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JULY 18th, 2005
Digi International Inc. (NASDAQ: DGII) reported revenue of $30.2
million for the third fiscal quarter of 2005 compared to $28.3 million in the third fiscal quarter of 2004, a 6.7% increase.
Digi also broke out revenue for Rabbit Semiconductor, Inc, which the company acquired in May of this year. For the latest
third quarter, Rabbit’s revenue was $2.9 million, which exceeded the company’s previous guidance of $2.0 million.
Digi’s Device Networking Solutions products, which includes
integrated circuit revenue from NetSilicon, another acquisition, and Rabbit was $12.5 million for the third quarter
of fiscal 2005 compared to $9.5 million in the same period of last year. The Device Networking Solutions group also
obtains revenue from the sale of modules and software based on the company’s integrated circuit chips.
Joe Dunsmore, Chairman, CEO of Digi detailed the overall financials,
"Company results for the quarter were mixed. On the positive side we grew revenues 6.7% over the third quarter of fiscal 2004
and achieved $0.11 earnings per diluted share, which was at the high end of the guidance range including Rabbit. We are particularly
pleased with the outstanding results of Rabbit, which is already a strong contributor. The Rabbit transaction represents the
latest step in our ongoing strategy to focus on growth product opportunities. Rabbit contributed $2.9 million in revenues,
and our other growth product lines showed significant growth year over year. These achievements, however, were offset by greater
than expected weakness from the mature product lines.
Looking into the future, Digi expects fourth fiscal quarter 2005
somewhere around $34 million to $37 million. Revenues for Rabbit are expected to rise significantly. Digi sees revenue from
Rabbit at over $7.0 million for the fourth fiscal quarter of 2005.
JUNE 6th, 2005
Rabbit Semiconductor Readies for Internet Based Automated
Test Diagnostics with Simple Com
Rabbit Semiconductor, recently acquired by Digi International, through
a partnership with Simple Com Tools, LLC are promoting the COM1000 Industrial Internet Application, based on Rabbits microcontroller
technology. The new solution addresses the expected rise in demand for centralized repair diagnostics and mass production
test applications. The solution enables hardware and software to be connected to the Internet to host automated test equipment
for the production testing and repair diagnostics of thousands of different types of products that must go testing before
shipment to end-customers. Internet based solutions such as these have the potential to reduce capital expenditure costs of
manufacturers through the use of shared resources by a group of companies. For example in the semiconductor industry, automated
test equipment is a large expense that could potentially be defrayed through a shared Internet centralized test system.
JUNE 1st, 2005
Fast moving Rabbit Semiconductor and its catch of microcontroller
chips has finally been caught. Digi International Inc. (NASDAQ: DGII), which is a broad based electronic system product company,
acquired the company in a transaction valued at $49 million in cash. Rabbit, which employs 142, had sales of $27.3 million
with a net income of $1.4 million for its last fiscal year, which ended September 30, 2004.
Joe Dunsmore, Chairman, President and CEO of Digi, was optimistic
about the future effect of sales the merge would have, "The combination of Digi and Rabbit is very exciting because there
is such a tight strategic and cultural fit. The product lines are complementary and the product and channel synergies will
provide tremendous growth potential for the future. Conservatively, we believe the acquisition brings an incremental $100
million of addressable market that we believe will roughly double in four to five years."
MAY 20th, 2005
Tezzaron Semiconductor, which is one of the first companies to offer
a stacked "silicon-vertically interconnected "3D IC processor, has topped off its design with a core from CAST, Inc.
Tezzaron's processor, based on a 160 nanometer process, features 128 Kbytes of SRAM memory built on top of a 8051 microcontroller,
CAST's R80515 core. Giving reasons for the selection of CAST's core was Robert Patti, Tezzaron's CTO, "We wanted to demonstrate
our technology with a workhorse processor that's still used in thousands of products and devices around the world. CAST proved
to be a great partner-easy to work with and providing excellent support-and implementing their core was painless and straightforward."
Tezzaron's FaStack process is based on multiple wafer layers, stacked
on top of each other, and connected together with "through-silicon" vertical interconnections. Tezzaron indicated that the
thermal build-up problem that has been characteristic of old-generation stacked technologies has been solved with a wafer
thinning process.
MAY 18th, 2005
STMicroelectronics to Downsize, 3000 to Exit - To Exclude
Asia
STMicroelectronics (NYSE:STM) on the heels of a disappointing earnings report, has now made
restructuring plans, which once completed, are expected to save $90 million a year. The plan as announced will eliminate 3,000
jobs by the middle of 2006. The company indicated that the layoffs will not include employees at its Asian locations.
STMicroelectronics for the first quarter of 2005 reported net revenues
of $2,083 million down 10.3 percent from $2,328 million reported in the fourth quarter of 2005, and up 2.6 percent from the
$2.029 reported in the first quarter of 2004. STMicroelectronics, however reported that year-over-year automotive and wireless
applications revenue grew at double digit rates year over year and that data storage products grew in the high single digit
rate.
For the first quarter of 2005, STMicroelectronics divisional sales
included $1,188 million from its Application Specific Product Groups (ASPD), $457 million form its Microcontroller, Linear
and Discrete Group (MLD), $421 million from its Memory Products Group (MPG) and $17 million from its other group. This compares
to $1,161 million for ASPD, $420 million for MLD, $431 million for MPG and $17 million for the others group in the first quarter
of 2004. For the fourth quarter of 2004, revenue for the ASPD group was $1,329 million, for MLD was $494 million, for MPG
was $486 million and for the others group, $18 million.
MARCH 7th, 2005
Oki Electric Anticipates
Shipments of 400,000 Ultrasmall ARM Microcontrollers Per Month
Oki Electric Industry, through
the use of a Wafer-level Chip Size Package (WCSP) techniques has developed the world's smallest family of microcontrollers,
the ML67Q4060 series of microcontrollers. Related to that microcontroller family, Oki also introduced the ML67Q4060 series
of microcontrollers, which have been specifically designed to interface to external memories. The microcontrollers are 32-bit
general purpose designs based on the ARM7 TDMI core.
The two families of microcontrollers
are expected to start shipment in March 2005, with volume production scheduled for June, 2005. Oki indicates that shipments
of the two types of microcontrollers are expected to reach 400,000 units per month.
According to Akira Kamo, President
of the Silicon Solutions Company at Oki Electric, the target markets for the chips include the personal and mobile phone,
remote control, wireless headset, digital home appliance and card reader markets. The chip is also well suited for battery
power applications because of the low-power features of the microcontroller design, which was developed on Oki Electric's
uPLAT-7B platform. The microcontrollers because of their small size, are especially well suited for wireless headsets, such
as the now popular Bluetooth enabled wireless headsets. The microcontrollers also have a security feature built in, which
will make the microcontroller a prime candidate for emerging PC based credit card-reader applications.
MARCH 4, 2005
Atmel and port GmbH Develop CAN Stack Protocol
Atmel and port GmbH have developed the CANopen Protocol Stack for
Atmel's AT91SAM7A ARM7-based microcontroller family with integrated CAN. Jacko Wilbrink, ARM Product Marketing Manager at
Atmel indicated that the alliance with port complemented Atmel's microcontroller products with training, consulting, engineering
services and software. Heinz-Jurgen Oertel, General Manager at port GmbH considered the alliance with Atmel an ideal way for
port to open up new markets. The AT91 ARM based microcontrollers, which include CAN interfaces, UARTs, and timers, are designed
for embedded system applications in the factory automation, machine control, communications, building automation and medical
area. The CANopen Protocol Stack is compliant with the CiA standard DS301 V4.02 and can implement network master, slave or
mixed operation modes. The protocol stack is priced at euro 2500.
MARCH 4, 2005
Freescale's Microcontroller Designed to Reduce Lighting Costs
Freescale Semiconductor has made available its HC908LB8, an 8-bit microcontroller,
for the design of power reduction optimized lamp ballast systems. Besides reducing the energy bill for these light systems,
the microcontroller is also useful in the design of motor systems where power factor correction or pulse width modulation
techniques are also employed. Mike McCourt, Vice President and General Manager of Freescale's Microcontroller Division indicated
that the fluorescent tube is the most common type of indoor lighting and says that new legislation, such as the Kyoto Protocol
and Energy Star programs, require ballast designers to improve the power efficiency of lighting systems.
Freescale's microcontroller has a number of features that make the design
of energy-efficient lighting systems simpler. These include power factor correction and brightness control circuits. In order
to expedite the design of energy efficient systems with its microcontroller, Freescale has made available a reference design
and development kit. The DEMO908LB8 demonstration board will be available for a price of $49.95. The demonstration board comes
with the Metrowerks CodeWarrior IDE. The HC908LB8, available now in production, is priced at $1.60 in quantities of 1000.
The device comes in a 20-pin SOIC package.
FEBRUARY 9th, 2005
TV-B-Gone Based on Zilog Infrared Chip
A
new device which will automatically turn off any TV, anywhere, or at least most, has become an instant success, according
to news reports from Zilog. The TV-B-Gone product is based on Zilog's Crimzon IR microcontroller.
FEBRUARY 9th, 2005
Sharp Microelectronics Reports Over 20 Customers for its ARM Based SoCs
Sharp
Microelectronics of the Americas announced that is has seen an increase in shipments
of its new line of ARM720T(TM) 16/32- and 32-bit System-on-Chips. Sharp attributes
the shipment increase to customer adoption of the BlueStreak platform. Since the 15/32-bit and 32-bit LH9524 SoCs were beta
released in August of 2004, more than 20 customers have signed on to develop systems. The
chips, which have the circuitry necessary to interface to Sharp’s TFT display panels, have been targeted for consumer
electronic applications. Sharp lists smart toys, medical and industrial devices, GPS and tracking systems as potential markets.
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