Africa
Humanoid robots will form the focus of the Rheinisch-Wesfälsche Technische Hochschule (RWTH) Aachen stand at the German Pavilion at INSITE 2008, the International Science, Innovation and Technology Exhibition. In partnership with the University of Cape Town and Graz University of Technology, RWTH designs intelligent control for autonomous humanoid robots. These robots, which recently competed in the 2008 RoboCup robotic soccer world championships, will be in action at the exhibition, held from 15 to 17 September.
Neotel’s consumer services have been officially launched in the greater Durban area. The operator has now reached its initial goal to launch consumer services in South Africa’s five major metropolitan areas. Neotel has also been contracted to connect 44 of the FET (Further Education and Training) institutions in KwaZulu-Natal.
Local telecommunications company 4G Technology has been appointed as sole distributor of Anritsu products on the African continent. Anritsu products include wireless, optical, microwave/RF, and digital instruments, as well as operations support systems and solutions for use during R&D, manufacturing, installation and maintenance. Anritsu also provides precision microwave/RF components, optical devices, and high-speed electrical devices for communication products and systems.
Communication Solutions (Comsol) and Huber+Suhner of Switzerland have signed a distribution agreement for the H+S SenCity Link SL60, a wireless broadband data link using the 60 GHz millimetre wave spectrum. According to ComSol, ICASA has already given the type approval and is in the process of providing the relevant spectrum allocation for the system.
Cape Town’s Heart 104.9FM recently became the first South African broadcaster to acquire a Comrex ACCESS Portable codec system. The ability to deliver digital quality from any location with 3G coverage saw the radio station successfully broadcast the breakfast show on the move in the traffic with its audience in their outside broadcast van. Other locations included a sailing yacht, the top of Table Mountain, and a live presentation while walking the streets of the CBD. The heart of the system is called BRIC (broadcast reliable Internet codec). BRIC technology has been engineered not only to be robust enough for the Internet, but usable in challenging Internet environments like 802.11x Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, 3G cellular and satellite-based Internet connections.
Overseas
Business
Citing rising energy costs, pricing pressure in Asia, and generally poor economic conditions, Kemet reported disappointing preliminary results for its first quarter ended 30 June 2008. Net sales for the quarter were $242,8 million, which is a 32,6% increase over the same quarter last year, inclusive of recent acquisitions, and 0,7% higher than the prior quarter. However, net loss was $187,3 million, or $2,33 per share for the current quarter, compared to a net loss of $20,5 million for the prior quarter and net income of $7,0 million for the same quarter last year. The company also reported that it will be laying off roughly 640 employees (12% of its salaried workforce) in order to reduce operating costs.
In its third fiscal quarter of 2008, ended 30 June, Epcos reported sales of 367 million Euros, up 1% both year-on-year and sequentially. EBIT was 28 million Euros, compared to 26 million Euros achieved in both the immediately prior quarter and the corresponding quarter last year. Net income for the first nine months of 2008 was up 25% on last year’s figures.
Silicon Laboratories reported better than expected second quarter revenue of $104,6 million, a 38% increase over the same period last year. The company more than doubled quarterly earnings per share when compared to the same quarter last year and achieved non-GAAP operating income of $28,3 million.
GAAP gross margin was 63,1%, GAAP operating income increased by 64% sequentially to $18,2 million, and GAAP diluted earnings per share from continuing operations increased significantly to $0,29.
Companies
Intersil has signed an agreement to acquire D2Audio, a privately-held designer of digital audio power amplifiers for consumer, commercial, automotive and professional audio applications. The boards of directors of both companies have unanimously approved the merger. Intersil may record a one-time charge to operating income for purchased in-process research and development expenses when the closing occurs. Intersil expects that the merger with D2Audio will have an immaterial impact on the third quarter and full year 2008 earnings. The amount of that charge, if any, has not yet been determined.
Rohm and OKI Electric have reached a basic understanding of OKI spinning-off its semiconductor business through a company split, and transferring 95% of its issued shares to Rohm. The two companies will sign a definitive agreement subject to OKI gaining approval at its annual shareholder meeting.
TDK and Epcos have announced the signing of a business combination agreement (BCA). The purpose of the agreement is to combine Epcos with TDK’s activities in the electronic components field. As a first step, TDK will launch a public tender offer for all outstanding shares of Epcos and will offer Epcos’ shareholders 17,85 Euros in cash per share. Based on the number of Epcos shares outstanding, this offer would value Epcos at approximately 1,2 billion Euros equity value. It is intended that the all-cash transaction will be financed by a bridge loan.
Programmable solutions provider Cypress Semiconductor and Simtek, a supplier of non-volatile static random access memory (nvSRAM) integrated circuits, today announced that they have reached an agreement whereby Cypress will acquire Simtek in an all cash transaction for $2,60 per share of Simtek common stock, or an aggregate value of approximately $46 million (including the value of Simtek shares held by Cypress). The transaction will be structured as a cash tender offer for all of the outstanding shares of Simtek common stock and is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals. The transaction is expected to close in prior to the fourth calendar quarter of 2008.
Silicon Laboratories (SL) has completed its acquisition of Integration Associates (IA), an innovator in analog-intensive, highly integrated ICs, for $80 million net, taking into consideration IA’s net assets. IA adds a diverse portfolio of connectivity, wireless and power solutions and nearly 100 engineers to SL. The dilutive impact of the transaction in 2008 is expected to be offset by better than anticipated performance in SL’s existing business. The acquisition is expected to be accretive in 2009.
Agilent has announced a substantial acquisition of the assets of Taiwan-based Escort Instruments, an established supplier of low-cost test and measurement instruments and a subsidiary of Unitech Printed Circuit Board Corporation. Financial details were not disclosed. The acquisition includes Escort’s R&D, marketing, intellectual property and the majority of the subsidiary’s low-cost instrument product portfolio. This will support Agilent’s growth strategy in the low-cost instrument market, and adds R&D expertise and products to further enhance the company’s existing low-cost instrument portfolio.
Tektronix has been selected to join the Long Term Evolution/System Architecture Evolution (LTE/SAE) Trial Initiative (LSTI), a global, collaborative technology trial initiative focused on accelerating the availability of commercial and interoperable next-generation LTE mobile broadband systems. The LSTI brings together major telecom equipment vendors and operators to drive the development of next-generation, high-performance, mobile broadband networks and 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) LTE and SAE technologies.
Industry
Following the general trend of the semiconductor manufacturing food chain, the market for silicon on insulator (SOI) experienced a slowdown in sales growth in 2007. According to VLSI Research, revenues for the year totalled $654 million, representing an increase of 6% from 2006. This single digit growth pales in comparison to the 46% and greater expansions in each of the three previous years.
With the gradual decline of cellular/3G base station deployments, the market for RF power semiconductor devices will continue to see the erosion in revenues for that segment that has characterised recent years, according to ABI Research. Declining average selling prices, more efficient air interfaces, and the build-out of the infrastructure base are compounded, in their effect on revenues, by the shift to plastic packaging. However, the RF power semiconductor device market below 4 GHz also consists of five other major segments – military, ISM, broadcast, commercial avionics and non-cellular communications – and these are expected to show a healthy compound annual growth rate of 9,5% over the same period, with the military and ISM segments leading the pack. Overall, the entire marketplace will exhibit a five-year growth rate of only 2,9%, illustrating the influence of cellular/3G’s decline.
Kontron has announced revision 1.1 of the Universal Graphics Module (UGM) standard for long-term available and custom scalable high-end PEG graphics. This new revision optimises system design and reduces costs by defining the height of UGM graphic-on-modules in accordance with the PICMG-defined COM Express specification. This enables designers working with COM Express modules and UGM Graphic-on-Modules to use a single heatsink for their entire design. Developers also benefit from enhanced DisplayPort mapping in revision 1.1, which implements DisplayPort and LVDS/TMDS on the same pinouts.
The WiMedia Alliance and Ecma International have agreed upon a relationship wherein the development of specific standards will be conducted jointly between WiMedia engineers and Ecma member companies. When the work on a standard is completed, it will then be sent through WiMedia’s approval process resulting in WiMedia members’ intellectual property being bound to the work. Ecma will submit completed standards through its approval process which likewise binds Ecma members’ intellectual property.
Denali Software, as one of the DDR PHY Interface (DFI) specification participating members including ARM, Intel and Samsung, announced that LSI Corporation and STMicroelectronics have joined the collaborative technical working group for the industry standard DFI specification, which simplifies the interoperability between the memory controller and PHY. Representatives from these industry-leading companies make up the collaborative technical working group, which plan to contribute to improvements and enhancements in the next version of the DFI specification.
In the past, deep packet inspection (DPI) vendors have used in-house platforms for testing. However in 2007, service providers (SPs) benchmarking the capabilities of various DPI vendors made it necessary for third-party tools to give an impartial analysis. The demand for third-party validation has given a leg up to the DPI test equipment market. According to Frost & Sullivan, the worldwide DPI test equipment market earned revenues of $72,3 million in 2007 and estimates this to reach $197,8 million in 2014. SP’s desire to guarantee quality of service (QoS) boosts the demand for DPI test equipment for voice and video traffic.
Technology
Qualcomm claims to have completed the world’s first data call using high-speed packet access plus (HSPA+) network technology. The call achieved a data transfer rate of more than 20 Mbps in a 5 MHz channel. HSPA+ will allow operators to double the data and triple the voice capacity of their networks compared to current HSPA deployments. The latest evolution of WCDMA technology, HSPA+ Release 7, will offer downlink data transfer rates of up to 28 Mbps and uplink rates of up to 11 Mbps.
Researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a processor so tiny and stingy on power, that it could make possible sensors that can be implanted into human bodies to monitor blood-glucose levels in diabetics, as well as other biological parameters. The processor measures just one square millimetre and consumes only 30 picowatts. Given recent advances in thin-film batteries, this could pave the way for a sensor measuring one cubic millimetre yet with enough stored energy to power itself for 10 years.
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