Africa
ICASA has drafted regulations on local loop unbundling, a process which will give Telkom’s rivals the right to utilise the physical connections from Telkom’s exchanges to subscribers’ premises. ICASA has forwarded the draft to new communications minister Yunus Carrim to provide his feedback.
Accutronics has been appointed as the representative for M/A-COM Technology Solutions in South Africa. M/A-COM offers an extensive range of RF and microwave components in a wide variety of packaging solutions. The move by Accutronics to extend its offering allows it to cater to a wider array of customers and market segments.
Hi-Q Electronics has finalised a distribution agreement to distribute IQRF’s radio frequency products in South Africa. IQRF manufactures a range of transceiver modules, gateways, routers and end devices, together with accessories and development tools, for wireless mesh networking.
Botswana has beaten South Africa to the launch of its digital terrestrial television service. The country has opted to employ the ISDB-T transmission standard used in Japan and Brazil, as opposed to the European DVB-T standard which has been adopted by South Africa and most other SADC countries.
Overseas
Business
Texas Instruments reported second-quarter revenue of $3,05 billion, net income of $660 million and earnings per share of 58 cents. These results compare to second-quarter 2012 revenue of $3,34 billion, net income of $446 million and earnings per share of 38 cents.
For its second quarter of 2013, STMicroelectronics reported net revenues totalling $2,05 billion and net loss of $152 million. The company’s net loss for the prior quarter was $171 million based on revenues of $2,01 billion, while its net loss for the second quarter of 2012 was $75 million on revenues of $2,15 billion.
RF Micro Devices reported financial results for its fiscal 2014 first quarter, ended 29 June 2013. Quarterly revenue increased approximately 4,4% sequentially and 45% year-over-year to a record $293,0 million. Net income was $1,6 million, or $0,01 per share, compared to a net loss of $16 million ($0,06 per share) in the preceding quarter and a net loss of $19,1 million ($0,07 per share) in the first quarter of 2013.
Microchip Technology announced net sales of $462,8 million for the first quarter of its 2014 fiscal year, up 7,6% sequentially and 31,4% from the year-ago quarter. Net income was $78,6 million, or 37 cents per diluted share, up 31,7% from $59,7 million, or 28 cents per diluted share, in the immediately preceding quarter, but down 0,2% from $78,7 million, or 39 cents per diluted share, in the prior year’s first fiscal quarter.
Net sales for Freescale Semiconductor’s second quarter of 2013 were $1,04 billion, compared to $981 million in the first quarter of 2013 and $1,03 billion in the second quarter of 2012. Net loss for the second quarter was $65 million, or $0,25 per share, compared to a loss of $48 million, or $0,19 per share, in the first quarter of 2013 and a loss of $34 million, or $0,14 per share, in the second quarter of 2012.
Companies
RF Micro Devices has agreed to sell its Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) semiconductor manufacturing facility in Newton Aycliffe (UK) to Phoenix-based Compound Photonics. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed but it is expected to provide RFMD $20 million in annual cost savings, or $5 million per quarter.
Rochester Electronics has made a deal with Atmel to provide customers with a continuing supply of end-of-life products discontinued by Atmel. Rochester has committed to providing product support, service and programs to Atmel and its customers for these discontinued products.
Agilent Technologies has been honoured with two industry awards. The first is from Frost & Sullivan following its independent analysis of the oscilloscopes market that showed that Agilent demonstrated significant growth over the past two years, outperforming all other market participants and gaining significant share. The second award was from R&D magazine, which recognised the company’s 90000Q series of oscilloscopes as one of the most technologically significant products introduced over the past year.
Industry
The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) announced that the three-month moving average of worldwide semiconductor sales reached $74,65 billion during the second quarter of 2013, an increase of 6% over the first quarter. This marks the largest quarterly increase in three years. Global sales for June 2013 hit $24,88 billion, an increase of 2,1% compared to June 2012 and 0,8% higher than the May 2013 total.
Technology
Following 25 000 hours (nearly three years) of testing by the US Department of Energy, two hundred LED lamps from Philips have been shown to continue to produce to 100% lumen output with highly stable colour output. The 10 W lamp (pictured) won the DoE’s L Prize in 2011 in the 60 W replacement category, and at that time Philips boasted that it expected to see lumen maintenance of 97,1% at 25 000 hours. The Philips lamp on test has since been superseded by lower wattage products designed to last even longer, and without the yellow phosphor outer surface, which proved unpopular.
Avago Technologies announced that its 28 nm SerDes core has demonstrated 32 Gbps performance while withstanding up to 40 dB of channel loss. This achievement boosts the data rate feasibility for chip-to-chip, portside and backplane interfaces.
STMicroelectronics’ unique NFC/RFID-enabled memory technology has been integrated in Classe Cube, the latest refrigerator from Dongbu Daewoo Electronics. The recently launched appliance enables ‘smart’ use by providing information on its current state or its users’ habits that is communicated between the fridge and an NFC-enabled smartphone. This communication is made possible by ST’s M24LR dynamic NFC/RFID tag.
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