Southern Africa
Trolley Scan has been granted its key protocol patent that is the basis of the Trolleyponder RFID system by the European Patent Office. The grant is backdated to 1998 when the patent was filed. The patent allows many simple transponders to communicate with a reader using a single communication channel and forms the basis for scanning systems such as would be needed when scanning the contents of a supermarket trolley in a store. It allows all transponders to even carry identical information data such as is needed in a system designed as a barcode replacement solution, while also allowing anti-shoplifting (EAS) features to be included in the system. The patent has already been granted in the US and a number of other countries.
Electronic payments company, Prism Holdings, has been awarded a development grant of up to R1,5m by the Department of Trade and Industry's Support Programme for Industrial Innovation (SPII). The grant, which will be matched by a similar investment from Prism itself, will be directed at ongoing developments surrounding Prism's leading-edge SIM technology, which has already been widely adopted around the world for use in mobile commerce initiatives. Prism plans to use the grant to develop a next generation SIM browser for the SmartPhone environment, in support of even more advanced data and m-commerce applications.
Sun Microsystems is beefing up its strategy to deliver integral value with its operating environments by including a complete software stack with every operating system it provides. This emerged at a technology update held recently in Sandton, during which the vendor highlighted current and future developments on its Solaris operating environment. "Part of our strategy in delivering operating environments is to include a product set that provides users with integrated software tools and not just an operating system," says Lodewyk de Beer, solutions architect at Sun Microsystems SA. Presently, Sun offers UNIX-based Solaris for SPARC, Solaris for x86 and Sun Linux.
Overseas
Business
On Semiconductor has lowered its second quarter 2003 forecast amid weakness in the automotive and wireless markets. The company previously predicted that its revenues would be flat as compared to the first quarter. It said that based upon end-market weakness in these markets, coupled with approximately 3% sequential average price declines in all of its markets, it now anticipates revenues for Q2 will decline by 3 to 5% as compared to the first quarter of 2003.
Companies
Oki Electric is to transfer its SAW (surface acoustic wave) duplexer business to Murata. The company said the move would allow it to focus on system LSIs, an area of expertise for the company. Under the agreement, Oki transfers its technical know-how and some of its business resources for the SAW duplexer business, including development equipment and fixtures. Oki will also transfer its employees charging in this business to Murata.
Trident Microsystems and Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS) have announced plans to merge their graphics chip units into a new and independent company. Trident's Graphic division will be merged with XGI, the graphics unit previously spun off from SiS.
Cambridge-based Splashpower, a start-up that is developing a novel form of inductive electrical charging to power mobile devices, has teamed with power supply specialist Celltronix, of Hong Kong. The companies intend to integrate the technology into a range of battery packs for mobile phones, PDAs and Bluetooth enabled devices. The system comprises a flat pad that plugs into the mains supply and a specially-designed module that sits within the equipment to be charged. The system can simultaneously recharge a number of mobile devices simply by resting the devices on the pad.
Qualcomm and Broadcom plan to jointly develop and promote Bluetooth capabilities for CDMA mobile phones. Qualcomm's baseband modem will be combined with RF technology from Broadcom.
Texas Instruments Radio Frequency Identification (TI-RFid) Systems, has announced that MAXxess Systems, a subsidiary of Odetics, will resell its new 13,56 MHz RFID vicinity cards and readers for access control applications.
Addressing market demand for ever greater reach for VDSL and ever greater bandwidth over a single pair, Infineon Technologies and Metalink have announced they are each developing VDSLPlus, which introduces a fifth-band extension of standard VDSL technology. VDSLPlus will enable service providers to offer scalable DSL services ranging from short range applications at data rates up to 150 Mbps, to long reach applications that allow for more than 4 Mbps rates over distances of 4 km using the same line-card and CPE designs. VDSLPlus will use a new frequency band above the current 12 MHz limit, as defined by international VDSL standards, to achieve the highest speeds ever reached in data transmission over standard twisted-pair copper wire, said Infineon.
IBM and Infineon Technologies have announced that they have developed the most advanced magnetic random access memory (MRAM) technology to date by integrating magnetic memory components into a high-performance logic base. This non-volatile memory technology that uses magnetic, rather than electronic, charges to store bits of data, could significantly improve portable computing products by storing more information, accessing it faster and using less battery power. Infineon expects to have a jointly-developed product demonstrator available early 2004.
On Semiconductor has signed a major silicon foundry deal with South Korea's Hynix Semiconductor. Under the terms, Hynix will supply production support to On for its power management products.
Industry
The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) has released its 2003-2006 midyear forecast, projecting 16,8% growth for 2004 and a CAGR of 9,8% over the forecast period. Annually, worldwide sales of semiconductors are expected to increase 10,1% in 2003, 5,8% in 2005, and 7% in 2006. Industry sales will grow from $141 bn in 2002 to $205 bn in 2006. In terms of product categories, SIA predicts the following:
* Amid a slowing PC market, microprocessors will only increase 8,1% to $25,8 bn in 2003 and then are forecast to grow 11,1% to $28,6 bn in 2004, 7% to $30,7 bn in 2005, and 4% to $31,9 bn in 2006.
* The DRAM market is expected to grow 2,9% to $15,7 bn in 2003 and 43% to $22,5 bn in 2004. In 2005, DRAMs are expected to decrease 26,8% to $16,4 bn. In 2006, this market will rebound 29,6% to $21,3 bn in sales.
* Flash memories are expected to grow 25% to $9,7 bn, grow an additional 25% to $12,1 bn in 2004, and another 11% to $13,5 bn in 2005. In 2006, however, Flash is expected to decline 5% to $12,8 bn in sales due to the cyclical nature of this sector.
* DSP business is forecast to rise 27,7% to $6,2 bn in 2003, 20,8% in 2004 to $7,5 bn, 21% to $9,1 bn in 2005, and 6% to $9,6 bn in 2006.
* Discrete components, which include power transistors and RF solutions, are forecasted to grow 7,3% to $13,2 bn in 2003. Discretes are then forecast to grow 12,1% to $14,9 bn in 2004, 9,4% to $16,3 bn in 2005, and 3,3% to $16,8 bn in 2006.
* The optoelectronics device market is expected to increase 22% to $8,3 bn in sales, grow 15% to $9,5 bn in 2004, 11,7% to $10,6 bn in 2005, and 5,6% to $11,2 bn in 2006.
* Analog is expected to grow 7,9% to $25,8 bn in 2003, 14% to $29,4 bn in 2004, 13,5% to $33,4 bn in 2005, and 5% to $35,1 bn by 2006.
* The global logic market, which includes standard logic, standard cell, field programmable logic devices (FPLD), and a broad variety of application-specific products, is expected to grow 9,6% to $34,2 bn, increase 12,6% in 2004 to $38,6 bn, 11,7% to $43,1 bn in 2005 and 5,0% to $45,2 bn in 2006.
* The global microcontroller market, driven by consumer and automotive applications, will increase 9,9% to $10,3 bn in 2003, and then grow 14% to $11,7 bn in 2004, 3,2% to $12,1 bn in 2005, and 18,5% to $14,3 bn by 2006.
According to In-Stat/MDR, the outlook for the future of customer-specific, MOS cell-based designs, containing one or more blocks of embedded SRAM, will be no brighter than that of the overall MOS cell-based ASIC market. The research firm reports that this market will post a compound annual growth rate of 11,5% from last year to 2007. Memory, in particular static RAM-based memory, is one of the most common functions used in a variety of semiconductor products, ranging from standalone, to application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and application-specific standard products (ASSPs), as well as field-configurable standard products (FCSPs). However, static RAM is also a very real estate intensive function. Similar to many other product and market segments, static RAM is available in a variety of flavours, including; single-port/dual-port/multiport, FIFO, 1-Transistor, cache and asynchronous, to name a few. While to varying degrees, all the various static RAM architectures will find applications, only a few will find acceptance in a large number of designs, with the most dominant being single-port, dual-port, and multiport.
Multiple in-vehicle multimedia networking protocols may result in a fragmented industry, as well as higher associated costs for all industry players, affirms a recent study by research firm ABI. Currently, two interface standards have been developed for automotive multimedia applications: IDB-1394 (based on IEEE 1394) and MOST (media oriented systems transport). ABI believes the potential exists for the protocols to both coexist and compete in the automotive platform, depending on the specific role each will play. While IEEE 1394 continues to make inroads in consumer electronics devices, the MOST protocol has gained significant traction this year. Having made its introduction in the 2002 BMW 7 Series, MOST is now available in over nine additional European platforms for 2003. IDB-1394 is not due for a commercial rollout until the 2006 model year. In light of extreme cost-cutting measures, some original equipment manufacturers are continuing their use of the CAN bus as long as possible before having to convert to a new higher bandwidth, digital in-vehicle network, said ABI.
The IEEE has approved two new wireless local- and personal-area networking standards and two corresponding recommended practices. The newly approved 802.11g standard for WLAN specifies data rates of up to 54 Mbps in the 2,45 GHz band. While 802.11g uses orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), it must be compatible with the well-established 802.11b standard (11 Mbps), which uses complementary code keying (CCK) modulation. The 802.15.3 standard for High Rate WPANs also operates in the 2,45 GHz band and at rates from 11 to 55 Mbps, but is designed for shorter-range (1 to 50 metres), very-low-power operation. It uses time division, multiple access (TDMA) protocol. The two recommended practices approved are for 802.15.2 and 802.11f. The first addresses the coexistence issue between WLANs and WPANs operating in the 2,45-GHz bands, such as Bluetooth, 802.15.3 WPANs and 802.11b and g WLANs, while the second (Inter Access Point Protocol), ensures interoperability between access points from multiple vendors (for roaming).
AeA, formerly the American Electronics Association, has reported that exports from the US fell 26% between 2000 and 2002, while China became the biggest supplier of electronics to the United States. Cumulatively, the US is running a record $54 bn high-tech trade deficit as of the end of last year, the group said in a report.
Amphion, a specialist in semiconductor intellectual property for digital video and image coding system-on-chip designs based in Belfast, Northern Ireland, has announced it has closed another $5m funding round.
NTT DoCoMo's CEO, Keiji Tachikawa, announced that the company may adopt fuel cell batteries in its FOMA 3G wireless handset as early as 2005. DoCoMo is developing a FOMA watch style handset similar to its popular PHS handset, WRISTOMO. The company is researching a way to increase battery life by adopting a fuel cell technology which will also reduce power consumption.
CommsDesign.com has reported that ANSI's T1E1.4 committee has opted for discrete multitone (DMT) technology over quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) as the line coding scheme for VDSL systems deployed in the US. The move is expected to have big impacts on the deployment of VDSL in the United States, and around the world.
Based on combined desktop, laptop and server shipments, Mercury Research calculates that Intel shipped its 1 billionth processor in April 2003. This is roughly 25 years after the debut of the first 8086 microprocessor on 8 June, 1978.
RF Micro Devices has announced that Gartner Dataquest has recognised it as the industry's number one provider of power amplifiers for wireless handsets based on 2002 revenues. According to the 'Wireless Communications Semiconductor Competitive Market Shares for 2002,' Gartner Dataquest estimates RFMD held approximately 35% market share.
Universal Instruments' 4797L HSP turret-style chipshooter recently won two separate industry awards at APEX 2003 in California, USA. Both awards were selected in the Pick and Place category. The HSP secured top prize in the Placement Equipment category, and it also achieved first place in the SMT Vision Awards.
Got a $10 000 idea just waiting for a chance to escape? Microchip Technology has announced a new Low Power Design Contest where it can be exposed. Contestants must design-in any of the company's power-managed microcontrollers that feature 'nanoWatt technology', include some Microchip low power analog products, and send it in to the company. Closing date is September 9, 2003. See www.portabledesign.com/microchipcontest.
Technology
The Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) consortium is planning to revolutionise AM radio with digital technology. The consortium consists of more than 70 members including radio companies and chip and equipment manufacturers. It intends to replace AM transmissions gradually with new digital technology, increasing sound quality on a par with FM, and improving reception abilities. New modulation processes such as COFDM (coded orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) coupled with data compression called aacPlus, is being used.
MathStar has revealed first details of what it calls field-programmable object arrays (FPOAs). The technology, dubbed Silicon Objects, is claimed to offer a solution to companies caught between the vexing issues of development cost hurdles with 130 nm ASICs and performance limitations of conventional FPGAs. The FPOA product family gives design teams flexible field re-programmability with deterministic 1 GHz clock performance and attractive unit costs. Silicon Objects makes use of the so-called NoGates design process, which simplifies conventional chip design flows. With NoGates, cycle-accurate, C-based functional models are directly mapped into the FPOA architecture, eliminating synthesis and associated gate-level place and route timing closure steps, says the company.
IBM has announced it is broadening its custom chip business beyond traditional ASIC designs, with plans to offer a variety of new alternatives to reduce time, cost and design complexity in creating a customised solution for customers. Announced at the Embedded Processor Forum, its first such example, the customised control processor (CCP). This chip is designed for use in networking systems and contains a number of preconfigured components while allowing room for tailoring to meet specific customer needs. IBM said it plans to introduce a range of such offerings, allowing customers to focus more on their core businesses.
Artimi, a start-up based in Cambridge, England, has announced it has demonstrated a single chip device for the ultra-wideband (UWB) market. The company said that it would provide a hardware and software reference design to OEMs. The design will use low power CMOS chips. It expects to have the first silicon of a fully integrated UWB chip by the end of the year, with volume silicon available in the third quarter of 2004.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory has claimed its MEMS sensor has achieved a world record by detecting just 5,5 femtograms. The silicon micro-electro-mechanical-system (MEMS) sensor (2 µm long by 50 nm thick) has silicon cantilevers vibrated by an inexpensive diode laser. Measurements of the frequency of oscillation confirmed that the sensor had detected 5,5 femtograms. By coating the cantilevers with various materials sensitive to proteins, cells or trace amounts of almost any chemical contaminant, the researchers said nearly any substance can theoretically be detected with a MEMS sensor.
UK design house Cambridge Consultants (CCL) says it has successfully demonstrated a radical new type of radar technology that can 'see through walls'. The low frequency radar (2 GHz) has the ability to detect the location and movement of people inside buildings, or simply breathing beneath rubble, it claims. The unique detection technology can provide plan and elevation views of internal spaces, in a form optimised for portability. Positioned against a wall - or even some metres away - the system transmits low frequency radar pulses that can pass through materials up to 25 cm thick. The array of antenna sensors allows this 'X-ray vision' to not only sense objects in a horizontal plane, but also in elevation, making it possible to deliver meaningful views of what is happening inside a room. CCL plans to turn its proof-of-concept demonstrator into products for military and emergency services in situations such as sieges, urban warfare, fire and rescue.
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