Southern Africa
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), has chosen South Africa as the venue of the fifth international telecommunications exhibition and forum, the ITU TELECOM AFRICA 2001. The event was officially launched in Johannesburg on 23 October by the ITU and the SA Government. The event will be held at Gallagher Estate, Midrand from 12-16 November 2001. The next ITU TELECOM event being held is Asia 2000, 4-9 December 2000 in Hong Kong and is hosted by the Government of the People's Republic of China.
Capricorn Business and Technology Park, Muizenberg, has been identified as the preferred location for a R250m high-tech fibre-optic plant whose major injection of foreign and local capital could be a significant economic boost to the False Bay region. Zeconi Holdings has agreed to locate the proposed plant at Capricorn. Construction of the plant should begin early in 2001, said Steve Kruger, Marketing Manager for Capricorn. Much of the production from the Zeconi Plant will be for export and the plant is expected to turnover R700m by 2005. Its location at Capricorn is expected to create more than 400 jobs in the first year alone, for both skilled and unskilled labour, making it a major boost for the local community.
Honeywell Southern Africa has been announced as the winner of the internationally recognised South African Excellence Award, Business Sector, Level 1. Presented by the South African Excellence Foundation (SAEF) the award represents the highest level of national recognition for performance excellence, according to the company. Although the awards have been running in South Africa for three years this is the first time a local organisation has obtained a sufficient score to qualify for the coveted Level 1 commendation. The South African Excellence Model is based on the principles of the European Foundation for Quality Management Model and the American Malcolm Baldrige Model and provides a framework for self-assessment which enables local organisations to identify both their strengths and areas needing improvement.
CompTIA (Computing Technology Industry Association) President and CEO, John Venator is to visit South Africa during October. He will attend a series of high-level meetings with the South African Quality Association (SAQA), ISETT (Information Systems Electronics and Telecommunications Technologies) SETA (Sector Education and Training Authority), as well as several companies who employ technically skilled staff, announced CompTIA. According to Adrian Schofield, CompTIA international Sales and Marketing Director, the primary purpose of Venator's visit is to improve CompTIA's knowledge and understanding of the level of South Africa's technical skills, and to seek opportunities for the Association to contribute to the skills development process.
Five charitable and non-profit organisations from South Africa, Australia, Fiji, and the US have received awards for their innovative ideas on how Internet technology can be used to improve life for the individuals and communities they serve. The winners of the Ericsson Internet Community Award (ERICA), a programme developed by Ericsson to provide charitable organisations with the resources and inspiration for using technology to further their mission, are: The Fiji School of Medicine; The Gould League, Australia; National Downs Syndrome Society, USA; Pathways Community Network, USA; and Rhodes University Mathematics Education Project, South Africa. Each Winner receives $100 000 in web development services from Ericsson's Internet Solutions division to turn their ideas into reality.
Motorola has partnered with Mustek subsidiary Bastian Financial Services to provide its two-way radio customers with an alternative financing option. The agreement between the two companies enables two-way radio users to pay a linked monthly instalment for a set period, without laying out initial capex funds. According to the companies, because the rental option provides for a non-contingent liability, these expenses can be allocated to operating costs thereby considerably reducing barriers to entry for business. Bastian is responsible for credit approval and the rental agreement while the installation and maintenance of the two-way radio system is handled by a Motorola authorised dealer.
Webb Industries has secured an order from Austria for the supply of masts for use as radiating antennas for a local vehicle tracking telecommunications system. In terms of the contract, Webb Industries is to supply five 99 m high masts to Datatrak. The company says that the masts are adapted from a standard Webb design and consist of heavy-duty tubular steel with solid round bar bracing. The welded construction comprises 3 m lengths of triangular sections. The design was done according to the new Eurocodes for Structural Steel Design which includes wind and ice loadings.
High Voltage Engineering Corporation, represented locally by AGF Technology, has bought out Ansaldo Sistemi Industriali which includes: Ansaldo Ross Hill, Robicon and Hill Graham Controls. AGF Technology has also been appointed as the sole distributor for Telema, a manufacturer of stainless steel power electric resistors.
Sole distributor of Samsung monitors in South Africa, Tarsus Technologies, has announced that it has appointed Electronic Repair Services (ERS) for national support on Samsung Monitors. ERS has a number of branches around South Africa which allows clients to benefit from faster turnaround times on repairs with less handling. Giovanni Gaggia, Sales and Marketing Manager at ERS, said that the company is contracted to repair a wide range of high-tech electronic equipment, including process devices such as servers and personal computers.
Precision Circuit Manufacturers has acquired a photoplotter. The company already offers SMOBC and V-scoring and can now manufacture production quality prototype boards.
SAN People has received SABS ISO 9001 certification.
Cirtech Electronics has announced new contact details for its Johannesburg office: 1st Floor, Fedsure Close, 2 Norfolk House, Cnr 5th Street and Norwich Close, Sandown; tel: (011) 883 7165, fax: (011) 883 7169.
Overseas
Business
Worldwide chip sales set another monthly record in September at $18,40 bn, an increase of 45,2% from $12,67 bn in the same month last year, according to the latest Semiconductor Industry Association sales report. Chip sales in September were 1,9% higher than the $18,06 bn in August, as measured using the three-month moving average. The report said September chip sales grew the strongest in Japan, which appears to be coming out of its economic slump, while chip revenues were up 51,2% to $4,22 bn compared to September 1999. Semiconductor sales in the Asia Pacific region increased 46,6% to $4,69 bn in September compared to $3,20 bn in the month last year, while sales were 1,2% higher than $4,63 bn in August. For the Americas semiconductor sales were 46,2% higher in September at $5,88 bn compared to $4,70 bn in the month last year. Sales here were 0,9% higher in September than in August, said the report. Chip revenue in European markets grew 35,9% to $3,61 bn in September vs $2,66 bn in the month last year. Europe's September chip sales were 1,8% higher than $3,55 bn in August, according to the SIA report.
Infineon Technologies has reported that revenues for the company's fiscal fourth quarter ended 30 September, surged 82% to $2,07 bn against the same period last year. Infineon said its revenues were up sequentially 30% from the third fiscal quarter, ended 30 June. Infineon's net income in the fourth quarter totalled $505,5m, compared to $54,8m in the period last year. The semiconductor company's memory products operation showed the strongest increase in revenues during the fiscal fourth quarter - memory sales grew 47% in the period compared to the fiscal third quarter, said Infineon. For the entire fiscal 2000 year, ended 30 September, Infineon posted record revenues of $6,3 bn, an increase of 72% from last year's $3,69 bn.
Mitel has posted record semiconductor sales of $194,3m in the company's fiscal second quarter, ended 29 September. The company announced that its chip revenues grew 39% from $139,4m in the same quarter last year. Mitel says its semiconductor business (54%) is now larger than its telecom systems operations. Mitel posted a net income of $30,5m in the quarter vs $27,7m in the same period last year. The Mitel Semiconductor division recorded an operating income of $40,2m, up sharply from $16,6m in the quarter last year.
Maxim Integrated Products has posted a 58% increase in revenues to $285,1m in the company's fiscal first quarter, ended 23 September, compared to $180m last year. Maxim reported a record net income of $93,3m in the quarter compared to $58,4m in the year-ago period.
Rambus has reported record sales of $26,9m for its fourth fiscal quarter ended 30 September, up 119% from $12,3m in the same period last year. In the quarter, it had $19,9m in royalties, more than three times the amount in the previous period, it said, while royalties for 2000 were $32,6m, more than four times the 1999 amount. These figures included shipments of RDRAMs from its memory-chip licensees as well as intellectual-property (IP) royalties in the area of SDRAMs, double-data-rate (DDR) SDRAMs and controllers. For the year, it reported revenues of $72,3m, an increase of 67% from last year. The company said that near-term earnings growth would depend on the ramps of the Sony PlayStation2 into the US and the Intel Pentium 4, the relative price of RDRAMs to SDRAMs, and the timing of additional licensees for the use of its IP in SDRAM-compatible ICs.
Conexant Systems reported record revenues of $561,4m for its fourth fiscal quarter ended 30 September, up 24% over the like period a year ago. Pro forma net income for the fourth quarter was $43,5m compared with $39,4m in the year-ago period. Revenues for fiscal 2000 were $2,1 bn, up 46% over $1,4 bn in 1999.
Exar has reported second quarter fiscal 2001 operating results. Revenue for the second quarter was $31,5m, up 70% from $18,6m for the same period last year and up 15% from $27,3m for the first quarter of fiscal 2001. Revenue for the first half of fiscal 2001 increased 69% to $58,8m for the same period last year. Exar said growth was driven by transmission products which increased 168% in the first half of fiscal 2001 over the same period the previous year. Operating income for the second quarter fiscal 2001 was $6,1m, up 352% from operating income of $1,3m for the same period last year and sequentially up 48% from $4,1m for the first quarter. Operating income for the first half of fiscal 2001 was $10,2m, up 408% from pro forma operating income of fiscal 2000.
Fujitsu's semiconductor sales grew 35% in the first half of its current fiscal year to $3,3 bn, according to the company's latest results. Strong demand for flash memory and logic products in cellphones as well as devices for digital audio and video equipment were strong drivers, according to Fujitsu. Overall, Fujitsu reported a 2% increase in consolidated sales to $23,1 bn in the first half of fiscal 2001, ended 30 September.
Silicon foundry supplier United Microelectronics Corp (UMC) reported increased sales of 106,5% to $941,2m in the third quarter, ended 30 September, compared to $455,9m in the same period last year. UMC's net income grew 488% to $464,9m in the quarter compared to $79,2m, it said. For 2000, UMC estimated that it will process 2,58 m 8" equivalent wafers, an increase of 42% from 1999.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing reported that revenues surged 141% to $1,5 bn in the third quarter, compared to $620m in the period last year. The company said net income reached $647m in the third quarter vs $190m last year. It also announced it will increase its chip-processing capacity to 4,79 million 8" equivalent wafers in 2001 from an expected volume of 3,4 m wafers in 2000.
Cypress Semiconductor has announced record revenue of $356,2m for the third quarter ended 1 October, up 83% from the $194,9m figure posted in the year-ago period. Net income, excluding acquisition-related costs and nonrecurring items was a record $100,5m, stated the company. This compares to a net of $25,5m for last year's period. Cypress said it is now operating at an annual revenue rate over $1,4 bn.
Anadigics has reported record sales of $51,1m for the third quarter ended 30 September, a 44% increase over $35,5m in the year ago period. It said wireless products revenues, mainly power amplifier ICs for mobile phones, showed an increase of 32% from the year-ago quarter, but declined 18% sequentially from the second quarter.
Qualcomm has announced that it would postpone the initial public offering of its new semiconductor and software spin-off company by about two months due to 'unfavourable market conditions.' Qualcomm said in July it would spin off its chip and software operations into a new and independent company, being referred to as Qualcomm Spinco Corp. The company will delay the event until January of 2001, it said.
EDA developer for system-on-a-chip applications, Get2Chip.com has announced that in its second round of financing it raised $8m from Intel. Get2Chip.com is the developer of an architectural synthesis solution called Volare.
Companies
General Electric and Honeywell have announced that GE has agreed to acquire Honeywell in a tax-free merger valued at $45 bn dollars, plus assumed debt. The merger is expected to be completed in early 2001. GE will use the 'GE-Honeywell' brand name in some key product lines, said the companies.
Microchip Technology has announced plans to acquire TelCom Semiconductor for $300m in stock. The purchase is intended to accelerate Microchip's efforts to offer standalone analog ICs and add functionality to embedded-control devices, said Steve Sanghi, Microchip Technology's President and CEO. He said that the company estimates that there is approximately $1,50 of analog product embedded around each $1,00 of its microcontrollers. TelCom supplies analog and mixed-signal products serving a range of system applications, including thermal and power management. Microchip expects the acquisition to be completed in the first quarter of 2001, wherupon TelCom will become a subsidiary of Microchip.
Philips Semiconductors has teamed with Widcomm of San Diego in an alliance to provide customers with a single source for Bluetooth technology products such as optimised ICs, software and design support.
Field programmable analog array (FPAA) firm Anadigm has appointed Future Electronics to distribute its products throughpout Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific Region. Anadigm was formerly known as Anadyne Microelectronics.
AT&T has officially announced that it will break up into four distinct entities, including an independent cable company and an independent wireless company, all operating under the AT&T brand name. The other two businesses will be the core of a new AT&T, it said, consisting of the unit that runs the telecommunications network and serves business customers, and a separately-traded subsidiary containing the shrinking consumer long-distance business.
The HomeRF Working Group has revised its charter and will now include six so-called 'promoter' companies, including Compaq, Intel, Motorola, National Semiconductor, Proxim and Siemens. It said that these companies will assist to establish the mass deployment of interoperable wireless networking technology for the home, small businesses, and other environments, as well as be involved in the final development of the 10 Mbps shared wireless access protocol (SWAP) 2.0 standard.
Xilinx has announced it has purchased Visual Software Solutions to reduce the time it takes to implement designs using multimillion-gate field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). Xilinx said Visual Software's expertise will allow it to deliver a variety of customised tools for HDL-based design using Xilinx's Virtex-II FPGAs. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
SanDisk has announced that it has taken 10% stake in Divio, a supplier of digital-imaging compression chip technology, for $7,2m. As part of the deal, flash-memory chip supplier Sandisk will co-develop products with Divio, a vendor of ASICs and software for use in digital still cameras and PC cameras. Divio also sells a MPEG-4 compression technology aimed at emerging consumer video markets.
Texas Instruments will develop digital baseband solutions using its TMS320 digital signal processor technology and software from RadioScape. TI also announced that it has invested an undisclosed amount in the London-based technology company, which is focused on providing software solutions for the Eureka digital radio standard. Europe, parts of Asia and Canada have all adopted the Eureka standard, which uses modulation and compression techniques to convert music, speech and data into digital bits before transmission. UK-based Psion is currently using TI DSP products and RadioScape software in its recently-launched Wavefinder digital radio. The Wavefinder is a Eureka receiver for the PC platform that makes full use of the new audio and data services that can be broadcast with digital radio.
Xicor has announced it will sell its Milpitas wafer fabrication plant and assets to Standard MEMS for approximately $12,5m, turning itself into a fabless-IC design company. Xicor, a supplier of nonvolatile chips and other IC products, said that Standard MEMS will assume control of the fab and will make chips on a foundry basis for its consumption. In addition to Standard MEMS, Xicor's other foundry partners include Sanyo, Yamaha and Zentrum Mikroelektronik Dresden (ZMD).
Anritsu will undergo a corporate restructuring designed to meet increasing customer needs and an escalating customer base. To focus more strongly on mobile communications and the Internet, there will be four internal companies, each operated autonomously, said Anritsu. The companies are: Measurement Solutions - the largest, provides communication devices, measuring instrumentation for analysis of communication products and systems, device/modules, and ATE solutions; Network Solutions - specifically addresses the multilayer switch marketplace; Industrial Solutions - provides the food and pharmaceutical industries with checkweighers and inspection machines; Info Solutions - develops focused solutions centred on Anritsu's information stations, EC terminal, access network equipment, and public information systems.
IBM has announced an alliance to jointly develop next-generation optical chips with Scottish startup Kymata. IBM said the partnership plans to create new products based on the company's siliconoxynitride (SiON) process technology, which applies high-volume chip manufacturing techniques to optical devices for cost and performance advantages for communications devices. IBM says the process uses a cost-effective SiON core waveguide layer to produce smaller and more flexible optical switching devices.
Industry
The wireless-chip market is projected to more than double over the next five years, according to a report from Allied Business Intelligence (ABI). Driven by cellular phones, broadband services, and other applications, in total, it predicts the worldwide wireless-chip market will grow about 44,8% next year, from $10,5 bn in 2000, to $15,2 bn in 2001. Beyond 2001, the wireless-chip market is projected from $17,4 bn in 2002, to $19,1 bn in 2003, to $19,9 bn in 2004, to $21 bn by 2005. Although the bulk of the market centres around cellular/basestation chips, (97%), broadband-based technologies, such as wireless local area networks, multichannel multipoint distribution services (MMDS), and local multiport distribution services (LMDS), are becoming increasingly dominant. ABI said that the worldwide MMDS market is projected to grow from relatively zero right now to 6m subscribers by 2005 - the US accounting for over one-fifth of the business.
Fuelled by some new and emerging Internet-enabled wireless technologies, the European cellular phone business is projected to more than double over a seven-year period, according to a new report released by Frost & Sullivan. The European mobile phone market is projected to jump from $23,7 bn in 1999 to $48,8 bn by 2006, and in terms of unit shipments, the Europe market is expected to grow from 103,2 million in 1999, to 212 million by 2006, said the report. Three key wireless-data technologies are named as among the drivers for growth: Bluetooth, general packet radio service (GPRS), and wireless application protocol (WAP). Other technologies, including location finding, digital video cameras, and MP3 will also propel the usage of these devices, it said.
The increasing availability and distribution of music over the Internet, the increasing digital camera market, and Internet ubiquity will fuel the flash memory card market explosion. According to IDC, the flash card market's dramatic 160% shipment growth in 1999 will spur revenue growth. It projects worldwide revenue will increase at a CAGR of nearly 50%, from $717m in 1999 to $5,3 bn in 2004. IDC says CompactFlash (CF) and SmartMedia (SM) will continue to dominate the digital camera market, while other smaller form factors will benefit most from the explosion of mobile applications. Despite the current flash chip shortage today and the fact that competing companies are striving to develop solutions that are cheaper than flash technology, IDC still believes the outlook for this market is strong and the window of opportunity for emerging technologies is narrowing.
Advanced Micro Devices said it has distributed more than $30m in profit sharing to its US employees for the third quarter. The payout represents 10% of its operating profits for the third quarter, ended 1 October, said AMD. For that fiscal period, the company reported record sales of $1,2 bn and a record net income of $409m. AMD Chairman and CEO Jerry Sanders III said the record profit-sharing distribution was a reward to employees for outperforming the rest of the semiconductor industry. The sum is AMD's largest ever profit-sharing payout.
The home-networking chip market is projected to grow 476% over the next four years, from $116m in 2000, to $669m by 2004, according to a new report from Cahners In-Stat Group. It said that although there are a number of chip and system technologies vying for dominance, based on local-area networking, powerline, and wireless schemes, it believes that wireless will occupy the greatest percentage of connections. It projects the RF portion of the home-networking IC market will grow from 10% of total units shipped in 2000, to 37% by 2004.
Intel has completed the development of its 0,13 µm (130 nm) generation logic technology, allowing it to manufacture chips with transistors that are approximately 1/1000th the width of a human hair. The process will make computer chips smaller and more powerful, and Intel said it would begin volume manufacturing next year using this advanced process technology. It intends to deliver a new generation of high performance microprocessors, which may contain more than 100 million transistors and run at multi-GHz clock speeds. Intel has already built functional static RAMs and microprocessors using this technology, which feature 70 nm transistor gate width, 1,5 nm gate oxide thickness, copper interconnects, and low-k dielectrics.
Technology
Intel has unveiled a new flash memory chip designed for the next generation of web-enabled cellphones. Intel said the chip will allow cell phone users to hold conversations and access the Internet at the same time.
Philips Semiconductors has released what it claims is the fastest 8-bit triple ADC for LCD monitors and projectors. The TDA8757 is a 180 MHz chip that digitises large bandwidth RGB signals coming from PCs to LCD monitors. It has a number of advanced features integrated, including PLL, Clamp and AGC technology.
Following its acquisition of Basis Communications, Intel has announced two service-specific network processor lines for low-cost Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) applications. The IXP220 and IXP225 chips are designed for use in host-processing functions in DSL products, said Intel. The IXP220 is geared for data-only applications in DSL equipment, while the IXP225 is targeted for both voice and data protocols.
National Semiconductor has released an advanced set-top box reference platform based on its x86-compatible microprocessor. The Geode SP1SC10 is a reference platform that enables OEMs to develop a set-top box, which features interactive TV broadcast services, Internet browsing, e-mail services, time-delay recording, multimedia gateway, video-on-demand and streaming video, said the company.
Atmel has rolled out a universal transponder for RF-based ID tags. The company's Wireless & Microcontrollers Division's new 256-bit read/write transponder device aimed at RF smartcard and identification tag applications is based on the IDIC e5551 industry standard, and it is designed for batteryless identification systems. The T5554 draws power for operation from the 125 kHZ radio signal. The transponder has an on-chip capacitor (70 or 200 pF) and bumped pads. For radio frequency ID tag assembly, only an external antenna is needed, says Atmel. The company adds that the device provides eight different data rates (1 to 7,8 kbps) to optimise according to distance and data transfer requirements.
AMD spin-off Legerity has introduced a new lineup of 100 V ringing subscriber line interface circuits (SLICs), which provide battery-switching technology for a range of telephony systems. The Am79R100 and 79R101 SLIC chips are aimed at replacing ring generators and ring relays in reduced-loop applications. Targeted applications are cable telephony, ISDN adapters, wireless local loop (WLL) systems, fibre in the loop (FITL), hybrid fibre/coax (HFC) systems, and private branch exchange (PBX) equipment among others, said the company.
Qualcomm has officially announced its cellphone and basestation chip set line that would enable handsets to obtain wireless data like the Internet at speeds up to 2,4 Mb. The MSM5500 and CSM5500 chip set line supports the so-called 1x Evolution (1xEV) standard. This technology evolved from Qualcomm's proprietary High Data Rate (HDR) scheme, which enables wireless data at speeds up to 2,4 Mbits.
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