Southern Africa
Grintek released its interim results which it describes as 'encouraging despite a global downturn in the telecom and information technology markets'. While revenue from sales remained static, it said profit before tax increased by 24,7%. According to group managing director Sybrand Grobbelaar, 'a growing contribution from hard-currency exports has had a positive impact on the group's profitability for the period'. Compared to the previous reporting period, the turnover of the three defence units increased sharply by 45,2% to R247,9m. Exports in this division showed a marked improvement and contributed 61% of revenue derived from sales. Negotiations for a number of defence electronics export orders are close to conclusion, of which Grintek said that one is valued at approximately R100m. In partnership with Kathrein, the company's antenna business performed well and is expected to continue to grow in strength. In its power rectifier business Grobbelaar said that despite not meeting its internal projections, it contributed approximately half the divisional turnover for the period, and expects an upturn in business during the second half of the year. Sales at Grintek's industrial electronics division lagged behind with a 19,4% decrease in turnover, due mainly to a slower demand for energy management solutions. However, Grintek said it will maintain investment in this area to meet the anticipated demand in the electricity supply environment, and already, two significant expansion orders for energy management systems have been received, it said. Although sales revenue at the group's telecom division was 20% lower, the company said that profit margins were maintained through prudent control of expenses. The group's operations continued to generate positive cash flows, improving from R52,2m in December 2000 to R67,8m.
2C Telecommunications, based in Wetton, Cape Town, has secured a contract to supply Telkom with telephones for the next three years. According to Ferdi van Niekerk, a director of the company, the contract was awarded to them in a highly competitive environment. 2C Telecommunications, whose holding company is 2C Solutions, currently does export contract manufacturing, shipping products to the USA, Europe and Asia. 2C Telecommunications also has a strategic alliance with Wiltel. According to Wiltel managing director Willie Truter, the strengths of both companies made it possible to comply with all the conditions as required by the tender committee, particularly with respect to local content, economic empowerment, strategic sourcing and distribution. Retractel, a company affiliated with 2C Solutions, has also been awarded a contract to supply telephone cords and accessories to Telkom. The value of the supply agreement is estimated to be well over R100m for a three-year period according to the company.
Telkom has selected InnoWave ECI Wireless Systems, a global leader of fixed wireless access (FWA) solutions to provide fixed wireless access telecommunications services throughout South Africa. Innowave is an ECI Telecom company. Under the supply frame agreement between Grintek Telecom, InnoWave's regional distribution partner, and Telkom, InnoWave's flagship MultiGain Wireless (MGW) fixed wireless access system will be deployed across South Africa. It will operate in the 1,9 MHz frequency band. According to Srini Moodley, Grintek Telecom's business development manager for WLL, Telkom SA conducted a stringent evaluation and approval process of the MGW system. Fixed wireless access systems use radio links instead of copper telephone lines and provide the 'last mile' connection between individual subscribers and telecommunications service provider's main network. The frequency hopping CDMA technology used in the system is designed to meet the specific requirements of radio in the local loop. The InnoWave MGW system supports toll quality voice, high-speed voice band data (V.90) and ISDN-BRI.
Rectron is aiming to be the first distributor in South Africa to have graphics boards available based on the new GeForce4 microchip technology. Working with its principal Leadtek, Rectron is launching what it claims is the most advanced graphics solutions available for Leadtek's WinFast 3D graphics line-up, as well as the WinFast A250 and WinFast A170 series of graphics cards.
Following a recent tour by a director of Trolley Scan to Europe, the company has started development on a new version of its propriety EcoTag system that is particularly suited for the garment/clothing/dry cleaning industries. Trolleyscan says that the challenge is to make a transponder that has a very thin antenna suitable for sewing into the garments, can survive the chemical cleaning and washing temperatures, and yet offers the RF sensitivity and features of its existing EcoTag products.
Logica has announced that its new advanced multimedia messaging technology has been selected by MTN South Africa for its multimedia messaging trials over its newly launched GPRS network. According to MTN CEO, Karel Pienaar, trials of Logica's Multimedia Messaging Service Centre (MMSC) will enable MTN to determine the types of services its customers will initially demand, and give it a clear lead over its competitors. He said that it was also important to begin trials immediately to enhance its potential revenue base and provide subscribers with the next generation of mobile technology as soon as possible. Logica's Multimedia Messaging Service Centre (MMSC) enables the delivery of mobile messages containing audio, pictures, animation and realtime video streaming to mobile devices.
Vepac Electronics has obtained the agency for Bivar, a designer and manufacturer of products that facilitate the assembly of components onto circuits boards, as well as the packaging of PCBs. Its optoelectronics division, BivarOpto, is a recognised supplier of a large selection of LED assemblies, mounts and holders.
SMD Telecommunications' Durban branch office has moved to 336 Umbilo Rd, Durban, tel: 031 205 1122, fax: 031 205 0999. Postal address is Box 18430, Dalbridge, 4014.
EBV-Electrolink's Durban office has new telephone numbers: 031 205 1205/6/7, and fax: 031 205 2265. Address is 236 Queen Mary Avenue, Glenmore, Durban, 4001.
Hamrad Electronics will be moving from its existing premises at 16 Loop Street on 2 April 2002 to 48 Bree Street, cnr Waterkant St, Cape Town, one block away. Postal address remains PO Box 3579, Cape Town. Tel: 021 419 8590, fax: 021 425 1747. Hamrad will have some special clearance items for sale. Contact on numbers above or e-mail [email protected] for details.
Overseas
Business
Matsushita Electric Industrial reported consolidated group sales for the fiscal third quarter ended 31 December, were down 13% to 1737,2 bn yen ($13,16 bn), from 1992,6 bn yen in the same quarter a year ago. Of the total, Matsushita said that sales in Japan decreased 24% from the same quarter of the previous year, while overseas sales were mostly unchanged. On a local currency basis overseas sales decreased 9% from a year ago said Matsushita. The company reiterated the worsening global economic environment and persisting overcapacity in the IT industry worldwide, as well as depressed market conditions in Japan, as the principal factors for sales and earnings declines. Sales of components and devices decreased 22% compared with the same period a year ago. Declines in demand from the mobile communications and other IT-related equipment industries resulted in drastic sales reductions for semiconductors, general components, electric motors and others, the company said. Matsushita also announced a revision of its October 2001 forecast for annual consolidated and nonconsolidated financial results for the current fiscal year, ending 31 March, 2002. In the face of global economic conditions that remain unclear, Matsushita said it expects that the current severe business environment will continue through the fourth quarter, affecting in particular its AVC networks, and components and devices categories. Furthermore, it anticipates increased expenses related to employment restructuring initiatives, as well as various business restructuring activities.
Fairchild Semiconductor has upgraded its outlook for the first quarter to sequentially flat revenues instead of a 3-5% drop in its previous guidance because of improving orders for products. Kirk Pond, president and CEO, said that bookings had been running stronger than it previously expected through the first seven weeks of the quarter. "We are particularly encouraged by the continued demand from the personal computing and consumer end markets, in what is usually a seasonally soft period for these segments. Demand from wireline communications, networking and power supply segments have maintained their slow and steady rebound, while wireless handset demand has remained seasonally weak," stated Pond. He added that demand has been strongest for its power analog and power discrete products, especially low voltage power MOSFETs in advanced surface mount packages. Fairchild reported revenues of $324,6 million for the fourth quarter of 2001, which were nearly flat with $325,4 million in Q3.
Companies
TRW has acknowledged an unsolicited takeover bid from US military contractor Northrop Grumman. Northrop Grumman is offering $47 in its common stock for each share of TRW common stock. Northrop Grumman said it wanted to combine its electronics and systems integration capabilities with TRW's aerospace and satellite expertise. TRW's board of directors are considering the Northrop proposal.
Motorola's Personal Communications Sector (PCS) is transitioning its paging subscriber device product lines to Multitone Electronics who will assume Motorola's role as a provider of FLEX, ReFLEX and POCSAG (Post Office Code Standardisation Advisory Group) protocol-based devices.
Delphi, a leading supplier of automotive parts, has entered into an agreement with AuthenTec to develop vehicle security based on biometric technology. AuthenTec will integrate its fingerprint sensor pad as well as control and matching algorithms while Delphi will develop hardware architecture and the integration into vehicles. After a prototype is achieved the companies intend to proceed with the application and production phases.
Irvine Sensors has entered into a $750 000 contract for the development and demonstration of a high-speed adaptive computer module that consists of a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) processor chip and supporting memory chips stacked together. The contract is from the US Air Force Research Laboratory, New York. FPGAs can be reprogrammed while operating, and thus are ideally suited for a wide variety of computational and data routing applications. In Irvine' 3-dimensional, stacked configuration (Neo-Cube technology), transmission paths can be dramatically shortened allowing very wide-word communication between the FPGA and supporting memory. The technology permits the integration of chips of different sizes, shapes and functions in a single cube. According to John Carson, Irvine COO, the company anticipates that the processing speed and wide-word communication would have ramifications well beyond potential military applications. The company is currently in discussions with potential partners regarding commercial exploitation of this 'computer-in-a-cube' approach.
Advanced Micro Devices has completed the previously announced purchase of Alchemy Semiconductor for $50m in cash. AMD will gain high-performance RISC processor technology for communications systems with the purchase. Alchemy's products are based on 32-bit RISC cores from MIPS Technologies.
STMicroelectronics, Geneva, and Cambridge Display Technology, Cambridge, have signed an agreement to develop driver devices for light-emitting polymer (LEP) displays. The goal of the two companies is to bring to market a family of power-optimised and low-cost LEP drivers for portable electronics products including PDAs, mobile phones and new generation multimedia terminals. CDT has licensed to ST full details related to the electrical performance characteristics and materials interface requirements of LEPs for the design and development of display driver devices. They will also evaluate display driver performance on test displays made at CDT's new pilot technology development line in Godmanchester, UK. Joint marketing activities are planned to promote the ST products developed.
Zoran Corporation and Principal Solutions have developed technology that filters out inappropriate language from TV and DVD programming. The co-developed chip and software solution enables the TV Guardian application on the Vaddis-based Sanyo DVD player product line. TV Guardian offers parents more flexibility and precise control over TV viewing than does V-Chip technology currently in TVs or the standard DVD-player parental rating system, claim the companies. The application allows parents to select pre-programmed alternative language choices to replace 'adult language' with wording more appropriate for family viewing.
Intersil and Cisco Systems have announced that they are working together on high speed WLAN client adapter reference designs for the in-progress IEEE 802.11g draft standard for data rates up to 54 Mbps at 2,4 GHz. The 802.11g standard offers much faster data rates for enterprise networking and also supports multiple simultaneous channels of DVD-quality video and CD-quality audio for home use. The companies said that the joint client reference design, which will be compatible with Cisco WLAN infrastructures, will be available to third party OEMs to incorporate into new WLAN products. For the design, Intersil will contribute its physical layer (PHY) technology including its newly announced high rate 2,4 GHz Prism GT chipset, while Cisco will provide its media access controller (MAC) architecture and enterprise-class client software featuring enhanced security and network management.
RF Micro Devices has opened a sales and customer support centre in Seoul, Korea.
Industry
Cahners In-Stat/MDR (MicroDesign Resources), publisher of the Microprocessor Report has announced the fourth and fifth category winners of its annual Analysts' Choice Awards that honour the best new microprocessor chips and most promising new microprocessor technology unveiled in 2001. Intel won the 'Best PC Processor of 2001' and Texas Instruments the 'Best DSP Chip of 2001'. Intel's Pentium 4/Northwood chip scored top in a large number of benchmarks, including SPEC; the highest clock frequency; more bus bandwidth; has chipset support for three memory types; and advanced 0,13 µm semiconductor process. With the VLIW processor certainly the most intricate DSP architecture available in 2001, despite its complexities, TI's design techniques and excellent manufacturing capabilities allowed the company to offer a 600 MHz machine. Although it runs at twice the operating frequency of the C62x products, the C6414 only consumes about half the power, said TI.
Following on from the extensive use of Europe*Star 1 for satellite news gathering during the recent conflict in Afghanistan, the same satellite is now being used to support humanitarian relief efforts in that country, providing capacity for an international trunk circuit to a new cellular telephone network. According to Europe*Star, the cellular network is initially supporting the World Food Program, and will also be used by the new administration in Afghanistan. In a project organised by Ericsson Response in cooperation with SWE-DISH Satellite Systems and Telia Mobile, a GSM network was created in a matter of weeks around the Kabul area, including base station capacity of 5000 subscribers and direct international access.
Mobile multimedia services are presenting operators with a golden opportunity to generate traffic, revenues and customer loyalty. However, the real breakthrough for video services in Europe will not happen before 2005, concludes wireless advisor Northstream in a new report. Mobile video is one of the key applications that will directly benefit from high-speed mobile network technologies such as GPRS and 3G, it says. Over the last two years the wireless community has seen the launch of the first mobile multimedia services in Japan and later in Korea. Technology enhancements in both mobile network systems and terminals have made these extraordinary services possible. "Although the market will not see a major breakthrough until 2005, there are a lot of difficult tasks and issues that need to be solved, so the time to prepare is now," says Anders Lindqvist, co-founder of Northstream, who predicts some tough years ahead for companies focused solely on mobile video.
Believed to be the world's first consumers to ask for implantable electronic identification, a US family are in line to be the first to have radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips placed in their bodies. The Florida family - a father, mother and 14-year-old son - will receive the implants after the electronic devices are approved for pilot testing by the Food and Drug Administration. Applied Digital Solutions manufactures the 'Verichip', the capsule-shaped device that includes a 125 kHz RFID chip, an electromagnetic coil for transmitting data and a tuning capacitor, all in a silicone-and-glass enclosure measuring 11,1 x 2,1 mm. Although there are potential benefits for such personal human identification, it has raised concerns about loss of privacy. While this Florida family are voluntarily having the chips implanted for medical reasons now, it has been pointed out that when a technology is widely adopted, and systems build up around it, it gradually becomes less voluntary.
Technology
Via Technologies has introduced a chipset that brings high-speed DDR 333 memory support to the Athlon processors of Advanced Micro Devices. The Apollo KT333 chipset supports DDR200/266/333 memory and 200/266 MHz front side bus for Athlon and Duron, said Via. The KT333 uses the latest south bridge technology with Ultra ATA-133 in the VT8233A, according to Via. Ultra ATA-133, offering 33% more bandwidth between hard drive and chipset than the current KT266A, delivers the performance headroom needed for data intensive applications, such as video and gaming, said Via.
RF Micro Devices has introduced its first complete family of serial analog ICs for use in fibre-optic datacom transceivers up to 3,5 Gbps. The ICs are manufactured using silicon germanium and include receivers, limiting amplifiers and laser drivers.
Xilinx has released its ISE 4.2i software environment, giving customers support for the Linux operating system. All of the ISE implementation tools now run on Linux RedHat Version 7.2 with the Wine Applications Layer. According to Xilinx, this offering makes ISE the first programmable logic solution available that supports Linux OS. Later versions of ISE will move to native Linux in 2003.
Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector has announced a new 'camera-on-a-chip' sensor IC. This second-generation ImageMOS VGA device employs Motorola's patented image sensor technology combined with pinned photodiode and pixel design technology from Kodak. Motorola said the technology supports highly integrated, cost effective, lower power system solutions for a range of applications. The MCM20114 VGA image sensor will serve video and digital still camera features in cellphones, PDAs and other portable devices, according to Motorola. It also interfaces directly to Motorola's DragonBall MX1 microprocessor, which serves as an applications processor in systems such as PDAs. The continuous rolling shutter mode of the ImageMOS sensors supports video applications in excess of 30 frames per second.
The first reliable ultra-broadband semiconductor laser for optical networks has been developed by Bell Labs scientists. According to the researchers this could open the door for new applications in optical communications, sensitive chemical detectors, and other future systems. Bell Labs scientists said the quantum cascade (QC) semiconductor laser is the first to emit light continuously and reliably over a broad spectrum of infrared wavelengths. An ultra-broadband semiconductor laser could be used to make an extremely sensitive and versatile detector that can detect minute traces of pollutants in the atmosphere, or it could also be used to produce new medical diagnostic tools such as breath analysers, according to the scientists. Current semiconductor lasers are compact, rugged, and often portable, but are typically narrowband. Ultra-broadband lasers allow for sampling of a wide swathe of wavelengths at the same time. These devices emit 1,3 W at peak over the 6-8 µm mid-infrared range. This range can easily be made much wider or narrower, said Bell Labs.
IBM has created what it says is the world's fastest semiconductor circuit - operating at speeds of more than 110 GHz and processing an electrical signal in 4,3 trillionths of a second. IBM built the circuit using its latest silicon germanium (SiGe) chip-making technology. The company is now making the technology, called 'SiGe 8HP', available to top-tier communications equipment makers to help increase the speed of networks. The 'ring oscillator' circuits built by IBM are common building blocks used in communications chip designs and are frequently used to assess the capabilities of new chip-making technology, such as SiGe 8HP.
Texas Instruments has unveiled what it says is the industry's first automotive 1394b bus solution to support in-car infotainment applications such as rear seat entertainment and other complete audio and video solutions. TI's new automotive IDB-1394 technology supports the 1394b protocol at 100 Mbps over 10 m of plastic optical fibre (POF) or unshielded twisted pair, category 5 (UTP5) cable, giving developers a choice of media. TI said it is also extending its line of Bluetooth solutions for wireless transmission to support automotive applications. The TI chipsets provide full-rate Bluetooth links, supporting wireless data communications and up to three simultaneous voice links with low power consumption. The Bluetooth wireless chipsets enable hands-free car kits in the automotive market, and, when used in conjunction with the IDB-1394 bus, allow for complete advanced telematics communications in automotive applications, says TI.
STMicroelectronics has launched a new embedded controller platform, dubbed 'Five', that it says integrates the benefits of microcontrollers with a dedicated architecture called the 'Decision Processor'. This technology is oriented to high-level algorithms and a visual programming approach. According to ST this accelerates the sophisticated algorithms that are being increasingly needed in embedded applications, and advanced visual programming tools that minimise product development time and allow product proliferation and evolution to be accomplished quickly and robustly.
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