South Africa
XLink, a South African communication solutions provider in the telemetry market and a new player in the M2M (machine-to-machine) space, recently added Australia’s Mach Communications to its client base. Mach is an airtime service provider specialising in connectivity solutions aimed at supporting the M2M market’s developers, integrators and solution providers on a global level. XLink and Mach have created a platform that will facilitate M2M connectivity for Mach’s Australian-based customers who wish to deploy their hardware in South Africa but require connectivity back to their host systems in Australia.
British touch sensor manufacturer Zytronic has established a new sales channel in South Africa, having appointed ScreenVision to represent it in the region. ScreenVision produces its own display assemblies, which integrate high performance LCDs and touch-screen solutions, for implementation in point-of-sales terminals for retail outlets, digital signage systems, public information kiosks and bank ATM units. Zytronic’s touch sensors are based on patented Projected Capacitive Technology which, thanks to an innovative design and unlike traditional front-facing touch-screen technologies, is effectively impervious to scratches, dirt, liquid ingress or various other factors that normally prove detrimental to ongoing operation.
Overseas
Business
Intel has reported second-quarter revenue of $10,8 billion, up 34% year-over-year. The company reported operating income of $4,0 billion, net income of $2,9 billion and EPS of 51 cents. On a comparative basis, last year’s second-quarter revenue was $8,1 billion and net loss was $400 million or 7 cents per share.
u-blox has expanded contract manufacturing capacity for its LEON GSM/GPRS module to Brazil, with a new production line intended to meet the rapidly growing demand for wireless modems used for automatic vehicle location (AVL) amongst other applications. In 2007 there were over 3 million new vehicles sold in Brazil. In the same year, there were over 380 000 stolen cars with only an estimated 50% recovery rate.
Fairchild Semiconductor announced results for the second quarter ended 27 June 2010. The company reported second quarter sales of $409,6 million, up 8% from the prior quarter and 47% higher than the second quarter of 2009. Net income was $43,8 million or $0,34 per diluted share compared to net income of $22,6 million or $0,18 per diluted share in the prior quarter and a net loss of $24,9 million or $0,20 per share in the second quarter of 2009.
TSMC recently held a groundbreaking ceremony in Central Taiwan for Fab 15, the company’s third 300 mm ‘Gigafab’. The facility will boast a capacity of more than 100 000 wafers per month, and will also be TSMC’s second Gigafab equipped for 28 nm technology. Construction will be divided into four phases, and total investment over the next several years is expected to exceed NT$300 billion (approximately R70,50 billion). TSMC is scheduled to begin equipment move-in for the phase 1 facility in June 2011, with volume production of 40 nm and 28 nm technology products for customers in the first quarter of 2012. The total area of the site is some 18,4 hectares, with a building area of 430 000 square metres and a clean room area of 104 000 square metres (approximately 14 soccer fields).
Companies
Cree and Philips have signed a worldwide patent cross-licence agreement covering patents from both parties in the fields of blue LED chip technology, white LEDs and phosphors (including remote phosphors), control systems, LED luminaires and lamps as well as LED backlighting of liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and patents in the Philips LED Luminaire Licensing Program.
Texas Instruments is purchasing two Japanese wafer fabs and manufacturing equipment from Spansion. The purchase includes a 200 mm wafer fab currently in operation that is capable of expanding TI’s analog revenue by more than $1 billion annually, as well as a second non-operating wafer fab of equal size for either 200 mm or 300 mm production. TI will continue running the first fab and will preserve the second fab for future capacity expansion. This acquisition is the most recent in a series of analog manufacturing expansions announced by TI over the past 24 months, which collectively will add capacity for more than $3,5 billion of additional analog revenue per year when fully operational.
Gemalto, a world leader in digital security, has announced the acquisition of Cinterion Wireless Modules (CWM). Cinterion is the leading provider of industrial M2M wireless communication modules, with 2009 M2M revenues of 145 million Euros, EBIT of 4 million Euros and approximately 20% market share. Cinterion, which uses a fabless business model and employs 335 staff, was started by Siemens in 1995 and spun out to a financial sponsor consortium in 2008. Gemalto will pay 163 million Euros in cash for the CWM business, approximately one time annual sales.
Hittite has acquired a licence from IBM to manufacture and market silicon IC millimetre-wave transceivers developed by IBM. Also covered by the licence are certain 57-64 GHz IC, package and antenna technology, as well as 71-76 GHz and 81-86 GHz IC intellectual property. Hittite will apply this advanced high-frequency technology to markets that require highly integrated solutions. The company also entered into a joint development agreement with IBM related to millimetre-wave technology. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
ON Semiconductor has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Sanyo Semiconductor, a subsidiary of Sanyo Electric, and other assets related to Sanyo Electric’s semiconductor business, in a cash and stock transaction with a purchase price of approximately $366 million (¥33.0 billion), subject to adjustment pursuant to the terms of the transaction. Based on the most recently completed quarter, Sanyo Semiconductor’s annualised revenue was approximately $1,2 billion and the annualised revenue of the combined entity would be approximately $3,5 billion. The acquisition is expected to be completed before the end of 2010.
Tyco Electronics and ADC announced an agreement under which Tyco will acquire ADC for $12,75 per share in cash, or an enterprise value of approximately $1,25 billion. The transaction is expected to be accretive by approximately $0,14 per share in the first full year after closing, excluding acquisition-related costs.
Industry
The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) reported that worldwide sales of semiconductors in May were $24,7 billion, a sequential increase of 4,5% from April when sales were $23,6 billion and a year-on-year increase of 47,6% from May 2009 when sales were $16,7 billion. As expected, the year-on-year growth rate declined slightly from the 50,4% reported in April. All monthly sales numbers represent a three-month moving average.
Technology
A team of researchers from the Institute of Microelectronics, A*STAR, Singapore, has developed a (MEMS) thermoelectric power generator (TPG) that holds more than 30 000 thermocouples on a single chip measuring 1 cm². When connected in series to form a thermopile, the thermocouples detect a temperature difference between hot and cold junctions and convert this temperature gradient to a voltage. The researchers were able to generate a voltage of 16,7 V and a power output of 1,3 μW with a temperature difference of 5 K between the hot and cold junctions. They envision improvements in techniques to increase the power output of their prototype device to several microwatts. Once a viable method to progressively accumulate the energy generated is perfected, the device could prolong the battery life of electronic devices that are powered by these systems. The TPG can also recycle the heat dissipated from electronic devices that are under operation to extend the amount of time a device can go without recharging its battery.
QNX Software Systems won a Best in Show Award at the recently held Freescale Technology Forum (FTF) for its role in creating the LTE Connected Car. The LTE Connected Car concept vehicle, developed by QNX and Alcatel-Lucent through the ng Connect Program, demonstrates how 4G/Long Term Evolution (LTE) mobile broadband access technology will bring a host of new cloud-based applications to the automobile. All software components in the car – including the operating system, touch-screen user interfaces, media players, Bluetooth stack, hands-free integration and a virtual mechanic – are based on the QNX Application Platform.
As part of its Hear the World initiative, the experts at hearing aid manufacturer Phonak helped start the debate about the risk of hearing damage from vuvuzelas when it conducted sound measurements which found that it reached an ear-splitting 127 decibels (dB) – louder than a lawnmower (90 dB) and a chainsaw (100 dB). And now the company has customised one of its state-of-the-art hearing protection systems – typically used by helicopter pilots, fire-fighters, industrial staff and security professionals – to filter out the endless, cacophonous drone of the much maligned vuvuzela. The prototype was made by first analysing the precise sound emitted by the vuvuzela, and then deciding on the Serenity DP dynamic hearing protection system as the base for the prototype, as its digital signal processing capabilities provide a versatile platform for experimentation with a multitude of digital filters. It works by damping impulse sounds the moment they occur, and as long as the surrounding noise is within safe limits, the system is fully transparent – ie, it will not alter the ambient sound and communication capabilities of the user.
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