South Africa
Uniross has secured local distribution rights for the Maxell range of industrial batteries. In addition to its own brand of products, Uniross will add the Maxell range of dry cell batteries to its product offering. This will include the coin-type lithium manganese dioxide battery, a small, lightweight battery with a wide range of applications, both for powering devices such as wristwatches and electronic calculators as well as electronic devices such as memory and RTC backup.
Overseas
Business
RF Micro Devices has completed an expansion of its test, tape and reel, and assembly facility in Beijing, China. In addition to newly qualified internal assembly capacity for power amplifiers, switch-based products and antenna control solutions, the company is also qualifying advanced flip chip capabilities for its 2G, 3G and 4G LTE and TD-LTE products.
Agilent Technologies announced plans to separate into two publicly traded companies: one in life sciences, diagnostics and applied markets (LDA) that will retain the Agilent name, and the other that will be comprised of Agilent’s current portfolio of electronic measurement (EM) products. The separation is expected to occur through a tax-free pro rata spinoff of the EM company to Agilent shareholders.
Companies
Quake Global, a manufacturer of machine-to-machine (M2M) devices for terrestrial and satellite networks, has been named to the Connected World (CW) 100 for 2014. The list, published annually by Connected World magazine, recognises the companies that have established the top products, services and commitment to enable connectivity in the M2M marketplace.
Industry
The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) announced that the three-month moving average of worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $25,87 billion for the month of August 2013, an increase of 6,4% compared to August 2012, marking the industry’s largest year-over-year growth since March 2011. Global sales in August were 1,3% higher than the previous month’s total of $25,53 billion.
Global revenue in the power semiconductor business dropped by nearly 16% in 2012 as sluggish consumer demand, falling pricing and other factors conspired to undercut the market, according to a report from IHS. Following healthy growth during the previous year, market revenue in 2012 for power semiconductor discretes and modules fell to slightly less than $15 billion, down from nearly $18 billion in 2011. The module segment of the market contracted by 27%, a much steeper decrease than for discrete power semiconductors, which declined by about 12%.
Technology
Engineers at Stanford University have taken a large step toward realising the potential of carbon nanotubes (CNT) by using them as the basis for building a basic computer. This achievement may help galvanise efforts to find successors to silicon chips, which could soon encounter physical limits that might prevent them from delivering smaller, faster, cheaper electronic devices.
CSR has developed the world’s thinnest wireless touch interface to demonstrate the revolutionary potential of the technology for computing interfaces. The flexible device, which is less than 0,5 mm thick, turns any area into a touch surface. Combining CSR’s low-power wireless technology with the latest in printable, flexible electronics and touch screen sensing, the device can be used to extend the touch interface of tablets and smartphones. The paper-thin surface is wirelessly connected using the recently launched CSR1010 chip which is optimised solely for Bluetooth Smart. This allows it to connect to the latest iOS7 mobile devices and Windows 8 PCs using a fraction of the power of standard Bluetooth.
Intel is going toe to toe with ARM to secure a bigger share of the system-on-chip market for applications such as the Internet of Things and wearable computing, with its new Quark platform. The first product from the family is the X1000, a 32-bit, single core, single-thread, Pentium instruction set architecture (ISA)-compatible CPU, operating at speeds up to 400 MHz.
Researchers from UCLA have developed a transparent, elastic organic light-emitting diode (OLED) that can be repeatedly stretched, folded and twisted at room temperature while still remaining lit and retaining its original shape. Flexible display technology is much sought after as it could open up applications such as an electronic display nearly as clear as a window, or a curtain that illuminates a room, or a smartphone screen that doubles in size, stretching like rubber.
Xilinx and Analog Devices announced that they have achieved JESD204B interoperability between Xilinx JESD204 LogiCORE IP in the Kintex-7 FPGA and the ADI AD9250 analog-to-digital high-speed data converter. Achieving this interoperability between logic and data converter devices is seen as a significant milestone in promoting the widespread adoption of this new technology. JESD204B offers advantages such as higher-level system integration, deterministic latency capability, easier multi-channel synchronisation, smaller and lower-cost device packages, reduced PCB complexity and cost, and better system modularisation.
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