Southern Africa
Altron has released its annual report for 2003. Bill Venter, chairman of the group, points out that record sales of good results reflect its resilience and diversity. "Managing a company in this tough environment represented a bigger challenge than usual for Altron, and the fact that we have come through it with another set of satisfactory results speaks well of the diversity and resilience of the group and the expertise of its people," he said. Venter points out that record sales of R11,4 bn, coupled with improved operating performances and efficiencies in the majority of its businesses, have confirmed the successful route Altron has chosen during the past 38 years to consolidate its position as one of Africa's leading technology groups. "In an environment characterised by unpredictable movements in major world currencies, especially the significant strengthening of the rand, coupled with continued pressure on our local and global markets, Altron managed to counter both local and international trends by reporting growth in the many markets we serve."
Axiz has announced that it received the Intel award for the highest Intel motherboard-CPU attach-rate in Intel's emerging markets region, a sub-region of Intel's Europe, Middle East and Africa sales region. Other countries included in the EMAR region include Greece, Turkey, Israel, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and the rest of Africa. Craig Brunsden, business unit manager at Axiz, who attended the Intel Franchise Managers' meeting in Athens and accepted the award on Axiz's behalf, explains the significance: What it means is that, relative to Intel's CPU sales, it sells the most motherboards through Axiz in South Africa. He said the objective behind the award is to incentivise Intel's distributors, which have been as focused on CPUs as the vendor itself was in the past, to sell more motherboards.
Local data storage, recovery and backup software developer, Attix5, has partnered with Cable & Wireless in Europe to assist companies to protect critical business information against loss. Attix5's Backup Professional software solution is hosted on Cable & Wireless' global network infrastructure and enables automated backup of information across the entire enterprise.
Electrocomp has announced that following the acquisition of BC Components by Vishay in November 2002, it continues to distribute the BC product range through Vishay.
Actix, a global provider of wireless network and service performance software, has announced that MTN Nigeria has selected its radio link analysis solution (RLAS) to optimise and proactively troubleshoot its GSM network. With the Actix solution, MTN Nigeria's network will be able to support more subscribers while also providing subscribers with a better quality of service, it says.
Overseas
Business
Advanced Micro Devices has cut its second quarter guidance by $100m, now anticipating second quarter sales revenue of approximately $615m. AMD blamed the decline in PC and handset sell-through in China and other Asian markets, largely related to the SARS epidemic.
Tektronix has reported net sales of $202,3m and net earnings from continuing operations of $4,3m, for the fourth quarter ended 31 May 2003. This compares with net sales of $202,2m and net earnings from continuing operations of $6,7m, for the same period a year ago. Excluding business realignment and one-time items, net earnings from continuing operations were $10,0m for the fourth quarter, as compared with $12,7m for the same period last year. Said Rick Wills, Tektronix chairman and CEO: "We delivered solid results in the quarter. There was strong demand across our product portfolio particularly internationally. We believe that the economic environment and our end markets have started to stabilise."
Lambda UK has announced an 18% increase in orders from the European market for the year ended March 2003 despite an overall power supply market contraction of 15%. It says that one of the key reasons it is performing so well is that demand for Vega, its latest generation of configurable AC-DC power supplies, has rocketed. Lambda is investing a further £600K in the Vega production line at its Ilfracombe manufacturing plant to cope with this demand.
Tecom Industries, a Trak Communications company, has announced it has been awarded a major contract for a total of $2,15m by Iridium Satellite. Under this contract, Tecom will produce a total of 30 000 antennas for the Iridium handset phones, widely used for both military and commercial applications. Tecom was involved in the initial design of the antenna as a joint effort with Motorola.
Companies
EDA tool and intellectual property supplier Mentor Graphics has acquired Alcatel's complete line of Ethernet and media access control (MAC) circuit intellectual property. Mentor Graphics will honour all existing support contracts for current licensees and will integrate the newly acquired engineering and marketing resources into its own IP division, it said.
Samsung Electronics has signed a licence to use the so-called 'Yellowstone' DRAM interface from Rambus, joining Toshiba and Elpida as licensees. Yellowstone is expected to achieve data rates of 3,2 to 6,4 GHz and beyond, Rambus said.
In a move to cut costs, consumer-chip maker Cirrus Logic has agreed to sell its semiconductor test operations to ChipPAC for an undisclosed amount. Cirrus will transfer its analog and mixed-signal testers, handlers, and wafer probers to chip-packaging and test house to California-based ChipPAC. ChipPAC will shift the equipment to its facilities in China. The companies have also entered into a long-term strategic alliance, under which ChipPAC will provide package development, wafer probe, assembly, final test and distribution services to Cirrus Logic.
CML Microsystems has entered into an agreement to acquire Hyperstone, a fabless DSP and microcontroller semiconductor company headquartered in Germany. CML Microsystems is a UK-based holding company for six operating subsidiaries located in the UK, USA and Singapore. These subsidiaries design and market semiconductor products primarily for the global communications market, including wireless data, wireline telecommunications and two-way radio.
Fujifilm Microdevices, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fuji Photo Film, has purchased an 8-inch wafer line from Tohoku Semiconductor, Motorola's subsidiary in Japan. The company seeks to ramp up production quickly to cope with a CCD shortage. Fujifilm Microdevices produces proprietary CCD devices called Super CCD. They use octagonal photodiodes arranged in a honeycomb pattern, a structure that makes each pixel area larger.
Synopsys has acquired InnoLogic Systems, a pioneer of memory and full-custom equivalence checking technology. Synopsys said it will now offer a faster, more comprehensive formal verification solution for modern complex SoC designs containing large instances of embedded memories, complex high-speed I/Os, and other full custom circuits.
Schlumberger has announced plans to sell its IC-test unit, NPTest, to a group of investors. Formerly known as Schlumberger Semiconductor Solutions, NPTest sells chip testers to several accounts, including Intel.
Industry
Worldwide sales of semiconductors totalled $12,5 bn in May 2003, up 2% from the $12,26 bn reported in April this year. This is the third consecutive monthly increase and a 9,9% increase from May 2002 revenue, reported the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). Sales of programmable logic and standard cell chips increased 8,6% in May indicating an anticipated pickup in telecom spending, while in the wireless sector, Flash memory was up 4,4%, and in the computation sector ASSPs were up 3,7%, DRAMs up 2,5%, and optoelectronics up 6,3%.
The British government has announced a cash injection of £90 million over the next six years to help industry harness the commercial opportunities offered by nanotechnology. The investment will support collaborative research and a new network of micro and nanotechnology facilities. The Department of Trade and Industry expects the investment will also secure additional industry and regional spending anticipated to exceed £200 million. This funding will be split, with £50m earmarked for the applied research program and £40m to support new and existing facilities that will make up a UK MicroNanoTechnology Network (MNT).
Optical MEMS components have found success in many non-telecom applications, according to market research firm In-Stat/MDR. As a result, sales of optical MEMS into segments other than telecom, are forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 15,8% over the next five years, the company said. The biggest application for optical MEMS is a variety of display sub-systems; including those that are portable integrated, and wearable. Other areas benefiting from these devices include bar code scanning, adaptive optical systems, and commercial printing, to name just a few.
Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, HP, Intel, Princeton University, the University of Washington and more than 60 universities from around the world have joined together to form PlanetLab, a global test bed for inventing and testing prototype Internet applications and services. PlanetLab is designed to spark a new era of innovation by developing 'overlay' networks, 'persistent memory' and other technologies to upgrade and expand the Internet's capabilities. PlanetLab consists of 170 computers distributed at 60 research centres around the world. The goal of the project is to grow to more than 1000 computers in the next few years. The loosely-organised consortium "creates a virtual laboratory that researchers around the world can use to develop novel Internet services, while at the same time exploring how to evolve the Internet to better support continued innovation," said David Culler, co-director of Intel Research Berkeley.
Agilent Technologies recently announced that it received a government grant from the Taiwan Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) to spur communications product research and development through an initiative called the 'Agilent Integrated Platform Service Project'. The Agilent project helps Taiwan-based business ventures cooperate with international companies to either bring state-of-the-art technologies to communication product R&D houses within Taiwan, or co-develop technologies with foreign consulting teams.
Industry expert G. Dan Hutcheson, president of VLSI Research, has warned that the semiconductor business will require at least 40 new or retrofitted wafer fabs to keep up with the anticipated recovery and new demand boom cycle in 2004. He said that if the market does not respond to the capacity requirements, the semiconductor industry faces a new round of chip shortages in the market in 2004. Based on the company's latest findings, Hutcheson said that the IC industry is finally expected to make a strong comeback in 2004. The research projects the IC market will grow a modest 9,3% to $131,8 bn in 2003 over 2002, but then by 22,5% in 2004 over 2003. It predicts the next downturn will be in 2006.
The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) has announced that TD-SCDMA Forum, the industry organisation that promotes the use of the Time Division - Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access standard for mobile communicatons, has been approved to join the 3G Partnership Project (3GPP). The 3GPP develops specifications for third generation mobile communications and includes industry organisations and standards bodies covering all the major standards.
As 'all digital' cable TV systems begin to appear over the next five years, the promising market for Gigabit Ethernet video routers used in digital Cable TV headends will begin to gain some traction, reports In-Stat/MDR. "Everything that is upstream from the actual coaxial cable is likely to use Gigabit Ethernet technologies, simply because it is fast enough to provide all of the services needed for digital Cable TV, and it is robust, being used in carrier class telecom services," says Gerry Kaufhold, a principal analyst at In-Stat. "In addition, it is becoming low cost, because Intel, and others, are driving Gigabit Ethernet into very high volume applications." In-Stat reports that this market is expected to take off during 2005 and explode into 2006 and 2007, accounting for $455m during 2007.
The IEEE has approved the 802.3af standard for power over standard Ethernet cables and the full specification is published as '802.3af-2003'. Said Steve Carlson, chairman of the 802.3af Task Force, "the 802.3af standard will provide the first global standard for power. Thousands of new and innovative products will emerge to take advantage of having the proven robustness and reliability of Ethernet along with power on the same connector."
Best positioned to leverage their existing customer base, cellular operators are embracing Wi-Fi technology and are poised to grab market share away from independent hotspot service providers, asserts technology research firm ABI. Cellular operators across the globe are implementing Wi-Fi technology in calculated moves to simultaneously test the Wi-Fi waters, while thwarting the mounting pressures from the independents "Incumbent cellular operators are quick to recognise the complementary nature of the technology, and are willing to take this comparably low-cost gamble and install a network of hotspots," says ABI analyst Kenil Vora, referring to the deployment costs of a Wi-Fi network over that of cellular. ABI reckons that what may signify the future for companies in the Wi-Fi space is 'location, location, location,' not unlike that for many other businesses.
With increasing shipments of MPEG-4 enabled mobile handsets, DVD players and recorders and digital TV sets, the pattern of growth already experienced by the MPEG IC market in 2002 will continue, says In-Stat/MDR. The market researcher reports that in 2002, the MPEG IC market reached over 180 million units and by 2007, expects it to reach 344 million units.
At Programmable World 2003 Japan, renowned visionaries from Sony, DDI Pocket, and Xilinx, discussed the leading technologies enabling the new era of systems design. Technology executives concurred that programmable technology is quickly becoming a key enabler of a digital consumer revolution in the global electronics market place. According to Sony's Tsugio Makimoto, such market changes make 'field programmability a must'. He said digital consumer goods have short time-to-market windows and product life cycles that come quickly and end dramatically. 'Flexible, agile solutions are critical,' he asserts. Makimoto is highly regarded for what is known as 'Makimoto's Wave'. In 1987, he proclaimed that the semiconductor market swings between a standardisation-oriented and customisation-oriented period every decade and predicted that FPGAs would be the key device in the current standardisation period that he said extends through 2007.
The German Federal Ministry of the Interior and Infineon Technologies will closely cooperate in the field of IT Security in the future following a signing of a 'Memorandum of Understanding'. The far-ranging security cooperation aims at establishing a sound technology basis for an enhanced security level in information technology (IT) systems that are used in the civil service, in private companies and households, said Infineon. They have agreed upon a close information exchange in three subjects: the security aspect in the field of smartcard technology, security of future mobile applications, and the security components needed to elevate the trustworthiness of personal computers and computer networks.
Intel has announced it will set up a 12 million euro research and development office in Ireland, alongside its European wafer fab at Leixlip. The 'Intel IT Innovation Centre' is being set up to develop IT software, Intel said. Software engineers at the centre will collaborate with colleges and organisations, such as Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin and MIT's Media Lab Europe, also based in Dublin.
Fibercore has completed the commissioning of its new fibre production facility at Southampton, UK. Fibercore's new research, development and production facility has taken three years to plan and construct. Despite the telecoms depression, the company said it has reported just a 30% fall in sales revenue since the height of the market in 2000, in a climate where 75-90% is an accepted norm. This financial stability has enabled Fibercore to fund the new HQ out of retained earnings. Fibercore's financial strength is the result of steady increases in demand for its range of specialty optical fibres in the fundamental research, sensing, and fibre gyro markets countering the drop in telecoms, it said.
The IEEE recently presented Nick Holonyak Jr, a John Bardeen Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, with the 2003 IEEE Medal of Honor for his contributions to semiconductors and to visible light-emitting diodes and injection lasers. The medal is the highest recognition awarded by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
Samsung is to ban camera phones from its semiconductor, flat-panel and electronics factories because of industrial espionage fears, reports the Korea Herald. The ban will apply to both workers and visitors to the factories. The prohibition was introduced amid fears that the latest generation of smart phones could be used to spy on Samsung's latest manufacturing processes. Ironically, the Korean company is a leading manufacturer of the technology it wants to ban.
Technology
Infineon Technologies claims that it has developed the world's fastest silicon germanium (SiGe) technology, which has an operational frequency up to 110 GHz. Based on its SiGe:C bipolar technology, Infineon has designed several key functional building blocks for high-speed communications. According to the company the process enables a device with cut-off frequencies of more than 200 GHz and ring-oscillator gate delay times of 3,7 ps. The SiGe process is said to have 10 to 30% higher operating frequencies compared to competing circuits and will enable new applications in communications systems. Devices and products benefiting from these research results are discrete components, radio-frequency chips, and wireline chips with speeds up to 40 Gbps.
Atmel has released to the market a 16,8 million pixel full frame area monochrome charge-coupled device (CCD) array intended for application in graphics arts, industrial control, medical imaging and scientific analysis. The device is organised as 4096 by 4096 pixels and Atmel claims that the CCD has a low dark-current and high dynamic range. Two serial registers and four independent output amplifiers offer a high-frequency functionality of up to 8 frames per second using 4 outputs at 40 MHz clock frequency, Atmel said.
IBM Research has created what it claims is the world's first 3D magneto-optical crystal, complete with embedded quantum dots with optical properties. The work underscores IBM's strategy for nanoscale metamaterials that feature tunable properties not found in nature - such as magnetic crystals. According to the researchers, metamaterials can act in a fashion opposite that of natural materials, creating a class of complementary, designer materials that can handle whatever needs to be controlled. So far, such metamaterials have only been demonstrated to exhibit a 'left-handed' index-of-refraction at microwave wavelengths. By downsizing to the nanoscale, IBM said it can accomplish the same goal at optical wavelengths.
A 45-minute webcast presented by QNX Software Systems and Motorola SPS called 'Breaking through the scalability barrier - designing high-performance network elements using multiprocessing technology', can be downloaded at http://vertmarkets.ed10.net/t/5C89/C5V0/28/7ZIH5
Last thought: "If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get one million miles to the gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside." - Robert X. Cringely.
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