South Africa
In an initiative known as 'Project education connect', Enterasys Networks SA has announced that it will provide equipment grants to a total value of R40m, to a substantial number of South African schools, over the next few years. The initiative will contribute to the improvement of computer and IT skills levels in underprivileged schools said the group. The proposal is that the grants, which will take the form of product donations, will be administered by the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund and the Department of Education.
Mobile e-services security management solutions provider, Sonera SmartTrust, has announced that it will incorporate technology from Prism Holdings into its offerings for wireless network operators. Steven Sidley, Executive Director for group sales at Prism Holdings, said that SmartTrust's WIG (wireless Internet gateway) technology makes use of the SMS (short message service) channel to deliver information and services over a GSM network quickly and cost-effectively. Using Prism's in-house developed SMS-C (Short Message Service Centre) switching platform, SmartTrust will incorporate a version of Prism's Airtrax SMS-C message switching solution into a future version of SmartTrust DP5, to be released during Autumn 2001.
Trolley Scan has announced that a technical team from South Korea has decided to back Trolleyponder technology and become a partner. They are the company's second partner in South Korea. Trolleyponder is a technology designed to replace barcode systems.
IST Dynamics has been awarded orders totalling R50m from the beginning of this year from defence-related contracts. See Company secures major international defence equipment orders.
Electrocomp has announced that it has received ISO 9002 accreditation.
National Instruments South Africa has new office details: Greenoaks - Block A 15, Bekker Road and Gregory Avenue, Vorna Valley, Midrand, tel: (011) 805 8194, fax: (011) 805 8197.
Overseas
Business
Motorola has reported a bigger than expected losses for the first quarter ended 31 March. Citing slumping sales, this was the cellphone and chipmaker's first quarterly operating loss in 16 years. Motorola lost $533m for the quarter, compared with profits of $448m in the same period a year ago. Motorola reported sales of $7,8 bn in the first quarter, an 11% decline from $8,8 bn a year earlier.
Companies
STMicroelectronics and Hitachi have announced plans to form an independent company to develop and license RISC microprocessor cores, based on the SuperH architecture. This agreement is an extension of an ongoing alliance between the two companies, which have been working on compatible RISC processor chips. The new company, which will be called SuperH, will be headquartered in San Jose, US and have operations in Bristol, UK, and Tokyo, Japan.
Analog Devices has announced the formation of the DSP and System Products Group, which will be dedicated to general purpose DSP and vertical market DSP system-level products. Brian McAloon, previously Vice President for Worldwide Sales is the new Group Vice President of this business unit while Vincent Roche will take over as Vice President, Worldwide Sales.
Integrated Device Technology (IDT) has announced it will spend $80m to acquire Newave Semiconductor, a fabless start-up in China. Newave's design subsidiary in Shanghai, China will bring technology expertise that supports IDT's communications IC strategy, and also provide additional telecom products to extend IDT's offerings in the telecommunications marketplace. Newave will become a subsidiary of IDT.
Toshiba America Electronic Components has announced it is spinning off its San Jose-based microprocessor engineering division as a wholly-owned subsidiary, called ArTile Microsystems. The new company will provide customers with rapid development of system-on-a-chip (SoC) designs based on its TX79 MIPS-based microprocessor core for applications that include networking, digital set-top boxes, digital TV and multimedia appliances. Toshiba said the name 'ArTile' combines the word 'art' with the word 'tile' to suggest concept of designing highly complex SoC devices using new tile-based methodology.
Hyundai Electronics has officially changed its name to Hynix Semiconductor.
Vishay Intertechnology has proposed to acquire General Semiconductor through a stock swap of one newly issued Vishay share for two outstanding General Semiconductor shares. At the time of going to press, General Semiconductor was still in the process of reviewing the offer.
Protel, the Windows-based electronic design software vendor, has announced that it has acquired Tasking, an embedded software development tools specialist for $38m. The company said that the combination of Protel and Tasking gives designers the opportunity to purchase both hardware design tools and software design tools from the same vendor, which it claims is a first for a desktop EDA tool company.
Xilinx has announced it has made an investment in Ziptronix, a start-up company involved in wafer-scale semiconductor integration for three-dimensional ICs. Xilinx said it was considering use of this technology in multilayer circuits for its own use in the future. Bob Markunas, Vice President of Ziptronix said that the company can 'offer the electronics industry the ability to create complex, heterogeneous, multilayer circuits by permitting the robust bonding of wafers or dies constructed from disparate processes or material families'.
The European Union Commission has given antitrust clearance to a joint venture between Philips Electronics NV of the Netherlands and LG Electronics of South Korea for the manufacture of cathode ray tubes for televisions and computer monitors. According to the EU's executive office an investigation showed that the operation would not give rise to competition concerns.
Infineon Technologies, Germany, and InterDigital Communications of the US, have announced a broad long-term strategic partnership to develop enabling software for 3G mobile products. The software will be incorporated into Infineon's standard 3G system-on-chip ICs for mobile terminals. The companies said the partnership also involves Infineon's production of custom ASICs to be designed and sold by InterDigital for the infrastructure and specialised terminal markets, incorporating intellectual property from both companies.
ARM Holdings has announced that it has expanded its separate licensing agreements with Philips Semiconductors and STMicroelectronics. The companies are adding several ARM RISC cores and technologies to their portfolios for system-on-chip designs. Philips Semiconductors said it will use the new ARM processor cores for its Nexperia Silicon Systems Platform while STMicroelectronics will use ARM's RISC cores for technology applications in communications systems, printers, automotive and digital audio.
Intersil has announced an alliance with PowerSmart to develop power management solutions for portable products. The companies will focus their development partnership on ICs, firmware, and software for next-generation smart battery systems. Intersil said it will make a $5m investment in PowerSmart.
National Semiconductor and Trimedia Technologies will work together to produce a single-chip solution for Internet appliances. As part of the alliance, National will license the TriMedia TM32A media processor core for use in all Geode products. TriMedia's 32 bit VLIW (very long instruction word) core will be used by National's Information Appliance Group and be applied to the personal access device (PAD), set-top box and thin-client markets. Terms of the equity arrangement were not disclosed.
Altera has announced a licensing partnership with Synplicity. In terms of the agreement Synplicity will provide Altera with its Synplify Pro and Amplify software, which can be used to develop MegaCore functions in 'system-on-a-programmable chips' (SoPC). Synplicity will provide Altera customers a special version of its synthesis software for use with encrypted MegaCore functions. Under the agreement, Altera will distribute evaluation copies of selected Synplicity synthesis products with Quartus II development software, which it says provides a complete environment for SoPC design.
Texas Instruments' power-efficient TMS-320C5510 digital signal processor has been awarded EDN magazine's 2000 'Innovation of the year' award in the DSP category.
Carrier and IBM have joined forces to provide European homeowners with web-enabled access to their air conditioning units, turning the system on or off and adjusting temperature settings via WAP (wireless application protocol) mobile phones or the Internet. A new website, called MyAppliance.com, will be pilot-tested in Italy, Greece and the UK in the European summer. Carrier believes that the technology should enable consumers to cut energy costs and improve comfort convenience.
Industry
Worldwide chip sales dropped 6,9% in February to $15,49 from $16,63 bn in January, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association's (SIA) new market statistics. Compared to February 2000 chip sales for this period were 5,8% higher, it said. "The industry is continuing to experience lower sales due to an inventory overhang and macroeconomic factors," said SIA President George Scalise, referring to the severe chip recession plaguing nearly all segments of the business. The SIA said that compared to January, chip sales in February dropped in every major regional market.
Analyst group IC Insights has lowered its worldwide IC market forecast to reflect a 9% decline for 2001, down from its previous forecast of 7% growth. On the bright side, IC Insights forecasts that the global IC market will rebound to display an 18% increase in 2002, up from its previous forecast of 9% growth. The initial 7% IC market forecast for 2001 assumed a 3,4% worldwide GDP growth rate and a 7% increase in electronic system sales, said the analyst group. A reduction of these growth expectations to 2,8 and 4%, respectively, were the major factors contributing to the new, lower 2001 IC market forecast. According to the group, the 2001 IC industry is being impacted by all three conditions associated with a cyclical downturn - an IC unit inventory burn, wafer start overcapacity, and a global recession or significant economic slowdown. Describing the 2001 IC industry as 'The Perfect Storm', IC Insights said that the current IC inventory burn is expected to be so severe it believes 2001 will be only the second year in the last 22 years to exhibit a decline in IC unit volume shipments (the other being 1985).
The EDA Consortium's Market Statistics Service (MSS) has announced that, fueled by sales of layout tools for ICs, PCBs and multichip modules, the electronic design automation industry returned to double-digit growth in the fourth quarter of 2000, marking its third consecutive quarter of expansion, it said. MSS reported industry sales of $1,05 bn for the fourth quarter, a 17% increase over the year-earlier quarter, and total annual worldwide revenue of $3,8 bn, a 10% increase over 1999. By category: IC layout revenue for the year totalled $778m, up 24% from 1999. PCB and multichip module layout tools sales for the year grew 28% to $422m - PCB and MCM layout tools have for the past two years been the fastest-growing EDA product segment. Computer-aided engineering (CAE) revenues reached $507m in the fourth quarter, up 6% from a year ago. CAE remains the largest EDA tool category, with over $1,8 bn in revenues in 2000, up 4% from 1999. Formal and functional verification tools led CAE growth, increasing 45% in 2000 to more than $62m.
Audio chip sales will increase 20% to nearly $2,04 bn in 2001 from $1,7 bn in 2000, with European and Asian markets primarily fuelling growth this year, according to a new report from Forward Concepts. Even though PC demand is less, the report says that consumer systems applications will drive the audio chip business between now and 2005. It predicts that between 2000 and 2005, audio chip revenues will rise at a CAGR of 24%.
The cost of an IC manufacturing facility (fab) is now so high that more semiconductor companies will begin to outsource some or all of their manufacturing needs. This is according to Dataquest who says that a new breed of ASIC suppliers - known as fabless ASIC companies - is emerging whose key advantage is a business model that transfers a number of the fixed costs associated with a traditional ASIC company to third parties. These charges are then charged back to the fabless ASIC company in the form of variable costs that occur when a particular facility, such as fabrication or packaging, is used. The approach avoids the capital burden of owning foundries and packaging plants and developing process technology. Dataquest adds that the development of e-commerce tools and the rising use of the Internet have provided a global communications and commerce backbone that make it much easier for fabless ASIC companies to create 'virtual IC delivery teams' from partnerships of independent companies.
Agilent Technologies announced early in April that it was temporarily cutting the pay of all employees by 10% in an effort to avoid mass layoffs and reduce expenses in the current industry downturn. According to the company the pay reduction would save Agilent about $70m per quarter. It is expected to last until the end of July. Temporary pay cuts began on 1 April for Agilent's 200 senior managers, and the reductions will go into effect on 1 May for the rest of the company's workforce. Agilent said the implementation of the pay cuts will vary by country and it is subject to local laws.
Marconi plc is to cut 1500 jobs in the UK as part of a move to reduce its global workforce by 3000 over the next 12 months. Marconi said the moves are part of a restructuring programme that will affect all areas of the group. It will be split into three divisions - Networks, Wireless and Enterprise. Marconi plans to create centres of excellence at Ansty and Nottingham for its Networks division, and a centre for optical components at Northampton. It said this would create 3000 extra highly skilled jobs in the UK. The previously announced proposal to outsource the majority of its communications networks manu- facturing capacity, will involve the transfer of up to 2900 employees to Jabil Circuit. Marconi also announced that its board is being restructured with Lord Simpson replacing Sir Roger Hurn as Chairman and the Deputy Chief Executive John Mayo becoming Chief Executive.
ON Semiconductor has announced it plans to cut 550 jobs, or about 5% of its work force, as it consolidates its global manufacturing operations to trim costs. It said that it will also eliminate 80 manufacturing jobs through attrition. The company hopes to save $100m a year. At the time, the company said it would speed up moving its manufacturing plants into lower-cost regions, phase out higher-cost supply contracts in favour of internal manufacturing, cut materials costs from suppliers and streamline overhead.
Japanese electronics leader NEC has announced that it plans to halt production of memory chips in the US by end of June. It said that this would cut staff at its Roseville, California factory by 44%. The company cited a severe downturn in demand for dynamic RAM chips. NEC Electronics in Roseville will focus on advanced system LSIs and logic device production.
Intersil has announced that it plans to embark on a phased closure of the company's Findlay, Ohio operation, which manufactures ICs primarily for automotive and industrial applications. This decision is part of the company's previously announced strategy of de-emphasising automotive and industrial products to focus on communications. It said the exit from its legacy automotive business was accelerated due to weakening economic conditions and recent decreased demand for these products. Intersil said the action would, however, allow it to focus resources on higher growth opportunities within its analog portfolio.
Philips Semiconductors is expanding its presence in China by building a new integrated circuit assembly and test plant at the Suzhou Industrial Park in eastern China. The new plant is part of Philips Semiconductors' long-term attitude towards facility investment and will help meet the high anticipated demand for the company's semiconductor chips, it said.
STMicroelectronics is planning to invest a total of $300m in a new semiconductor packaging and assembly plant in Bouskoura, Morocco, which will be able to produce up to 25 million ICs a day when fully equipped.
Fujitsu Microelectronics has restructured its management team, naming Kazuo 'Ken' Iida as its new president and chief executive. He replaces Ryusuke Hoshikawa, who becomes an advisor to Fujitsu and President of Fujitsu LSI Technology in Japan. Iida joins FMI from Fujitsu Microelektronik Europe (FME).
Philips Semiconductors has formed the Crypto Competency Center (CCC), in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. The company says that this is a leading edge research center specialising in cryptographic architectures and algorithms. The CCC will focus on the growing demand for highly secure encryption capabilities for data transactions. According to Philips it will focus particularly on applied crypto security research and the pre-development of IP blocks by creating reusable, embeddable IP blocks capable of supporting future semiconductor devices that can be integrated in networking and identification products and systems.
Philips Corporation, US and Cirrus Logic have announced a settlement to their patent dispute over technology for the two-wire I2C bus. As part of the settlement, the parties have entered into a nonexclusive licensing agreement under which Cirrus Logic is a licensee of Philips' I2C patent rights.
The Virtual Socket Interface Alliance's On-Chip Bus Development Working Group has released the new version of its Virtual Component Interface Standard version 2.0. This features a new transaction language to facilitate verification and system prototyping, support for a broader range of high-bandwidth cores and several clarifications that make it much easier to understand than version 1.0 according to the group.
Marconi is to supply Finnet International with advanced dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) and synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) optical networking equipment for a new high-speed international link between Finland and Sweden. The order is the first phase of Finnet's plan to build broadband DWDM capacity into its existing networks in Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Russia and Germany. Marconi says this order is the latest in a wave of DWDM successes for the company which include major wins in the UK (BT), Belgium (Belgacom), Germany (Fibernet and T-Mobil), Iceland (Iceland Telecom) and Italy (Telecom Italia).
Brazilian phone carrier Telemar and a partner are installing Internet access terminals in ear-shaped public phone booths across Brazil. The terminals work off regular phone cards and are shaded by blue, plastic 'orelhoes' - Portuguese for 'big ears.'
Technology
Analog Devices' new ADSP-2191 digital signal processor aimed specifically at telephony applications is a 160 MHz device that doubles the performance of its closest predecessor, according to the company. It maintains full code compatibility with the existing ADSP-218X line. Along with a highly efficient C/C++ compiler, the device features a host of on-chip telephony and general-purpose interfaces, four power-down modes, a unified memory structure and on-core caching. ADI says that by offering standard telecommunications algorithms along with the ADSP-2191, the company is demonstrating a different approach to customer support. It also caters for customers who want complete solutions - a total solution with algorithms that have been optimised for size and speed is supplied with the 219X.
National Semiconductor has rolled out a pair of highly integrated power management controllers, designed to provide complete support for systems based on microprocessors, DSPs and FPGAs. The LM2633 combines two switching controllers and a linear controller while the LM2645 also includes a 3,3 V/50 mA linear regulator. The synchronous switching controllers can operate out of phase, which the company says decreases the input peak current.
Infineon Technologies announced at the RSA Conference and Exhibition in San Francisco that its IC and software-based solution, the SLF9630C trusted platform module, is the first product to meet the trusted computing Platform Alliance's version 1.0 specification. Designed for desktop PCs and laptops, the SLF9630C creates a secure computing environment for electronic transactions. The TCPA 1.0 specification defines a PC subsystem that supports trusted processes and transactions.
Clare is rolling out new current driver ICs for organic light-emitting diode displays. The MXED102 will support up to 240 columns in both small-molecule and polymer passive-matrix OLED displays, and will be complemented by the MXED202 OLED row driver. According to Clare, OLEDs offer brightness comparable to LCDs for small-form-factor displays, while their high refresh rate gives them an advantage in applications requiring video. Since OLEDs use an emissive technology - meaning the brightness of each pixel is directly proportional to the current flowing through it - extremely tight current control is necessary to ensure accurate gray scales and uniform brightness, said Clare. The MXED202 OLED row driver comes in 120 and 128-output configurations and is cascadable, so multiple row and current drivers can be cascaded together to drive displays larger than 240 columns and 120 or 128 rows.
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