Southern Africa
Austin Hughes, a manufacturer of dedicated switch and rack mount screen technology for use in data centres and other high density server installations, has expanded its presence in the sub-Saharan market with the appointment of RT Systems, a South African specialist distributor that provides optimised solutions to the issues of physical security, environmental management and system control in high value technology infrastructures. RT Systems will provide local stock holding, additional commercial and technical support and an enhanced market presence.
Electrical Engineering Solutions has gained certification to the international standard ISO9001:2000 for the calibre of its processes in electrical and electronic engineering and project management. None of the elements of the international standard was excluded. The company opted for certification by a third party accredited certification body, over and above simply achieving ISO 9001 compliance, because the assessment was a far more demanding and rigorous process, making it more credible in the exacting engineering marketplace.
Comtest has announced the opening of new Coast to Coast/RMS offices in Milnerton, Cape Town. These offices will offer clients full sales services and calibration facilities, as well as house a SANAS calibration and repair lab. The move comes after the need for bigger and more accessible premises.
Reunert has announced several executive management changes. Effective 1 August 2008, Piet Smit, currently responsible for Reunert’s defence operations Reutech, will become chief operating officer of the electrical engineering division, CBI-electric. The intention is that Piet will become the CEO of CBI-electric following the retirement of the current chief executive, Helmuth Fischer, in August 2010. Peter van der Bijl has been appointed chief operating officer of Reutech with immediate effect. Peter has 28 years experience in the defence industry and previously held senior positions at, amongst others, African Defence Systems, Denel Aerospace and Kentron.
Tellumat has been named the preferred supplier to provide, implement and maintain Neotel’s soon to be launched national WiMAX network. The contract stipulates the rollout of Neotel’s WiMAX base stations, and subscriber units over a number of years, representing one of the key wireless access technology solutions in Neotel’s broadband network rollout. For the WiMAX technology supply and integration, Tellumat will work closely with its WiMAX technology partner, Telsima. The contract specifies the engagement of small, micro- and medium-sized enterprises for the installation and maintenance portion of the agreement.
Overseas
Business
Xilinx has announced a corporate reorganisation into functional areas to better serve its customers and improve its operating performance. As a result of the reorganisation, the company will eliminate approximately 250 positions, or about 7% of its global workforce. The workforce reduction is expected to be completed by the end of the next fiscal quarter. Xilinx expects to record restructuring-related charges of approximately $18–22 million in connection with the reorganisation.
Co-founder and former CEO of Broadcom, Henry T Nicholas, has been indicted on fraud, conspiracy and narcotics charges. The charges allege that, among other indiscretions, Nicholas spiked the drinks of employees of Broadcom customers, as well as industry executives, with Ecstasy, and was also involved in the use and distribution of cocaine, methamphetamine and other illegal drugs. The fraud and conspiracy charges relate to a stock-option backdating scheme in collusion with Broadcom’s ex-CFO, William Ruehle, which forced the company to write-down profits of $2,2 billion. Nicholas faces a maximum of 340 years, and Ruehle up to 370 years, in prison from the combined charges.
Companies
Freescale has joined with several venture capital firms to form an independent company focused on MRAM (magnetoresistive random access memory). The new company, EverSpin Technologies, will continue to deliver and expand its current portfolio of standalone MRAM and related magnetic-based products. Freescale will transfer the MRAM technology, related intellectual property and products to EverSpin Technologies and will retain an equity position in the new venture. Freescale will continue to develop embedded products based on EverSpin’s MRAM technology.
Qimonda and Elpida Memory, both leading global memory suppliers, announced that they have signed final contracts for a strategic technology partnership on joint development of DRAM memory chips. Specifically, the companies plan to introduce a jointly developed 4F² cell concept in the 40 nm generation in 2010 and to subsequently scale it to the 30 nm generation. Additionally, the companies have agreed to explore joint development opportunities in the areas of through-silicon-via technology and future memories as well as potential manufacturing joint ventures opportunities.
Texas Instruments (TI) has acquired Innovative Design Solutions (IDS) for its expertise in developing analog chips and integrated solutions. The acquisition reinforces TI’s analog focus and strengthens the company’s ability to meet customer requirements for high-performance analog products. IDS, which has been a long-time supplier to TI, designs integrated high-speed analog products for applications such as test and measurement, communications and medical electronics.
Cadence Design Systems recently submitted a proposal to the board of directors of Mentor Graphics to acquire Mentor for $16,00 per share in cash. Cadence’s all-cash proposal, which is not subject to any financing condition, represents a 30% premium over the closing price of Mentor common stock on 16 June 2008, the last trading day prior to public disclosure of the proposal. The transaction price represents a total enterprise value of $1,6 billion, which reflects Mentor’s net debt of $69 million. The proposal was subsequently rejected unanimously by Mentor’s board, which stated that not only was the price insufficient, but that the risks of not gaining regulatory approval were sufficiently high that the ability of the parties to consummate the transaction would be in jeopardy.
Industry
To accelerate the widespread adoption and deployment of WiMAX technology and products, Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Clearwire, Intel, Samsung Electronics and Sprint have announced the formation of the Open Patent Alliance (OPA). The OPA will advance a competitive and open intellectual property rights model, thus stimulating a larger WiMAX industry that supports innovation through broader choice and lower equipment and service costs for WiMAX technology, devices and applications globally. To accomplish its goals, the OPA will form a WiMAX patent pool to help participating companies obtain access to patent licences from patent owners at a predictable cost.
Despite the fact that no LTE (long term evolution) network is expected to be commercial before 2010, a new study from ABI Research forecasts that, by 2013, there will be more than 32 million subscribers using LTE networks. Three of the world’s largest mobile operators – China Mobile, Vodafone and Verizon Wireless – have announced plans to adopt LTE, which is set to become the de facto 4G cellular technology. Asia-Pacific countries are expected to account for the largest regional share, with about 12 million subscribers.
Royal Philips Electronics, Samsung Electronics, Sony, Panasonic, Freescale, OKI and Texas Instruments have formed the RF4CE (Radio Frequency for Consumer Electronics) Consortium to create a new protocol that will enable the development of RF remote controls that deliver richer communication, increased reliability and more flexible use. While no RF remote control standard currently exists for audio visual CE devices, increased demand for advanced functionality that cannot be supported by existing IR technology has led to the formation of the RF4CE Consortium. RF remote controls enable non line-of-sight operation and the technology also provides more advanced features based on bidirectional communications such as display feedback for an enhanced entertainment experience.
The wireless intrusion detection and prevention systems (WIDPS) market was a niche market in the past, but is gaining prevalence as wireless local area networks (WLAN) become more widespread and security threats get increasingly complex, according to a report from Frost & Sullivan. The need for a WIDPS system is crucial in all vertical markets across the board as a result of compliance regulation and the need to secure corporate wireless networks. The report estimates that the worldwide market for WIPDS earned revenues of $150,0 million in 2007 and that this will more than triple by 2014 to reach $572,5 million.
Technology
At the Hannover Fair held recently in Germany, visitors were drawn to Festo’s demonstration of robotic jellyfish – both a swimming and flying version. Although the two versions employ slightly different constructions, both make use of advanced mechatronics techniques as the basis for their propulsion systems. They are battery-driven and use Zigbee to communicate with each other, and control their own energy supply by communicating and then docking with a charging station. Their advanced, highly autonomous behaviour could have far-reaching applications in many automated environments of the future. Several videos of the jellyfish in action are available on YouTube.
CSR has launched its seventh generation BlueCore, said to be the world’s first device integrating Bluetooth v2.1+EDR, Bluetooth low energy, eGPS (enhanced global positioning system), and FM transmit and receive technologies on a single chip. The BlueCore7 radio delivers +10 dBm Tx and –91 dBm Rx, and includes CSR’s proprietary AuriStream voice codec, which produces the quality of a fixed line call when using a Bluetooth connection.
Infineon has announced the availability of its new generation 3G platform family, which addresses all major 3G market segments and includes a high performance HSPA modem solution, a feature phone solution enriched with high multimedia capabilities and a cost-efficient 3G solution. The solutions are based on new members of the X-GOLD 61x-series and Infineon’s 3G radio frequency (RF) transceiver device, the SMARTi UE. The X-GOLD 61x-series are monolithically integrated, low power 65 nm baseband devices that include all digital, analog and power management functions.
NXP Semiconductors has announced what it claims is the world’s fastest high-bandwidth cellular soft modem – Nexperia Cellular System Solution PNX6910. Powered by NXP’s embedded vector processor (EVP), a powerful DSP core, the PNX6910 is capable of achieving data transfer rates of 150 Mbps downlink and 50 Mbps uplink, and supports multimode LTE/HSPA/UMTS/EDGE/GPRS/GSM capability. It is also optimised for a wide range of consumer electronics beyond mobile phones, bringing broadband connectivity to digital still and video cameras, next generation laptops, Internet tablets and ultra-mobile PCs.
Freescale has introduced the QorIQ P4080 multicore processor – a highly advanced eight-core communications processor designed for performance, power efficiency and programmability in the embedded multicore space. The signature member of the new QorIQ product line, the P4080 is based on 45 nm process technology. It integrates enhanced Power Architecture cores, a tri-level cache hierarchy, innovative CoreNet on-chip fabric and datapath acceleration to deliver exceptional performance within a 30 W maximum power envelope.
CIP Technologies has released what is believed to be the first commercial reflective electro-absorption modulator. The launch provides developers of access network and other communications applications with the means to implement innovative system architectures. Among many potential applications for the new reflective electro-absorption modulator (R-EAM) are 10 Gbps wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) passive optical networks (PONs), and a simple means of linking radio antennas to a high-speed optical cable in order to extend the coverage of high data rate wireless technologies.
Motorola’s WiMAX WAP 25400 base station has achieved the WiMAX Forum Certified seal of approval by passing required interoperability and conformance tests as outlined by the WiMAX Forum. This milestone achievement, announced by the Forum at its Global Congress event in Amsterdam, places Motorola among the first companies to have its 2,5 GHz WiMAX products earn this new stamp of approval for completing tests necessary to ensure operational and feature compliance for 2,5GHz certification.
A company called SRI International has developed a wall-climbing robot that makes use of electrostatic adhesion to achieve its gravity defying feat. The system is currently capable of generating 1,5 Newtons of adhesive force per square centimetre of contact with the wall, making it capable of carrying up to 35 kilograms, but there is no reason why this should not be scalable to support a human’s weight. Although voltages as high as 5000 Volts are required to generate the necessary electrostatic force, the system consumes only 50 nanoamperes, so that the power supply requirements make the technology viable for practical application.
u-blox has partnered with paragon, a leading German automotive electronic supplier, and Magna, a specialist in automotive systems and components, to develop a rear-view mirror navigator. The MirrorPilot Navigator is a fully functional GPS navigation system, including GPS receiver, antenna and speaker built into a self-dimming rear-view mirror. This innovative navigation system simply replaces the standard rear-view mirror of a car, leaving the car cockpit free of cables, and includes a remote control for ease of use.
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