South Africa
For the second year running, Altron has achieved an AAA rating for its corporate governance policies, practices and procedures, and has again been awarded a Platinum Certificate in recognition of this achievement. This independent accreditation was conducted by Corporate Governance Accreditation.
Announcing its unaudited results for the six months ended 31 March, Reunert reported a 14% increase in normalised headline earnings per share to 298 cents from 261 cents in March 2011. Revenue increased by 10% to R5,7 billion from R5,2 billion. The interim dividend was increased to 95 cents per share, which is a 23% increase over the comparable period.
Overseas
Business
CML Microcircuits announced that it has shipped more than one million RF devices. The milestone is a testament to the company’s ongoing success in the niche market of high-performance, low-power RF semiconductors for wireless data and two-way radio markets.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) announced consolidated net sales for May 2012 of approximately NT$44,14 billion, an increase of 9% over April 2012 and an increase of 20,2% over May 2011. Consolidated revenues for January through May 2012 totalled NT$190,14 billion, an increase of 6,1% compared to the same period in 2011.
Microsemi has issued a press statement aimed at quelling rumours of a backdoor security flaw in its ProASIC FPGAs. This follows claims by a team of academic and industrial security researchers that they were able to extract a security key by using a new form of differential power analysis (DPA) to hack into a privileged internal test facility typically reserved for initial factory testing and failure analysis. Microsemi has asserted that “there is no designed feature that would enable the circumvention of the user security” and that customers who are concerned about the possibility of a hacker using DPA have the ability to program their FPGAs with the highest level of security settings, which disables the use of any type of passcode to gain access to all device configurations, including the internal test facility.
Companies
Teledyne Technologies and LeCroy have entered into a definitive agreement that provides for the merger of LeCroy with a wholly-owned subsidiary of Teledyne. Pursuant to the transaction, Teledyne will acquire all of the outstanding common shares of LeCroy for $14,30 per share payable in cash. The aggregate value for the transaction is approximately $291 million.
Industry
The global interface IC market saw nearly flat revenue growth from 2010 to 2012 and only a slight gain in total shipment volumes. Databeans expects that sales will actually decline from 2011 to 2012, falling 6% to $5,2 billion this year. Meanwhile, shipment volumes will also decline slightly in 2012, down to roughly 9,3 billion. These declines were primarily the result of this market's reliance on the computer segment, which did not perform particularly well during 2011. Even so, Databeans expects that this market will see the beginning of a rebound in 2013 and will see growth of 8% in terms of both sales and shipments over the next five years.
Government regulations and initiatives will be a key factor in driving the market for cellular modules for use in machine-to machine (M2M) communications, according to a report from IMS Research. The report forecasts that government directives along with other dynamics in the market, most notably dropping module prices, will propel annual module shipments for M2M communications to more than 118 million units by 2016. The greatest impact of these government regulations are expected to be in the automotive sector.
According to a new research report from Berg Insight, the market for NFC-ready POS terminals grew fiercely in 2011 with annual shipments doubling to an estimated 2,5 million units worldwide. The rapid growth was driven by a transition in the NFC-payments ecosystem from performing trials to accelerating the rollout of NFC-ready payment infrastructure, in preparation for the arrival of NFC-based mobile payment services. Berg Insight forecasts that the global installed base of NFC-ready POS terminals will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 49,4% from 3,9 million units in 2011 to 43,4 million units in 2017.
Semiconductor stockpiles held by chip suppliers increased during the first quarter of 2012, but the rise in inventory for a second straight quarter was driven by the anticipation of higher demand from customers, according to an IHS iSuppli report. Total semiconductor inventory as a percentage of suppliers’ revenue amounted to 50% in the first quarter, up from 47,8% in the fourth quarter last year and from 46,1% in the third, as shown in the figure above. However, customer inventory held by the electronics distributor segment fell to 36,9% of revenue in the fourth quarter, down from 41,7% in the third quarter.
According to ABI Research, GPS/GNSS is now moving beyond cellular and traditional navigation markets, representing a market worth over $3,3 billion in 2016. GPS/GNSS has always been strongly tied to navigation in the in-car, PND and cellular space. However, the technology is now finding applications in cameras, gaming and tablets. Furthermore, femtocells and small cells represent huge volume opportunities, with companies like u-blox, Fastrax and iPosi all developing specific GPS/GNSS solutions to meet the unique requirements of this market. Location technologies such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, MEMs and proprietary technologies from companies such as NextNav and Boeing will all see strong penetration. For example, the tablet market will be dominated by Wi-Fi location over the forecast period.
Technology
Zytronic has developed a multi-touch solution, based on its robust Projected Capacitive Technology (PCT), which consists of its new ZXY200 touch controller, accompanied by a ruggedised and scalable touch sensor. This solution has the capability to support 10 simultaneous touch points – thereby bringing the functionality that has become familiar in smartphones and tablets to a much wider range of large display formats, used in self-service, public use and industrial applications. The multi-touch sensor solution uses a matrix of 10 micron diameter copper electrodes embedded within a thick, durable glass laminate which is both impact and scratch resistant.
Freescale Semiconductor announced its support of Microsoft Windows 8 sensor requirements with a fully enabled 12-axis sensor development reference platform. Included in the platform are the Xtrinsic MMA8451Q 3-axis accelerometer, Xtrinsic MAG3110 3-axis magnetometer, Xtrinsic MPL3115A2 precision altimeter, pressure and temperature sensor and an analog ambient light sensor. A selection of compatible gyroscopes is also supported. The platform leverages the strengths of the individual sensors to synthesise data such as motion, location, ambient light and human proximity into an integrated whole, resulting in more accurate, reliable and sensitive device performance.
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