South Africa
A contract to supply, install, commission, service and support uninterruptible power supply (UPS) solutions so far worth about R5 million to Africa’s largest food retailer, the Shoprite Group, is being implemented by SIS (Structured Infrastructure Solutions), a company in the JSE-listed technology group, Square One Solutions. The locally manufactured UPS units are designed for South African conditions and cover a range of capacities up to 40 kVA, depending upon the size and requirements of individual Shoprite and Checkers and U-Save stores. They ensure ongoing operation of tills, barcode readers, store computers and servers, as well as other IT equipment, without loss of data.
Sun Microsystems has initiated the rollout of South Africa’s largest high performance computing solution at the Centre for High Performance Computing (CHPC) in Cape Town, with local partners Eclipse Networks and Breakpoint Solutions. This follows from the awarding of the CHPC second phase tender to provide the infrastructure for Phase II of this world-class high performance computing facility in South Africa. The CHPC is funded by the South African Department of Science and Technology, and managed by the Meraka Institute of the CSIR. The proposed end-to-end solution is based on a hybrid architecture that provides an estimated 27 teraFLOPS of peak computing power.
Mainstream Renewable Power, an Irish-based global renewable energy provider, has signed a joint venture deal with South African wind farm developer, Genesis Eco-Energy, to build wind farms that will generate more than 500 MW of wind energy in the Eastern, Northern and Western Cape by 2014. The deal involves a capital investment of R11 billion over a five year period. The joint venture company plans to have two projects, with a combined capacity of 70 MW, ready for construction early next year. The farms will be independent and will supply the national electricity grid.
CZ Electronics has moved premises and changed contact numbers. The company’s new physical address is Unit 81, Van Dyk Secure Business Park, corner of Brakpan and Van Dyk roads, Boksburg East Industrial. The new telephone number is +27 (0)11 914 5240, fax number +27 (0)11 914 4533.
Overseas
Business
Infineon Technologies has reported results for the first quarter of the 2009 fiscal year ended 31 December 2008, prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Revenues in the first quarter were 830 million Euros, down 28% sequentially and 24% year-over-year. Net loss from continuing operations was 116 million Euros, resulting in basic and diluted loss per share from continuing operations of 0,16 Euros. For the prior quarter, net loss from continuing operations was 297 million Euros, and basic and diluted loss per share from continuing operations was 0,45 Euros.
National Semiconductor reported sales of $292 million and net income of $21,1 million, or 9 cents per diluted share, for the third quarter of fiscal 2009, which ended 1 March 2009. In the second quarter of fiscal 2009, the company reported $422 million in sales and $36 million in net income or 16 cents per diluted share. Compared to last year, sales decreased approximately 36% from the $453 million reported in the third quarter of fiscal 2008, and earnings per diluted share declined from the 29 cents recorded one year ago. The company also announced plans to reduce expenses, which will include the elimination of approximately 850 positions worldwide in product lines, sales and marketing, manufacturing and support functions.
Agilent Technologies has announced a major restructuring of its electronic measurement businesses in response to the most severe global downturn in the company’s history. The company announced it would reduce costs in its electronic measurement segment by an annualised $300 million over the course of the next four quarters, sizing the segment to achieve a 12% operating margin and a 21% ROIC at annualised revenues of $2,3 billion. It also announced a further restructuring of its semiconductor and board test segment to reduce annual costs by an additional $10 million. This restructuring will affect approximately 2700 employees and have a cash cost of about $160 million.
In response to reduced end demand, Fairchild Semiconductor has announced that it will close its wafer fabrication plant in Pennsylvania as well as one in South Korea. These actions reduce the number of wafer fabs in the company from six to four, and the number of front end manufacturing sites from four to three. The company expects to incur approximately $18 to $23 million of cash charges, primarily for severance and other costs associated with transfer activities beginning in the second quarter. In addition, roughly 200 jobs will be eliminated at the Pennsylvania site.
For the fiscal year 2008, Kontron’s total revenue rose to 496,9 million Euros compared with 446,5 million Euros in the previous year, corresponding to an 11% growth rate. It also reflected a continuous year-on-year rise in revenue from quarter to quarter. In the fourth quarter alone, a new record level of 141 million Euros was achieved. Operating earnings (EBIT) rose to 48,3 million Euros compared with 46,3 million Euros in the previous year. High one-off extraordinary effects arising from the sale of the company’s mobile computer division, and the acquisition of PLG, which together amounted to almost 7 million Euros in 2007, should be taken into account when drawing a comparison with the previous year’s result.
Ramtron has announced that it will cut its workforce by 17% and reduce salaries for all employees by 5% to 12%, as part of a cost cutting plan initiated recently. The company expects to reduce operating expenses by approximately $5,1 million as a result, excluding $5,8 million in charges – $4,8 mllion for non-cash impairments of goodwill, long-term assets and purchased IP, and the remaining $1 million related to severance costs.
Companies
Elpida Memory has acquired a portion of the shares that its strategic partner Powerchip Semiconductor Corporation (PSC) owns in Rexchip Electronics Corporation, a Taiwan-based manufacturing joint venture created by PSC and Elpida. As a result of the acquisition, Rexchip now becomes a consolidated subsidiary of Elpida.
RF Micro Devices has received an award for ‘Successful Enterprises/Most Promising Enterprises In China’s Semiconductor Market For 2009’. The award was presented by officials of China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and China’s Semiconductor Industry Association at the 2009 China Semiconductor Market Conference held recently. RFMD received the award in recognition of its performance in the China semiconductor market in 2008 and based upon comprehensive analysis conducted by CCID Consulting related to the China semiconductor market.
National Semiconductor has acquired Act Solar, a privately held solar energy company that provides power optimisation solutions for commercial and utility-scale solar installations. With the acquisition, National expands its portfolio of power optimisation technologies along with the acquisition of new diagnostics and panel monitoring capabilities for solar arrays. Financial details were not disclosed.
PLX has acquired all of the outstanding shares of capital stock of Oxford Semiconductor, a fabless provider of silicon and software for the consumer and small office/home office (SOHO) storage markets. Established in 1992, Oxford has been providing solutions to interconnect digital systems including PCIe, USB, FireWire, Ethernet, SATA and eSATA.
The Balver Zinn Group, a provider of high-quality anodes with various alloys as well as soft solders and special wires, announced that it has signed an agreement to promote, support, sell and distribute KIC’s product range as part of KIC’s ‘Value Added Reseller’ base. Based in California, KIC is an industry leader in automated thermal management tools and systems for reflow, wave, cure and semiconductor thermal processes.
Renesas Technology has acquired the wireless LAN chipset business of Key Stream for an undisclosed sum. Renesas and Key Stream have jointly developed and supplied wireless LAN solutions for mobile and digital consumer applications by combining Key Stream wireless LAN chipsets with Renesas microcontroller and SoC products.
Industry
IC Insights recently reviewed January average selling prices (ASPs) for several IC product categories and compared them to prices in December 2008 and over the past two years. The research has shown that ASPs were up for all product categories, and total IC ASPs were up 4% compared to December 2008, the highest four-week month ASP since November 2007. Despite the fact that it is too early to say with certainty if IC ASPs have reached their low points, IC Insights believes that IC ASPs will rebound throughout 2009 and into 2010. Factors influencing this include low IC inventory levels at electronic system producers, consolidation of IC suppliers, low factory utilisation and dramatic reductions in 2009 capital equipment budgets.
Shipments of GPS semiconductors will increase 15% on a unit basis in 2009 compared to the previous year, according to new analysis by ABI Research. This growth rate is lower than the year-on-year growth experienced in 2007 and 2008 and reflects the impact of several factors, most prominently the softness in demand for consumer devices in the current economic downturn. Unit growth will be driven by applications for mobile consumer devices, in particular handsets and personal navigation devices. These, along with emerging device markets that include digital cameras and netbook computers, will push total GPS semiconductor shipment growth rates higher in 2010 and beyond. Professional and industrial GPS markets, including machine control, timing and synchronisation, and commercial fleet telematics will also experience healthy growth.
Technology
Omron and Renesas Technology have reached an agreement to jointly develop capacitive touch sensor solutions, a field that is attracting a great deal of interest as a next-generation man-machine interface. Based on this agreement, Renesas will integrate Omron’s touch sensor technology into its R8C family 16-bit microcontroller products and supply touch sensor solutions for a wide range of fields, including household appliances and mobile devices.
Ericsson has performed the world’s first live demonstration of a VDSL2-based technology achieving data transfer rates of more than 0,5 Gbps. The demonstration achieved these data rates over twisted copper pairs using the latest technology for line bonding and crosstalk cancellation for DSL, also known as ‘vectorised’ VDSL2. The technology is suitable for fibre extensions, combining fibre and last-mile copper for backhauling.
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