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Chip Contract News
JULY 15th, 2005
Perfisans Lands $2.5 Million Contract for Boards Based on its
Network Chips
Perfisans Networks Corporation (OTCBB:PFNH) has reported that Zhejiang Orient FSP Communication
Company Ltd.(FSP) is expected to purchase $2.5 million worth of its ENA5031 network accelerator board, complete with Perfisan’s
ENA1001 TCP/IP Offload Engine (TOE) network accelerator chips. The initial order is for $40,000.00 of the boards, with the
remainder of the purchase expected to be completed over the next 12 months.
Hon Lam, President of Perfisans, emphasized that the selection of
his company’s product was based on extensive beta site testing, "FSP conducted intensive, long term functionality and
reliability tests with their beta customer. As a result of these tests, Perfisans has received its first complete board level
product order. This order was issued after FSP tested the board under their 802.16 WiMax Wireless Broadband platform for several
months and compared Perfisans' functionality performance against Intel products. It is very encouraging that FSP found significant
cost and performance advantages in using Perfisans' product as compared to similar boards at higher costs."
As a result of the successful evaluation and order, FSP plans to
focus on sales and the integration of Perfisan’s board into all of its network solutions.
JULY 14th, 2005
Through Corecess, Inc., Teknovus, a fabless semiconductor company
that has shipped over one million Ethernet Passive Optical Network (EPON) ports, has moved into position in the emerging EPON
market in Korea. Korea Telecom selected Corecess S5 scalable IP multi-service access platform and 3800 series ONT system
to implement Korea Telecom’s Fiber-to-the-Home service. The two systems are based on Teknovus’ TK3700-series EPON
chipset. The equipment will be used in the construction of a nationwide broadband network that will offer Korea’s residents
triple-play services for voice, data and television applications.
Noting the exclusivity of the agreement with Corecess and the large
Asian market was Dr. Rex Naden, CEO of Teknovus, "There is no question that fiber-based broadband access is growing rapidly
into a huge market for Asia and the rest of the word. It's an extremely competitive market, but Teknovus has a strong advantage
with the only EPON technology that enables triple-play services -- the key to future success for all service providers. We
are honored that Corecess and KT have recognized the unique price/performance value of the Teknovus EPON chipset solution,
and have selected us exclusively as partners."
JULY 7th, 2005
ARC International Wins 900,000 British Pound Deal for Smart Card
ARC International (LSE:ARK), a provider of microprocessor and digital signal processing cores,
has valued a recent license agreement with an undisclosed smart card customer at 900,000 British Pounds. Derek Meyer, ARC
International’s Vice President of Marketing, implied that the agreement was for a security application, "In applications
where data protection is of the utmost importance, our configurable technology offers licensees the ability to create highly
differentiated solutions. This new agreement underscores the growing adoption of ARC's solutions for high-growth markets,
and we are pleased that another industry leader has joined the list of more than one hundred ARC licensees."
JULY 7th, 2005
Dialog Semiconductor Plc (NASDAQ:DLGS) reports that one of O2’s approved
handsets, incorporates its cellular music machine chip technology. The chip combines audio and power management functions,
and works in conjunction with Intel’s cellular processor. The two chips working together enable the phone with music
and video features and are fundamental to the over four hours of talk time the phone offers. According to Roland Pudelko,
CEO of Dialog Semiconductor, "The new phone features the ability to download music direct to a music player, run several different
applications at the same time, provide video and audio playback, and provide up to 200 hours standby and four hours talk time.
This is exactly the kind of consumer device that our technology addresses. The DA9011 is helping to manage this significant
demand on the battery using our specialist mixed signal design expertise, and it utilizes our advanced knowledge of integrating
in the same device high performance audio DACs for CD-quality music and audio playback."
Dialog’s chip, developed with Intel Corp. to work with Intel’s
PXA800F cellular processor, is called the DA9011 GSM/GPRS audio and power controller. The DA9011 is based on Dialog’s
Smart Mirror Technology, which minimizes quiescent current and optimizes power supply rejection (PSRR).
JULY 7th, 2005
CSR Makes Headway into iPod and Cellular Stereo Headphone Markets
Besides inside music machines, another place were IC companies want their products to be is
inside headphones that music machines are attached to. CSR (LSE: CSR.L) has furthered itself in the achievement of that goal
with the announcement that its BlueCore silicon is now inside iPod compatible headphones from three companies. Airlogic, iTech
and WiGear have incorporated CSR Bluetooth technology into their Bluetooth stereo headphones and plug-in adaptors. CSR
also indicated that three of its existing customers, all tier-one cellular original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), have also
incorporated its BlueCore into their cellular headsets.
CSR notes that its headphone solution consumes only 95mW of power,
a figure it says is ideal for battery operated devices - and only half as much power as other competing solutions.
JULY 1st, 2005
StreamShield Networks has selected Seaway Networks’ SW5000
Network Content Processor chip as the basis for its Content Security Gateway (CSG). In the gateway application, The SW5000
performs 5 Gbps TCP processing and packet-to-stream conversion, enabling the CSG to check for and ward off multiple security
threats in real-time. CSG, which permits the user to program in specific security features, can be programmed to scan and
block data streams for viruses, worms, phishing scams, malware, spam and other selectable content, all under user control.
StreamShield has the power to monitor over 250,000 web page requests per second and with the help of the SW5000 manage up
to 2 million simultaneous TCP connections.
The CTO for StreamShield Networks, Jon Curnyn, pointed out the
hard to find features found in Seaway’s processor, "Seaway's SW5000 Network Content Processor has enabled us to fulfill
our vision of building a new breed of content security product that stops Internet threats - even today's increasingly common
blended threats - before they can cause damage to the end user's computer or the enterprise network. It is the only processing
solution we found with the features that were critical to delivering our Content Security Gateway in its current form."
JUNE 28th, 2005
BAE Systems Wins $12.5 Million NASA Contract for High Temperature
ASIC Technology
BAE Systems has won a $12.5 million contract to increase the extreme
temperature performance capabilities of semiconductors used on space exploration vehicles. The contract from NASA, the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration, is expected to further enable NASA to gather data in the extreme environments of the
Moon and Mars. BAE plans to modify semiconductor processes to enable its ASIC chips to work at temperatures as low as 230
degrees (Centigrade) below zero. Key to the development is the goal to eliminate the need for expensive temperature protection
apparatus to protect the ASICs.
JUNE 28th, 2005
Datang Microelectronics Technologies Co Ltd (DMT) has selected Comsys'
GSM/GPRS software baseband IP (Intellectual Property) platform for incorporation into its COMIP chipset. That chipset is for
multi-standard cellular phone designs that support the TD-SCDMA, GSM and GPRS standards.
Yang Yanhui, the Vice President and CTO at DMT, gave some reasons
why Comsys’ intellectual property was chosen, "We chose Comsys and their IP for the completeness of the solution, as
well as the extensive breadth of experience and knowledge of their engineers. Comsys' team is very supportive of our project
and we anticipate an extremely productive working relationship."
DMT is most noted for its smartcard chips, which according to the
company, reached annual unit sales levels of 60 million units in 2003. The fabless semiconductor company has more recently
focused its efforts on cellular chipsets. DMT indicates that the GSM based network is the most popular in China, with a subscriber
base of over 300 million.
JUNE 7th, 2005
SiRF Technology Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:SIRF) announced that it has
acquired Motorola's existing GPS chipset products and GPS chip products under development. As part of the $20 million cash
buyout, already approved by SiRF's board, SiRF also will supply Motorola with its GPS chipset needs and provide technical
assistance for future product integration.
With the acquisition, SiRF projects that revenues for the second
half of 2005 will increase about ten percent.
JUNE 6th, 2005
Microsoft's Wireless Xbox 360 Vendors Unearthed
Microsoft's Xbox 360, its latest wireless video game, intended to be released just before the
2005 Christmas season, is one sought after client in the electronics market. So far reports indicate that ATI Technologies
will supply the graphics chip, replacing long-time vendor, NVidia. NEC will supply embedded DRAM technology, IBM will supply
its latest multi microprocessor, the cell processor, and RTX Telecom, will be the development partner for the wireless interface
to the game pad for the video game system.
Indications are that National Semiconductor also has a role as a
supplier. According to Richard Lum, Xbox Program Manager at Microsoft., "With the National Semiconductor ASIC, choosing RTX
Telecom for developing the wireless game pad was a natural choice. Few other companies have the ability to meet our specifications
and time requirements. The RTX engineers have a strong track record in implementing the core wireless technology selected
for Xbox 360."
That statement was released with the announcement of the decision
to select RTX Telecom. Besides the wireless game pad, RTX also was given responsibility to supply the needed high-volume test
equipment. RTX Telecom, listed on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange, is a wireless solutions development company, with an emphasis
on wireless communications standards such as Bluetooth, DECT, GSM/GPRS, VoIP, WiFi 802.11, and TD-SCDMA.
According to NEC Electronics Corp. the next generation Xbox graphics
subsystem will include its eDRAM graphics chip manufactured on its most advanced processes at its 300 millimeter wafer fabrication
facility. IBM, which won out over microprocessor leader Intel, also has won other important video game design wins with its
cell processor. These include Nintendo Revolution and Sony's PlayStation 2.
Microsoft plans to ship the wireless game pads standard with its
video game. The Xbox accommodates up to 16 players via an Ethernet/LAN connection and also offers users the capability to
listen to music as they play games that simulate everything from soccer to war.
JUNE 6th, 2005
Siemens Venture Capital, a $600 million corporate venture organization
for Siemens AG, has made a multimillion dollar investment in Global Locate, Incorporated, a provider of GPS (Global Positioning
Satellite) chipsets, network products, and services. Global Locate addresses the Assisted-GPS (A-GPS) market for Location
Based Services.
Related to the funding package, Siemens Communications Group,
part of the $90 Billion Siemens AG group of companies, has agreed to integrate Global Locate's A-GPS technology into its own
A-GPS products.
JUNE 6th, 2005
DALSA Corporation (TSX:DSA) has received a renewal contract for
its image sensor chips from an undisclosed medical equipment OEM. The company indicated that sales from the contract, in Canadian
dollars, are expected to total $3.8 million. One-third of the deliveries of the image sensors are planed in 2005, one-half
in 2006 and the remaining one-sixth scheduled for 2007.
DALSA indicates that the x-ray CCD image sensors used in this x-ray
diagnostic application replace x-ray film. With advances in the imaging capability of image analysis systems, DALSA's technology
is expected to further a medical trend to eliminate the need for many biopsies in disease diagnosis. For this particular application,
DALSA notes that the "DALSA image sensors allow the OEM customer to produce x-ray systems that offer reduced patient discomfort
and reduced x-ray levels for the patient."
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
Mindspeed VoIP Vocoders Now In TelcoBridges’ VoIP on a
Blade
TelcoBridges Inc reported that its VoIP on a blade product is based on Mindspeed's chip set. The VoIP
on a blade product features 128 ms of echo cancellation on all channels and includes vocoders. "TelcoBridges unique, award-winning
System-Blade offering converged services on a blade will now be equipped with Mindspeed's state-of-the-art chipset," Gaetan
Campeau, President of TelcoBridges, confirmed.
JUNE 1st, 2005
Stretch, Inc. has selected Mentor Graphics (NASDAQ:MENT) IP core
design technology. Specifically, Stretch licensed Mentor Graphics’ 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet Media Access Controller
(MAC) Intellectual Property (IP). Stretch's S5620 processor, which was just recently announced, is based on Mentor's 10/100/1000
Ethernet MAC (PE-MCXMAC). Stretch's S5610 processor also was based on Mentor's Ethernet IP core.
Commenting on the selection of Mentor's IP was Reynette Au, Vice
President of Marketing at Stretch. "We selected Mentor based on their expertise, solid product quality, and position as the
industry leader for Ethernet MAC IP. Mentor's 10/100/1000 Ethernet IP was the perfect solution for our processor design --
the ease of integration and exceptional customer support were other key factors in our decision to adopt Mentor Graphics IP."
MAY 27th, 2005
SyChip, a company that offers ultra small, highly integrated radio
frequency integrated circuits and chip scale modules (CSM) introduced its VWLAN7100 Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) CSM.
The new product is intended for u use as a Voice over Wireless LAN solution that can be designed into dual mode cellular phones.
Moses Asom, VP of Business Development at SyChip elaborated, "SyVoice is our family of highly integrated and programmable
modules that is targeted to the VoIP market. We're excited to release this product as the convergence of cellular and WLAN
is rapidly taking hold in the wireless market space. We have one of the first products that is specifically targeted to the
dual-mode cellular phone market."
The chip is based on LSI Logic's ZSP technology, specifically the
LSI403WLP Z.Voice processor. Mr. Asom also commented on the selection of the wafer level packaged (WLP) voice processor, "The
optimized combination of power and performance available from the LSI403WLP made it an ideal component for our Voice over
Wireless LAN module. The level of support we've received from the DSP Solutions Engineering team has made integration of the
processor a seamless part of our application development."
The VWLAN7100, which integrates a VoIP processor and an 802.11b/g
WLAN modem, is priced at $20.00 in quantities of 10,000. The solution's talk time is given at over 5 hours.
MAY 27th, 2005
DTS to Offer Products Based on Realtek and C-Media Chip Sets
DTS (Digital Theater Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:DTSI), with its latest PC initiative, called DTS
connect, has aligned with C-Media Electronics Inc. and Realtek Semiconductor Corp. to offer audio solutions based on both
companies' integrated circuits. Both Realtek and C-Media are public companies based in Taiwan.
MAY 20th, 2005
Sonics' SMART Interconnects IP technology, like many leading chips,
has been almost everywhere in the world. On May 13th, 2005 the company announced that over 100 million SoC integrated circuits
have shipped with the technology. Among the company's tier one semiconductor companies are Broadcom, Texas Instruments, Toshiba
Corp., Samsung and several unnamed Original Equipment Manufacturers. The technology, which is used in a number of different
end-market applications is believed to be specifically pervasive in the wireless and handheld markets. One reason is that
SonicsMX, one of Sonic's products, was designed for those system architectures. SonixsMX product, which has silicon area and
power reduction features, was developed with Texas Instruments for that company's OMAP processor chip.
Grant Pierce, Sonics' President indicated that the product should
reach a shipment rate higher than most others, "This milestone places Sonics among the top intellectual property (IP) suppliers
in the semiconductor industry. And, because our designs span a very wide range of served markets, and our adoption rate is
accelerating, we expect our shipments to outpace even the well established IP suppliers in the future." A new version of SonicsMX
, released in March 2005, is also expected to help sustain the momentum. The product, which incorporates 128-bit data widths
and supports AHB bus connections, is now, according to Sonics, under evaluation at nearly all the major wireless and handheld
SoC developers. Sonics other products, SiliconBackplane, SMART Interconnect, SonicsS3220 and MemMax are also reported as being
well received.
Sonics IP based design methodology has been developed to standardize
and automate the IP block interconnection process for specific chip design architectures. The process has been attributed
to the reduction of design time, layout planning time, reroute time, in addition to the reduction of silicon area, power consumption
and timing delays. Other sited benefits include easy IP core reuses - all of which add up to reduced development and manufacturing
costs.
MAY 19th, 2005
ChipMOS Furthers Ties With Himax
ChipMOS TECHNOLOGIES LTD. ((NASDAQ:IMOS) announced its subsidiary ChipMOS Technologies, Inc.,
based in Taiwan, will extend its assembly and test services to Himax Technologies, Inc. until the end of 2008. Under the agreement
ChipMOS will increase the number of LCD Driver chips it will package.
Himax , also based in Taiwan, is a fabless semiconductor company
that focuses on driver technology for displays used in a variety of consumer applications. Founded in 2001, the company employs
about 350.
MAY 13th, 2005
Texas Instruments' RFID Proves Key to Preventive Maintenance
- Could Save Consumers Billions
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) products based on Texas Instruments' (NYSE:TXN) microcontrollers
and RFID devices will soon be used to locate water leaks in apartment buildings, homes, office buildings and factories. AquaOne
Technologies Incorporated is to begin shipping its H2ORB control unit, which is used with remote wireless sensors to detect
and shut off water valves in the event a water leak is detected.
One of the main problems addressed and designed for with the H2ORB
based system are toilet leaks. Estimates from The American Water Works Association (AWWA) are that one out of every five toilets
in the United States leaks. Furthermore, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), toilet leaks also waste a
significant amount of water. One leaky toilet can drip between 30 to 500 gallons of water per day and toilets with more serious
problems, such as an open flapper, can lose 4,000 gallons per day. Other benefits that the system offers include the prevention
of water damage and disease that can often spread from leaky toilets.
Texas Instruments RFID products could also prove useful for the
detection of water leaks in automobiles and other types of equipment. One of Texas Instruments larger customer bases is within
the automobile industry.
MAY 12th, 2005
Wave Reports Two Contracts with Silicon Chip Suppliers for its Trusted Computing
Software
With Wave Systems Corp.
(NASDAQ: WAVX) announcement of $78,000 of revenue for its first quarter ended March 31, 2005, the company reports that it
has obtained two contracts with silicon chip suppliers for to bundle its products. The contracts complement the company's
shipments it makes to PC motherboard companies and through PC companies of its Wave EMBASSY Trust Suite (ETS). That software
is fundamental to the implementation of Trusted Platform Modules used to implement the recommendations of the Trusted Computing
Group. Steven Sprague, Wave's CEO detailed the company's customers and market outlets, "Into 2005, Wave continues to make
progress. Wave's EMBASSY Trust Suite secure software ships with certain products of one of the global leaders in PC motherboard
sales; our software is available for sale on the web site of one of the global leaders in PC sales; we have contracts to have
our products bundled with certain products of two other leading silicon chip suppliers, and our solutions are now available
from additional reseller partners."
In April, Wave announced
that its ETS 4.3 would be available in the summer to support the next generation of security chip software. This is in addition
to an agreement it entered into with Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) to offer a security solution for the trusted computing
marketplace. Andreas Raeschmeier, Head of Business Development at G&D explained that the use of smart cards into the trusted
platform offered a number of advantages, "The combination of trusted computing with smart card technology shows a lot of complementary
advantages. As an integrated part of the motherboard, trusted platform modules provide an early integrity control from software
and hardware as well as identity control of the entire PC system. The addition of chip card technology, e.g. as smart card
or smart USB token, enables portable user identification to achieve a reliable and flexible security solution.
MAY 12th, 2005
HiFn Powers GTGI's PowerCrypt Accelerator
Global Technologies Group
has reported that it’s new PowerCrypt 5x-PMC card is based on Hifn's 7956 security processor. The PowerCrypt 5x-PMC,
an encryption accelerator card, off-loads tasks from the CPU with its hardware-assisted encryption and decryption capabilities.
The HiFn 7956 security processor features 3DES and AES encryption at rates up to 632 megabits per second. Other security processor
features include public key processing and true random number generation.
The 7956 comes in 144-pin
TQPF package and is priced at $24.50 - quantities of 10,000.
APRIL 27th, 2005
Tialinx, Inc., a fabless semiconductor company, was awarded a Small
Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase I award for the development of its wafer scale antenna module. The company, which
focuses on Integrated Active Antenna Arrays, lists technology applications as point-to-point and point-to-multipoint wireless
connectivity, passive-medical imaging, mobility aids for the blind and collision avoidance systems.
APRIL 20th, 2005
SunPower Corp., a subsidiary of Cypress Semiconductor Corp., (NYSE:CY)
and SOLON AG (WKN 747119/ISIN DE0007471195, Frankfurt Stock Exchange/Xetra: SOO1), have entered into five-year supply agreement
valued at about $300 million for SunPower's high-efficiency A-300 silicon solar cells. The solar cells will be used in SOLON's
new "SOLON-Mover." The modular 9- to 10-kilowatt electricity generation system is used as a building block to construct multi-megawatt
power plants. The system includes movers, which are used to rotate and tilt the solar cell modules to track the sun. The use
of movers is reported to increase the energy output of solar cell modules by as much as 50 percent.
APRIL 20th, 2005
Cradle Technologies has won another design win for its DSP multiprocessor.
This time it is with Digi-Flower, based in Korea, which intends to include the chip in its it IP Network Video Streamer. "The
benefits of digital IP surveillance systems are significant," said Oksana Kim, CEO Digi-flower, "Our customers' demand for
IP streamers is escalating rapidly and we needed a competitive product solution fast. Cradle's Bluegill IP video streamer
reference design allowed us to get to market with a high performance cost-effective design in record time."
Digi-flower is a surveillance equipment manufacturer, which builds
cameras, digital video recorders, multiplexers and converters.
APRIL 14th, 2005
ROOT6 Technology Selects Tarari's Encoder Accelerator for Windows Media
Tarari, Inc., which offers board and ASIC based Content Processors to the network equipment, appliance and server
markets, was selected by ROOT6 Technology for its award-winning acceleration product, the Tarari Encoder Accelerator for Windows
Media, for its digital video encoding based system.
Marcus Hume-Humphreys, Managing Director of ROOT6 Technology commented
about the importance of Tarari's technology, "Tarari's acceleration technology adds far greater speed and efficiency to our
solutions, enabling our customers to improve margins on deliverables and deliver materials faster."
Jim Wilson, CTO Microsoft Technologies at Tarari, Inc. added, "ROOT6
Technology has leveraged Tarari's encoder accelerator to offer breakthrough speed in the video process flow, The strong relationship
between Tarari's developers and ROOT6 engineering has forged a technology platform enabling VC-1 and SD encoding as fast as
possible built upon the Windows Media SDK."
Tarari Content Processors offload compute-intensive tasks for applications
that involve XML/Web Services and Network Security.
Tarari lists its investors as Crosspoint Venture Partners, Intel
Capital, Miramar Venture Partners, Morgan Stanley Venture Partners and XMLFund.
APRIL 7th, 2005
DALSA Corporation (TSX:DSA), a Canadian Corporation, has received
contracts from two original equipment manufactures, valued at around 2.9 million Canadian dollars. The company indicates that
the majority of the order will be delivered in 2005, with about one-third of the order scheduled for delivery in 2006.
The image sensor chips are to be used in parcel sorting systems throughout the world. Brian Doody, President, DALSA
Digital Imaging explained DALSA positioning in this market, "Parcel sorting is an important end market for our imaging business.
Our ongoing investment in R&D and strong product roadmap allow us to maintain our leadership position while continuing
to meet the challenging requirements of our valued customers."
APRIL 6th, 2005
Gizmondo Europe Ltd, a subsidiary of Tiger Telematics Inc. (other
OTC, TGTL) has announced the shipment of its Gizmondo orders. The company started a web based campaign to promote its products
on October 29th of 2004 and by December 2004 had obtained 560,000 pre-produiction orders.
The Gizmondo device, which is a handheld GPS and gaming
device, includes a 2.8-inch TFT color screen and a number of chips. These chips include a Samsung ARM9 400Mhz processor
and the GoForce 3D 4500 NVIDIA graphics accelerator. The device also includes a MP3 music player, Mpeg4 movie player,
digital camera, a GPRS network link for network based games as well as a Global Position Satellite (GPS) chip for GPS based
services. The device is also endowed with Bluetooth wireless network technology.
APRIL 5th, 2005
Digeo's Cable Television Technology Selected By Samsung
Samsung Electronics Co. has made plans to incorporate Digeo's Moxi
Media Center technology in its cable TV boxes. Digeo produces both chip sets and electronic systems. Along with the Samsung
design win, it was also reported that both Charter Communications Inc. and Adelphia Communications Inc. have made tentative
plans to use the cable TV boxes from Samsung. Comcast Corp. is also testing Digeo's Moxi platform.
APRIL 5th, 2005
Underscoring ATI Technologies success in the digital television market,
the company announced that Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has selected its Xilleon 226 and Theater 313 for use in Samsung's
Digital Light Processing (DLP) HDTVs. Samsung chose the ATI chips for its HLR-4266W, HLR-4677W, HLR-5087W, HLP-5067W, HLR-5067W,
and HLR-5688W high definition television sets.
Daniel Eiref, Director of Marketing, DTV group at ATI Technologies
commented on the design win, "ATI is very proud to deliver market leading HDTV technology with Samsung -- one of the world's
largest consumer electronics manufacturers. Together ATI and SAMSUNG will be able to deliver an exceptional lineup of HDTVs
featuring Xilleon and Theater to customers who will benefit from outstanding HD reception and display."
MARCH 30th, 2005
At the heart of Samsung's SCH-M309 Camera Phone, which was launched
in China, is Atsana Corporation's J2211 multimedia processor chip. The chip gives the phone advanced multimedia capability
without comprimising battery life. According to Alex Leupp, President and CEO at Atsana, "By offloading demanding media processing
tasks from the baseband processor, the SCH-M309 is optimized for battery life and performance. Samsung wants flexible solutions
that are affordable and reduce time to market. The J2211 not only meets this requirement for Samsung, but raises the bar for
multimedia quality and performance in camera phones at large."
Samsung Electronics is one of the market leaders in the handset
market. Estimates, according to Atsana, are that Samsung sold 86 million handsets in 2004.
MARCH 30th, 2005
FOCUS Enhancements (NASDAQ:FCSE), a video production and conversion
technology company, has added Tcom&dtvro Co. to its video processor customer list. Tcom has selected FOCUS' FS-454 video
processor for its TD 530 TV-over-IP (IPTV) Set-top Box (STB).
Tom Hamilton, Executive Vice President and General Manager of FOCUS
Enhancements' semiconductor group commented on the design win, "This design win strengthens our lead in the STB arena. It
is also the second STB incorporating the FS-454 video processor to enter production this year. Delivering key design wins
along with growing interest in our chip designs demonstrate the strength of our semiconductor solutions in video processing.
We are optimistic that we will build on this momentum in 2005."
Mike Kelly, Vice President Marketing at FOCUS Enhancements' Semiconductor
Group described its video processor, "The FS-454 is an industry leading digital video encoder and PC-to-video scan converter
that supports High Definition (HD) and Standard Definition (SD) outputs."
Tcom&dtvro Co., Ltd. (Kospi:013240), founded in 1999, is an
IP set top box manufacturing company. The company's IP STB deployments number over 200,000. The company's STB product is geared
for interactive multimedia applications such as Voice-over-IP (VoIP) and IPTV for telecommunication carriers. The TD 530 has
H.264 technology, which permits telcos and Internet service providers to offer streaming video and audio.
MARCH 30th, 2005
Britestream Networks has selected EL-GEV Electronics to distribute and
market its BN1010 SSL security NIC and the BN2010 SSL ASIC devices in Israel. The SSL/TLS security NIC devices process data
in the network stream, in real time and in a transparent manner. Britestream reports that its patented in-stream TCP/IP processing
engines eliminates the need for network integration and provides 100% CPU offload. Yoel Yogev, CEO of El-GEV commented about
the market, "Britestream's security solution is revolutionary and will be a good fit for the growing Internet access market.
As the network security market continues to grow, we are seeing increasing demand for this type of product."
MARCH 22nd, 2005
Cradle DSP Multiprocessor Chosen by General Solutions -
Indicative of New Technology Trend
Multiprocessor Design Architects, no serious chip company should
be without one. And now that 90 nanometer process technologies are here to accommodate multiprocessor architectures, there
is little excuse for engineers not to have the architecture firmly on the drawing board. Put in more economic terms, J.D.
Story, CTO General Solutions Ltd. stated, "As a leader in digital video equipment for the surveillance environment, it was
essential for us to create a DigiOp product based on the leading high-performance DSP technologies available for surveillance.
Our customers are demanding more performance, more flexible codec options, and more I/O flexibility. The performance, flexibility
and scalability of the Cradle product line were the key factors in our decision."
General Solutions' new DigiOp network video streamer is based on
the Cradle CT3400 Multiprocessor DSP. Cradle's CT3400 is a C-programmable multiprocessor DSP, which includes eight 32-bit
DSP cores, six 32-bit general purpose processor cores, and a 128-pin programmable I/O subsystem. The multicore technology
fits in with the trend towards multiple core microprocessors (multiprocessors) that have been introduced at companies like
Advanced Micro Devices and IBM Microelectronics.
MARCH 22nd, 2005
Tripath Technology Inc. (Nasdaq:TRPH), a relatively small fabless chip
company competing in the 1-bit digital audio amplifier market, has reported a design win at Samsung. Samsung will utilize
the companies TA2024 audio amplifier in its Chigall line of high-end monitors. These monitors are used in multimedia and videoconferencing
applications.
Tripath reports the TA2024 offers 15 watts of stereo audio power, but only
generates 1/8 the heat of a traditional amplifier - which allows display makers, such as Samsung, to eliminate space consuming
heat sinks.
MARCH 22nd, 2005
Zoran has announced that its COACH 7 digital camera processor is in tow
of Samsung's latest digital cameras, the Digimax V700 and Digimax U-CA 5. The V700 camera, the higher resolution of the two,
features a 7.1 megapixel resolution and a two inch LCD screen. Talking about the camera, Mr. B.D. Nam, Vice President of DSC
Development Center at Samsung Techwin Co., LTD stated, "The new Digimax V700 and U-CA 5 digital cameras offer outstanding
image resolution for photographers who want to print their high-quality digital photographs or capture video clips of fast
action events. Zoran continues to work with us to deliver distinctive digital cameras that produce high quality images and
enable the newest technology, such as Safety Flash image clarity, for consumers."
According to Ohad Meitav, Senior Director Digital Camera Product Line,
Zoran's Mobile division. "This is the fifth generation of Digimax cameras that we have worked with Samsung to deliver to market.
We are proud to be able to work with industry leader Samsung to deliver a new generation of high performance digital cameras
that help digital photographers improve their photos while also allowing them to
capture and preserve their own movie clips."
MARCH 22nd, 2005
Philips Electronics Selects LSI for DVD Recorder Line
Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG), a major player in the DVD recorder market,
has selected LSI Logic's DoMiNo DVD recorder system processors for its line of recorders. Umesh Padval, executive vice president
for LSI Logic's Consumer Products stated,. "Philips Electronics is a key customer for LSI Logic, as they are both a technology
and market leader in the DVD recorder market, and we are pleased that they are now shipping DoMiNo-based products."
The DVD processor, offered through LSI Logic's Consumer Products division,
is a one chip solution that permits the direct transfer of camcorder input directly to the DVD recorder with one-touch remote
control - providing the consumer with a low-cost, easy-to-use, high featured product.
MARCH 22nd, 2005
Ihlas Holdings, a news agency based in Turkey, has ordered Veridicom's
VLI, the company's personal identity key, which is based on the company's fingerprint sensor chip technology. According to
Mr. Ahmet M. Oren, CEO of Ihlas Holdings, "Securing information and corporate data is critical in our line of business. Data
and information assets can be time sensitive, and it is imperative that they be protected from theft and unauthorized access.
We believe Veridicom's VKI device and its software are the ideal solution for us. "
Veridicom International, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: VRDI) was originally
spun out from Lucent Technologies. The company employs a number of specialist originally from Lucent, who have extensive experience
in biometric based integrated circuit technology.
MARCH 17th, 2005
RF Engines Receives DFT Core Supply Contract
RF Engines Limited, a company
that offers advanced signal processing building blocks for integration into FPGA based ASICs, has disclosed that a mobile
telecommunications company has selected its mixed radix Discrete Fourier Transform as use in an FPGA based designs. RF Engines
Limited did not divulge the name of the company, but indicated it was a prestigious client. According to John Summers, Vice
President Sales and Business Development at RF Engines, "We are obviously pleased to be supplying such a prestigious client
with specialist designs, in support of its advanced technology programme, and we look forward to continuing to develop the
relationship." RF Engines is based in the United Kingdom.
MARCH 16th, 2005
MathStar Field Programmable Object Array Chips Selected By Honeywell
Honeywell has selected
MathStar's Field Programmable Object Array (FPOA) chips for use in its semiconductors that are intended for satellite applications.
The FPOAs are considered a lower cost alternative to expensive ASIC chips and a higher performance alterative to FPGAs.
MARCH 9th, 2005
AGEIA Stuns Game Chip Market - Wins Major Accounts
AGEIA Technologies, at the
Game Developer Conference, won over a number of hardware and software companies involved in the lucrative game console market.
The extent of the acceptance of the company’s PhysX chip (Physics Processing Unit) may very well ensure the company
a position in the graphics processor market along side with the major graphic processor chip companies such as ATI Technologies
and NVIDIA. How well the company fairs against IBM, Toshiba and Sony's joint multi-billion dollar cell processor chip is however
an open question. That end-game question won't be completely answered until consumer market acceptance of games built on the
cell processor hit the market. However, like the cell processor, AGEIA's chip is a multiprocessor based design, which not
only hints at the competitiveness of AGEIA's chip, but also indicates an architectural trend that will be a requirement to
win and keep market share in the future.
Among the companies
signing up with AGEIA include Artificial Studios, Atari, Big Huge Games, Epic Games, Microsoft (X-Box), Ubisoft, SEGA Corporation. As well the company indicates that there are a number of other
game development companies that have purchased the company’s Novodex hardware / software development kit in order to
ensure that their products will be available by this Christmas. The fact that the list includes companies such as SEGA Corporation
and Ubisoft, which had over $500 million Australian in revenue for its fiscal year with a growth rate of 22 percent, suggests
that the company is ahead of the rest of the graphic chip pack and that AGEIA may well win or already has won other major
game contracts.
Central to AGEIA's
success so far is its chips ability to render a much higher level of realism, in real time, more quickly, than what the other
chips on the market are capable of. Comments from customers indicate that the PhysX's speed-realism ratio has only been available
with modern day, highly expensive supercomputers. This high speed realism is obtained in part through the use of a multiprocessor
based architecture, an architecture that includes two or more microprocessors per chip.
The high level of performance
of the chip will more than likely open up other markets for AGEIA. Real time based Computer Aided Design (CAD) tools could
become another market. However tackling other markets may also be difficult. AGEIA, in order to obtain the real-time realism
for its game multiprocessor, converted software algorithms to actual silicon hardware blocks. This in itself could have added
up to a 20 times improvement in the graphics performance. Similarly, AGEIA would have to apply its software to silicon conversion
skills to specific algorithms found in other markets to obtain similar performance increases. However, to simplify that task,
there are presently a number of new EDA design tools on the market that do just that. Many of those tools are on display at
the Embedded Systems Conference, also being held in San Francisco this week.
Although the market
success, like many fabless start-ups may be short-lived, the fact that AGEIA is one of the first to market with a multiprocessor
based graphic chip is likely to open a market window that could sustain AGEIA as a market leader for years to come. Multiprocessor
architectures are expected to become main stream design architecture as sub 100 nanometer process technologies take hold.
And it is very likely that other companies will introduce similar graphic based designs in the months ahead. The cell processor
is one such chip. Whether or not NVIDIA or ATI have similar chips under development is a matter still to be investigated.
If they don't soon, the two companies may find that the high performance ship has left dock without them.
Investors in AGEIA
include Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., the world's largest chip foundry. AGEIA is at ExpoSute 30 at the Game Developer
Conference this week.
MARCH 9th, 2005
Anadigics Shipping Production Volume of Its InGaP
Power Amplifiers to LG Electronics
Anadigics is now shipping
volume production quantities of its indium gallium phosphide (InGaP) heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) amplifiers to
LG Electronics. The power amplifier is used in LG Electronics multimedia cell phone, the VX8000.
Mr. Mun Hwa Park, President
of LG Telecommunications and Handset Company, indicated that the phones 1XEV-DO high data access compatibility permitted the
phone to achieve a high level of video content at broadband speeds. He also mentioned that Anadigic's power amplifiers played
a critical role in the design of the new phone, which includes a 1.3 megapixal CCD camera and dual TFT 262 K color screens.
The CDMA phone also includes a MP3 audio player.
Anadigics' AWT6135 power amplifier
is packaged in a 4 mm by 4 mm module and operates in the 1850 MHz to 1910 MHz frequency band used for PCS CDMA applications.
MARCH 8th, 2005
Infineon VoIP Design Win May Signify a Core
Trend for MIPSMIPS Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: MIPS) has won another VoIP license. This time its one of Europe's largest integrated
circuit companies, Infineon Technologies AG (FSE/NYSE: IFX). A long time partner of MIPS (since 2000), Infineon selected the
MIPS32 24Kc and the MIPS32 M4K processor cores as part of its overall VoIP product development strategy. Ulrich Huewels, VP
of System Engineering COM Access, Infineon Technologies AG indicated that MIPS' cores have already been used in number of
its VoIP solutions including IP Phones, Analog Telephone Adapters (ATA) and VoIP-enabled Gateways. Cesar Martin-Perez, Vice
President of European Operations at MIPS Technologies underscored the success by noting that 24K core licensing growth has
been faster than any other product from MIPS.
The MIPS 24K core can be optimized for speed, area or power for a 2.8mm2
core-only size, or a 0.58 mW/MHz power rating or up to 900 Dhrystone 2.1 MIPS operational performance. The MIPS core is also
well known for its record breaking Java performance.
MARCH 7th, 2005
GDA Technologies Selects Fulcrum Microsystems Switch Chip for Dual Processor
Network System
Fulcrum Microsystems
announced that its PivotPoint FM1020 chip has been chosen as the asynchronous interconnect switch solution for GDA Technologies'
ATCA-G2800 dual processor network access system. The system is designed with the Intel IXP 2800 Network Processing Unit (NPU)
for use in a variety of carrier network access and edge networking applications.
Gopa Periyadan, Vice
President & GM of System & Software Business Unit at GDA Technologies noted that Fulcrum's products gave its staff
the flexibility to adjust product designs to the needs of its customers. The design will permit its customers to easily upgrade
the system for an additional IXP 2880 NPU as well as give system developers the capability to program encryption technology
into servers for individualized security applications.
GDA Technologies through
a global network of offices provides complete concept to silicon to systems design solutions for its customers. The company's
expertise is in ASICs, FPGAs, IP Cores, boards, SoCs, software and systems.
MARCH 3, 2005
IBM and HP Laptops Feature Wireless Headsets Based on Broadcom's Bluetooth Technology
Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ:BRCM) reported that IBM selected its Blutonium Bluetooth
silicon for use in a number of its Thinkpad notebook computers models.
The Blutonium based Thinkpads are planned for shipment in early 2005.
Broadcom's WIDCOMM BTW Bluetooth software has already shipped in certain Thinkpad models. Scott Bibaud, Senior Director
of Marketing for Broadcom's Bluetooth products indicated that the WIDCOMM BTW software has the largest installed base and
widest range of supported profiles. As well, he stated that the software would
provide a better Bluetooth experience for ThinkPad customers. New features of
the software permit notebook users to listen to high quality stereo from their Bluetooth headsets. Broadcom's provides support
for its WIDCOMM technology through its dedicated Bluetooth Software Quality Assurance lab.
HP has also integrated the Blutonium technology on its notebook and desktop computers. These computers are equipped
with HP iPAQ Bluetooth Stereo Headphones, wireless keyboards, wireless mice and dongles. Broadcom's Bluetooth software also
lets the user pipe MP3 music files to wireless speakers. Eric Kilponen, Director
of Product marketing for Handhelds at HP indicated that its customers are using its products more often as their main entertainment
and communications device of choice. He also indicated that Broadcom's Bluetooth
technology has been central to that selection. The HP IPAQ, which is available now, also was noted as having cellular phone
capability.
MARCH 3, 2005
Legerity Makes Headway in VoIP Market with SLIC / SLAC Chips
Legerity, Inc. reported at the end of February that it has shipped enough VoIP chips to meet the capacity requirements
for over one million lines of VoIP = to just one customer. That customer was ARRIS (NASDAQ:ARRS). ARRIS utilizes Legerity's
Le792221 and Le79R241 VoIP-optimized SLIC/SLAC devices for its Touchstone Embedded Multimedia Terminal Adaptors. ARRIS, in
turn shipped over 387,000 of the terminal adaptors to cable customers in 2004.
Bruce McClelland, Vice President of Engineering at ARRIS indicated that Legerity's products permitted the company to
lower its system design costs and reduce its time to market. He also said that Legerity had extensive expertise in the voice
over broadband. Mike Stibila, Vice President of Marketing and Applications at
Legerity, suggested that despite inaccurate market forecasts in the past about the rise of the VoIP market, he is confident
that 2005 will be the year for VoIP. He estimates that over 11 million lines of VoIP will be installed by this time next year.
MARCH 3, 2005
Peerless System, ASIC Imaging Vendor, Enters into $24 Million Services Agreement
Peerless Systems Corporation (NASDAQ:PRLS), which provides image and network controllers, ASIC based chips through
a fabless semiconductor model, engineering and design services as well as licenses technology to the document image processing
market, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Kyocera Mita Corporation. The MOU requires that Peerless Systems
provide Kyocera non-exclusive engineering services and high performance imaging technologies. These services and technologies
are planned to be used in Kyocera’s upcoming line of Mita printers and multifunction printers. According to the agreement, Kyocera will pay Peerless the $24 million on a quarterly payment schedule over
a three year period, or $2 million per quarter.
MARCH 3, 2005
Wireless Nanocrystal Technology Central to Paratek’s Contract Win
Paratek Microwave, Inc, which offers innovative RF tunable filters and antennas, based on a novel tunable materials
technology, has won a $1.125 million contract from the University of California at Riverside, for Nanoscale Science and Engineering. Paratek indicates that the award will enable the company to advance its tunable materials technology. The
company anticipates that it will lower tunable materials operating voltage to less than 10 volts, improve the package quality,
and lower the wafer fabrication costs for the tunable RF filters, which are manufactured on 4 and 6 inch wafer fabrication
equipment.
Paratek has a line of tunable RF and microwave components based on its electrically tunable dielectric materials technology
it calls Parascan. Parascan is based on a thin film integrated circuit deposition methodology that draws on the power of nano-cyrstalline thin films. According to the company, these films are characterized
by low loss, low leakage current, and the capability to readily change capacitance with an applied voltage – as does
a varactor. Paratek has numerous United
States patents that are related to the material and the design of its components.
MARCH 3, 2005
NVIDIA’s Graphic Chipsets Slated to Be Shipped with Intel’s Motherboards
NVIDIA, through a recent license agreement with Intel, expects to start shipping its nForce graphic processor chip
sets on Intel’s PC motherboards this April. The contract could potentially boost NVIDIA’s graphic sales by several
million a year, if not more. Shipments of Intel’s motherboards alone are
estimated to be around the 20 million unit a year mark. NVIDIA already has available its nForce chipsets for AMD’s microprocessor
based motherboards. Besides a marketing strategy that caters to two of the largest microprocessor companies, NVIDIA has an agreement
with Sony Computer Entertainment Incorporated. That agreement is for the joint
development of graphics and entertainment technology for Sony’s next generation Playstation system.
MARCH 2, 2005
Cogent Receives ASIC Chip Related Contract for
Automated Life Science Laboratory
Cogent Systems (NASDAQ:COGT) ASIC chip, based on a Dimensional Digital Signal Processor
(D2SP and a pattern recognition algorithm, is one of the primary components utilized in ANP Technologies’ Nano-Intelligent
Detection Systems. That system is reported as a low-cost, rapid, multiplexed assay for the detection of biological agents
and biomarkers. A product that is used in the pharmaceutical industry and environmental analysis fields.
Vice
President of Business Operations at ANP Technologies, Tom Bodnar, indicated that the biological detection system with ANP’s
patented nano-biotechnology and Cogent’s pattern recognition technology has greatly reduced the cost and response time
to detect biological agents. This technology should enable medical researchers
to automate the biological experimentation procedure – giving the life sciences industry the capability to greatly increase
its productivity. The system is expected to be first used for the monitoring of water quality.
Cogent
bills itself as a provider of Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems. The contract valued at $500,000, which includes
Cogent’s software technology, is said to be for the advancement of the overall technology.
FEBRUARY 24th, 2005
FeliCa Networks Chips to Form Basis of Vodafone’s RFID Based Cell Phone
Vodafone KK, an operating unit of Vodafone Group Plc, announced that it would incorporate FeliCa Networks’ integrated
circuits as part of a new RFID based cell phone. The company plans to introduce the phone this October with an
initial shipment of over a million units. The on-board RFID card will let cell phone users purchase a wide
variety of items, such as commuter transportation tickets. The Felica based card can be read from a distance of
10 centimeters.
In 2004, KDDI Corporation (TSE: 9433; US: KDDIF) entered into an agreement with FeliCa Networks to collaborate on the
mobile FeliCa. The goal of the agreement was to develop technology that would enable RFID IC card technology to be incorporated
into wireless devices such as cell phones. KDDI has planned to incorporate the technology into a handset product line, which
was initially scheduled to be introduced in the fall of 2005 and later in a 3G CDMA cellular line scheduled for 2006.
FeliCa’s technology has been well accepted in Japan.
The company’s card technology is commonly used in Japan
for the purchase of items in retail stores and fast-food restaurants as well as tickets form major commuter rail systems.
FeliCa Networks Inc. investors include Sony, East Japan Railway Company and NTT
DoCoMo.
In related news, the United Arab Emirates
announced that chip-based identity cards would be issued to all of its nationals and residents by the end of the year. The
identity card will contain information like finger and palm prints, and marital status.
FEBRUARY 24th, 2005
More of Apple iPod’s Vendors Revealed
The
success of Apple’s iPod has resulted in a curiosity about iPod’s vendors. PortalPlayer, Inc. (NASDAQ: PLAY), a
fabless chip company involved in the music player space, is one company that depends almost entirely on Apple iPod’s
for the nearly $50 million in sales it received in its latest nine month reporting period.
That is according to PortalPlayer. PortalPlayer believes that nearly all its chips it sells to Inventec Appliances
(Shanghai)
Co., Ltd. and Inventec Appliances Corp., or Inventec, end up in the Apple iPod. Inventec,
according to PortalPlayer, accounts for about 90 percent of the company’s total sales.
FEBRUARY 15th, 2005
BIRD Gives Philips to 13 Million Cellular Phone
Chip Market Share
BIRD, a company that sold over 13 million handsets in 2004, has plans to
develop its first EDGE-enable handset based on Philips’ Nexperia Cellular System Solution. The agreement was a result
of a long-lived partnership the two companies have shared. Ma Xiaojian, vice general manager at BIRD has indicated that the
company plans to launch the GSM/GPRS/EDGE handset based on Nexperia in August of 2005. Gert-Jan Kaat, senior vice president
of the Mobile Communications Business Unit, Philips Semiconductors reports that the selection of Philips technology by BIRD,
one of the top ten cellular handset companies is indicative of the Nexperia’s capability to permit a significant reduction
in the design time required for multimedia handsets. Philips says that since Nexperia’s introduction in 1999, over 150
million Nexperia-based systems have been placed on the market. The Philips Nexperia Cellular System Solution 6120 includes
a quad band class 12-capable EDGE chipset. BIRD, based in China, with over 20,000 employees, exported over 3 million hand
sets in 2004. Request More Information -
Specify Company, Product, Etc.
FEBRUARY 15, 2005
Pirelli Broadband
Solutions has selected Conexant System’s VoIP chip technology for use in its gateway products. Zeev Collin, vice president
of Voice Access Products at Conexant said that the two companies have had a long standing relationship. Request More Information -
Specify Company, Product, Etc.
FEBRUARY 9th, 2005
Dell Plans Multiprocessor Based PCs
Dell
has announced that it intends to use Intel’s dual-core processor, a multiprocessor, for the design of its high-performance
personal computers. The PCs are to be targeted at the consumers and business
markets.
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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 8th, 2005
World’s Smallest Projector Based On TI’s Mirror Chip
Based on Texas Instruments’
(TI) latest DLP micromirror chip, Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America's Presentation Products Division has brought out
its PocketProjector. Not just any projector, this projector is billed as the world’s smallest LED projector. It weighs
under a pound, at 14 ounces and will fit, according to the company in your palm or a coat jacket. The projector has been designed to work with a wide variety of computers, games and other multimedia electronic
devices. Also on the slide show is the projectors long lamp life. The advanced lighting technology permits the light to last
20,000 hours.
FEBRUARY
8th, 2005
Clearspeed’s Extra Low Power Processor Chip Wins
Contracts
Reports from
the AFX News wire indicate that ClearSpeed Technology PLC has won
a major contract with a United States based computer systems manufacturer. ClearSpeed
apparently has already received about a quarter million dollars related to the contract.
ClearSpeed offers another
potential solution to chip power problems with its low-power parallel microprocessor chips and boards. ClearSpeed reports that its microprocessors utilize just 5 Watts of power when operated at 50 GFLOPS. One application for the chips includes supercomputers used for genetic and biotechnology
research.
FEBRUARY 8TH, 2005
More Chip Deals
MagiQTechnologies Inc,
the quantum information processing company, announced that it has selected Cavium Networks’ security processors for
use in its next-generation quantum cryptography products.
Apogee Technology, Inc. has licensed its DDX Controller output technology to Zoran Corporation. Zoran will integrate the DDX Controller into its integrated
circuits targeted at the consumer and DVD markets.
Virgin Electronics has
selected Tripath Technology’s Class-T audio amplifiers for use in its Boomtube product, a 40 Watt portable
speaker system with bass tube and twist-off speakers.
Engenera selected Advanced
Micro Devices Opteron microprocessors for its BladeFrame systems. Sun Microsystems is also reported as a major advocate of
AMD’s Opteron chips.
In the IP core market,
MIPS Technologies, Inc. has won another license agreement. This time it was with India based, Wipro Technologies. Wipro has licensed the MIPS32 4KEc and the MIPS64 5Kf. The cores are to be used to
support the two companies’ joint SoC design customers.
Impinj, Inc. has licensed
its AEFuse hard wired intellectual property to Analog Devices and another undisclosed mixed signal chip company. Impinj’s
non-volatile memory technology is used in a variety of markets. These include
calibration, encryption key storage. LCD drivers, microcontrollers, RF headsets, RF speakers, and wireless LAN. Impinj just linked up last month with Texas Instruments. That agreement was related to RFID applications,
a market that Texas Instruments has major market share in.
FEBRUARY 7, 2005
Other Major Chip
Deals
Silicon Image announced the shipment of its 100 millionth chip
to ATI Technologies. The chip is to be used in ATI’s XILLEON digital TV product. Sirf Technology also revealed that
its SirfstarIIe/LP GPS chipset and SirfXTrac high sensitivity software are used in Tiger Telematics’
Gizmondo, a leading mobile entertainment product. Rambus reported that at the
heart of the Cell processor, which has been at the heart of IBM’s, Sony’s and Toshiba’s joint multi-billion
dollar effort to tackle the game and multimedia entertainment markets, is Rambus’ XDR memory and FlexIO processor
bus interface solutions. Sony entered into a licensing agreement with Rambus in January of 2003. NetLogic Microsystems reported that ARRIS uses its NL5000 knowledge-based processor in its Cable Modem
Termination System. And in the area of networked audio entertainment, Sigma Designs announced that Sony Corp has based its
latest network media receiver, the Sony VGP-MR100, on its EM8620L
FEBRUARY 2, 2005
IP
Core and Chip Deals
Wintegra reported that it
has design wins with nine of the top 10 largest communications companies. These companies use its WinPath Access Packet Processor. Wintegra also reports that its Tier 1 acceptance rate in 2004 accelerated dramatically.
Wintegra says that its quarter-over-quarter revenue growth continues.
Mitsubishi Materials Corporation
selected Texas Instruments chips for its powerline communication audio module products. These modules known for there very
small size are used for wireless audio devices for home theatre and audio distribution network applications with full digital
streaming audio. Specific chips from TI included in the electric socket based communication module include TI’s TSA5001
PWM processor and TAS5122 power stage controller.
Cavium Networks, a produced or security processor chips, announced that Yamaha selected NITROX Soho
Secure Communication Processor for use in Yamaha’s latest broadband router product, called the RTX1100. Yamaha’s router products are offered through Yamaha's AV and IT Business Group. Cavium Network’s
India Development Center is expected to play an important role in the further development of Cavium’s network processor.
Cavium has also just announced it will expand the operations of the center.
TeraChip, a SAN, MAN and LAN focused fabless chip company, has revealed that it uses Xilinx Virtex-II Pro FPGAs to
implement its TCF16X10 switching fabric chip. That chip is capable of switching at speeds up to 160 Gbps. The Vertex chip
contains embedded PowerPC technology and 3.125 Gbps serial transceivers - two
reasons why TeraChip chose the Xilinx FPGAs.
Fairchild won the approval of its RMPA1959 linear power amplifier from Pantech and Curitel, considered Korea’s
third largest mobile phone manufacturer. Fairchild received a special Award of
Appreciation from Pantech and Curitel for the product and Fairchild’s excellent technical support.
Sonics Inc. has now won over Toshiba with its SMART Interconnects technology. Toshiba will use SMART Interconnects
in its family of wireless handheld products. Sonic’s technology has been
credited with the reduction of chip development time. One of the reasons is that the technology effectively reduces the time
to interconnect IP core blocks together on a chip. The company has effectively standardized the bus interconnection or as
the company calls the interblock communication system. Because of a standardized
interblock communication system, the layout and routing of an IP core based design has been greatly simplified, reducing layout
planning time and reroute time. The Sonic system also helps minimize timing delays and hence associated power consumption
as well as enables easy IP core reuse.
FEBRUARY 2, 2005
ATI Technologies Graphic Chip Selected For Multimedia
Systems
ATI
Technologies Inc. announced that Hewlett-Packard selected its mobile graphics
processors for its high-performance multimedia notebook PCs. These included the HP
Pavilion zd8000 Notebook PC and the Compaq Presario X6000 Notebook PC. The audio and visual rich notebooks come complete with
ATI’s MOBILITY RADEON X300 or ATI’s MOBILITY RADEON X600 PCI Express graphics processors.
JANUARY 26th, 2005
National Semiconductor revealed that its Safekeeper security device is used in the IBM ThinkPad T43.
JANUARY 26th, 2005
The Photonics Products Division of Pirelli selected Lattice Semiconductor’s Field Programmable System Chip for
use in its Metro Access Systems Platform.
JANUARY 26th, 2005
Fujitsu Microelectronics Europe and Fujitsu Microelectronics America licensed from Robert Bosch GmbH its FlexRay communication
controller IP core technology. The cores are expected to be used in the development of chips for the automotive market.
JANUARY 26th, 2005
Panasonic Mobile Communications Ltd. selected Altera’s Stratix GX FPGA and Nios embedded processor for the design
of its 3.5G network base transceiver station.
JANUARY 24th, 2005
Zoran Generation9
in Samsung’s New Blu-Ray Recorder
Zoran Corporation announced
that its Generation9 is the processor behind Samsung Electronics' Blu-Ray Disc (BD-R1000) recorder. Samsung released the BD-R1000
recorder last month. The machine has been reported to be able to record and edit up to 12 hours of HDTV broadcasts.
JANUARY 21st, 2005
Unconfirmed reports indicate that Mediatek may have won cellular chip orders from NEC Corp.
and LG Corp. Mediatek's hallmark has been the DVD chip market. In 2003, Mediatek produced and sold approximately 270 million
of these chips. In 2003, Mediatek diversified into the wireless market with a chip set for cellular phones. In 2003, according
to company reports, Mediatek sold 50,000 of these chip set units in its domestic market, Taiwan. Lite-On Electronics
Corp., in 2003, was one of Mediatek's cell phone customers. Today, Mediatek's monthly cellular shipments are reported
to be around 1 million a month.
JANUARY 19th, 2005
Great Wall Welcome’s Intel’s Sonoma Chip
The Beijing Modern Business Daily reported that Great Wall Computer would include Intel’s Sonoma
chip in its T41 series notebooks, which feature a built in TV tuner.
JAN"UARY 19th, 2005
JANUARY 19th, 2005
iPod Break Down Reveals Sigmatel Chip
Portelligent, a company that takes apart electronic gadgets to find out what’s inside, reported Apple’s
iPod Shuffle MP3 player has a SigmaTel chip in it. Specifically the STMP3550 MP3 audio decoder chip for audio processing was
found. If the story’s true, it could mean that Sigmatel may continue to
see steady MP3 chip sales growth. However, as reported yesterday, Intel also has its eyes on the iPod. Previous iPod chip vendors are reported to include Wolfson Microelectronics. The next question is who makes the flash chips inside the iPod?
JANUARY 17th, 2005
Intel, which recently took over HP’s Itanium chip development
efforts, surely watched as Hewlett-Packard launched its Integrity line of servers. Based on the Itanium processor from Intel,
the Integrity line of servers and support products brought HP over $1 billion in revenue in 2004. . Hewlett-Packard and Intel
entered into a $3 billion agreement in December 2004, which involved the transfer of Hewlett-Packard’s microprocessor
chip designers to Intel and a commitment for Intel to supply Hewlett-Packard its Itanium processors. That agreement is expected
to last until 2008.
Texas Instruments and Impinj Prepare
For RFID Credit Card Market
Texas Instruments announced that it would ship RFID chips based on
the ISO/IEC 14443 standard to MasterCard International for certification for use in the PayPass RFID cards and token systems.
Texas Instruments plans to start full production of the certified RFID credit card chips in the second half of 2005. TI’s
chip operates at 13.56 MHz with a secure data rate of 840 Kbps at a short and secure distance of 1.5 inches.
Impinj Inc. may also benefit. The company today announced that it
would work with Texas Instruments towards the development of Class 1, Generation 2 (Gen 2) compliant products for RFID applications.
The agreement combined with Texas Instruments RFID manufacturing capability and Impinj’s technology gives Impinj a direct
line to the inner workings of yours and the billions of other credit cards in circulation. Impinj has numerous license agreements
with a number of RFID technology companies.
PicoChip Expands its WiMAX Customer
Base Into China
PicoChip, based in the United Kingdom, has had success with its new
office in China. The company has entered into a long-term agreement with the Institute of Computing Technology (ICT) of the
Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). ICT is to develop and use picoChip’s WiMAX technology for China’s emerging
IT based economy. The ICT will use picoChips WiMAX PC102 processor and help Chinese carriers establish WiMAX systems technology.
Reconfigurability key to Transilica’s
IP Core License Agreements
Tensilica appears to be on the right path with its reconfigurable
processor. NVidia, one of the largest fabless companies in the world, just licensed its XP core processor. But that’s
not all. LG Electronics, one of the larger cell phone companies in Korea, also licensed the technology. This mobile phone
is no ordinary mobile phone however. LG’s phone can receive digital broadcast signals. This gives the customer the capability
to watch TV and make phone calls at the same time. The phone is compatible with the Terrestrial Digital-Multimedia-Broadcast
or T-DMB standard.
JANUARY 14, 2005
Intel ‘s Chips Selected by Chinese Telecom Equipment
Maker
ZTE, a China based telecom equipment maker has chosen Intel’s
chips for the development of WiMax equipment. Posted Jan 14, 2005
JAN 13th,
2005
Samsung Wins PlayStation Chip Supply Contract
Samsung Electronics announced that it will supply its multi purpose memory chip product (MCP), which combines different types of memory chips
into one IC package, to Sony Corp. The chip will be used in Sony’s PlayStation Portable game system. The MCP chip contains 64 Mbytes of memory, which includes
256 Mbits of NAND flash memory and DDR DRAM memory. Posted Jan 13th, 2005.
Microtune in ATI Technologies’ Video Cards
Microtune has reported
that its single chip tuners are used in ATI Technologies’s multimedia / PC video add-in cards. These include the new
TV WONDERELITE AND ALL-IN-WONDER cards. Posted Jan 13, 2005.
Advanced Micro Devices’ Chips In Lenovo’ Computers
Lenovo, one of the
largest PC makers in China, won an order for over 26,000 computers from Hebei
province. Hebei will utilize the computers in classrooms
at local schools. The PCs are based on Advanced Micro Devices’ chips. Posted
Jan 13, 2005.
Sensant Corp. wins MEMS Ultrasound Order
Sensant Corp.,
a developer of MEMS based silicon transducers for medical imaging applications, announced that it has won its first commercial
order for its advanced Silicon Ultrasound imaging probes. The order was from
ESAOTE S.p.A, a medical equipment company based in Italy. Posted Jan 13, 2005.
JANUARY 11th 2005
Actel Scores FPGA Design Win
Actel Corp (NASDAQ:ACTL) announced today that UTStarcom has selected its SX-A field programmable gate array
for use on CPU control boards found in its mSwitch and 3G products. UTStarcom
is a Fortune 1000 company with international operations in network access equipment and services.
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System Contract News
JUNE 3rd, 2005
Raymor Industries Inc. (TSX VENTURE:RAR) reported a contract for
Titanium powder production with The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA). Raymor reported that with other negotiations underway, it anticipates
the installation of a second reactor for the production of the powder. Estimated revenue per reactor, per year, was given
at $3.5 million. Boeing plans to use the powder for aerospace applications.
Raymor's nanopowder products are based on the plasma atomization
process developed in the early 1990s at Hydro-Quebec's Shawinigan laboratory.
MAY 31st, 2005
CSI Wireless Reports $5 Million in Purchase Orders
CSI Wireless , Inc. (TSX:CSY), a company that in addition to wireless and GPS electronic system products,
licenses cellular technology to chipset manufacturers, reported that it has received $5.1 million in new orders for its desktop
cellular phones. The company, with the announcement, so far to date this year, reports total orders of $22.1 million for its
GSM and TDMA cellular phones, up 55 percent when compared to the $14.3 million of orders in the same period last year. In
the first quarter of this year, the company shipped $11.5 million of the $22.1 million orders it received.
APRIL 12th, 2005
Universal Communication Systems, Inc. (OTC BB: UCSY) subsidiary
Millennium Electric T.O.U. through its President Ami Elazari has announced a major agreement with Azur Solar. Mr. Elazari
stated, "I am pleased to announce the execution of a new agreement with Azur Solar (UK) Ltd. (www.azure-solar.co.uk), granting them distribution for the UK market for our unique range
of Millennium Brand PV Solar Panels and related products. In addition, the agreement calls for Azur Solar to purchase up to
$15 million in value of PV Solar Energy Panels for the UK market in the year 2005. This new export order is once again a major
endorsement of the high quality of our Millennium Brand PV Solar Energy Panels."
Susan Roddick, Marketing Director of Azur Solar (UK) Ltd., also
affirmed the business deal, "Azur Solar (UK) Ltd. are delighted to be entering into a partnership with Millennium Electric
and believe that there will be benefits in working with a progressive supplier in what is becoming a challenging and ever
more competitive market."
Universal Communications, besides the solar energy market, is also
involved in the air-to-water machine conversion market. Universal Communications has played and continues to play a major
role in the tsunami relief effort with these innovative machines.
JAN 13 2005
BenQ Corp. won an order
for three million of its CDMA cell phones from Kyocera Wireless. Qingdao HiSense Electric Co. Ltd., one of the larger TV producers
in China, reported that it had won over $200 million in flat panel TV orders. The
orders were attributed to the company’s appearance at the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas last week. Posted Jan 13th, 2005.
JAN 12 2005
The Sound Of Music
Creative Technology Ltd. Has announced a record quarter for MP3 player shipments. The company reported that it has
shipped over two million MP3 players in its most recent quarter. This may explain Sigmatel’s growth, which this year
has counted Creative as a customer for its MP3 chip products.
Although flash chip news has been negative, the news that Apple’s
iPod Shuffle MP3 player is based on flash chips instead of hard disk drives may help cheer flash chip suppliers.
CONTRACT CORNER - EMERGING TECHNOLOGY AND MARKETS
By Mark Stansberry, Chip_world@hotmail.com, November 8, 2004
Look out for more contract news from India. As the United States election returns were finalized, India’s high tech
community spoke with revitalized optimism. Members of India's National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM)
see the United States election as a mandate for continued American outsourcing, which to India’s high tech community
means continued growth. On the other side of the coin, reports have come in that some American and Indian companies are nervous
about the whole outsource affair. American companies fear a loss of direct control of their operations will eventually affect
sales, while Indian companies see new competition from other countries. Specifically, in the semiconductor area, Eastern Europe
is reported to have a large labor pool of skilled analog chip designers, a skill which the chip industry wants to see more
of.
In electronic hardware news, last week, The PerfectDisplay.com recorded over $100 million of electronic equipment, hardware,
component and chip contracts. Besides semiconductor equipment contracts, the market ordered energy and automatic identification
technology. In the energy technology markets, Itron won an order for its electronic electric utility
meters. The contract was for 30,000 solid state energy meters. The winds of fortune are in the sails of American
Superconductor. It will supply voltage regulation systems for Canada’s Saskatchewan Wind Farm. American Superconductor
is involved in the electric grid fault power market and the superconductive wire markets. Finally in the energy market, Air Liquide's Axane will supply Bougyues Telecom with its hydrogen fuel cell technology.
In the automatic identification market, Hypercomm won a $4 million dollar contract from EuroConex
for it’s Chip and PIN terminal, which is fundamental for the use of semiconductor based identification and payment cards
(to replace magnetic stripe cards). On the production side of the Chip and PIN market, Supercom Ltd.
won a $1.25 million dollar contract for its electronic passport production system from an unidentified European country. Identix also won a $0.7 million contract for its biometric systems, which are used to automatically scan
fingerprints. In the network card market, Silicom Ltd. won an order valued at $0.29 million. The
order, which involved Silicom’s Gigabit multiport adaptors should please Intel Corp. and
Broadcom Corp. Silicom’s network boards are based on Ethernet
chip sets from these two companies.
In software contract news last week, Microsoft Corp. secured one of the largest technology contracts
when it announced a 500 million pound plus order for its windows operating systems and applications packages. The United Kingdom’s
National Health Services will equip its computer systems with Microsoft’s products.
The PerfectDisplay monitors and tabulates hundreds of high technology contracts each month. Contracts are focused on the
commercial, non-defense segments of the market. These contracts include electronic hardware, production and test equipment,
components, semiconductors and outsourcing. Emerging small companies and companies with innovative technology are also a focus.
These companies offer products that include but are not limited to energy technology, nanotechnology, micromachines, biotechnology,
software and air-to-water conversion machines. To report your company’s contracts, email contractcorner@perfectdisplay.com
To order Contract Line visit our information store.
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