South Africa
Plessey has been awarded the sole distribution rights of Sagem Digital decoders in South Africa by Groupe Sagem - an international high-technology group based in France. Plessey will redistribute the product under the Vivid brand name which has gained full approval from signal distribution carrier, Sentech. Aerial Empire has been appointed by Plessey as a sub-distributor.
Contrary to a previous statement by the Freeplay Energy Group, the company has announced that staff at its Montagu Gardens plant will be cut by 196. Freeplay's joint chairman and CEO Rory Stear stated that it was most regrettable that it had to reverse an earlier decision not to retrench staff. He said that this step had been forced upon it because it had become a victim of its own success in the United States. The only way US retailers are prepared to commit to large volume orders is if it cut prices, he said. Freeplay was unable to do this profitably if it were to continue to manufacture for the US from South Africa. It costs virtually R40 more per unit to make use of the SA manufacturing facility than to manufacture in China, a significant amount, said Stear. He stressed that Freeplay would not renege on its social commitment to staff employed by the manufacturing concerns it manages and was in the process of planning a project to refurbish computers in association with US company Per Scholas. Freeplay would still be producing a base line of 36 0000 units a year at the Montagu Gardens plant. The larger orders will be addressed by the manufacturing plant in China, which it can do cheaper and faster than the South African operation. However, he said the local plant will remain the 'product nursery' from where all new products and new generation products will initially be made.
Distribution
Measuretest has secured exclusive representation in southern Africa of instrumentation manufacturer, LeCroy Corporation.
Overseas
A Dataquest report on chip buying among OEMs said four of the top OEM semiconductor users were computer companies: Compaq ($8,5 billion in chip purchases); IBM (more than $5,9 billion); Dell (nearly $5,9 billion); and Hewlett-Packard ($5,5 billion). Dataquest said communications OEMs followed: Siemens ($4,9 billion); Motorola (more than $3,2 billion); Ericsson ($2,4 billion); Nokia (nearly $2,3 billion); and Lucent ($2,2 billion). Communications systems consumed about 22% of semiconductors sold in 1999 with consumer products using 16%, automotive 6%, and other applications taking 31% of the chip sales. In 1995, only 11% of semiconductor revenues came from communications systems while PCs accounted for about 30% five years ago. Within the next ten years communications' share of chip sales is expected to overtake PCs as new networking applications emerge and wireless systems continue to strong growth.
The Korean Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy says that South Korean semiconductor exports are expected to hit a record $23,5 billion this year, surpassing the old mark of $22,1 billion reached in 1995. Chip exports from the country in 1999 totalled $20,3 billion, after falling to $17 billion in 1998 due to the precipitous decline in global DRAM prices. According to the ministry semiconductor imports into Korea last year were estimated at $16 billion, up 33% over the previous year. Officials attributed the sharp rise in imports to heavy demand for microprocessors and chips for telecommunications applications.
VEBA Electronics, a division of the German conglomerate VEBA AG, has announced that sales for the year ended December 31 increased by more than 28% from 1998. 1999 group sales reached more than $5,47 billion, compared with $4,27 billion the year before. The sales totals include the results of VEBA Electronics' four international member companies: EBV Elektronik, Memec, Raab Karcher Electronic Systems and Wyle Electronics. In North America, Impact Technologies, Insight Electronics and Unique Technologies cover the semiconductor-specialist market for Memec.
Vishay Intertechnology's fiscal year-end income soared 53,9% as it reaped the benefits of a wireless communication market and a companywide restructuring carried out in 1998. Vishay's fourth-quarter sales rose to $468 million, up about 14%, from $412 million in the year-ago quarter. Earnings rose to $36,5 million, from $14,2 million, for the same period in 1998. The passive components and discrete semiconductor supplier's annual income rose to $97,8 million, in the year ended December, up from $63,6 million in 1998. Sales for the year climbed to $1,76 billion from $1,57 billion in 1998.
Lucent's Microelectronics Group has announced its intention to acquire Ortel for $2,95 billion. With the Ortel acquisition, Lucent will gain a quick entry into the market for optoelectronic components used in cable TV (CATV) networks and will also expand its fast-growing fibre-optic operation, which grew more than 80% in 1999, according to company officials. Ortel's products enable CATV-systems suppliers to build high-capacity networks to meet the increasing demand for next-generation services to the home, such as Internet telephony. The deal will help accelerate the transition of CATV networks from a one-way broadcast capability, to a two-way, fully interactive communications medium, the companies said.
Intel has entered into an agreement to acquire privately held Thinkit Technologies. The agreement includes the acquisition of Thinkit's subsidiary, Software & Silicon Systems based in Bangalore, India. Thinkit Technologies specialises in advanced design for chips used in networking and communications products such as switches and routers. The Bangalore-based Software & Silicon Systems group currently designs communications silicon for Intel's Level One Communications subsidiary. When the acquisition is completed, Intel will operate communications chip design facilities at more than a dozen sites worldwide. In a related announcement, Intel also revealed that it is to acquire privately held Ambient Technologies in a cash transaction valued at approximately $150 million. Ambient develops highly integrated digital subscriber line (DSL) silicon solutions and analog modems designed to bring high-speed Internet access to home users and small businesses.
Connector manufacturer Molex has announced its intention to acquire the Beau Interconnect division of Axsys Technologies for an undisclosed amount. Axsys Technologies is a supplier of micro-positioning and precision optical products based in New Jersey. Beau Interconnect is a maker of electrical connectors and terminal blocks. The company's products are used in industrial automation, process control equipment and in a variety of telecom and electronic applications. Beau had annual sales in 1999 of approximately $19,5 million.
Centennial Technologies has acquired the flash memory card business of Intel Corporation, a business with ongoing annual revenues of approximately $20 million. In exchange, Intel received cash and a note totalling $6 million, a payment of up to $4,5 million due upon the concurrence of certain contingencies, and approximately 16% of the outstanding shares of Centennial, on an as-converted basis. Centennial's acquisition includes the PCMCIA card families (Series 2, Value series 100 and 200) and the miniature card families (Series 100 and 200).
Corning is to invest about $750 million to expand its global fibre-making capacity by 50% within three years. The amount of information that fibre-optic systems can handle is estimated to be doubling every nine months. Analysts set worldwide demand for fibre at more than 59,5 million kilometres in 1999 and expect it to exceed 96,5 million kilometres in 2002. Corning is investing $550 million to double the capacity of its six-month-old factory near Concord, North Carolina, and is also planning a $100 million expansion at its Wilmington plant.
Corning also announced it is purchasing NetOptix for approximately $2 billion and the formation of a joint-venture with Korea's Samsung Electronics. The new equally owned joint venture will be called Samsung Corning Micro-Optics and will be based in Suwon, South Korea. Corning has also acquired British Telecommunications' Photonics Technology Research Center for about $66 million, and as such has gained 40 leading scientists in the field of photonics.
Toshiba is investing an initial 250 billion yen in a new business unit in an attempt to spearhead its push into global e-commerce and Internet content services. It says it is setting up a new unit called I-Value Creation, its ninth in-house business unit, in April. This division would develop content services accessible through cellular telephones. It aims to invest a total 500 billion yen in Internet related services by 2003.
Lattice Semiconductor and Avnet have announced an expanded franchise agreement by which Avnet Electronics Marketing will distribute Lattice Semiconductor's full line of programmable logic devices (PLDs) throughout North America and Europe. Avnet becomes the first distributor to carry the Lattice Semiconductor and its recently acquired Vantis Corporation's products throughout North America and Europe.
Arrow Electronics has agreed to acquire Tekelec Europe. Headquartered near Paris, Tekelec's 1999 sales were approximately $325 million. Arrow's $2,5 billion European business, which holds a leading position in the region, will be strengthened in several countries as a result of the Tekelec acquisition, said the company. Tekelec and its subsidiaries, which serve most European countries, carry Altera, AMD, Intel, Linear Technology, Siemens/Infineon Technologies and STMicroelectronics, as well as passive, electromechanical and connector products from Kemet and Tyco Electronics.
Toshiba has announced a 10-year commitment to continue production and support of Neuron chips after renewing its licensing agreement with Echelon. Neuron chips contain logic for Echelon's control networks, called LonWorks. Toshiba originally licensed Echelon's technology in 1992. Cypress Semiconductor reached an agreement last year with Echelon to develop Neuron controllers for networking applications. Echelon says millions of Neuron chips are now being used around the world.
AMD's Athlon processor has won a prestigious award from MicroDesign Resources, publisher of the Microprocessor Report. The Athlon processor beat out the Intel Pentium III Coppermine and the Motorola PowerPC G4 to win the publication's first Analyst's Choice Award for Best PC Processor. In addition to this MicroDesign Resources award, the AMD Athlon processor also received a PC Magazine 1999 Technical Excellence Award in November at Comdex for Best Component in the hardware category, as well as nearly 35 other awards.
Pulse has received the 1999 Partners in Performance award from Lucent Technologies, placing the magnetic components and data networking module manufacturer among the top 20 suppliers of Lucent's manufacturing facility in North Andover, Massachusetts. Pulse's Speciality Components Division has also been awarded with the Buyer's Choice Award from General Land Systems Division. The award recognised the outstanding supplier performance in support of the company's M1A2 main battle tank programme.
UTMC Microelectronics Systems, a supplier of specialised devices for military and aerospace markets, has launched an effort to enter the commercial mixed-signal and ASIC arena. The company has hired a former Raytheon mixed-signal design team and is establishing a design centre to address customers in commercial and industrial markets, say reports. This will be UTMC's first foray into the mixed-signal sector since the company discontinued efforts in the area and shifted to a fabless model, following the sale of its fab to Rockwell in 1995.
Actel has registered as a Stack International supplier, the first step in acquiring full Stack Certification. Stack International members consist of a distinguished worldwide group of major electronic equipment manufacturers serving the high-reliability and communications markets. Stack registration signifies formal acceptance by Actel of the requirements in the 'Stack purchase specification - general requirements for integrated circuits'. The company says this reaffirms its commitment to supply FPGAs of the highest quality and reliability across its diverse customer base. Over the last 18 months, Actel has achieved four significant quality milestones in its focus on the high-reliability market. In May of 1998, Actel became ISO 9002 certified. In September of 1998, Actel was Plastic QML device package certified. The company was granted Full QML certification last May and Stack International granted registration to Actel in December 1999.
Intel is making direct Rambus DRAM the key memory for its next-generation Willamette processor. Willamette will also use a new, higher-speed processor line to succeed the P6 bus. The new bus is expected to run at up to 400 MHz in a quad-pumped configuration supporting up to four processors. Intel's next-generation 32 bit Foster, 64 bit Itanium and McKinley processors are also said to be using the new bus, according to reports. Willamette will use an upcoming Intel Tehama chipset, which is an upgrade of the dual-channel Direct Rambus-compatible Intel 840 chipset.
STMicroelectronics has said it will work with European display maker Tecdis and US panel manufacturer Three-Five Systems to develop display drivers for small LCDs aimed at industrial, telecom (mostly mobile phones) and automotive applications. The work will be carried out at a design centre in Chatillon, Valle d'Aosta, Italy, which Tecdis and Three-Five formed jointly late last year. In terms of the deal, ST will manufacture the driver designs, selling the parts to its two partners and on the open market. The first devices are expected to be available in mid-2000.
Japan's Casio Computer and British telecoms giant Vodafone AirTouch have agreed to jointly develop mobile multimedia terminals with wireless Internet capabilities. The two companies plan to develop palm-sized mobile terminals that can access the Internet from anywhere by using Vodafone's worldwide networks.
The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA), has announced four standards for computer displays. Some of the standards are new while others are enhancements of existing standards. The new standards set quality criteria for design and manufacturing which will result in optimum use of displays, says the association. VESA is at website www.vesa.org
Intel will be providing Ericsson with the next generation of high-performance flash memory for cellular phones and the companies will team on flash product definition for future wireless devices, such as Internet-enabled mobile phones. The deal includes a three-year commitment by Ericsson to purchase Intel's flash memory devices. In addition the companies will work together to define flash products capable of storing code and data such as web pages, e-mail, voice and music.
Fairchild Semiconductor has formed the Interface and Logic Group. Previously mainly involved in the interface market, Fairchild's intent is to now become a leading supplier of devices for high-speed backplanes, and industry-standard interfaces, including USB and 1394, as well as memory module drivers. Through the development of backplane/bus devices, DIMMs, and peripheral interconnect devices, Fairchild says it will support the Internet hardware segment, while focusing its space-saving packaging, low-voltage logic and global distribution channel toward the wireless segment.
Visa International and Nokia have announced a cooperation agreement to introduce payment solutions for mobile electronic commerce. The organisations will carry out joint market development activities and pilot technical payment alternatives. Under the agreement, Nokia and Visa intend to introduce a standardised means of making secure payments using a mobile phone, meeting different market requirements for security, risk management and dispute resolution. They are actively working on establishing open specifications, based on the wireless application protocol (WAP) standard.
Cranes Software International, the Indian operations wing of US-based Mathworks, has jointly developed with Motorola an innovative DSP product called Motorola DSP developer's kit. Cranes said the new product will integrate Motorola's digital DNA development environment with the MathWork's Asimulink and MatLab's DSP design tools. According to the company this will bridge system-level design and DSP implementation, as well as dramatically reduce development time and design risks for customers creating products for wireless handsets and base stations, speech processing and audio applications.
A Minnesota technology company called Multi-Tech Systems has accused Compaq, Dell and Gateway of infringing on six of its US patents. In separate lawsuits Multi-Tech alleges that the companies are using its patented technology, which involves systems and methods of turning voice, data and video into digital signals that can be sent together over telephone lines or networks by computers using Internet browsers.
Universal Display Corporation (UDC), a developer of flat panel display technology, has announced that its research partners, Princeton University and the University of Southern California, received four new patents for the Organic Light Emitter Project, bringing the total number of US patents issued in the project to 22. The patents cover methods of fabricating OLED devices using inkjet printing and photolithography, as well as methods to increase the efficiency of OLED devices. OLEDs are seen as a future replacement technology for CRTs and LCDs, due to their bright colours, wide viewing angle, compatibility with full motion video, broad temperature ranges, thin and conformable form factor, low power requirements and the potential for low cost manufacturing processes, said the company.
US company Intellon demonstrated working silicon of its PowerPacket home networking technology which can network a home through ordinary power lines at speeds up to 11 Mbps. At Demo 2000 Intellon said that virtually any device found in the home - PCs, printers, TVs, VCRs, set-top boxes and security systems - can be networked together through the existing power connection allowing Internet access and high bandwidth services like xDSL to be shared.
Intel Corporation and Symbol Technologies have entered into a joint development agreement to create advanced wireless networking capabilities and products. Under the multi-year agreement, Intel plans to invest $100 million in Symbol to develop wireless high-speed local area networking (LAN) technologies. The companies say the technology will help allow mobile, handheld and desktop computers to communicate with both corporate networks and the Internet without requiring a direct wire connection. They will focus their efforts on developing silicon, adapter cards and 'access points' (devices that serve as a central base station or gateway to wired networks) required for advanced wireless networking. The products will be based on the IEEE-802.11 wireless networking standard and will include 2,4 and 5,2 GHz wireless LAN tech-nology.
A group of seven companies have formed an alliance to develop standards and technology for 10 Gb Ethernet networks. The founding members of the 10 Gb Ethernet Alliance include 3Com, Cisco Systems, Extreme Networks, Intel, Nortel Networks, Sun Microsystems and World Wide Packets. The alliance will attempt to accelerate the adoption of 10 Gb Ethernet technology in LANs, WANs, and MANs, or so-called municipal area networks.
Leading computing and communication companies have formed a special interest group to develop an open specification for a new and advanced PC communication riser card. The new riser provides a common architecture for analog modem, Ethernet, phoneline (HomePNA) and wireless networking, DSL and audio functions. 3Com, AMD, Acer Laboratories, Conexant, Lucent Technologies, Motorola, NVIDIA, PCTEL, Texas Instruments and VIA Technologies are founding members of the Advanced Communications Riser Special Interest Group. The ACR SIG's mission is to promote the development and introduction of simple, inexpensive communications and audio systems for the personal computing market segment.
Nokia has started a new co-operation with major European telecoms operator, KPN, to develop and trial pioneering communications products for the home environment. The development of wireless LAN (local area network) based home networking solutions is key to the agreement and commercial trials of the first home network concept are planned to take place in the Dutch market during quarter three. Nokia has created a new unit - Nokia Home Communications - whose key mission is to enable all types of entertainment and media content (video, audio or multimedia) to be distributed via the fast broadband Internet. It will create three major product lines: Home Gateways, Media terminals; and Applications.
Ericsson is supporting the new HiperLAN2 standard, recently approved by ETSI. HiperLAN2 is an interoperable standard that will provide high-speed broad-band connectivity for the next generation wireless communications in corporate as well as public and home environments at 5 GHz. Ericsson has developed a wireless VPN (virtual private network) solution, including authentication and encryption and has integrated this in its wireless LAN solution. With this, users will be able to establish secure access to their corporate networks from within the office, and also when travelling through so called 'hot spots', such as airports and hotels. The HiperLAN2 technology operates in the 5 GHz band and can offer up to 54 Mbps over the air interface.
The 1394 Trade Association has defined new data communication protocols to facilitate use of IEEE-1394 in measurement and control applications. The protocols are now completed and can be used worldwide by the developers of products designed to include the IEEE-1394 multimedia standard. The co-chairmen of the TA's Industrial Instrument and Control Working Group (IIWG), said that instrumentation and control systems using the fast, high-bandwidth 1394 standard will feature very high performance and cost-efficiency. IEEE-1394 currently has evolved to provide data communication rates up to 400 MHz, with 800 MHz rates to be available early in the second quarter and 1 GHz planned for 2001.
Texas Instruments is preparing to roll out devices built on the company's new BiCom II process. The new process technology is expected to provide 20 times greater integration of digital logic with analog functions. The BiCom-II process will enable the integration of high-performance bipolar analog with CMOS logic for increased performance of mixed-signal devices at lower power consumption, according to the company. BiCom-II-manufactured devices can support CMOS logic functions with 20 times the gate density of previous processes and will enable a library of standard digital functions to be integrated with analog blocks. The new process is expected to benefit such products as cable and digital subscriber line drivers and receivers, operational amplifiers and programmable gain amplifiers.
NEC has developed an ultra-low-power microprocessor, the 32 bit NEC MP98, targeting high-performance, low power applications. NEC's prototype, presented at the ISSC conference in San Francisco, consumes 50 mW. The chip integrates four 125-MHz processor elements (PE), each capable of processing two instructions for a total of eight instruction threads running in parallel. The chip can also run from 1,2 to 1,8 V of supply voltage, rather than a single fixed value. A total of 128 KB of Level 1 cache have been included, as well as a 133-MHz SDRAM interface.
Xilinx is offering a technology on the web that enables system designers to instantly create a high-speed interface between its most advanced FPGAs. Called SelectLink, the tool can automatically generate customised Verilog source code and test benches for an interchip data channel, supporting an aggregate bandwidth of up to 80 Gbits/s on multiple pins. According to the company SelectLink technology can be used to create a system that delivers throughput of more than 311 Mbps per pin for bus widths up to 256 pins. Consisting of two main modules, the transmitter module creates a data-width conversion FIFO that has different read and write buses with different widths, while the receiver module reverses funnelling and data rate conversions performed by the transmitter module and performs necessary shifting of data to align it with the signal clock.
Advanced Micro Devices has publically demonstrated a 1,1 GHz sample of its Thunderbird microprocessor at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference in San Francisco. The 1,1-GHz device is based on the Athlon core. The chip, which features integrated cache, was manufactured at AMD's Fab 30 in Dresden, Germany, using the company's HiP6L 0,18 micron process technology with copper interconnects.
IBM has introduced the industry's first supercomputer powered by copper chip technology and announced a milestone in copper chip manufacturing - the two-millionth copper chip. The company's RS/6000 SP supercomputer is claimed to feature performance superior to comparable systems from Sun Microsystems and SGI/Cray. The new SP node is based on the 64 bit, 375 MHz POWER3-II microprocessor, a RISC chip developed for IBM's RS/6000 servers and workstations.
Lucent Technologies' Bell Labs says it has developed a new approach to building the signal processing 'engines' that will be required in tomorrow's performance-hungry communications networks. The Bell Labs approach, called Daytona, allows multiple digital signal processors (DSPs) to be integrated on a single silicon chip claimed to provide up to 16 times faster processing than conventional DSP chips. According to lead Bell Labs researcher Joe Williams, the Daytona architecture is unlike the DSPs used in today's communications networks and modems, but uses a bus, or interconnection 'fabric,' that allows multiple DSP cores to share communication and memory resources on a single chip. This he says, reduces cost and power requirements.
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