News


Electronics News Digest

1 August 2001 News Electronic News Digest

Southern Africa

Eskom has announced its sponsorship of the Expo for Young Scientists which will in future be known as the Eskom Expo for Young Scientists. The sponsorship amounts to over R1m over a period of three years. This year's Eskom Expo for Young Scientists involves scholars countrywide who are submitting science and technology projects to 28 regional expos. The regional winners will compete in the national final on 5 and 6 October at the University of Pretoria. In addition to this sponsorship, Eskom says it annually supports skills development with R77m having been allocated for bursaries and scholarships for 2001. The scholarships are mainly in the fields of engineering, finance and information technology - in which science and mathematics play a crucial role.

Mass storage and multimedia device manufacturer, Freecom Technologies, has appointed Square One Solutions as the sole South African distributor for its range of storage products for PC and Apple Mac systems.

Internet Solutions (IS) has expanded its Internet Data Centre in Rosebank to a total area of 600 m2. The centre can house up to 1500 servers and, according to the group, connects 50-75% of corporate South Africa. The IDC runs on a 1 Gbps hosting backbone.

Ericsson has decided to dissolve the operation of its Consumer Division in South Africa, with effect from 1 August 2001. Ericsson says it will be managed from Dubai by Eli Otaki, Ericsson's Marketing Manager, and Ericsson's Consumer Division will be locally represented by a two-man sales team. Consumer-related queries may be directed to Nadine Moodley on 082 990 7002 or (011) 283 2200.

Netconnect Distribution, Cape Town, has officially been appointed a Dartcom fibre product distributor for the Western Cape region. Netconnect Distribution is situated at Unit 3, M5 Freeway Park, Upper Camp Road, Maitland, Cape Town. Tel: (021) 511 4115.

Overseas

Business

Royal Philips Electronics announced a net loss of about $660m for the second quarter on sales of about $6,5 bn. The loss was worse than analysts expected and compared with a net profit of about $3 bn on sales of $7,8 bn in the same period a year ago. The group's medical, lighting and domestic appliance operations demonstrated good performance. But the downturn severely impacted the cyclical businesses - semiconductors, components and consumer electronics, said Philips. The downturn in the semiconductors, telecommunications and PC industries as well as in the consumer electronics markets had accelerated in the second quarter. The company said it remained very cautious about the economic development for the rest of the year, as visibility remained low. Philips expects that for semiconductors the industry will not see a recovery before 2002. It has cut back its capital expenditures and will further adjust cost levels to bring them in line with reduced revenue levels. Philips also announced it will cut 4500 to 5500 positions in its semiconductor and components divisions in the second half of the year. The cuts are about 2 to 2,5% of its global workforce. The decision comes on top of 6000 to 7000 jobs cut in the first half of 2001.

STMicroelectronics posted a net income of $154,5m on second-quarter revenues of $1,59 bn after taking $319m in charges, after taxes, for excess chip inventories and restructuring of its manufacturing operations. According to ST cancellations and push-outs of orders along with price erosion in the semiconductor recession lowered net revenues by 17,4% from $1,92 bn in the first quarter of 2001. Revenues were 15,5% lower than $1,88 bn in the second quarter of 2000. Pasquale Pistorio, President and CEO of ST, said that the company expects the industry to bottom-out in the third quarter of 2001, and expects that ST's revenues for that period will decline sequentially by approximately 10-15% from 2001 second quarter levels.

Motorola reported sales of $7,5 bn in the second quarter of 2001. For ongoing operations, this is a decrease of 19% from $9,3 bn a year earlier. Including pro forma adjustments, the company incurred a loss of $232m, compared with earnings of $551m a year ago. The net loss for the second quarter was $759m, compared with earnings of $204m, for the same period in 2000.

Silicon Storage Technology reported sales in the second quarter dropped 39% to $62,7m from the year-ago quarter, and 24% from the first quarter's $86,3m. Net profit for the second quarter fell 80% to $1,1m, from $5,4m in the first quarter, representing a 95% decline from the $22,5m reported a year-ago.

Elantec Semiconductor has reported third-quarter earnings of $2m, down 65% from $5,8m in the same quarter last year. Revenue for the quarter ended 30 June totalled $20,5m, a drop of 28% from the year-ago period and a 33% fall from the $30,6m reported in the previous quarter. Net revenues for the nine months were $91,8m, an increase of 43% from the $64,4m reported in the same period of fiscal 2000.

Analog Devices has updated its outlook for the third quarter of fiscal 2001, ending 4 August. The company now expects third-quarter revenues to total approximately $480m, or about 20% below those for this year's second quarter. Jerry Fishman, President and CEO, said that the company estimates that analog product revenues will decline approximately 15% sequentially and 30% from peak levels and be approximately flat for the year, after growing 70% last year. ADI estimates that DSP product revenues will decline approximately 35% sequentially from the previous quarter and 65% from peak levels and will be down 35% for the year, after growing 115% last year. He said that the company now estimates that total revenues for fiscal 2001 will decline approximately 10% compared to the prior year, after growing 78% last year. Fishman said that the results are "indicative of the steepest and deepest annual revenue decline in the semiconductor industry's history, caused by too much inventory in all channels as a result of panic buying last year and generally poor demand in historically high growth end markets."

Microchip Technology reported sales dropped 9% sequentially to $138,9 m in the first fiscal quarter, ended June 30, compared to $153,4 m in the prior quarter. Microchip's revenues were 22% lower than $177,7 m in the same quarter last year. The company posted a net income of $21,7 m, compared to $42,1 m in the year-ago fiscal quarter. Microchip expects its capital expenditures for the current fiscal 2002 year to be $55m, and expects second quarter revenue to be flat, ±2%, or between $136-$141m.

Companies

Lucent Technologies is accelerating its reorganisation plan by consolidating its five internal business divisions into two primary operating units. Mobility, comprised mostly of the company's Wireless Networks Group, will handle all wireless communications products, while the other unit, Integrated Network Solutions, combines the Lucent divisions that handled the wired networks: data networking, optical networking, switching and software platforms.

Transmeta and Seiko Epson have announced plans to jointly develop a future line of 'energy-saving' microprocessors, chipsets, and other products for notebook PCs and Internet appliances. They will co-develop low-power processors that combine Transmeta's Crusoe family of x86-based MPUs and Seiko Epson's 'energy-saving' chip technology.

Network-equipment and chip-maker Netergy Networks has announced that it has changed its name back to 8x8. Netergy Microelectronics and Centile, its two subsidiaries, remain unaffected by the name change.

Avanti has been ordered by the US justice system to pay over $182m in criminal restitution to Cadence Design Systems for the theft of its place and route code in 1991.

STMicroelectronics and Onix Microsystems have signed an agreement to co-develop and manufacture chipsets containing micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) devices and application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) for use in Onix's transport optical switching engine. The MEMS optical switch in the transport subsystem is based on a technology that allows microscopic MEMS mirrors to reflect incoming light beams into one of many outputs, rather than simply switching between two states, said the companies.

Infineon Technologies and Israeli company Metalink have announced that they have achieved interoperability with their respective symmetric digital subscriber line (SDSL) chipsets. The interoperability relates to the emerging G.SHDSL technology, which is a multirate evolution of SDSL that provides symmetric transmission at speeds up to 2,3 Mbps over existing twisted copper pairs. The ITU ratified the 'G 991.2 SHDSL' standard in February 2001.

Integrated Device Technology has licensed MIPS Technologies' 4Kc 32 bit MIPS32 processor core to develop system-on-a-chip (SoC) designs for the communications market.

Cambridge Positioning Systems (CPS) and Lucent Technologies will ally to provide high accuracy location-based service solution for GSM mobile networks. The agreement gives Lucent the capability to develop high-accuracy, location-determination platforms by integrating CPS' Cursor technology into its network infrastructure products, expanding its current location-based services portfolio. Cursor utilises E-OTD (enhanced observed time difference) technology that offers fast deployment and can achieve accuracy to 50 m. The companies hope the technology will promote the development of new revenue generating applications for operators such as advertising goods and services on demand.

Microsemi and Nitronex will jointly work together to manufacture what the two companies say will be the first blue and ultraviolet light-emitting diodes (LEDs) on silicon substrates. Microsemi will combine its chip-scale packaging technology with Nitronex's Sigantic process for depositing gallium nitride (GaN) on large-area silicon wafers. The two companies hope to develop a product that has increased light output as well as reduced power-consumption.

Intersil has entered into a collaboration agreement with Integrated Device Technology (IDT) to develop voice access solutions for telecommunications applications. The companies will offer voice access solutions including programmable ICs, evaluation boards, reference designs and support materials for the design of highly integrated, and space saving systems for voice access systems in enterprise, wireless and access network applications.

Altera and Xilinx have announced settlement of a patent feud of eight years by entering into a royalty-free patent cross license agreement. They have also signed a five year patent peace agreement that prohibits further patent litigation between the two companies. Altera will pay Xilinx $20m as part of the agreement. All other terms of the agreement are confidential.

Industry

Infineon Technologies, Philips Semiconductors and STMicroelectronics - Europe's three largest semiconductor manufacturers - have, in a move aimed at accelerating the use of 'lead-free' packages and stimulating the further development of lead-free technologies, unveiled their proposal for the world's first standard for defining and evaluating lead-free semiconductor devices. The proposed standard assesses factors such as solderability and reliability of alternative materials. The three companies said they will be able to introduce their lead-free products far in advance to the legislative deadlines, with fully qualified lead-free components available by the end of this year. Their proposal contains an upper limit for lead-free components of 0,1% related to the individual material, not to the whole package or component. The lead-free products give at least their European clients a certainty to be 'green' in time, they said. Effective from 1 January 2006, the European Commission prohibits materials such as lead, mercury, cadmium and others in electrical and electronic devices.

Alcatel announced that it will implement a series of targeted UK cost management initiatives to address the changing dynamics of the telecommunications market, including a reduction in the workforce of up to 300 people. It said that the initiatives are designed to deliver immediate cost efficiencies in Alcatel's UK business and better focus the business on the most profitable segments of the UK telecoms market. Alcatel will initially offer its UK employees the option of voluntary redundancy, but compulsory redundancies are expected.

Dataquest has downgraded its global forecast for semiconductor capital spending once again, now projecting worldwide semiconductor capital spending and equipment markets to show revenue declines of between 26% and 30% respectively. At the recent Semicon West show, Dataquest said that it projected worldwide semiconductor capital spending at $47,3 bn this year, a 26% decline from last year. It predicts that semiconductor equipment spending will decline 30%, from $39,9 bn in 2000 to $27,9 bn in 2001.

NEC Electronics has launched a web-based collaborative design environment for gate arrays. The NEC Gate Array Design Center ( www.necgatearray.com) was implemented to take customers from the initial design evaluation and quoting process through delivery of engineering samples, providing interactive links along the way to EDA tools, third-party design services, verification and sign-off, manufacturing, and logistics.

Vishay Intertechnology has been included on Business Week magazine's list of the 100 best performing technology companies. This annual list evaluates companies based on four key criteria: shareholder return, return on equity, revenue growth, and total revenues.

Texas Instruments has claimed that its monthly sales of digital signal processors for Internet audio-enabled products surpassed 3 million in June, more than any other programmable semiconductor maker. In addition, TI announced new design-wins with Compaq Computer Corporation, Clarion, Olympus, Pioneer and Pontis, as well as additional products from current customers Thomson Multimedia and Digisette LLC. TI said it expects to see increasingly strong consumer demand for products with Internet audio capabilities such as cellphones, PDAs, Internet appliances, home stereos and car audio players.

Despite all of the attention and anticipation, the 3G market in the US is expected to show slowing growth rates and shrinking revenues for network equipment, says a new report released by Frost & Sullivan. It warns that the US market for mobile network equipment will shrink from $13,5 bn in 2001 to just $2,8 bn in 2007 - a 79% drop in the next six years. Said analyst Kshitij Moghe of Frost & Sullivan: "The US mobile communications industry is extremely bullish on the prospects of introducing high-speed wireless data services. Unfortunately, the current market dysphoria and sudden financial constraints have given the industry a rude wake up call. The industry is way ahead of its time and the current market slowdown has, in a way, helped to stem further speculations."

Technology

Hitachi has developed a chip that measures 0,4 x 0,4 x 0,06 mm that can store security and identification information for items into which it is embedded, including bank notes. The chip is so small and thin that it is claimed it will not damage the material into which it is placed. The CMOS chip integrates RF wireless communications circuitry and 128 bits of ROM. The chip, dubbed the Mew chip, transmits data stored on the ROM, including encrypted data, over the 2,45 GHz band.

Philips Semiconductors has announced a new subminiature double data rate (DDR) memory module support component that it claims offers performance to 333 MHz and beyond, while minimising power and footprint in high-end server and advanced computing applications. The new DDR1 support registers and phase-locked loops (PLLs) support DDR 333 MHz performance and are available in TSSOP and TVSOP.

Motorola has announced that its flash memory on its new 68HC908GR8 and GR4 8 bit microcontrollers has an endurance of 100 000 write/erase cycles with data retention of 50 years. The speed and high endurance level removes the need for EEPROM, and reduces the overall cost, said Motorola. The 68HC908GR4 has 4K of flash while the 68HC908G8 has 8K of nonvolatile flash. According to Motorola, the new chips help to reduce system costs because an advanced phase locked loop (PLL) allows a lower cost and speed (32 kHz) crystal while still providing sufficient speed. The chips also have an on-chip timebase module that eliminates the need for a realtime clock and auto wakeup circuitry, and it has an instruction set that allow optimum code density in C programming.

Intersil has unveiled a complete chipset for 54 Mbps wireless networks. Called the Prism Indigo 5, it conforms to the IEEE-802.11a standard which allows for 54 Mbps connections operating from a 5 GHz carrier. The existing 11 Mbps on 2,4 GHz is the IEEE-80211.b standard. According to the company the two systems can coexist, with the high bandwidth version providing the higher speed connection for backplanes, bridging and sub-networks.

English company, ZBD Displays, has manufactured a 160 x 160 pixel, 36 mm diagonal display that retains its image after power is removed. The 'digital paper' display can be used as a drop-in replacement for conventional LCDs. The technology, called a zenithal bistable device (ZBD), is a variation on conventional twisted nematic liquid crystal technology. ZBDs are nonvolatile and need power only when the image changes.





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