South Africa

• The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has moved its head offices from Sandton to 350 Witch-Hazel Avenue, Eco Point Office Park, Eco Park, Centurion. Its offices in Sandton officially ceased operations on 26 October, and services to licensees and general stakeholders as well as consumers of electronic communications, broadcasting and postal services, were expected to remain unaffected.

Overseas

Business

• Third quarter group revenues for ams were $479,6 million, up 92% sequentially compared to the second quarter and up 57% from the same quarter in 2017. Adjusted net income for the latest quarter was $18,6 million (compared to $23,5 million for the same period in 2017), while adjusted diluted earnings per share were $0,22 (compared to $0,27 in the third quarter of 2017).

• Silicon Labs’ revenue in the third quarter established a new all-time record for the company, exceeding the high end of guidance at $230,2 million, up from $217.1 million in the second quarter. Third quarter diluted earnings per share (EPS) established an eight-year record high at $0,63.

• For its third quarter, STMicroelectronics reported net revenues of $2,52 billion, and net income of $369 million or $0,41 diluted earnings per share. On a year-over-year basis, third quarter net revenues increased 18,1% with all product groups delivering revenue growth. Year-over-year sales to OEMs and distribution were up 21,6% and 11,2%, respectively.

• Dialog Semiconductor experienced a 6% year-on-year rise in revenue to $384 million in the third quarter of 2018. When excluding the contribution of its acquisition of Silego, however, revenue was 2% below the third quarter of 2017. Diluted EPS of $0,60 in this most recent quarter was 3% below the same period a year ago.

• Micron Technology announced that it will invest up to $100 million in startups with a strong focus on AI and machine learning through its strategic investments entity, Micron Ventures. The announcement was made at the inaugural Micron Insight 2018 event where the technology industry’s top minds gathered in San Francisco to discuss the future technology landscape and how memory technology brings it to life.

• Texas Instruments reported third-quarter revenue of $4,26 billion, net income of $1,57 billion and earnings per share of $1,58. By comparison, the third quarter of 2017 yielded revenue of $4,12 billion, net income of $1,29 billion and earnings per share of $1,26. Despite the rise in revenue, the company reported that demand for its products slowed across most markets.

Companies

• Dialog Semiconductor entered into an agreement with Apple to license its power management technologies, and transfer certain of its assets and over 300 employees from Dialog to support chip research and development. Apple will pay $300 million in cash for the transaction and prepay $300 million for Dialog products to be delivered over the next three years. Dialog has been awarded a broad range of new contracts from Apple for the development and supply of power management, audio subsystem, charging and other mixed-signal ICs.

Industry

• According to World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) figures released by the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $122,7 billion during the third quarter of 2018, an increase of 4,1% over the previous quarter and 13,8% more than the third quarter of 2017. Global sales for the month of September 2018 reached $40,9 billion, an uptick of 2,0% over August’s total and 13,8% more than sales from June 2017.

• With tight supplies of widely used power transistors and diodes driving up prices and new optical-imaging applications moving into more systems, the diverse marketplace for optoelectronics, sensors and actuators, and discrete semiconductors (O-S-D) is on pace to grow by 11% for the second year in a row in 2018 and set a ninth consecutive record-high level in combined annual revenues worldwide. An update to IC Insights’ forecast shows total sales across the three market segments reaching $83,2 billion this year, followed by 9% growth in 2019, when revenues are expected to hit an all-time high of $90,6 billion.

Technology

• Xilinx unveiled Versal, the industry’s first adaptive compute acceleration platform (ACAP). Versal ACAPs combine scalar processing engines, adaptable hardware engines, and intelligent engines with leading-edge memory and interfacing technologies to deliver powerful heterogeneous acceleration for any application. Most importantly, the hardware and software can be programmed and optimised by software developers, data scientists and hardware developers alike, enabled by a host of tools, software, libraries, IP, middleware and frameworks that enable industry-standard design flows.