Southern Africa
Grintek Telecom has been awarded the Valued Partner Award by Tellabs International in recognition of exceptional sales and service support. Grintek Telecom is one of only four partners in Europe and the first in southern Africa to receive this award.
Petroleum Agency SA, an independent agency that reports to the Department of Minerals and Energy and which was established by a ministerial directive in 1999, has appointed arivia.kom to a R1,2-million, three-year contract for the support of its desktop and LAN environment which includes NT servers, desktops and peripherals for the some 45 users. The contract, which runs from 1 December, 2002, includes hardware, software and maintenance support. Petroleum Agency SA is located in Parow in the Western Cape.
Exhibitions organiser Reed Exhibitions has negotiated an empowerment-led management buyout of the UK-based Reed Exhibitions for an undisclosed sum. The buyout sees over 60% of the shares in the new entity - Exhibitions for Africa - in the hands of historically disadvantaged individuals (HDIs) said the company. Exhibitions for Africa hosts a number of leading business to business events, with significant international participation, on an annual and biennial basis. These include Computer Faire, Tel.Com, Afribuild/Afriwater, Hostex/Contract Furnishing, Securex, the KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape, and Eastern Cape Industrial Trade Shows and the Blue IQ Smart Industry Expo.
Local computer distributor Dexchange has introduced PC PhoneHome and Mac PhoneHome, two software programs claimed to monitor and track stolen computers anywhere in the world. Dexchange CEO, Mike Smith, says that once installed, the PhoneHome program occupies very little space, and is virtually undetectable and ineradicable. Its sole task is to send a secret e-mail to a special operations room every time the computer boots up and connects to the Internet, he says. If reported missing, the next time the computer logs on and sends the e-mail, the operations centre locks on to it, and the physical location can be established, he says. The police can then be called to investigate.
Overseas
Business
NEC has revised its financial forecast for the fiscal year that ended 31 March to a $210 m net loss. This compares to an expected $85 million profit originally forecast in January. It said the loss was primarily due to a re-examination of deferred income tax resulting from new taxes.
RF Micro Devices has raised its sales forecast for its fourth quarter ended 31 March, but it also expects a wider-than-expected loss for the period. It expects revenues to be approximately $138,3m.
Microchip Technology has lowered its forecast for the second time in three weeks, due to the impact from IC downturn, war in Iraq, and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). Net sales for the fourth quarter are expected to be approximately $159m to $160m. "We are very disappointed with the dramatic effect of world events and the resulting economic uncertainty on our business in the fourth quarter. Despite this, we are maintaining our long-term strategy and product development initiatives," said Steve Sanghi, Microchip's president and CEO. Net sales for the fourth quarter are expected to be approximately $159m to $160m. Microchip will release its March quarter and audited fiscal 2003 results late on 23 April, 2003.
STMicroelectronics has reduced its forecast slightly for Q1 of 2003, following what it said were "order push-outs in March." It expects to report sales of $1,618 bn (previously $1,620 bn) for the quarter ended 29 March.
Companies
Japanese chip company, Renesas Technology, has officially launched. In March 2002, Japan's Hitachi and Mitsubishi Electric announced plans to combine their non-DRAM operations, forming the world's third largest chip maker (behind Intel and Samsung Electronics). Renesas has now announced it has completed the integration of operations in North America and Europe, resulting in the establishment of Renesas Technology America Inc and Renesas Technology Europe Ltd. Renesas Technology is structured into three primary business units: microcontroller/system-on-chip (SoC) products; mixed signal, RF, and discrete devices; and memory chips, which include flash and SRAM products.
AMD and Fujitsu have announced an MOU to establish a new Flash memory semiconductor company headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. A Japan headquarters will be located in Tokyo. The new company, to be called FASL LLC, will be based on the integration of AMD and Fujitsu's Flash memory businesses, including their existing joint manufacturing venture, Fujitsu AMD Semiconductor Limited. The combination of a customer-centric approach, industry-leading technology expertise, integrated manufacturing, and a streamlined business model is intended to create the pre-eminent global Flash memory provider said AMD. FASL is expected to begin operations in the third quarter of this year.
Cadence Design Systems has announced it has acquired privately-held synthesis vendor Get2Chip for an undisclosed amount. With the acquisition Cadence gains the Get2Chip RTL Compiler technology.
BAE Systems North America has completed its acquisition of Advanced Power Technologies (APTI) for $27m. The 17-year-old APTI will change its name to BAE Systems Advanced Technologies, a fully integrated organisation operating within the company's Information and Electronic Warfare Systems (IEWS) business unit. IEWS is headquartered in Nashua, New Hampshire.
TDK Semiconductor and Silicon Laboratories have settled a patent infringement lawsuit brought by TDK covering one of its patents related to signal modulation technology for direct access arrangements (DAAs). TDK has granted Silicon Laboratories irrevocable, royalty-free licenses for the patent covered by the lawsuit and certain other related patents, and Silicon Laboratories has agreed to make a one-time payment of $17m to TDK.
Sun Microsystems and SAP established a joint Java Technology Centre at SAP's headquarters in Walldorf, Germany. The Centre's charter is to assess, promote and optimise Java technology for adoption in the SAP NetWeaver services-oriented technology platform for all SAP solutions said Sun Microsystems.
Texas Instruments has announced it has joined the MEMS Industry Group (MIG), a US trade association for the MEMS and microsystems industries.
Atmel has announced that it has become a member of the recently-announced Trusted Computing Group (TCG). TCG was formed to continue to drive embedded trust and security more effectively into computing platforms. According to Atmel it has shipped millions of TCPA-compliant security chips, known as Trusted Platform Modules (TPM), enabling more secure data storage, online business practices and online commerce transactions.
Industry
Worldwide semiconductor sales totalled $11,8 bn in February 2003, a 3,3% decrease from the $12,2 bn in revenue reported in January 2003 and an 18% increase from the $10,0 bn recorded in February 2002, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association's (SIA) latest report. "The recovery in the semiconductor industry that has been underway for more than 15 months appears to have stalled in February," said SIA president George Scalise. "Demand has softened in the markets that drove growth throughout the past year, including PCs, global wireless and consumer. The traditional seasonally flat first quarter has been further impacted this year by geopolitical uncertainty. We expect demand to strengthen as we approach the second half of the year resulting in growth for the year in double digits." On a unit volume basis, year-over-year chip sales have continued to rise by double digits for the past 10 months, with an average of 25% per month from July of 2002 through February of 2003. Year over year revenue comparisons also remain favourable, as the industry has climbed out of the downturn, with an average 18-20% gain over the seven months through February 2003.
IC Insights has forecast that overall sales of microcontrollers (MCUs) are expected to rise 11% in 2003. The fastest growing portion of the MCU market continues to be the 32-bit MCU segment, said the group, with the automobile, Internet-capable cellphones, PDAs, printers, digital still cameras, digital video cameras, high-speed modems and other applications driving this market segment to grow 30% in 2003 and 38% in 2004. Total MCU unit shipments are expected to jump 7% and overall average selling price is forecast to increase 4%. Steady sales of automobiles, home appliances and electronics, and consumer electronics will keep the market for MCUs very active throughout 2003, said the market research company. Although the 8-bit MCU market remains very active, the 32-bit MCU market is increasing its market share at the expense of the 4-bit, 8-bit and 16-bit markets.
According to new FPGA/PLD supplier rankings from Dataquest, nearly every supplier lost ground amid the IC downturn in 2002, although Xilinx remained in no. one spot. The top seven FPGA/PLD suppliers in 2002 were (in order): Xilinx $1,124 bn; Altera $712m; Lattice $229m; Actel $134m; Cypress $45m; QuickLogic $33m; Atmel $14m.
Wireless LAN chipset sales in 2002 grew at twice the pace achieved in the previous year, to 20 million units. According to Market research group In-Stat, most of these sales were driven by the huge popularity of 802.11b (Wi-Fi), with combo chips beginning to gain acceptance. 802.11g products have also started to arrive with great customer acceptance, it said. 33 million wireless LAN chipsets will be sold this year, and by 2007, this will grow to over 94 million predicts In-Stat. An even greater reason for the aggressive forecast, it adds, is a "second, potentially giant, wireless LAN application: wireless LAN embedded in a cellular handset and used for Voice-over-IP (VoIP)."
Dataquest has released its new Top 20 Chip Suppliers in 2002 rankings in terms of worldwide sales. They are, in order (2001 position in brackets):
Intel $25,26 bn (1);
Samsung $8,63 bn (4);
Toshiba $6,45 bn (2);
STMicro $6,35 bn (3);
TI $6,24 bn (5);
NEC $5,69 bn (6);
Infineon $5,25 bn (10);
Motorola $4,78 bn (7);
Philips $4,36 bn (9);
Hitachi $4,12 bn (8);
Mitsubishi $3,55 bn (11);
Fujitsu $3,23 bn (13);
Matsushita $3,14 bn (15);
IBM $2,95 bn (14);
Micron $2,94 bn (19);
Sony $2,71 bn (16);
AMD $2,66 bn (12);
Sharp $2,66 bn (17);
Sanyo $2,50 bn (20);
Rohm $2,39 bn (22).
Databeans' new Wireless Specific IC Market 2003-2008 report estimates global revenue of $9 bn for the wireless specific IC market. These products include digital signal processors, microcontrollers, logic, and analog. The research firm anticipates a compound annual growth rate of 14% over the next five years, resulting in a market valued over $22 bn by 2008. Wireless specific IC growth is led by digital signal processor sales, which are expected to expand from $3,2 bn in 2002 to $8,7 bn by 2008. Analog ASSP growth follows with a compound annual growth rate of 15%. In 2002, analog ASSP share of the wireless specific IC market was 40%, followed by DSP at 35%, digital ASSP at 23%, and microcontrollers at 2%.
IBM has expanded its 'Ready for IBM Technology' program for semiconductor products beyond its standard PowerPC products, to include foundry and ASIC solutions, reinforcing the company's increased focus in all three areas. Under the program, business partners follow a set of procedures to ensure that their products will work with various IBM semiconductor solutions. Ready for IBM Technology solutions include software, complementary hardware, design tools and flow, libraries and IP, and design services. The complete business solution is validated, including processor and chipsets, operating systems, middleware, IP cores, foundry design flows and foundry libraries. In the ASIC space the following qualified: Denali Software, Modelware, Silicon Logic Engineering and Tensilica. In the foundry area: Cadence Design Systems, Insyte, Kisel Microelectronics, Magma Design Automation, Mosis, Qthink, RF Integration, Sierra Monolithics, Synopsys, Tahoe RF Semiconductor, TriCN, Triscend, and Virtual Silicon Technology.
According to the Eurobarometer survey, undertaken by the European Commission, a survey of 12 247 people from 13 EU candidate countries showed that: 77% of respondents thought that disciplines in science and technology had a good image but 56% of those questioned said they were neither interested nor informed about science and technology. The highest degree of interest was found in Cyprus (58%), Hungary (53%), Malta (50%) and Slovenia (50%). The least interest was shown in Bulgaria (34%) and Turkey (22%). Romania scored an average 35%. The report warns that the entire industrial development of Europe may be endangered by the lack of interest in science and technology careers by young people in candidate countries.
The use of biological, chemical, and gas sensors has been well established for several decades in numerous industries, yet, according to high-tech market research firm, In-Stat/MDR, in terms of its potential, the market remains in its infancy. Much work lies ahead to capture both current and emerging opportunities where there is a real need and strong market pull, it adds. Even so, revenues for next-generation biological and chemical sensors will increase from $2,3 bn in 2002 to almost $4 bn in 2007, at a compound annual growth rate of 11,5%. An important market opportunity for these sensors lies in the detection of explosives and narcotics. In-Stat notes that the use of biosensors in blood glucose testing is the '800-pound gorilla' of the next-generation biological and chemical sensor market, and will remain so for the foreseeable future. The use of microfluidics (coupled with multiple sensor technologies) comes in at a very distant second; although the sector is gaining momentum as more companies enter the field and introduce products.
FlexRay and TTP (time-triggered protocol) are two competing communication protocols designed to facilitate new systems, including next-generation technologies, such as x-by-wire (drive-by-wire). The concept behind x-by-wire involves replacing nearly every automotive hydraulic/mechanical system with electronics. In a new report, research group ABI says that despite the fact that competing time-triggered communication protocols are under development, efforts to introduce 'by-wire' technologies into motor vehicles will not be deterred. Also, even though most automakers and automotive semiconductor vendors have seemingly made their protocol choices, ABI cautions that it is still too early for either protocol to claim victory, as much can happen in the months ahead and the automotive qualification process has yet to begin.
DuPont Displays has launched a branding strategy for its organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs). They will now be offered under the 'Olight' name. DuPont said that Olight, which was derived from 'OLED' and 'light', is meant to emphasise the superior characteristics of OLEDs over LCDs: better brightness and contrast ratio, moving images with fast response times and wide viewing angles without loss of contrast ratio.
The worldwide market for semiconductor manufacturing equipment was $18,5 bn in 2002, a decline of 30,4% from 2001, according market research organisation Gartner. "The dire outcome of 2002 was the result of slower-than-anticipated end-user demand and an increasing level of macroeconomic uncertainty that hit semiconductor vendors rapidly in the second half of 2002," said Klaus-Dieter Rinnen, vice president for Gartner's semiconductor research group. "Consequently, spending plans were adjusted downward, projects were delayed or shelved, and equipment orders were either pushed out or cancelled."
The International Organization for Standardization and International Electrotechnical Committee (ISO/IEC) has published final international standards enabling the vendor-neutral programming of Web Services. These standards include C# (pronounced C-Sharp), an object-oriented programming language, and the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) standard as well as the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) technical report. These publications were enabled by ECMA, a non-profit industry association of technology developers, vendors and users. Specifications for each technology were developed by Microsoft and co-submitted to ECMA by Microsoft, Intel and Hewlett-Packard.
Technology
Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) claims to have achieved over 11 000 hours of operation for its blue polymer research devices, an advancement it says is a significant step towards the commercialisation of the technology for full colour active matrix applications.
Advanced Micro Devices claims to have made a transistor in fully depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI) manufacturing process technology that operates 30% faster than the best previously reported PMOS transistor. The achievement will be presented at the VLSI Technology Symposium in Kyoto, Japan, in June. "By staying at the forefront of research on transistors that operate with higher performance, less current leakage and lower voltage requirements, we are providing AMD design teams with the building blocks they need to create the solutions customers want," said Craig Sander, vice president of process technology development at AMD.
Duracell has introduced the first prismatic (rectangular) alkaline cell. Aimed at slimline audio devices, the company says its new LP1 can physically replace prismatic NiMH cells. The cell measures 67 x 17 x 6,1 mm. It claims that currently, over 200 audio devices can be powered by the LP1 cells.
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