South Africa
K Measure has taken action against Citek for copyright infringement over the alleged misappropriation and duplication of K Measure’s list of clients on Citek’s website.
EMSCAN, a specialist in EMC testing and antenna design and testing, has appointed Conical Technologies as its representative in South Africa. Conical will bring EMSCAN’s fast pre- and post-compliance tools EMxpert and RFxpert to the EMC/EMI and antenna and wireless communities in South Africa.
Overseas
Business
Digi International reported revenue of $49,0 million for the second fiscal quarter of 2012, compared with $49,7 million for the second fiscal quarter of 2011. Net income was $2,1 million, or $0,08 per diluted share, in the second fiscal quarter of 2012 compared to $2,2 million, or $0,09 per diluted share, in the year-ago comparable quarter.
Analog Devices announced financial results for its second quarter of fiscal year 2012, which ended 5 May. Revenue totalled $675 million, up from the previous quarter’s figure of $648 million but lower than the $791 million achieved in the second quarter last year. Diluted earnings per share (EPS) were $0,53 based on net income of $163 million, compared to diluted EPS of $0,46 and net income of $139 million in the first quarter of 2012, and diluted EPS of $0,78 and net income of $242 million in the second quarter of 2011.
Announcing financial results for its fiscal first quarter, Mentor Graphics reported revenues of $247,9 million and GAAP earnings per share of $0,25. For the full fiscal year 2013, the company reaffirmed that it expects revenues of about $1,1 billion, and raised outlook for GAAP earnings per share by $0,07 to $1,20. For the second fiscal quarter FY2013, the company expects revenues of about $240 million and GAAP earnings per share of $0,10.
According to a report in Japanese newspaper Nikkei, Renesas Electronics is planning to eliminate up to 14 000 jobs (roughly 30% of its workforce) and sell one of its fabrication plants to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC). Renesas recently recorded 883,1 billion yen in net sales for its fiscal year ended 31 March, down 22% from last year, resulting in a net loss of 62,6 billion yen.
China Daily has reported that Foxconn will invest $210 million to build an Apple production line in China later this year. Covering an area of 40 000 square metres, the new plant is expected to hire 35 800 employees.
Companies
Power Integrations has completed its acquisition of CT-Concept Technologie AG (known as CONCEPT). Founded in 1986 and based in Switzerland, CONCEPT is a developer of highly integrated, energy-efficient drivers for high-voltage IGBT modules. Financial details were not disclosed.
Premier Farnell announced that it has entered into a global distribution agreement with SEGGER Microcontroller to stock microcontroller development and programming tools. The tools are compatible with a wide range of manufacturer-specific processors, including, but not limited to, ARM, Cortex and Renesas cores, as well as various IDEs.
Silicon Laboratories has agreed to acquire Ember Corporation for an initial consideration of $72 million, subject to an adjustment for certain working capital amounts and potential earn-out consideration. Ember is a late-stage private company offering market-leading silicon, software and development tools for 2,4 GHz wireless mesh networking solutions being deployed in smart energy, connected home, security, lighting and many other monitoring and control applications.
Technology
Researchers at University College London have developed the first purely silicon oxide-based ‘resistive RAM’ memory chip that can operate in ambient conditions, opening up the possibility of new super-fast memory. Resistive RAM (or ReRAM) memory chips are based on materials whose electrical resistance changes when a voltage is applied – and they ‘remember’ this change even when the power is turned off. Not only do ReRAM chips promise significantly greater memory storage than current technology, and require much less energy and space, they also raise the possibility of transparent memory chips for use in touch screens and mobile devices, and can be configured to function as memristors.
Texas Instruments announced it has shipped nearly 6,5 billion units of copper wire bonding technology in its analog, embedded processing and wireless products. This milestone underscores TI’s confidence in copper as a viable replacement to gold in its semiconductor product roadmaps, and the electronics industry’s acceptance of the technology, due to performance, quality and reliability benefits for a range of applications.
Industry
Texas Instruments remained the leader in the analog IC industry in 2011, acquiring analog rival National Semiconductor and cementing its leadership role. Meanwhile, Europe’s largest chipmaker, STMicroelectronics, remained the second largest player and with TI’s further gains in this industry it is likely that ST will remain the second largest player for some time to come. Infineon, Europe’s other large chipmaker, remained the third largest player of the global analog share, followed very closely by Analog Devices. Finally, Qualcomm rounded out the top five suppliers of overall worldwide analog market share.
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