Southern Africa
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has deployed 25 satellite terminals to help restore vital communication links in the aftermath of severe floods that have inundated low-lying districts across Zambia. Nearly 400 000 people in 19 districts across the country have been affected, with as many as 36 000 inhabitants displaced. A total of 3418 homes and 44 schools collapsed as a result of heavy rainfall, and ensuing floods have destroyed roads and communication links, hampering the coordination and delivery of assistance. The mobile terminals deployed by ITU are easily transported by road and air to the affected regions and have facilitated the coordination of relief operations by both government and humanitarian agencies to aid the victims of this disaster. ITU is providing both Thuraya handheld satellite phones and Inmarsat global area network (GAN) terminals.
Philips SA has signed The Energy Efficiency Accord, an agreement which will see the healthcare, lighting and consumer lifestyle company strive towards making significant inroads in improving energy efficiency in South Africa. An initiative by the Department of Minerals and Energy, and facilitated by the National Business Initiative, the Accord is aimed at heeding the Government’s call to action to help deal effectively with the current electricity capacity shortages, environmental concerns and the steadily rising price of all energy sources.
Overseas
Business
Royal Philips Electronics has sold 24 million shares of common stock in LG Display, to investors in a capital markets transaction. This transaction represents 6,7% of LG Display’s issued share capital and reduces Philips’ holding to 13,2%. The transaction will provide Philips with net proceeds of approximately 680 million Euros, and is expected to result in a non-taxable gain of approximately 95 million Euros in the first quarter of 2008, which will be recognised in financial income and expenses.
Companies
Cadence Design Systems, a leader in global electronic design innovation, has acquired Chip Estimate, a leader in delivering IC planning and enterprise-level IP re-use management solutions. Founded in 2003, Chip Estimate products enable electronics design teams to predict the die size, yield, power consumption, performance, and cost of chips based on almost any design architecture, IP and silicon process node options. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Kontron, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of embedded computer systems, is founding a joint-venture with the Taiwanese company Quanta Computer, the world’s largest manufacturer of laptops. The Taiwanese listed company and its affiliates are acquiring a 21% stake in Kontron Asia. Both parties have signed a relevant purchase agreement at a price per share close to market price. Kontron will retain both the operating management of, and a voting right majority in, the enterprise. Kontron’s main objective is to optimise its manufacturing costs for embedded computers using Quanta’s purchasing and production conditions, while Quanta will benefit from diversifying its production capacities in the industrial market.
According to reports from Tokyo, Japan’s trade and economy ministry is investigating a possible defect in Apple’s iPod Nano after one model shot out sparks while recharging, resulting in a fire.
Eastman Kodak has announced an intellectual property cross-licensing agreement with LG Display. The licence, which is royalty bearing to Kodak, enables LG Display to use Kodak technology, including yield-improving capabilities for active matrix OLED (AMOLED) modules, in a variety of small to medium size display applications such as mobile phones, portable media players, picture frames and small TVs. The agreement also enables LG Display to purchase Kodak’s patented OLED materials for use in manufacturing displays. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
ON Semiconductor has completed its acquisition of AMIS Holdings in a stock-for-stock merger. Under the terms of the merger agreement, holders of AMIS will generally receive 1,15 shares of ON Semiconductor common stock for each share of AMIS common stock they own. ON Semiconductor will issue a total of approximately 103 million shares of common stock on a fully diluted basis to complete the transaction. Former AMIS stockholders now own approximately 26% of ON Semiconductor. ON Semiconductor repaid AMIS’s senior bank facility with cash on hand from both companies.
Synplicity announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by Synopsys, a world leader in software and IP for semiconductor design and manufacturing. Under the terms of the agreement, Synopsys will pay $8 cash per Synplicity share, resulting in a gross transaction value of approximately $227 million, and approximately $188 million net of cash acquired. The transaction is subject to regulatory and Synplicity shareholder approval, and other customary closing conditions, and is expected to close in the second calendar quarter of 2008. After the closing, Synplicity will become part of Synopsys, and Synplicity stock will cease trading.
Industry
Lighting utilising organic light emitting diodes (OLED) could benefit from printing as a manufacturing technique because it can add to its cost effectiveness, says a new report from Nanomarkets. OLEDs have advantages over other lighting technologies because they combine high brightness with an ability to be fabricated on a thin, flexible display. These are properties that open up opportunities for OLED lighting in architectural lighting, vehicular lighting and other areas. With the improvements in functional printing and the arrival of small molecules inks, it is likely that a higher proportion of OLEDs will be printed because of greater cost effectiveness. OLED and other printed lighting markets could possibly reach almost $2,5 billion in the next seven years.
The Power Forward Initiative (PFI) announced online publication of ‘A Practical Guide to Low-Power Design – User experience with CPF’. The guide captures thousands of hours of actual design experience from many of the 26 PFI-member companies across a variety of low-power designs and products. The guide provides detailed examples of fast, efficient, optimised low-power design using the Silicon Integration Initiative (Si2)-standard Common Power Format (CPF) in a holistic low-power design environment. The guide is now available for viewing and free download at www.powerforward.org.
As electronic devices such as camcorders, MP3 players and personal digital assistants continue to get smaller, semiconductor developers are designing smaller package types. The reduced footprints of semiconductor packages have made accuracy imperative in chip bonder machines and this development is fuelling growth in the chip bonder market. New analysis from global growth consulting company Frost & Sullivan finds that the worldwide chip bonder market earned revenues of $908,7 million in 2006 and estimates earnings will reach $1,7 billion in 2013. Technology trends such as stacked packages, system-in-package (SiP), package-on-package (PoP) and flip chip-in-package (FCiP) types will positively impact the advanced packaging equipment market. Integrated circuit (IC) developers and equipment manufacturers will derive cost effective solutions from these package types.
The European Union (EU) has added the digital video broadcasting handheld (DVB-H) standard to the EU List of Standards, which serves as a basis for encouraging the harmonised provision of telecommunications across the EU. The addition of DVB-H is a new step towards establishing a single market for mobile TV in Europe that will enable all EU citizens to watch TV on the move. Mobile TV could reach a market of up to 20 billion Euros by 2011, reaching some 500 million customers worldwide.
Satellite-based navigation is a very popular technology with consumers, and the upsurge in purchases of GPS (global positioning system) devices is fuelling a similar growth in the market for GPS receiver chipsets. A new study from ABI Research forecasts GPS IC shipments to reach one billion annually in 2013. Average selling prices (ASPs) will continue to fall, but the effect on vendors’ revenue streams will be more than offset by this strong growth in volume.
Motorola, a major contributor to the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long-Term Evolution (LTE) standard, has joined the LTE/System Architecture Evolution (SAE) Trial Initiative (LSTI). This industry group is driving the acceleration of commercial and interoperable next-generation LTE mobile broadband systems through the collaborative efforts of leading telecommunications companies worldwide. Motorola is leveraging its success in being among the first to deliver 802.16e commercial systems by re-using a significant amount of its WiMAX research and development, coupled with its rich heritage in cellular networking, Motorola chipsets, network and video head-end solutions, and professional services to deliver its end-to-end LTE solution.
Technology
IBM scientists took another significant advance towards sending information inside a computer chip by using light pulses instead of electrons, by building the world’s tiniest nanophotonic switch with a footprint about 100 times smaller than the cross section of a human hair. The switch is an important building block to control the flow of information inside future chips and can significantly speed up the chip performance while using much less energy. This is a continuation of a series of IBM developments towards an on-chip optical network.
The US military has developed a non-lethal, euphemistically named active denial system (ADS) designed to deter, but not incapacitate or injure, targets. Operating at a range of up to 500 metres, the system fires a 100 kW, 95 GHz radio signal. The radio wave penetrates through 0,4 mm of skin – enough to reach the nerve endings. The sensation is said to resemble the blast of heat from opening an oven door. The bulky, truck-mounted system is set to enter field testing in Iraq shortly.
Mitsubishi Electric announced that it has achieved a world record photoelectric conversion efficiency rate of 18,6% in a 150-millimetre square practical-use multicrystalline silicon solar cell, an improvement of 0,6% over the company’s previous record.
© Technews Publishing (Pty) Ltd | All Rights Reserved
printer friendly version