Southern Africa
Spescom Limited has just ended its current financial year. Group Financial Director Vernon Leas said that preliminary indications point to a significantly improved second half, which he says is expected to offset the loss incurred at interim stage. Spescom has been actively involved in the design, development and customisation of its proprietary product technology, aimed at international markets. While business activity has improved for this half, Leas adds that it certainly cannot be described as vigorous when compared with last year's second half and that this is indicative of an ongoing sluggish economy. Spescom says that its strategic initiatives taken over the last two years are being rewarded by international recognition with adoption of its technology by leading organisations like Microsoft and Abbey National.
Spescom Limited has also just announced that its UK subsidiary, Spescom Ltd UK, has entered into a contract with British Telecommunications (BT) valued at just under R1,2bn to supply a Next Generation Network Device for facilitating communications delivery. Spescom says the contract is for the supply of a highly innovative electronic version of the universally-applicable Network Termination device which will enable remote engineering diagnostics. This will eliminate one of the requirements for expensive on-site service calls and will also provide BT's customers with more choice and access to new services such as ADSL as they come on line, it said.
Power protection equipment maker Tripp Lite has announced a new distributor partnership to increase the company's visibility and market share in the Africa and Middle East regions. Tripp Lite has appointed Ultimate Supplies Limited (USL) as its primary power protection provider for the region.
Intel South Africa has appointed Comztek as one of the official distributors for its networking and communications products and services. Comztek is the fourth distributor to be appointed since Intel opened its local office in 1994. Other authorised Intel distributors include AXiZ, Arrow Altech and Tarsus, who also offer a wide range of the Intel networking products.
Siltek has announced the appointment of Deputy Chairman Dave Lello as its CEO with immediate effect. Additional appointments by the Siltek board to its South African executive team have also been made known. Siltek said its South African operations will be grouped into three divisional structures, namely Volume Products, Special Distribution and Supply Chain Services.
The European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) has announced that Nokia Mobile Phones, Europe & Africa, is this year's winner of the European Quality Award in the Large Business category. Winners were awarded for showing the highest level of commitment to improving their business practices and competitiveness. Nokia is represented by the RF Group in South Africa.
Overseas
Business
Motorola has reported semiconductor sales grew 30% to $2,07bn in the third quarter compared to $1,59bn for the previous year. Sequentially, Motorola's chip revenues grew 3,6% from $2,0bn in the second quarter of 2000. For the Motorola corporate group sales of $9,5bn and net earnings of $598m were posted. Motorola said its third-quarter semiconductor orders grew 19% to $2,2bn from last year, while operating profits in Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector reached $190m in the quarter, compared to $60m in the period last year.
Micron Technology, a supplier of DRAMs, graphics ICs and PCs, has reported exceptionally good results for its fourth fiscal quarter and year, which ended 31 August. Micron reported a net of $726,7m, in the quarter, compared to a loss of $17,4m, in the same period a year ago. It also reported sales of $2,6bn for the period, compared to $1,1bn in the period a year ago. For the year, it posted a net of $1,5bn, which compares to a loss of $69m for its previous year.
Arm Holdings has reported revenues up 68% to $18,2m for the third quarter ended 30 September, compared to 10,8m last year. Arm's net income for the third quarter was $4,8m vs $2,0m in the period last year.
Companies
Infineon Technologies has announced it has taken a 75% stake in Sci-worx, a Hanover-based, fabless-IC design house. As part of the announcement, Sci-worx will acquire key system-on-a-chip and IP module technologies from Sican, a Hanover-based fabless-IC design house, for an undisclosed amount. Sci-worx said it will focus on developing chips for networking, wireless, and related applications. Other investors in Sci-worx include RBK Investment and TUV Sueddeutschland Holding.
Silicon Laboratories, a supplier of communicatons chips, has acquired SNR Semiconductor, a small IC-design firm, for an undisclosed amount. SRN specialises in the design of CMOS-based analog and mixed-signal IC cores for use in communications applications.
Infineon Technologies has announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Ardent Technologies, a supplier of high-bandwidth integrated circuits for local area network (LAN) switching systems for $ 42m.
Xilinx has announced an agreement to acquire RocketChips, a supplier of chips for LAN/WAN networking applications. RocketChips specialises in developing CMOS-based, IP chip cores based on its high-end transceiver technology for use in Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, and Gigabit Ethernet networks.
PMC-Sierra has announced plans to buy packet-content processor supplier SwitchOn Networks for $450m in stock. The acquisition is intended to give PMC-Sierra additional processing capabilities for next-generation Internet switches, routers and high-security networks.
Cambridge-based Arm has announced the acquisition of Allant Software, Walnut Creek, California, a supplier of development tools and technology for embedded microprocessors. Allant is a specialist in multi-core debugging technology for embedded processor designs. Arm says that the acquisition will enable it to provide designers with the realtime tools they require for efficient development of Arm Powered systems.
AMD will combine its flash memory devices with TI's 3G-based baseband chip technology, dubbed the Open Multimedia Application Platform (OMAP), and develop chip products to target future mobile terminals.
Ericsson, Motorola and Nokia have set up a forum dedicated to developing global interoperability between mobile positioning systems. The goal of the Location Interoperability Forum (LIF) is to offer location-based services worldwide on wireless networks and terminals. The first applications based on the LIF recommendations are expected to be available starting in 2001.
Philips Semiconductors has announced that it is renewing its licensing agreement with Qualcomm. Philips will license Qualcomm's patent portfolio, which covers both second- and third-generation CDMA standards, including multi-carrier (formerly cdma2000) and direct spread (formerly W-CDMA), respectively. Philips intends to develop CDMA-based chip technologies for wireless phones, wireless Internet access devices, portable data entry appliances and other products.
US Philips, the subsidiary of Royal Philips Electronics NV, has reportedly filed suit against six semiconductor manufacturers, claiming these companies infringed upon its IC-based bus technology. The suit claims that Analog Devices, Cirrus Logic, Cypress Semiconductor, Fairchild Semiconductor, Linear Technology and Standard Microsystems infringed upon its so-called inter-integrated circuit bus (I[2]C) technology. Philips did not disclose any other details.
Atmel has announced that it has reached an out-of-court settlement with Information Storage Devices (ISD) over a dispute concerning memory-chip technology it filed several years ago. Under the terms of the settlement, Atmel granted ISD a licence to certain technology, including US patent entitled 'Charge pump for providing programming voltage to the word lines in a semiconductor memory array.'
Texas Instruments has announced a joint venture with four Chinese companies to co-develop next-generation cellular telephones using its DSP technology. The deal will help give TI an early lead among China's newer handset manufacturers. According to a memorandum of understanding (MOU), TI will form a joint venture to develop handsets for the China market with ZTE, Xiamen Overseas Chinese Electronic (Xoceco), Beijing Huahong IC Design, and Ningbao Bird.
Auto manufacturers BMW and DaimlerChrysler, and semiconductor manufacturers Motorola and Philips Semiconductors, have announced the formation of the FlexRay consortium to develop and implement an advanced automotive communication system. FlexRay technology is designed to meet these high-speed control requirements, as well as complement major in-vehicle networking standards CAN, LIN, and MOST. As a scalable communication system, FlexRay allows synchronous and asynchronous gross data transmission at high-speed data rates up to 10 Mbps. The companies say that fast error detection and signalling is a basic feature, while an independent bus guardian contributes towards error containment on the physical layer.
Alchemy Semiconductor has licensed Infineon Technologies' Carmel line of DSPs, including synthesizable versions of both the company's Carmel DSP 10xx and Carmel DSP 20xx core architectures to add value to Alchemy's networking devices for the Internet. Infineon's Carmel DSP is a 16-bit, fixed-point product designed for high-performance, low-power applications.
Philips Semiconductors has teamed with camera maker Pentax to produce an advanced digital signal processor for its new 6 megapixel digital SLR camera. Pentax's new SLR combines Pentax lenses and body with Philips Semiconductors' complete digital still camera chipset, including the jointly-developed advanced DSP device, for the professional photography market.
V3 Semiconductor, Toronto, has announced a new development board and collaboration with Infineon Technologies to support single-board computers with embedded PCI interfaces. V3's new evaluation and reference-design system supports embedded PCI applications using Infineon's TriCore Unified Processor Architecture. The company said the new development board supports TriCore processors running at 66 MHz and V3's Universal System Controller (USC) architecture for embedded PCI designs.
Industry
The worldwide semiconductor market grew by a record 52,7% for the month of August, according to figures released by the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). It said that there was strong growth in the communications sectors as well as the Asia-Pacific markets. Worldwide sales of semiconductors were $18,2bn in August, compared to $11,9bn in the same period a year ago. Semiconductor sales in the Asia-Pacific and Japanese markets grew 60,2% and 53,7%, respectively, while the Americas market was up 50,3% and Europe's sales grew 46,4%, over the year, according to the release.
Dataquest has released a new forecast predicting that semiconductor suppliers will have two more years of solid growth before a modest downturn hits in 2003. According to the market research firm, worldwide chip sales will increase 37% to $231,6bn in 2000, followed by growth of 27,5% to $295,2bn in 2001 and 13,9% to $336,2bn in 2002. But in 2003 chip sales will drop 4,5% to $320,9bn, predicts Dataquest. It said that the memory segment is showing the strongest growth in 2000. DRAM revenue is forecast to increase 58% in 2000 over 1999 revenues.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2000 to scientists and inventors whose work, it said, has laid the foundation of modern information technology, in particular, through their invention of rapid transistors, laser diodes, and integrated circuits. The prize has been awarded with one half jointly to Zhores I. Alferov, of AF Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute, St. Petersburg, Russia, and Herbert Kroemer, of University of California, USA, for 'developing semiconductor heterostructures used in high-speed- and opto-electronics.' The remaining half was awarded to Jack S. Kilby, of Texas Instruments, Dallas, USA, for 'his part in the invention of the integrated circuit.'
IDC's resourcing model reveals the overall shortage of skilled IT professionals will grow from about 850 000 in 1999 to 1,7m in 2003 in Western Europe. It said that in absolute terms, IT skills shortages will increase in every country between 1999 and 2003. It said a growing number of European governments recognise the need to attract skills to their countries as a means of driving their economies. For example, the German government plans to issue 20 000 special visas to skilled immigrants, and the United Kingdom is attempting to speed up the process of issuing visas to skilled immigrants. Although training and education can increase the supply of skilled labour in the medium and long term, the only answer to the short-term challenge is skilled foreign labour, says IDC.
IBM has announced that it will invest $5bn to build an advanced chip-making plant and expand capacity at existing semiconductor plants. The plant will be located 108 km north of New York City. IBM will build the fab to satisfy demand for Internet and traffic-management chips. The $2,5bn factory is scheduled to begin operations in the second half of 2002 and reach full production by early the following year, according to IBM.
Intersil has become a charter member in a new analog design group - The Engineering Analog/RF/Mixed-signal Design Consortium - which was formed in conjunction with North Carolina State University to promote education and training in analog, radio frequency (RF) and mixed-signal design among engineering students. Intersil said the digital revolution's emphasis on digital design has created a shortage of analog engineers, and the goal of the consortium is to rejuvenate the analog engineering field at university level.
Stanford Microdevices, a cellphone chip maker, has announced that it has prevailed in a recent decision regarding ongoing trademark litigation with Stanford University, over the use of its company name. The original trademark lawsuit is still pending, with a trial expected to begin in the summer of 2001.
DisplaySearch's latest annual report on the display electronics market predicts a severe tightness in LCD drivers through 2001. It reveals very tight supply conditions for TFT LCD and STN LCD drivers based on the rapid growth in notebook PCs, LCD TVs, LCD desktop monitors and colour mobile phones and forecasts that TFT LCD source driver and gate IC volume will grow from 350m in 1999 to over 4bn in 2005. In the same time frame STN 'column and row' driver volume is expected to grow from 800m in 1999 to over 3,3bn in 2005 and PDP driver volume will hit 4bn in 2005 as PDP TVs take root throughout the world.
RF Micro Devices has announced the opening of a new engineering design center in Pandrup, Denmark. The new facility is expected to house a team of senior RF engineers using the latest advanced RF design tools. The initial focus will be on high efficiency power amplifiers for digital cellular systems, and will expand to include RF ASIC designs targeting RFMD's Total Radio solutions.
Siemens plans to invest 1bn euros, about $870m, in the next 18 months on integrating its entire business electronically and giving all its 440 000 employees Internet access. According to Chairman Heinrich von Pierer, the switch will save the company the equivalent of between 3% and 5% in annual sales volume eventually, with immediate cost savings of between 1% and 2%.
A single US government website, http://firstgov.gov, has been launched that consolidates 20 000 government websites into one - about 27 million web pages. The site allows Internet users to search for government information by topic, rather than by agency, and is also designed to reduce the time Americans now spend travelling to government offices and waiting in line. The site was developed by chief scientist at Inktomi, Eric Brewer, at no cost to taxpayers. It will cost the government $165 000 a month to maintain. The site can search a half a billion documents in less than one quarter of a second, it is claimed.
Technology
German chip supplier, Pact, has announced its first product - a radical multiparallel microprocessor architecture said to run at speeds of more than 51bn of instructions per second (BIPS). Revealed at the Microprocessor Forum in San Jose, California, the XPU 128 is a reconfigurable chip that embeds 128 proprietary 32 bit processors, SRAM, I/O functions, reconfiguration managers, and other components on the same device. Munich-based Pact is a fabless-IC design house that was formerly known as Parallel Array Computer Technology. The new chip architecture technology is called the eXtreme Processor platform. The chip has a total memory bandwidth of 6,4 GB.
National Semiconductor has unveiled a new leadless chip-scale package for highly integrated, full-function 8 bit microcontrollers. The package shrinks the space needed for National's COP8 microcontrollers to 7 x 7mm. This is about one-third the area of MCUs in standard 44-pin thin-quad flat packs (TQFPs), says National. The series integrates a free-running timer and three multifunction 16 bit timers as well as other peripheral functions, such as on-chip comparators, multiple oscillator options, a R/C clock; power-on reset watchdog and clock monitor, and eight high-current outputs.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has announced it will offer a free simulation tool - the AMD SimNow! simulator - that will give developers and OEMs the ability to debug their software code prior to the release of the company's 64 bit processor line. Code-named Hammer, AMD says its 64 bit processor will be announced by the end of 2001. See www.x86-64.org
Agilent Technologies claims it has it embedded over 50 serialiser/deserialiser (SerDes) channels operating at 2,5-Gbit each on a single CMOS-based ASIC device. It said current chips on the market are only capable of supporting four 2,5 Gb channels on a device.
At the Embedded Systems Conference, Motorola revealed a new RF device for multiband handsets based on a high-speed BiCMOS process. According to the company, the MC13760 is an intermediate frequency (IF) chip, based on several analog and digital standards, such as Advanced Mobile Phone Services (AMPS), Digital Cellular System (DCS), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), and time-division multiple access (TDMA). The 2,75 V device interfaces directly to the company's line of baseband processors.
Xicor has added three new devices that combine memory, CPU supervisory functions and RTC on a single chip to its series of integrated realtime clock (RTC) products. For portable applications the X1226, X1227 and X1228 devices operate down to 1,8 V. Xicor's X1226 integrates 4 Kb of EEPROM on-chip with the basic clock/calendar functions, while the X1227 and X1228 feature 4 Kb of integrated EEPROM, clock/calendar functions and the CPU supervisory functions.
ComputerFaire@Home: 27-29 October 2000, MTN Sundome, SA consumer technology show for home and small office user.
Contact: Reed Exhibitions South Africa, (011) 886 3734.
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