than May 2008 when sales were $21,5 billion. These numbers represent a three-month moving average of global semiconductor sales. The May sales figures reflect the third consecutive month of sequential growth for the semiconductor industry, leading to cautious optimism about a return to normal seasonal patterns for the industry going forward.
Technology
NXP Semiconductors recently developed highly advanced QUBIC4 BiCMOS silicon technology, to deliver high levels of RF integration and performance at high frequencies. The company will leverage the technology to develop future generations of RF products such as low noise amplifiers, medium power amplifiers and LO generators for mobile phones and communications infrastructure equipment. The technology has been developed with three variants: QUBiC4+ is silicon based, for applications up to 5 GHz and for medium power amplification; QUBiC4X is SiGe:C based, for applications typically up to 30 GHz and ultra low noise applications, eg, GPS; and QUBiC4Xi is also SiGe:C based, with improved performance and even lower noise figure, for applications beyond 30 GHz, eg, VSAT and radar.
Rambus recently showcased a silicon demonstration of a complete XDR memory system running at data rates up to 7,2 Gbps. This silicon demonstration consists of Elpida’s recently-announced 1 Gb XDR DRAM device and an XIO memory controller transmitting realistic data patterns. The XIO memory controller is up to 3,5 times more power efficient than a GDDR5 controller, and the total memory system can provide up to two times more bandwidth than GDDR5 at equivalent power. In addition, the XIO memory controller demonstrated bi-modal operation with support for both XDR DRAM as well as next-generation XDR2 DRAM.
Researchers have constructed a light-emitting transistor that has set a new record with a signal processing modulation speed of 4,3 GHz, breaking the previous record of 1,7 GHz held by a light emitting diode. But, the researchers did not stop there. By internally connecting the base and collector of a light emitting transistor, they created a new form of light emitting diode, which modulates at up to 7 GHz, breaking the speed record once again. Nick Holonyak and Milton Feng, researchers at the University of Illinois and its licensee Quantum Electro Opto Systems in Malaysia, reported the fabrication and testing of the new high-speed light emitting transistor and the new 'tilted-charge' light emitting diode in a pair of papers published in the 15 June issue of Applied Physics Letters.
Researchers from Yale University have purportedly made the first solid-state quantum processor using techniques from the silicon chip industry. Although quantum computing holds great potential for boosting memory capacity and processing speeds, actually making the hardware is very challenging, and usually techniques such as lasers or ions suspended with strong magnets are used. The new device consists of 2 transmon qubits – tiny pieces of a superconducting material consisting of a niobium film on an aluminium oxide wafer with gaps etched into it. The system demonstrated the ability to perform two special quantum algorithms, known as Grover’s search algorithm and the Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm.
The BSI-Toyota Collaboration Centre in Japan has succeeded in developing a system which utilises one of the fastest technologies in the world, controlling a wheelchair using brain waves. The new system fuses blind signal separation and space-time-frequency filtering technology to allow brain-wave analysis in as little as 125 milliseconds, as compared to several seconds required by conventional methods. Brain-wave analysis results are displayed on a panel so quickly that drivers do not sense any delay. Plans are underway to utilise this technology in a wide range of applications centred on medicine and nursing care management.
Researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) have reported a breakthrough in optical computing by successfully creating an optical transistor with a single molecule. They exploited the fact that a molecule’s energy is quantised: when laser light strikes a molecule that is in its ground state, the light is absorbed and as a result, the laser beam is quenched. Conversely, it is possible to release the absorbed energy again in a targeted way with a second light beam. This occurs because the beam changes the molecule’s quantum state, with the result that the light beam is amplified. This so-called stimulated emission, which Albert Einstein described over 90 years ago, also forms the basis for the principle of the laser diode.
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