Southern Africa
Technology group IST has announced that it has maintained its momentum for the third successive year, posting a solid set of results for the year to February and increasing its dividend pay-out. The group said it boosted operating profit by 54% to R36,1m. This was achieved on turnover which rose by 7,5% to R300,3m, reflecting tough trading conditions, notably in the telecoms market, it said. Chief executive, Harry Coetzee, said that the Mechanical group of businesses had produced particularly good results, with the defence unit IST Dynamics, the engineering contractor IST Industrial and IST Nuclear, all exceeding their targets. In the Electronics division, power engineer IST Energy and Tswelopele Engineering, the group's BEE joint venture, both did very well. IST Telecom and IST Data both felt some of the effects of the sluggish spending in the telecoms sector but still produced very satisfactory results. IST Otokon suffered a temporary setback from the delayed implementation of Eskom's Demand Side Management initiative, with the first contract only having been signed after the year-end.
International technology group Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) has joined SchlumbergerSema as a licensee of Prism Holdings' secure SIM product, aSIMetrix. According to Prism CEO Alvin Els, G&D's agreement with Prism - at first confined to the Asia Pacific (APAC) region which is leading the world in the adoption of m-commerce - will result in a significant initial order for Prism in the current financial year. Like SchlumbergerSema, which has been producing aSIMetrix SIM cards under licence to Prism since early last year, G&D is one of the global 'big four' providers of smartcard-based solutions for mobile telecommunications. Both are founder members of the global SIMalliance, which recently accepted Prism as its eighth member. In addition, I'M Technologies of Singapore has also signed a licensing agreement with Prism for aSIMetrix. I'M Technologies is a significant supplier of GSM SIM cards and 3G USIM (Universal Subscriber Identity Module) cards to mobile operators in Asia.
The Thailand Exhibition 2003 will take place at the Sandton Convention Centre, Gauteng for the third consecutive year. According to the organisers, the electrical and electronic products, components and parts industry in Thailand has recently experienced phenomenal levels of growth, with electronic ICs ranked third on Thailand's exports items in 2002, valued at an impressive $3452,8m. In the same year, exports of radio-broadcast receivers, television receivers and parts thereof were valued at $2102m. The Thailand Exhibition (11-13 June 2003) will present South African importers, buyers and trade visitors with the opportunity to research and explore this growing industry and examine products such as electrical control systems, target counters, nurse call systems, AC motors, pumps and general purpose motors as well as a range of equipment for the electrical appliances and equipment for the industry. For trade enquiries contact 012 342 0835/50/56/59, or e-mail [email protected].
Overseas
Business
Infineon Technologies has announced results for its second quarter and first half of fiscal year 2003. The company had revenues of Euro 1,48 bn, an increase of 3% sequentially and 13% year-on-year. Net loss amounted to Euro 328m compared to a net loss of Euro 40m in the previous quarter and Euro 108m in the same quarter a year ago. The quarterly net loss reflects the strong price decline for DDR memory chips as well as continued pricing pressure in most segments, it said. The loss includes a charge of Euro 103m for tax expenses in previous quarters and Euro 54m related to inventory write downs, non-recurring licence income, restructuring charges and acquisition-related expenditures. Ulrich Schumacher, president and CEO of Infineon: "We achieved a very good revenue growth and gained further market share in a continued difficult market environment mainly driven by increased sales for memory products and repeated record performance of the automotive and industrial segment. We increased our productivity significantly, however, we could not compensate for the dramatic price decline for memory products."
STMicroelectronics reported sales of $1,6 bn for the first quarter 2003, a 19,4% jump from $1,36 bn in last year's first quarter, but 9,4% below the $179 bn reported for the prior quarter. Net income was $79,0m for the 2003 first quarter, compared to the $32,9m in last year's first quarter and the $160,6m in the 2002 fourth quarter. "As anticipated, difficult market conditions persisted in the 2003 first quarter," said Pasquale Pistorio, ST's president and CEO. "On a year-over-year basis, ST's revenue performance showed a marked improvement. Sequential comparisons, however, were affected beyond normal seasonal patterns, as business and geopolitical uncertainties caused order push-outs during the last month of the quarter across most of our end markets."
Advanced Micro Devices has reported sales of $715m for the quarter ended 30 March, a 21% drop from $902,1m in the like period a year ago but a 4% jump over $686,4m in the previous period. AMD also posted a loss of $146m, in the quarter, compared to a loss of $235,1m, in the previous period, and a deficit of $9,2m, a year ago. "In a tough market environment and in a quarter that is typically seasonally down, we grew our revenue by 4% from the fourth quarter of 2002," said Robert Rivet, AMD chief financial officer. "We believe we gained market share in both our PC processor and flash memory product lines. And we made significant operating improvements that better position us for a return to profitability."
Intel has announced first-quarter revenue of $6,75 bn, down 6% sequentially and flat year-over-year. First-quarter net income was $915m, down 13% sequentially and down 2% year-over-year. The fourth-quarter 2002 results included a tax benefit of approximately $75m related to divestitures, while last year's Q1 results included a pretax charge of $155m related to a litigation settlement agreement.
RF Micro Devices has announced that revenue for its fourth quarter was $138,3m, an increase of 37,7% versus revenue of $100,4m for the corresponding quarter of fiscal 2002, and a sequential decrease of 5,1% versus revenues of $145,8m for the previous quarter. The revenues reflect the market share gains in its core market of power amplifiers for cellular handsets, it said. Gross profit for the quarter was $40,8m, down slightly from $40,9m for the prior year period, and down 25,1% sequentially from the previous quarter. Net loss for the quarter was $13,0m, compared to net income of $2,8m, for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2002 and net loss of $5,2m for the prior quarter.
Xilinx has reported sales of $305,5m for its fourth fiscal quarter, up 8% from $282,7m in the previous quarter and 12% from $273,5m in the like period a year ago. Xilinx also posted a profit of $49,4m, in the quarter, compared to a loss of $3,4m, in the previous quarter and a profit of $34,3m, in the like period, a year ago.
Samsung Electronics reported 1,35 trillion won (about $1,1 bn) in operating profit and 1,1 trillion won (about $910m) in net income on sales of 9,6 trillion won (about $8,0 bn) for Q1 2003. Sales and net income were each down 10,5% quarter on quarter. The company said this was due to falling average selling prices (ASPs) on memories sold by its chip division and the sluggish IT industry at home and abroad.
Companies
STMicroelectronics and Hynix Semiconductor have announced plans to team up and enter the NAND-based flash-memory market. Under the terms, STMicro of Geneva and Hynix of Seoul will jointly develop and introduce a full NAND product portfolio, beginning with a 512-megabit device to be introduced in the second half of 2003. The products will be marketed by both companies. "So far, ST has focused on NOR flash, the largest segment of the market, where we have become one the world leaders both in technology and market share. It is now the right time for us to expand our flash portfolio with NAND devices to address the fast growing demand for low-cost, high-density data storage," said Mario Licciardello, ST flash memories division general manager.
Sunrise Telecom has announced that it has acquired substantially all of the assets of GIE, a German corporation specialising in wireless and RF measurement instrumentation. "This acquisition adds expertise in key technology areas - RF and wireless - to complement our product line. Sunrise Telecom provides testing solutions for the major broadband technologies at the network edge: DSL, cable modem, fibre optic, and now wireless," Paul Chang, Sunrise Telecom's president and CEO.
Unique Memec has announced a Pan European distribution agreement with OKI Electric Europe, a leading technology partner in digital communications and convergence. According to the companies, this agreement allows them to "better focus their sales and engineering efforts within the embedded marketplace, leverage mind share and help increase design wins". Comments Soichiro Yamamuro, OKI managing director for Europe: "Unique's limited supplier, demand creation approach to the market differentiates them from most in the industry. Their technical focus will allow OKI to drive designs in new, emerging and growth markets."
Osram Opto Semiconductors has announced that on 1 April 2003, it has taken over the worldwide sales activities for its opto-semiconductor products from Infineon Technologies, its former joint venture partner. This means that the fully-owned Osram subsidiary is strengthening its consultation services and its customer focus. In this new sales structure, Osram Opto Semiconductors said it will also be making use of the existing sales channels of Osram GmbH, and the distribution partners established with Infineon will continue to play an important role in covering as much of the market as possible.
Advanced Micro Devices has consolidated two divisions to form the new Microprocessor Business Unit. The new unit consolidates two divisions within its Computational Products Group (CPG): AMD's microprocessor business and product planning, product management, product marketing and brand management as well as its customer and business development activities.
Tessera, a developer of chip-scale and multichip packages, has announced a new technology licensing agreement with Seiko Epson. Epson plans to use Tessera's advanced packaging technology in ASICs and specialty memory products for mobile and consumer products.
Industry
Worldwide capital spending in the semiconductor industry is expected to reach $31,9 bn in 2003, a 15% growth rate over 2002, according to a new report from IC Insights. In total, worldwide capital spending in the IC industry is expected to hit $44,7 bn by 2007, a compound annual growth rate of 5,2%, it states.
While the customer-specific, MOS standard cell market has suffered, it will recover, even if at a slower pace than desired. High-tech market researchers In-Stat/MDR report that last year saw shipments for this market level out, gaining only 0,1% in worldwide revenue, which is a lot better than the decline of 36,3% in 2001, relative to 2000. In-Stat/MDR finds that what was so surprising about this market in 2002, is that regional consumption went topsy-turvy, throwing historic trends out-the-window. Within the space of one year, Japan surpassed The Americas, to become the leading consumer of customer-specific, cell-based products, while, at the same time, Europe dropped into the cellar (fourth place), being surpassed, by a wide margin, by Asia Pacific.
The semiconductor content of an average vehicle will continue to grow exponentially, stemming from a barrage of new, advanced safety, engine and chassis control technologies in new vehicles over the next few years. According to a new report by Allied Business Intelligence (ABI), the global automotive semiconductor market, driven by these new systems, will grow from a projected value of $12,3 bn in 2002, to just over $17 bn by 2007. The largest target application for automotive silicon is body and chassis control, which includes electronic traction, suspension and stability control systems. This segment commands approximately 26% of the automotive semiconductor market and will be worth $4,4 bn in 2007.
According to market research firm Probe Research the enterprise data services market in Western Europe is expected to grow at a healthy 15,5% compound annual growth rate between 2003 and 2008. At the same time, frame-relay will continue to grow over the next few years, but virtual private networking (VPN) will surpass it as IP continues to attract new customers.
The ITU has approved a new standard (Recommendation ITU-T J.202) that allows content providers to roll out value-added interactive TV (iTV) services to any network without modification. iTV allows viewers of a football match for example, to display data on a player while a match is in progress. Previously, proprietary or country-specific standards forced content providers to develop different product versions for each market, said ITU. The standard means that content providers can develop interactive material for programmes that can then be distributed worldwide without extra labour or cost. Richard Green, chairman ITU-T Study Group 9: "ITU is the only organisation with the international scope necessary to bring these other standards makers - DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting), ARIB (Association of Radio Industries and Businesses), ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee), OCAP (Open Cable Applications Platform) - together. It will greatly reduce the need for re-authoring of iTV content and enable economies of scale to be achieved by the manufacturing industry."
The number of fuel cell vehicles that will be introduced to the world in the coming decade will reach 800 000 by 2012, according to a new ABI study. It believes that greater attention is finally being given to fuel cells, and there is as much awareness in the EU as there is in Japan. "The US will have to more aggressively execute its strategy of solving technological challenges and infrastructure layouts if it is to help early fuel cell vehicle introduction by the second half of the decade," explained Atakan Ozbek, ABI Director of Energy Research. "Recent announcements by the Bush administration to increase funding of hydrogen and automotive fuel cell research are a necessary right step in this direction. However, due to powerful energy stakeholders in the US - namely, the oil industry - the US has to push the fuel cell sector toward meaningful infrastructure deployment."
Even though the value PC processor segment is relatively crowded, Intel's plans for clock speed superiority, should keep it well ahead of its competitors in this market. According to In-Stat/MDR, Intel's mobile value processors will breeze to 2,7 GHz at the end of 2004 as it balances challenges from competitors AMD, VIA, and Transmeta and maintains power dissipation within desired mobile limits but without the benefit of the power management capabilities of the performance segment. Mobile value would appear to be Intel's weakest position, given the competition of AMD's Athlon XP-M, VIA's C3, and Transmeta's Crusoe, it says.
Texas Instruments has announced that it will reduce its workforce by about 1250 jobs within its semiconductor and sensors businesses. TI said it will also take a charge of about $40m in the Q2 of 2003, in the first phase of a major restructuring effort. Around 450 jobs in its semiconductor manufacturing operations and 800 positions within its sensors & controls business will be affected, said TI.
Despite the continued downturn in expenditures for telecom components, 2002 was surprisingly strong for suppliers of MEMS-based (MicroElectroMechanical Systems) solutions to the optical networking market, reports In-Stat/MDR. It attributes much of this to the fact that many of these devices have now passed Telcordia standards, giving them real respectability within the market. As a result, a number of companies saw their shipments move beyond sampling and into volume production in 2002. According to In-Stat, while device reliability is no longer the issue - company stability is. Fully 50% of the companies known to be developing MEMS solutions for optical networking have closed their doors, and the question lingers as to who will be next. Even so, it believes those remaining in the market were still able to raise more than $55m in venture capital funding throughout 2002.
Microchip Technology was named a finalist in the Best Sales Organisation category for the American Business Awards. Said to be 'the business world's own Oscars' the awards are nicknamed 'The Stevies' for the Greek word 'crowned'. Microchip is currently the second largest supplier of 8-bit micro- controllers in the world, based on unit shipments, according to Gartner Dataquest. The company has been gaining market share in its core microcontroller business for the past 12 years, moving from the 20th position in 1990 to the 2nd position since 1997.
With the PC industry continuing to face the prospect of slow growth over the next years, new types of products such as tablet PCs and Smart Displays may be just the ticket to bring the PC market out of its doldrums, states In-Stat/MDR in a new report. It believes these products provide hope for PC manufacturers and software developers (particularly Microsoft) who are looking for ways to push out beyond slow-growing traditional PC markets.
'The Top 10 Drivers of the Converged Home Network', the newest white paper from In-Stat/MDR, explores the market drivers and contains information on the move towards the connected home. It can be freely downloaded from http://um1.instat.com/ UM/T.ASP?A9.111.1209.1.16995
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has announced that Busan, (Republic of Korea) has been pre-selected as the venue for the next regional Asia event - ITU Telecom Asia 2004 - to take place in the second half of 2004. The event will provide a platform for telecommunication leaders to share their ideas on future trends and discuss appropriate strategies for the development of information and communication technologies in the Asia-Pacific region.
Technology
Renesas Technology, the new joint IC venture between Hitachi and Mitsubishi Electric has introduced a 16-bit micro-controller line for low-cost applications. The H8 Value Series of controllers achieves a 25 MHz operating frequency, with a minimum instruction execution time of 40 ns for the H8S series devices and 80 ns for the H8/300H series devices. They have 4 or 8 KB of RAM and 128 KB of ROM.
Infineon Technologies has equipped 240 000 books as well as 60 000 CDs and DVDs from the inventory of Vienna's new multimedia main library with radio chips for data transmission. Use of the new RFID (radio frequency identification) chips permits users to check out books, CDs or DVDs themselves, without waiting in line at a counter for service by a librarian. Infineon implemented the project together with its partner ekz, a German library equipment supplier, and Swiss partner Bibliotheca Library Systems, a worldwide systems integrator specialised in libraries. Instead of using the traditional two information carriers, ie, the barcode for accounting and the electromagnetic safety strip for theft protection, it is now only required to write data into the radio chip, effectively cutting the manual effort per operation in half.
Agilent Technologies has released a family of fully integrated CMOS camera modules that are claimed to offer exceptional sensitivity in low-light conditions. They are fully integrated and require no external components. Agilent's camera modules combine high image quality CIF (352 x 288 pixel) or VGA (480 x 640 pixel) resolution CMOS image sensors with a tightly integrated image processor, an embedded power supply and high-quality lens to offer a complete imaging solution. A proprietary low noise imaging-optimised IC process and innovative analog circuitry is used, says Agilent.
Italian designer Pininfarina presented this vehicle at the Geneva Car Show. Behind the surprisingly low-profile headlights on the futuristic sportscar are high-performance LED from Osram Opto Semiconductors. Coincidentally, the company has also started sampling its 'Golden Dragon', a 1 W high-performance compact surface-mount LED. This bright light source has high luminous efficacy (20 lm/W), measures 0,8 to 1,8 mm high, in a 6 x 7 mm casing. It operates from -40 to +100°C and may last more than 20 000 hours, depending on conditions.
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