|
JULY 18th, 2005
Samsung Reports Semiconductor Results for the Quarter
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. with its quarterly financials (for the second quarter of its
fiscal 2005 year) reported that its revenue from its semiconductor operations declined slightly year-over-year to 4.17 trillion
Korean won from 4.58 trillion Korean won a year ago. The 4.17 trillion won was also lower than the 4.48 trillion won reported
for Samsung’s first quarter of 2005. The year-over-year change represented a decline in revenues of 9 percent and the
quarter-over-quarter change represented a decline of 7 percent.
Although chip revenue declined, the company reported that margins
were still high in the order of 26 percent and that the company expects improvement in the second half of 2005 as a result
of stronger demand for PCs, and new MP3 players and digital cameras that will require NAND flash chips with higher data storage
capacity. Dr. Woosik Chu, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the IR team at Samsung emphasized the effect of anticipated
demand of IT products on the company’s semiconductor revenue, "With demand for IT products expected to return and steady
growth in our DRAM, NAND Flash, LCD and mobile phone businesses, Samsung Electronics anticipates improvements in both sales
and operating profits in the second half of 2005."
Samsung also reported memory sales for the second quarter of 2005.
These were 3.22 trillion won, compared to 3.57 trillion won for the second quarter of 2004 and 3.54 trillion won for the first
quarter of 2005. System LSI chips, the other major component of Samsung’s semiconductor sales were also down. For the
second quarter of 2005, sales of LSI chips were 0.45 trillion won compared to 0.62 trillion won for the same period a year
ago – representing a 28 percent drop. Sequentially, sales of LSI chips were flat. In the first quarter of 2005, sales
of LSI chips were also 0.45 trillion won.
In recent trading, the Korean won was quaoted at 1032.5 won
to the dollar.
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.
JULY 18th, 2005
Fairchild Revenues Decline on Strong Orders from Consumer
and Headset Markets
Fairchild Semiconductor International, Inc. (NYSE: FCS) reported
revenues for the three months ended June 26, 2005 at $346 million, down from $414.3 million for the same quarter a year ago
and also down sequentially from the $362.8 million for the three months ended March 27, 2005.
On the positive side, Mark Thompson, Fairchild's CEO noted that
the company’s handset product demand was up over 50 percent and switch bookings were up over 100 percent, "Order rates
were strongest in the consumer and handset markets," explained Thompson. "We saw particular strength for products supporting
the television end market as well as much stronger demand in the white goods segment where our Smart Power Module business
continues to win new designs. Demand for products supporting the handset market was up more than 50% over the last two quarters
in part driven by our strength in low power switches and our fast growing analog switch business, which recorded record bookings,
up more than 100% from the prior quarter. We're also seeing significant design-in activity for our new, proprietary uSerDes
products enabling handset manufacturers to better manage the signal flow in clamshell phones while reducing component count
and costs. Our most significant design win to date came this quarter when one of our largest customers selected our uSerDes
solution for use in their latest generation of handsets."
JULY 15th, 2005
AMD (NYSE:AMD) with its financial report for the second quarter
of its 2005 year reported that its microprocessor sales reached record levels. According to Robert J. Rivet, CFO at AMD, "Our
microprocessor business delivered another record quarter driven by increased demand for AMD server and mobile processors from
our largest global OEM customers. Once again we continued to gain momentum with microprocessor sales growth increasing 38
percent compared to the second quarter of 2004. The solid overall demand was enhanced by our newer processor offerings. Strong
Dual-Core AMD Opteron processor sales contributed to an 89 percent revenue increase in our server products from the prior
quarter. This demonstrates the acceptance of the AMD64 platform by enterprise customers. Likewise, the AMD Turion64 processor
captured more than 60 design wins and drove record mobile sales in the thin-and-light mobile PC category."
He also indicated that AMD’s overall memory and MirrorBit
flash memory sales also increased, "Memory Products Group sales increased slightly in the quarter, driven by record MirrorBit
Flash memory sales and overall higher unit demand." AMD reported also that MirrorBit Flash memory sales increased to over
20 percent of total Memory Products Group sales in the second quarter, driven by demand from the wireless market and 110 nanometer
MirrorBit chips. For the year-over-year period, however, AMD’s
Memory Products Group sales decreased. For the second quarter of 2005, memory sales were $462 million, a drop of 31 percent
when compared to the second quarter of 2004, but a 3 percent increase from $447 million posted in the first quarter of 2005.
Overall, total sales for the second quarter of 2005 were $1.260
billion, compared to $1.227 billion in the first quarter of 2004 and $1.262 billion in the second quarter of 2005.
Computation Product Group sales, which include AMD’s microprocessors,
were $767 million in the second quarter of 2005 compared to $750 million in the first quarter of 2005 and $558 million in
the second quarter of 2004. AMD expects that microprocessor sales’ growth will exceed normal seasonal patterns. The
company did not reflect on prospects for memory chips sales due to the SEC filing of Spansion, a joint venture of AMD and
Fujitsu.
JULY 15th, 2005
Rambus Reports Record Revenue
Rambus Inc. (NASDAQ:RMBS) reported record revenues with the announcement of its latest financial
report. For its second quarter ended June 30, 2005, the company had total revenues of $39.99 million compared to $34.97 million
for the same quarter a year ago. For the six months ended June 30, 2005, total revenues were $79.60 million compared to $67.51
million for the same period a year ago. For the first quarter ended March 31, 2005, total revenue was $39.61 million.
Although total revenue rose from the first to the second quarter
in 2005, contract revenue declined from $6.60 million to $5.39 million. Royalty revenues however increased to $34.60 million
from $33.01 million over the same period.
Harold Hughes, Chief Executive Officer at Rambus commented on the
level of interest in the company’s products, "We have taken important and necessary actions to protect our intellectual
property while we work on patent license renewals. We are very encouraged by the growing interest we are seeing in our advanced
high-speed interface designs, particularly in our XDR memory interface as well as the momentum we are seeing with our PCI
Express solutions."
Rambus reported $471 million of cash, cash equivalents and marketable
securities for the end of its latest second quarter.
JULY 11th, 2005
Superconductor technology has been in the wings a long time as a
potential way to reduce energy consumption, improve the speed of electronic circuits and enhance the quality of telecommunications
systems. Early signs from superconductive companies, which have come in slowly but surely, indicate that the technology may
soon become a mainstream commercial reality.
Superconductor Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:SCON) ("STI"), recent preliminary
financials are another sign that superconductors may be closer to an acceptable price point with an acceptable return on investment.
For the second quarter of 2005, which ended July 2, STI has estimated revenue to be about $8.5 million, compared to $4.4 million
in the first quarter of 2005 and $6.3 million in the second quarter of 2004. Net commercial product revenues show a slightly
higher increase. For the second quarter of 2005, the company estimates $7.6 million, which is a 100 percent increase over
the first quarter of 2005, which came in at $3.8 million and a 65 percent increase over the $4.6 million of the second quarter
in 2004.
Jeff Quiram, STI’s CEO expects positive results in the upcoming
quarters and in 2006, "I am very encouraged by the significant sequential increase in revenue over the first quarter. STI
is continuing to gain market acceptance for our solutions, especially in the next generation network deployments. We have
strengthened our sales team to better position STI as an exceptional business partner. We are proud of our progress selling
additional solutions to our existing customers and diversifying our customer base. The cumulative effect of these measures
is expected to have a continuing positive impact on our business for the second half of 2005 and into 2006."
STI’s SuperLink product is a cryogenic receiver front-end
that is intended to lower operation costs and improve performance of telecommunications networks.
JULY 5th, 2005
Oki Semiconductor Moves to Capture India’s Semiconductor
Market
Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. (TSE: 6703) announced plans to increase
its semiconductor sales three fold in the fiscal year ending March 2008. As part of that plan the company announced the opening
of Oki Semiconductor Singapore’s branch office in Bangalore, Karnataka, India.
The company reports that
sales of its LSIs for network equipment, LCD driver LSIs, in-vehicle LSIs and mobile phone tone ringer LSIs have grown rapidly
in India.
JULY 1st, 2005
Despite a 30 percent drop in memory prices from Micron’s second
quarter to its third, Micron Technology has reported year-over-year gains in its latest report. For the nine months ended
June 3, 2005, revenues were $3,622.4 million compared to $3,215.0 million over the nine months ended June 3, 2004. However,
for Micron’s third quarter ended June 2, 2005 it reported a significant sequential drop in revenue to $1,054.2 million
compared to $1,307.9 million for its second quarter ended March 3, 2005. For Micron’s third quarter ended June 3, 2004,
revenues were $1,116.8 million.
Micron indicated in its report that demand for memory for PC applications
was one of the primary reasons for the drop in revenue. However, the company also indicated that significant revenue gains
were seen in image sensors and specialty DRAMs, such as pseudo-static RAMs (PSRAMS). The company said that in the third quarter
DDR and DDR2 DRAMs represented about 60 percent of total sales.
JULY 1st, 2005
SigmaTel Inc. (NASDAQ:SGTL), a primary provider of integrated circuits
for music players, forecasts that its revenue for the quarter ended June 30, 2005 would be in the range of $68 million to
$72 million – approximately 86 percent to 97 percent above the second quarter of 2004 and down 28 percent to 32 percent
sequentially from its first quarter in 2005.
In explaining the lowered guidance, the company noted the 30 percent
drop in pricing for NAND flash chips. According to Ron Edgerton, CEO at SigmaTel, "While we anticipated a reduction in revenues
from the first quarter, as previously guided, the pricing disruptions in the NAND flash market have had an unexpected impact
on our second quarter revenues. However, lower NAND flash pricing bodes well for market growth in the second half of 2005,
with the expectation that 1 GB flash players will retail for less than $100. SigmaTel continues to execute on its long-term
business strategy through market-leading products that have resulted in strong gross margins of greater than 55%. In an ongoing
effort to maintain our market-leading position, in the third quarter we expect to sample an FM tuner product which is uniquely
designed to offer the most cost-effective solution for the portable digital audio market. We expect to gain design wins in
the second half of 2005 that would positively impact our market position and revenues in 2006."
The company indicated that over the last three to four weeks
that NAND flash prices have dropped over 30% and projected that prices are expected to drop another 40 percent over the
next several months, which the company says impacted order patterns of customers.
MOSAID Technologies Incorporated (TSX:MSD), a company with operations
in memory cores for the design of integrated circuits and memory test equipment, reported that revenues for its fourth quarter
ended April 30, 2005 were $16.5 million compared to $8.8 million for the same quarter a year ago. For its entire fiscal year,
MOSAID reported revenue of $49.7 million compared to $28.4 million for its previous fiscal year.
George Cwynar,
President and Chief Executive Officer of MOSAID attributed the revenue increase to patent license agreements related to its
memory IP cores, "Fiscal year 2005 was a pivotal year for MOSAID. As a result of signing patent licenses with Samsung and
Hynix we have recorded our highest annual revenues in three years, and we expect to have a growing and highly profitable IP
business for the foreseeable future. With this change in our financial position we are investing again to grow MOSAID's businesses,
through both internal development and acquisition." MOSAID also announced that it will begin dividend payments to its stockholders.
The company indicated that its cash balance and short-term marketable securities at the end of fiscal 2005 were $65.9 million.
MOSAID also projected that for its first quarter of fiscal year 2006, revenues would be in the range of $14.3 million
to $14.7 million. For the year, the company has forecast that revenues would be between $58 million and $62 million. Of the
total 2006 revenue, the company anticipates that about 80 percent would be from its Intellectual Property Division.
JUNE 30th, 2005
SMSC (NASDAQ: SMSC), as a result of increased sales and its acquisition
of OASIS SiliconSystems Holding AG, reported a 30 percent revenue increase for its first quarter ended May 31, 2005 over the
same quarter last year. Revenues increased to $68.8 million from $53.1 million. The company attributed an 18 percent increase
due to acquisition of OASIS and 12 percent from SMSC’s product lines.
Steven J. Bilodeau, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer gave a
more detailed analysis of the financial results, "Revenues for the first quarter were robust, driven by the addition of revenues
from OASIS and strong sales of our mobile PC, EMC and USB connectivity products. We realized higher profitability than anticipated
due to product mix coupled with lower operating expenses than previously projected. As sales increased, we also benefited
from positive leverage in our operating expenses, which improved operating profit margins by nearly 4% of sales." He also
noted OASIS place in the company, “This was also the first quarter of sales contribution from our recent OASIS acquisition,
which is now our new Automotive Infotainment Systems group, and we are pleased with the progress of the integration of this
business into SMSC."
SMSC also gave guidance on a pro forma basis for the second quarter.
The company estimated that revenues would be in the range of $73 million to $77 million, an increase of about 50 percent year-over-year.
JUNE 29th, 2005
OmniVision Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq:OVTI), considered one of the
largest providers of CMOS image sensors for the cellular digital camera market, reported increased revenues for its latest
fourth quarter and fiscal year. For its fiscal fourth quarter ended April 30, 2005, it reported revenues of $103.0 million
compared to $99.7 million for the same quarter a year ago. For its fiscal year ended April 30, 2005, it reported revenue of
$388.1 million compared to $318.1 million compared to the year ended April 30, 2004, a 22 percent increase.
Commenting on the financial report and events of the year was Shaw
Hong, OmniVision's President and CEO, "The company made significant progress in fiscal 2005, and we are optimistic about our
future. We are pleased to have successfully completed the transition of our product line to the new OmniPixel technology platform
and to have completed the acquisition of CDM Optics. We are also pleased to have been informed by the SEC staff that their
informal inquiry has been terminated without any recommendation for any enforcement action.”
Mr. Hong also gave a forecast for the company’s first quarter,
and prospects for the second quarter, "We currently expect that revenues for the first quarter of fiscal 2006, which ends
on July 31, will be in the range of $90 million to $100 million. However, design wins in recent months give us confidence
that we will see a resumption of top-line growth beginning in the second quarter of the new fiscal year.
He also noted the company’s cash position, "The strength of
our business is reflected in the fact that we ended the year with cash and short-term investments totaling almost $300 million.
Our confidence is underscored by the Board's decision authorizing the repurchase of up to an aggregate of $100 million of
our common stock."
JUNE 24th, 2005
Chipcon Passes 1 Million ZigBee
Shipments, 67% Growth
Chipcon AS, a fabless RF chipset companies, has shipped over 1 million ZigBee-ready,
IEEE 802.15.4 RF chips. With the shipment milestone, the company also reported that over 1,000 companies have ordered its
CC2420 evaluation kits. Geir Fore, President and CEO of Chipcon AS commented on the possibility of increased levels of shipments,
"The fact that we have already reached 1 million units is a significant milestone not only for Chipcon, but for the entire
ZigBee 802.15.4 market. Our success has been based on our ability to reach the market early with a working and compliant platform,
and our ability to anticipate our end customers' systems needs. We expect even further market traction in the second half
of 2005, and it is now evident that the ZigBee standard is the clear winner in the wireless controls market. " The company also noted in its 2004 Annual Report that it had 67 percent compound annual growth rate over the last four
years.
Chipcon, which has focused its attention on the building automation,
automated meter reading, industrial monitoring and healthcare markets, also recently announced in cooperation with Amron Technologies,
Inc. and Figure 8 Wireless, the Amron M5 advanced metering platform. That platform is based on Chipcon's CC2420 802.15.4 RF
semiconductor and Figure 8 Wireless Z-Stack ZigBee-compliant wireless device networking stack. The platform permits wide area
meter coverage - over 2000 meters.
Mark Leach, CTO at Amron, discussed the role of utility communications
options in the platform selection process , "In order to maximize a utility's communications options within its advanced metering
infrastructure, flexibility has always been a top priority for our development team. That's why we decided to accelerate our
ZigBee plans and chose the 2.4GHz frequency band which provides for the largest number of selectable channels and provides
worldwide operability. Each M5 platform network based on the ZigBee-compliant network platform operates autonomously, supports
up to 2,048 client meters, and transfers data to our meter management software housed in a secure data center. This represents
a significant competitive advantage over less scalable solutions."
JUNE 22nd, 2005
SEMTECH CORPORATION (NASDAQ:SMTC) has entered into a definitive
agreement to acquire XEMICS SA, a fabless semiconductor based in Switzerland. The acquisition of XEMICS is expected to broaden
Semtech’s product line to include higher margin products. According to Jason Carlson, Semtech's President and Chief
Executive Officer, "We have established several expectations to come out of the XEMICS acquisition. First, we expect to generate
and promote 2 or 3 new product lines from their technology over the next three or so years. Second, these products should
contribute nicely to top line sales and net income growth, with gross margin forecasted above 55 percent. Third, XEMICS is
expected to give us immediate access to relatively new end-markets, such as automotive, home security, industrial and medical.
Finally, we should be able to double the content Semtech offers to existing portable and communications customers."
Semtech presently offers analog and mixed signal semiconductors,
where XEMICS is focused on low-power analog, radio frequency and digital chips. Its products include sensor interfaces, RISC
microcontrollers, RF transceivers and audio codecs. XEMICS has 77 employees. It was founded in 1997.
JUNE 21st, 2005
Siemens through a signed agreement with Sensant Corporation
to acquire the company, will have available Sensant’s micromaching technology to develop Capacitive Microfabricated
Ultrasonic Transducers (CMUT) for use in medical imaging applications. These types of transducers are expected to enable what
Siemens calls 3D / 4D volumetric imaging systems.
Klaus Hambuechen, President and CEO of Siemens Medical Solutions
Ultrasound Division, mentioned that, "Not only should this technology enable higher frequency imaging, which will allow clinicians
to view the smallest details within the body, but the integrated circuit technology should also deliver superior quality control
and manufacturing processes. Additionally, it will be easier to tightly integrate the electronics of the transducer and the
ultrasound system. This improved integration is where the greatest possibilities for ultrasound imaging and manufacturing
advancements can be realized, especially in the area of volumetric (4D) imaging."
To discuss the capability of silicon ultrasound technology
to enable a better understanding of disease and lower medical care costs was Igal Ladabaum, CEO of Sensant Corporation, "We
believe the combination of technologies from Sensant Corp. and Siemens Ultrasound will position the company to streamline
advanced transducer development through the power of silicon ultrasound technology and allow the realization of cost-effective
two dimensional (2D) matrix array transducers capable of volumetric 4D imaging. As a result, complete detailed volume images
will enable a better understanding of disease in 3D and will simplify image acquisition and interpretation. By enabling clinicians
to reach a confident diagnosis faster and more easily, volumetric 4D imaging will improve patient care and reduce overall
costs to patients and the healthcare system."
The CMUT ultrasonic transducers look and operate like miniature
drums. Seven of the tiny drums, fit into the width of a hair will transmit and receive sounds. In order to develop complete
ultrasound subsystems, hundreds or even thousands of the drums are integrated into a chip or tiny ultrasound catheters –
to take precise ultrasonic pictures of very small internal forms.
Hambuechen emphasized the critical size, "The size of catheter transducers
is critical in diagnostic imaging and the CMUT technology should further enable the development of miniaturized catheter transducers,
enabling clinicians to better visualize functionality within the heart, for example, where plaque or obstructions could be
more easily detected."
Hambuechen also commented on the breaking of a new medical imaging
cost-performance barrier, "As a result, we anticipate quality to be increased and costs to be reduced, which would improve
access for clinicians and patients to advanced diagnostic technologies like the AcuNav catheter."
The technology however is not expected to be available for two to
three years. Plans are to integrate the technology into a complete line of ultrasound imaging systems.
JUNE 13th, 2005
Bay Microsystems, with an announcement that it has reached profitability
on record revenue growth, also reported that it entered into a definitive agreement to purchase another fabless semiconductor
company, Parama Networks. In order to acquire the company, Bay Microsystems also reported it has raised $8.4 million in a
Series D funding round.
Bay and Parama chip technology is expected to result in expanded
product offering for its customers. Bay offers its Internetworking Processor line of chips for voice, video and data packet
processing applications and Parama offers its ADM-on-a-Chip for telecommunications applications.
Bay Microsystems, which has a partnering agreement with the United
States Government and several OEM customers, expects its high revenue growth to continue
JUNE 8th, 2005
Wearable Electronics Out-of-Fashion at Infineon - Market Pegged at $1 Billion
Infineon Technologies AG has divested its wearable electronics unit through a management buy-out
to a company called Interactive Wear. As part of the agreement, rights to the wearable technology's patents and licenses have
all been assigned to Interactive Wear.
Andreas Roepert, Interactive Wear's CEO, spoke positively about
the company's prospects, "We are delighted that the acquisition of Infineon's wearable electronics activities went so smoothly.
We will now concentrate our consulting, development, production, and sales efforts fully on one business - wearable electronics.
Thanks to the technological head start and network of partners that we acquired from Infineon, and to the extremely positive
market appraisal from various analysts, who anticipate a market volume of up to one billion US dollars for technical textiles
in 2008, we see excellent market opportunities and developmental potential for our company."
Interactive Wear, apparently already dressed for its bright future,
can be seen between June 7th and 9th, 2005 at the "Avantex 2005 - International Forum for Innovative Apparel Textiles."
JUNE 8th, 2005
Cygnus Communications, Inc, a fabless semiconductor company, has
completed the acquisition of SiWorks, Inc. SiWorks, based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, provides Wireless Semiconductor Intellectual
Property for a number of wireless standards. These include the IEEE-802.16d standard or the WiMAX standard, UWB-MBOA or the
Multiband-OFDM Alliance standard, and the IEEE-802.11a/b/g standard, otherwise known as the WiFi standard.
Kenneth Stanwood, Cygnus Communications' CEO commented on the acquisition,
"SiWorks IEEE-802.16d compliant SDR is a perfect complement to the Cygnus Communications ASIC development effort in support
of WiMAX compliant Fixed and Mobile Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks. The acquisition of SiWorks accelerates our entry
into the huge IEEE-802.16e market, and we're leveraging the success of the IEEE-802.16d development to be the first to introduce
802.16e compliant ASIC products."
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 7th, 2005
Integration Associates Moves into Zigbee Market with CompXs
Acquisition
Integration Associates, Inc., a fabless semiconductor company noted for its mixed signal and
analog expertise, has acquired CompXs Inc. CompXs developed low-power, mesh network solutions for Zigbee platforms used in
the consumer and industrial markets.
The technology from the acquisition gives Integration Associates
the missing piece to the Zigbee platform market puzzle, which is addressed through Integration's EZRadio family of radio frequency
chips. According to Jean-Luc Nauleau, Integration Associate's CEO, "The dramatic reduction in cost and complexity represented
by the combination of these technologies convinces me that the large market potential projected by the ZigBee Alliance is
fully within the range of possibility. With the acquisition of CompXs, and the forthcoming release of Integration's 802.15.4
transceiver which supports the 868 MHz and 915 MHz bands, Integration becomes the only player with the technology to offer
full spectrum coverage for ZigBee device customers (868 MHz, 915 MHz, and 2.4 GHz). This full spectrum support, along with
Integration's top-performing radio layer and CompXs system-level expertise, makes Integration the clear 'total platform provider'
as we move into the market adoption phase of ZigBee networked devices."
JUNE 7th, 2005
California Micro Devices Exits Medical Chip Market - Sells
Fab to Microchip
As an indication that its other products have better market potential and a fabless model is
more in line with the company's business, California Micro Devices(NASDAQ:CAMD has sold its wafer fabrication facility to
Microchip Technology for $1.9 million.
CAMD previously announced it would close its thin film medical business
by March of 2005. The company’s medical business had experienced a decline in medical sales, which dropped from
$3.1 million in the company’s quarterly period ended December 31, 2003 to $2.1 million in the quarterly period ended
December 31, 2004. On the other hand, for the same two periods the company’s mobile chip products increased from
$6.2 million to $11.5 million. Part of reason for the drop in medical product sales was due lto lower sales to Guidant Corp.,
one of its main medical customers. That customer had previously indicated to CAMD that future orders would diminish.
CAMD also indicated in its quarterly report for the period ending December 31, 2004, that its potential to stay
profitable would be affected by its exit from the medical business, where margins and average selling prices have been high.
For other high volume markets, CAMD recently introduced its
family of PhotonIC devices intended for the 600 million unit cellular phone market. As well, the company has entered the HDMI
receiver market with its CM2021 HDMI MediaGuard port protector. HDMI is the standard used for multimedia communication between
most electronic consumer devices on the market today.
JUNE 7th, 2005
Ample Communications, a fabless semiconductor company that pegs
its market as the wire line network systems market, has now shipped over 100,000 1GE MAC (Gigabite Ethernet Media Access Controller)
ports. The accomplished was attributed to the markets acceptance of the company's line of Harrier chips.
Marek Tlalka, Vice President of Marketing for Ample Communications,
in step with the announcement, noted return customers and numerous design wins, "Our shipment numbers show that customers
are continually relying on our product for their 1GE MAC needs. Many of the shipments are to repeat customers. We are proud
of Harrier's capabilities and are committed to continuing our growth in this market. In addition to the 100,000 ports shipped
we also have over 40 design wins, many of which are expected to ramp to production this year." The company's lists its chip
applications as Ethernet switches, security appliances, routers and access devices for the enterprise and metro network base.
JUNE 1st, 2005
SMIC Obtains $600 Million through China Development
Bank
After political problems with a loan application in the United States,
Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation ("SMIC") (NYSE:SMI)(SEHK:0981) has announced that it has entered into
a $600 million 5 year loan agreement with a group of banks in China. China Development Bank and China Construction Bank were
credited with the arrangement of the loan, which involved a number of other banks. The loan is expected to be used for the
construction of three 12 inch wafer fabs to be built in Beijing.
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."
JUNE 1st, 2005
Imagination Technologies Group PLC reported that its revenue for
the year ended March 31, 2005 reached 31.5 million pounds, down slightly from 31.2 million reached the year before. The company
indicated that royalty revenues increased to 1.3 million pounds in fiscal 2005 up from 0.9 million pounds in 2004. The company
stated that 2.5 million chips now incorporate its technology.
Other items that the company noted in the second half were an increase
in PURE Digital revenues of 50 percent over the first half to 9.8 million pounds. The company attributed the Christmas season
to the increase in PURE Digital revenue. PURE Digital is the company’s product line that addresses the Digital Audio
Broadcasting (DAB) radio market. With over 80 products shipping with Imagination’s DAB technology, which includes products
from companies such as Philips, Sharp and Sony, Imagination estimates it has over 70 percent market share.
Elaborating on its DAB product revenue, Imagination noted that Frontier
Silicon’s Chorus processor chip is based on its META technology, and that chip has been shipped in over 1 million DAB
based products – or 70 percent of the installed base. Projecting out into the future, the company indicated that for
the United Kingdom, 1.2 million DAB units are expected to ship in the 2004 / 2005 financial year and that number is
expected to increase to somewhere between 5 and 6 million units in 2008.
MAY 31st, 2005
Magnum Semiconductor to Acquire Cirrus Logic's Video Product
Line
Cirrus Logic Inc. (NASDAQ:CRUS) has signed a definitive agreement to sell its digital video
product line to Magnum Semiconductor Inc., a company formed Magnum by two investment companies, Investcorp and August Capital.
Cirrus indicates that the divesture was a move to focus its operations more on its high margin analog product lines. According
to David D. French, CEO at Cirrus Logic, "Cirrus Logic's core strength is high-margin analog and mixed-signal products for
the diverse, expanding markets where we have more than 600 products serving nearly 3,000 end customers globally. When the
transaction is completed, Cirrus Logic will be better positioned for consistent and profitable growth."
The digital video lines sold were for applications that related
to DVD recorders, disk based camcorders and network media adaptors. The video products accounted for $3.7 million in sales
in Cirrus' fourth quarter of its fiscal 2005 year. In comparison, the company's analog, mixed signal and embedded product
line accounted for $36.7 million in revenue in the same period.
Savio Tung, Managing Director at Investcorp, besides assuring support
for existing customers, LG Electronics, Samsung and Sony, emphasized Magnum's growth plans, "The new company plans to grow
its market position for digital video ICs and to achieve product leadership in applications that are at the heart of the digital
living room and home media center. In particular it will ensure a seamless transition of key customer accounts."
MAY 31st, 2005
Ansoft Corporation Fourth Quarter Revenues Increase 22%
Ansoft Corporation (NASDAQ:ANST), a broad based EDA company with design tools for the development
of integrated circuits, automotive systems, cellular phones, printed circuit boards and power electronics reported that its
revenue rose 22 percent in its fourth quarter of fiscal 2005, which ended April 30, 2005. The company reported revenues of
$21.7 million compared to $17.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2004. For the entire year, the company reported revenues
of $67.7 million, compared to $54.7 million reported in its last fiscal year.
Nicholas Csendes, Ansoft's President and CEO sees continued growth
and profitability in Ansoft's next fiscal year, "For the next fiscal year, we anticipate revenue growth of around 15% as well
as increasing profitability of around 25%."
MAY 27th, 2005
IXYS Reports 37 Percent Gain in Fiscal Year Revenues
IXYS Corporation (NASDAQ:SYXI) for its fiscal year ended March 31,
2005 has reported that its yearly revenue was $256.6 million, 36.9 percent over its last year revenue of $187.4 million. Dr.
Nathan Zommer, CEO of IXYS, detailed the year’s results, "We are pleased to report our thirteenth consecutive quarter
of increased revenues, and our eleventh consecutive quarter of record revenues, with record net quarterly income of $5.8 million
and record net yearly income of $16.2 million for our FY05 that just concluded on March 31, 2005. This clearly demonstrated
our strong business model that we believe sets us apart from our competition and the majority of the companies in the semiconductor
industry, which still faces the challenge of growth with profitability. We have executed our plan of product diversification
with power semiconductors and proprietary mixed signal integrated circuits in our traditional industrial, medical and telecommunication
markets, combined with an aggressive growth in the consumer market. We ended the March quarter with $78.9 million in backlog,
which is our third highest quarterly backlog. Net income for FY05 increased by about $20.7 million over the prior fiscal year."
Offering a glimpse into the future was Uzi Sasson, Chief Financial
Officer of IXYS, "We have seen steady and reasonable growth in our revenues. We expect that the June quarter revenues will
be flat as compared to those of the March quarter."
MAY 24th, 2005
Marvell Reports Revenue Increase of 35%
Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: MRVL), an integrated circuit company focused on the
broadband and data storage markets, reported record revenues of $364.8 million for its first fiscal quarter of 2006, ended
April 30, 2005. This represented a 35 percent gain over the same quarter a year ago, and a 7 percent sequential gain over
its fourth quarter of its fiscal 2005 year.
Among the major events in the quarter, Marvell noted, was the
introduction of its 88W8385, a 802.11 a/b/g WLAN processor chip intended for use in a variety of phones: digital cordless
phones, VoIP phones and video phones. The introduction of the chip was also complemented with an agreement between Marvell
and Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. The two companies have made plans to offer joint WLAN solutions for a variety of consumer
electronic devices.
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 20th, 2005
Synopsys, Inc. (NASDAQ: SNPS), has released results for its second
quarter, which ended April 30 2005. The company's revenue for the quarter increased 1 percent on a quarterly sequential basis,
but declined 17 percent on a quarterly year-over-year basis. For the second quarter of fiscal 2005, revenues were $244.3 million
compared to $294.6 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2004. For its latest six months, Synopsys reports that revenue
was $485.6 million compared to $579.9 million for the same period in fiscal 2004. Synopsys stated that "year-over-year comparisons
reflect the company's shift to an almost-fully ratable license model initiated in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2004, under
which most of the company's license revenue is recognized over time rather than upfront in the quarter shipped. As a result,
in the most recent quarter more than 90% of revenue came from backlog." A review of Synopsys numbers indicate that Synopsys
up-front license revenue declined substantially, year-over-year.
Synopsys also reported for its 2005 fiscal year a target revenue
in the range of $960 million to $990 million. These estimates include the effect of the acquisition of Nassda Corporation,
another EDA company.
MAY 19th, 2005
Driven by a market that sees SOI process technology as an answer
to high power consumption for high speed consumer electronic products, Soitec (Euronext Paris), on top of a recent $100 million
plus purchase agreement, has reported a 57% percent increase in its 2004 - 2005 annual sales. With its annual financial release,
the SOI wafer suppler also reported a 248 percent sales increase of its SOI based 300 mm wafers - indicative of the popularity
of SOI for the latest generation of chips.
Soitec, which specifically noted microprocessors and automotive
markets as two growth catalysts, reported that overall sales for its 2004 - 2005 fiscal year came in at 138.9 million Euros,
up 57 percent from last year's 88.1 Euros. 300 millimeter wafer sales reached 42.1 million Euros, or 32 percent of total sales
compared to just 14 percent of sales in the 2003 - 2004 fiscal year.
The company projects that growth rates are expected to be higher
than 40 percent. In support of that projected growth rate, Soitec points to a $100 million purchase multi-year agreement for
300 millimeter SOI wafers, which is expected to unfold between July 2005 and June 2006, and to its multi-year supply agreement
of 200 millimeter and 300 millimeter wafers to leading microprocessor provider, AMD.
Soitec's latest advanced technology also has done well. The company
noted 4.2 million Euros in Picogiga related revenues, up 16.4 percent. Picogiga International, a unit of Soitec, develops
high performance transistor technology based on new materials technology. These transistors, according to researchers at Triquint
Semiconductor, a United States based GaAs chip company, have an output power density of 7 W/mm at 10 GHz.
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.
MAY 18th, 2005
Agilent's Reports on Chip, Test and Life Science Revenue
Agilent with the release of its quarterly earnings report for the three months ended April
30, 2005, its second quarter, reported individual results for its semiconductor, automated test equipment, and life sciences
operations.
Agilent for its most recent second quarter, reported Semiconductor
Products' orders of $464 million, up 5 percent from the same quarter a year ago, and up 22 percent sequentially. The book-to-bill
ratio for semiconductors also reached 1.12, which represented an increase from 0.97 for the year ago quarter and 1.00 in the
first quarter of its 2005 year.
Within the semiconductor group, orders for personal systems components,
which include optical mice and handset components increased 2 percent over last year levels. Networking systems components
also increased. They were up 11 percent over last year. In the network area, Agilent indicated that fiber optic and storage
components were a major component of the gains. Overall in the semiconductor group, total revenues were $414 million, down
8 percent over the year ago quarter and up 9 percent from the first quarter in 2005.
In the automated test equipment (ATE) area, where the company sells
into the semiconductor market, orders reached $171 million, up 7 percent over the first quarter in 2005 and up 25 percent
above the fourth quarter of Agilent's 2004 fiscal year. However the company reported that despite the gain, the recent quarter's
orders were down 40 percent from the same quarter a year ago. In the test area, Agilent indicated that sequentially, flash
memory and parametric test orders were down, but system on chip (SOC) and manufacturing test orders were up. ATE revenues
reached $181 million in Agilent's second quarter, up 17 percent sequentially, but down 32 percent year over year. Agilent
expects that the industry will recover in the second half. One reason is customer acceptance of its new SOC, flash and manufacturing
test products.
Life Science orders, which include Agilent's microarray chips, increased
17 percent in the latest quarter.
MAY 18th, 2005
PLD Applications'
IP Core Revenue Up 87 Percent - Record Revenues and Orders
PLD Applications (PLDA), a PCI Intellectual
Property (IP) core company, reported that its revenue for 2004 increased 87 percent. The company also reported that revenue
and bookings for its first quarter of 2005 achieved new records. Jean-Yves Brena, President of PLDA, gave reasons for the
revenue increase, "We attribute our continuing growth to two factors, a strong commitment to a loyal and growing client base
and a long-term strategy designed to meet our clients' present and future needs."
PLDA also reported that it signed PCI Express IP Core contracts
with several semiconductor companies. The company also listed a number of companies it is working with, which included many
tier one integrated circuit, EDA and electronic system companies as well as one of the worlds largest software companies.
The listed companies included Agere Systems, Agilent Technologies, Alcatel, Atmel, Cisco Systems, Freescale Semiconductor,
Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Matsushita, Mentor Graphics, Microsoft, PMC-Sierra, Quantum, Sony and Sun Microsystems.
PLDA has sold over 500 licenses.
With the report, Arnaud Schleich, Vice President of PLDA implied
that the success of the company was due to low cost and easy to use IP Core products, "The adoption cost has never been lower
in both financial terms and integration time."
MAY 17th, 2005
NVidia's Revenues Increase
24% - Net income Jumps 202 Percent
NVidia Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) for its first quarter ended May
1, 2005, reported record revenue of $583.8 million, a 24 percent increase over last year's first quarter of $471.9 million.
The company also announced that its net income increased 202 percent to $64.4 million, up from $21.3 million in the same quarter
last year. With the announcement, NVidia reported its nForce and Quadro product lines also had record quarters.
Jen-Hsun Huang, President and CEO of NVidia, indicated that the
company has diversified its product line and is now back in growth mode, "We have solidly returned our company to growth.
We now have four exciting growth businesses -- GPU, MCP, wireless media processor, and consumer electronics. In addition,
our gross margin initiatives continue to deliver results ahead of schedule. Our efforts over the past two years have put us
back in growth mode and have positioned us squarely at the center of the digital media revolution."
MAY 16th, 2005
Irvine Sensors Reports 151 Percent Gain In Revenue
Irvine Sensors Corporation (NASDAQ:IRSN) a company with operations in stacked chip packaging
technology, infrared camera technology, optical interconnects, mixed signal integrated circuits and image processing, reported
that its revenue for its latest 13 week period ended April 3, 2005 reached $6.1 million, up 151 percent from $2.4 million
from the 13 week period ended March 28, 2004. For the 26 week period ended April 3, 2005, revenues increased 76 percent to
$5.9 million over the corresponding period a year ago. The company said the 26 week revenue level was a record for the company.
The company did not break out specific product revenue, but the
company earlier in the year stated that it had booked over $15 million in government R&D contracts. Robert G. Richards, Irvine Sensors CEO commented at that time on the contracts, "These latest awards, when added to
our existing backlog, strengthen our belief that we are headed toward a second consecutive record year in terms of research
and development contract revenue. Furthermore, these awards are helping to push the maturation of our more advanced technologies
to levels that could lead to product applications in the next few years."
MAY 16th, 2005
Quicklogic's Low-Power FPGAs Help Boost Revenue 21%
QuickLogic Corporation (NASDAQ:QUIK), a company with core low power FPGA technology, reported
that its revenue for its first quarter ended March 31, 2005, was up 21 percent year-over-year and 13 percent sequentially.
The company's ESP and Advanced ESP products contributed 34 percent of the revenue for the first quarter of 2005.
Tom Hart, Chairman, President and CEO at Quicklogic commented on
the companies bookings and the design momentum of its FPGA products, "We are very pleased with 13% sequential revenue growth
and particularly our return to profitability in the first quarter. Net bookings in the quarter were at an all time high. In
addition, our new QuickPCI II and Eclipse II FPGAs -- the lowest power FPGAs in the industry -- continue to build design momentum
with our customers and partners. Our confidence in the revenue potential from these products continues to grow."
MAY 11th, 2005
TTP Communications plc (LSE:TTC), a semiconductor IP core company
with a focus on the cellular phone market, reported revenues for the its fiscal year ended March 31, 2005 reached 62 million
English Pounds, up from 49.6 million English pounds over last years revenues. With the report, TTP also stated that the number
of handsets that incorporate its technology reached about 40 million this year compared to about 23 million last year.
TTP also broke out its Silicon Business Unit (SBU) revenue for the
year. For the year, SBU had sales of 15.8 million English Pounds, up 66 percent over 9.5 million English Pounds brought in
the year before. TTP also gave an idea about the monetary value associated with its silicon licenses - SBU licenses numbered
12 this year, compared to 5 for the year before. The company notes that chipsets based on its silicon cores are pervasive
in the marketplace. The Silicon Business Unit at the end of the year employed 121.
Royalty revenues also grew significantly. For the year, royalty
revenue reached 18 million English Pounds, compared to 16.2 million English Pounds in 2003 - up 11 percent. Chipset royalties
revenue growth was more pronounced - an increase of 34% year over year. The increase was attributed to newer chipsets and
its chipset partners, specifically Analog Devices. TTP's products support the GSM and 3GPP cellular standards.
TTP also stated that it had increased the number of employees in
the Asia Pacific, which includes China - to about 100. The company, however, noted that competition in the Chinese market
, a market where it obtained 33 percent of its revenue, had increased. Although the company reports that its booked orders
are up 33 percent, the company indicates that it does not expect to see any fundamental improvement in the Chinese market
- specifically at the low-end of the handset market, where Chinese manufacturers have seen a decline in total handset shipments.
MAY 11th, 2005
Digital Angel's GPS and Radio
Communications Revenue Jump 38 Percent
Digital Angel, a major supplier of syringe-injectable RFID microchips,
reported for its first quarter ended March 31, 2005 that its revenue rose 24.4 percent to $13.4 million from $10.8 million
over the same quarter a year ago. According to the CEO, Kevin McGrath, "We finished our first quarter with a strong March
that included the revenue and gross profit contribution from our Daploma acquisition. This year's first quarter revenues were
also boosted by solid increases in microchip and visual product sales for livestock applications, and we had excellent revenue
growth in our Signature Industries subsidiary in Great Britain, particularly in its SARBE unit with the delivery of the G2R
pilot locator beacon."
Specific divisional revenue contributions from Digital Angel's Animal
Applications business, which increased sales 17.3 percent to $8.3 million from $7.1 million a year ago, and from its GPS and
Radio Communications business, which increased sales 38 percent to $5.1 million from $3.7 million for the same period a year
ago
MAY 11th, 2005
Zoran to Acquire Oren for $53.5 Million - Deal Targeted
at Digital TV Market
Zoran Corporation (NASDAQ: ZRAN) has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire a development
partner, Oren Semiconductor, Inc., another fabless semiconductor company with operations in Israel. Zoran and Oren have worked
together on the development of reference designs for the television market. According to Dr. Levy Gerzberg, President and
CEO of Zoran, "We have worked with Oren for over a year to integrate its products into our platform and deliver a series of
improved solutions for the growing digital television markets. Together we have designed new ATSC/NTSC reference designs that
combine Oren's Cascade demodulator ICs with Zoran's Generation 9 and SupraHD multimedia processors. These platforms deliver
a wide range of optimized solutions for our OEM customers and have already enabled us to secure multiple design wins for products
that we expect to see in the market later this year. The Oren team will join Zoran's DTV division led by Ram Ofir, senior
vice president and general manager. We welcome the Oren team to Zoran."
Avraham Menachem, President and CEO of Oren Semiconductor spoke
about the reduction in design time the companies' platforms offer and the merger, "Our collaboration with Zoran has delivered
a series of turnkey platforms that shorten the design time by reducing the effort needed to finely tune hardware and software
components for each new digital television appliance. We believe that Zoran, as a leading supplier in the digital entertainment
market, is the right company to drive the acceleration to digital television and we are proud to become a part of the Zoran
team."
Elron Electronic Industries Ltd. (NASDAQ & TASE:ELRN), which
has a 41% interest in Oren, reports that it will receive proceeds of approximately $19 million from the transaction, once
complete.
MAY 10th, 2005
CSR Reports
80 Percent Year-Over-Year Revenue Increase - Estimates 47 Percent Bluetooth Market Share
CSR plc (LSE:CSR), considered the world's market leader in the
Bluetooth integrated circuit market, announced that its revenue for its first quarter of 2005 increased 80 percent over last
year. For the latest quarter, revenues were $66.4 million compared to $36.8 million last year. The company however reported
that its revenue was down sequentially from the prior quarter, when revenues reached $79.8 million, representing a 17 percent
decline. CSR indicated that the decline in sequential revenue was in part a seasonal reflection of the market, which included
Christmas and the Chinese New Year. The company, for the first quarter, relied on only 5 of its customers to bring in 52 percent
of its revenue, the same level as in the fourth quarter.
CSR originally projected that sales for next quarter, its
second quarter, would be between $85 million and $95 million, However a fire at ASE, the company that tests its Bluetooth
chips, may impact that number. John Hodgson, CEO elaborated, "We are pleased to have delivered Q1 2005 revenue and profit
in line with expectations. Customer orders picked up significantly after Chinese new year and support our expectation of a
sharp acceleration in revenue in subsequent quarters. Our design win record was again very strong which supports the Board's
confidence in the full year. We had expected revenues in Q2 2005 of between $85 and $95 million but this will be impacted
by the fire at ASE Chung Li and we will provide revised guidance as soon as practicable."
In the report, CSR estimated
it now has a 47 percent "unit" market share of the Bluetooth market, had won over 100 design wins in the first quarter, 48
of which were in March, and that it obtained 19 mobile phone design wins from several cellular phone market leaders: LG, Motorola,
NEC, Nokia, Panasonic and Samsung. The company's BlueCore is estimated to be in over 60 per cent of all qualified Bluetooth
enabled products and modules. CSR lists BlueCore customers as Nokia, Dell, Panasonic, Sharp, Motorola, IBM, Apple, NEC, Toshiba,
RIM and Sony.
CSR also expects to continue to increase the number of its employees. At the end of the quarter, the
employee count reached 383, up from 316 at the end of the fourth quarter - 34 of which were from the Clarity Technologies
acquisition.
CSR broke out its first quarter design wins by product applications. Its products are to be used in mono
headsets offered by Jabra, LG, Nokia and Treo (palmOne); stereo headphones offered by Motorola, i.Tech Dynamic and Fillony;
printers offered by Canon, Seiko Epson, Panasonic and Ricoh; notebooks offered by ASUStek; a mouse offered by Logitech; and
in an entertainment system offered by Gizmondo mobile.
CSR also gave a time frame for its volume production entrance
in the WiFi market. Its UniFi chip for IEEE802.11a, b, g mobile phone and consumer electronics markets is scheduled for production
at the end of 2005, with volume production in 2006.
MAY 9th, 2005
eMagin Corporation (AMEX:EMA), with the announcement of preliminary
financial results for its first quarter ended March 31, 2005, indicated that its plans to significantly increase its monthly
output of microdisplay devices. The company states that it anticipates that its average output to go from 1,000 to 2,000 units
per month in 2004 to 15,000 to 20,000 units per month in 2005.
Gary Jones, CEO at eMagin discussed at length about the revitalized
production capacity and the company's OLED-on-silicon based products, "I'm pleased to report that we believe that we've completed
the first phase of the critical step of updating our Hopewell Junction fabrication facility to accommodate the much higher
output levels we anticipate requiring this year. With production resuming in May we've initially restarted the line to accommodate
moderate throughput. We anticipate that we will generate between $1.0 million and $2 million of revenue during Q2, ramping
production output upward throughout the remainder of the year. Our first shipments of microdisplays from our consumer OEM
backlog are now occurring and we are projecting initial shipping availability of our first commercial Z800 3D Visor units
to begin by the end of the quarter. Our Z800 3D visor combines our easy to view OLED-on-silicon technology with our new large
view lenses, head-tracking capability, flicker-free 3D stereovision capability, built-in noise canceling microphone, hi-fi
sound, and low power USB compatibility. The effect is equivalent to viewing a 105-inch screen at 12 ft, but with an image
that moves as your head moves to completely surround you with a screen. The product continues to receive outstanding reviews
from press, partners, and prospective customers and we believe will be one of the more eagerly anticipated new products of
2005."
eMagin also reported preliminary estimates of its revenue for the
three months ended March 31, 2005. For that period the company reports $0.7 million in revenue, compared to $0.5 million in
the first quarter of 2004 - an increase of 28 percent.
MAY 9th, 2005
Hynix Semiconductor Inc. for its first quarter of 2005, ended March
31, 2005 reported revenue of 1,270 billion won, a decrease of 12% from the prior quarter's revenue of 1,450 billion won. Conversely,
Hynix stated that income increased 53% to 321 billion won compared to 209 billion won in its last quarter. The company attributed
the decline in revenue to a strong decline in DRAM prices despite bit growth and a weak US dollar. At the same time Hynix
says that NAND flash memory sales increased significantly because of factory capacity considerations and a more favorable
NAND flash market.
On a parent basis, Hynix reported that sequential revenue only declined
4 percent and net income increased 70 percent.
MAY 6th, 2005
Lexar Media Achieves Quarterly
Run Rate of $232 Million - Up 41%
Lexar Media, Inc. (NASDAQ: LEXR) has begun to carve out a share
of the flash memory market. With the announcement of first quarter revenue of $232.4 million the company is in range of the
$1 billion annual revenue mark, that is if the market holds. Eric Stang, Chairman, CEO and President, Lexar, indicated
that product pricing may stand in the way for the near term, "Looking at the second quarter, we see pricing pressures have
now re-emerged as a major competitive issue as we see certain competitors moving to reduce prices aggressively in the marketplace.
As a result of this uncertainty, our visibility is limited, and we are providing only a general outlook for the second quarter.
We anticipate second quarter revenues to be approximately $200 million and a net loss for the quarter due primarily to price
reductions and price protection obligations as well as ongoing legal expenses." The fortunes of Lexar depend to a degree on
its law suit with Toshiba, a major competitor in the flash market. A hearing to be held on May 16, 2005 will determine
whether or not an injunction against Toshiba will be imposed. Although Lexar won a major settlement with Toshiba, Toshiba
has indicated it will appeal.
For the first quarter, Lexar revenues increased 41% from $164.7
million in the same period last year. The first quarter is a 23% sequential increase from $188.5 million in the prior fourth
quarter.
MAY 6th, 2005
Nanogen, Inc. (NASDAQ:NGEN), a company with electronic based molecular
chip technology, has reported sales of $3.2 million for its latest quarter. The increase was 47 percent over the same quarter
last year, which came in at $2.2 million. The company has also projected a three fold increase in revenue in comparison to
2004 as a result of more of its products hitting the market and royalty revenues.
Howard C. Birndorf, Nanogen's chairman of the board and chief executive
officer, referred to the acquisitions and the timing of product revenue growth, "The results of Nanogen's first quarter show
the immediate increase in revenues we expected from our growing product portfolio and license agreements from acquisitions.
With renewed vigor in product sales, we are also seeing the benefits of our broader product line of reagents for conducting
genetic analysis. By building critical mass, we are accelerating our revenue growth while simultaneously continuing to realize
cost efficiencies as we complete the integrations of Epoch Biosciences and SynX. We anticipate further revenue growth during
the year as new products begin shipping during the second half of 2005."
Nanogen has built its product portfolio through recent acquisitions,
and its NanoChip Molecular Biology Workstation, and NanoChip Electronic Microarray. These products are used to analyze fluids
and biological samples for diseases related to genetic variations.
MAY 6th, 2005
X-FAB Semiconductor Foundries AG reported that its 2004 revenue
reached Euro 142.4 million, up 27 percent from 2003 levels, which were Euro 112.0 million. Quarterly income was also up 22
percent year over year. Weighting on the performance was the U.S. dollar, which over half of the company's sales are purchased
with.
X-FAB, based in Erfurt, Germany, employs about 1,000. The company
operates three manufacturing facilities for the production of integrated circuits. These facilities are in Germany, the United
Kingdom and the United States. The company specializes in foundry work for mixed signal and analog integrated circuits based
on CMOS and BiCMOS processes for automotive, communications, consumer and industrial applications.
MAY 5th, 2005
Applied Wave Research, Inc. (AWR), an EDA tools company, which offers
tools for the high frequency end of the electronics market, reported that it has obtained its sixth consecutive year of double-digit
bookings growth, and has returned to profitability. The company also indicated that it had record product revenues in Europe,
North America and Japan and that its latest quarter ended March 31 saw record bookings and revenues. James Spoto, President
and CEO of AWR gave specific numbers and the company's battle to overcome an uncertain economy, "Fiscal year 2005 was the
most successful in AWR's history, with a resounding 38% increase in product bookings over FY2004. Our steady and impressive
growth in an uncertain economy over the past six years bears out our conviction that the EDA market is demanding a completely
new solution to meet the increasingly complex requirements for the design of next-generation communications products. We are
very pleased with our results and look forward to another successful year."
AWR also added new customers. These included Astra Microwave Products,
BOE Hydis, Eagle Test Systems, Inc. and Silicon Laboratories, a major supplier of integrated circuits to the cellular
market. AWR's design tools, which include Microwave Office 2004, Analog Office 2004 and Vision System Simulator 2004
offer features and libraries that address ultra wide band (UWB), wireless local area networks (WLAN) and 3G and 4G cellular
standards.
MAY 5th, 2005
Faraday Technology Corporation (TAIEX: 3035), a Taiwan based ASIC
design house and Intellectual Property Core provider, reported a year-over-year revenue increase of 23.3 % for the quarter
ended March 31, 2005. The company also indicated that new design wins in the first quarter, 35 % of which were overseas ASIC
design wins based on 0.13 micron technology, should enable the company to further improve its revenue. H.P. Lin, President
of Faraday Technology. elaborated on the foreign based design wins, "2005 Q1 was a quarter that showed strong momentum of
0.13um technology adoption. For the first time, Faraday's international business, which includes North America, Japan, and
Europe reported more 0.13um ASIC design-wins in a quarter than 0.18um designs. We are very excited about the business progress,
and look forward to more 0.13um ASIC projects this year."
Charlie Cheng, Vice President of International Business at Faraday
spoke further about the design outsource trends in the market, "In the past few months, we see very good traction on 0.13um
and structured ASIC technology in US, Japan, and Europe, especially in the networking and communication markets. It has been
a clear trend for design houses in these regions to outsource more projects to Asia so they can be more focused on leading-edge
technology development. Faraday's broad IP portfolio, strong design expertise and close foundry relationship are poised for
helping customers to succeed."
MAY 4th, 2005
SafeNet (NASDAQ:SFNT), a provider of security toolkits, semiconductor
security IP and security-based hardware appliances, reported revenue for the quarter ended March 31, 2005 of $59.8 million,
up 149 percent from $24.0 million for the year ago quarter.
Anthony Caputo, Chairman and CEO of SafeNet referred to the acquisition
of Rainbow in his discussion, "This first quarter of 2005 completes the first full year of our acquisition with Rainbow. We
are pleased that this is working very well for us--our revenue is up 149% from the first quarter last year, adjusted net income
is up by 200%, and adjusted EPS up by 88% from the first quarter last year. Our management and staff delivered a strong quarter
highlighted by positive cash generation and GAAP income as well as declining receivables and days sales outstanding. Another
indication of the strong execution by our team is the fact that our outside auditors have completed the audit of management's
assessment pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act that the company maintained effective internal control over financial
reporting and issued an unqualified opinion. This week, SafeNet was named as the fastest growing networking company in America
by Network World--this is especially significant since our growth topped other fast growing companies such as Research in
Motion and Juniper Networks. Last year we were named as the third fastest growing company in the same issue, and our goal
is to continue growing over the next five years. We feel this recognition as well as our strong financial results demonstrate
that focused execution of our business plan continues to fuel our growth and ranking in the security space."
For the year, Safenet projects that it will have revenues in the
range of $255 to $275 million.
MAY 4th, 2005
Mindspeed Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:MSPD) in its announcement of
its latest financial quarterly, reported that revenue from its multiservice access voice-over-IP (VoIP) solutions grew 35
percent sequentially over the previous quarter. The company also reported that this VoIP revenue contributed 33 percent to
its total second quarter revenues. Mindspeed's high-performance analog devices increased 11 percent sequentially to 26 percent
of total quarterly revenues.
Raouf Halim, Mindspeed's CEO discussed the quarter and VoIP shipments,
"We met our revenue expectations for our second fiscal quarter, achieving a modest sequential increase despite a significant
slowdown primarily in shipments of our legacy T1/E1 transmission products. Shipments of VoIP products grew significantly and
represented our largest revenue contributor. In fact, over the past four quarters, VoIP product revenues have grown in excess
of 80 percent compared to the prior four quarters.
Halim also gave projections for 2006, "We remain confident in the
long-term growth of the network infrastructure markets we serve and, in particular, our ability to gain a disproportionate
share in specific high-growth segments. However, as a result of continued poor visibility coupled with an overall weaker near-term
outlook primarily for certain of our legacy communication products, we now anticipate reaching pro forma operating breakeven
performance of $37 million in quarterly revenues in the first half of calendar 2006. This perspective is predicated primarily
upon continued growth of our VoIP and high-performance analog product families."
Mindspeed had $26.6 million in sales for its latest quarter ended
March 31, 2005. This compares to $30.8 million the same quarter last year.
MAY 4th, 2005
Mentor Graphics Corporation (NASDAQ:MENT) had first quarter revenue
of $164.3 million compared with $164.4 million for the same quarter a year ago. Walden C. Rhines, CEO and chairman of Mentor
Graphics commented on the quarter's results, "Weakness in the business was driven primarily by softness in demand from semiconductor
companies, while demand from system businesses was better. As a result, Mentor systems products like FPGA synthesis, embedded
software and selected PCB products performed well. On the other hand, Calibre product line bookings were particularly weak
in the quarter. We expect strength in this product line in the second half of the year based upon the number of current customer
engagements."
Gregory K. Hinckley, President at Mentor Graphics indicated that
seasonal trends now favored the fourth quarter, "As the drive to time-based licensing continues, our business is increasingly
driven into the fourth quarter. While we are not satisfied with our first quarter performance, our second half continues to
look solid."
For the quarter, system and software revenue declined to $91.6 million
over last years $94.5 million. Service and support revenue increased about $3 million.
MAY 3rd, 2005
Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NYSE:CDN) (Nasdaq:CDN) announced its
revenue increased 10 percent for its latest quarter. Revenues were $293 million compared to $266 million for the first quarter
of 2004. Cadence also reported for its latest quarter that over twenty customers selected its Encounter RTL Compiler product.
For next quarter, the company forecasts revenue in the range of
$300 million to $310 million.
MAY 2nd, 2005
Magma Design Automation Inc. (Nasdaq:LAVA), further advanced its
position in the EDA market with the announcement of its latest quarterly and annual revenues. The company for its fiscal year
ended March 31, 2005, reported revenue of $145.9 million, compared to $113.7 million for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2004.
Sequentially, Magma saw a 5 percent gain. For the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2005, Magma reported revenue of $35.7 million
compared to $34.0 million for the same quarter a year ago.
Rajeev Madhavan, CEO at Magma, highlighted the company's record
bookings, "The year we just completed included many highlights for Magma. Our fiscal 2005 revenue was another annual record
and our bookings in the most recent quarter were also the best in Magma history. With the work our product teams have put
into our Cobra development project, we're looking forward to even greater accomplishments in fiscal 2006."
For Magma's fiscal 2006 first quarter, which ends July 3, 2005,
the company has forecast total revenue somewhere between $35 million to $39 million.
APRIL 29th, 2005
Affymetrix, Inc., (NASDAQ:AFFX), with a report that its latest quarterly
revenue reached $88.6 million, broke down its first quarter product sales as follows: $47.7 million in GeneChip sales (DNA
Arrays), reagent revenue of $9.9 million, and instrument revenue of $15.9 million. Affymetrix also shipped some 50 GeneChip
Systems in the quarter. Shipments of those systems now total over 1,225. Total product and product related revenue was $84.
9 million in the quarter ended March 31, 2005 compared to total product and product related revenue of $74.6 million for the
same quarter last year.
APRIL 29th, 2005
Cypress Semiconductor, along with its quarterly financials, has
reported that its SunPower division saw a revenue increase of 142 percent. Revenue was $11.00 million in the first quarter.
The increase in revenue correlates to the start of the production ramp of its solar cell facility in the Philippines.
SunPower plans a second 25 MW solar cell line in the Philippines
scheduled for initial volume production in the fourth quarter. The second line will bring SunPower's capacity up to 16 million
solar cells per year. SunPower so far has shipped one million solar cells. That record was set five months after the first
25-megawatt facility was enabled. Yield at that facility went from 20 percent to 90 percent in that five month period. Cypress
also has reported that the National Renewable Energy Laboratory has rated SunPower's flagship A-300 solar cells at 21.5% efficiency
- noted as one of the of the highest in the solar industry.
T. J. Rodgers, CEO at Cypress, commented about the overall company
revenue, which is heavily focused on semiconductors, "Our revenue for the 2005 first quarter came in at the bottom of the
range we provided in guidance at the beginning of the quarter. However, we believe that the first quarter was the bottom of
this current slowdown. We have started the second quarter with a better backlog position than last quarter's, and bookings
to date are strong. Most of our revenue shortfall in the first quarter was the result of a decrease in sales of memory products
to the wireless handset market, which experienced softness towards the end of the quarter. On the other hand, SunPower Corp.
-- our silicon solar cell subsidiary -- exceeded its revenue target slightly, posting sales of $11 million in the first quarter."
In a statement after the release of its earnings, T. J. Rogers further
detailed the demand and supply situation at SunPower for its solar cells. "With the demand for solar cells far outstripping
supply, and the projected output of its production plant in the Philippines booked out through 2005, SunPower's ability to
grow is constrained only by its ability to quickly ramp its manufacturing operations and its access to capital."
APRIL 29th, 2005
PortalPlayer, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAY), now a major chip supplier to the
MP3 media player market, has seen its sales rise significantly over the last year. The company's revenue for the first quarter
of fiscal 2005 ended March 31 2005 was $44.5 million, over 400 percent higher than the $10.2 million in the first quarter
of 2004. The first quarter numbers were however down slightly from the lofty Christmas quarter, which brought in $44.7 million.
Gary Johnson, CEO of PortalPlayer discussed the recent quarter,
future prospects and the company's new product features in length, "We had a great first quarter of 2005. The launch of our
new PP5022 chip, and the introduction of exciting new models from the leading MP3 player manufacturer based on our technology,
helped us to record significantly stronger than seasonal results during the quarter. First quarter revenue more than quadrupled
from the first quarter a year ago, and we generated $13.6 million in cash during the quarter. In the first quarter of 2005,
we focused on demonstrating innovative new features and technologies to our customers and introducing two new semiconductor
devices that we believe will contribute significantly to our growth the rest of the year. During the quarter we launched and
began to ship in high volume our PP5022 System-on-Chip, which up to triples battery life for today's hard drive media players
and also supports high-capacity flash memory storage media. We also began to sample the PP5024, our first device that integrates
the media processor along with audio, power management, and battery charging features in a single System-in-Package for MP3
flash players. We believe this new product will enable us to now target a larger percentage of the digital media player market.
Because of our technology leadership, we expect demand from our customers to continue to be stronger than the typical seasonal
consumer electronics trends. The momentum for us has not slowed. Therefore, we believe that our revenue for the second quarter
of 2005 could be at the same level as our strong first quarter revenue. In addition, we believe we are well positioned for
impressive growth in the second half of the year."
APRIL 29th, 2005
Trident's More than Doubles LCD TV Chip Revenues
Trident Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRID) has reported with its third
quarter 2005 results that its LCD TV revenues had more than doubled. According to Frank Lin, Trident's President and CEO,
"Our focus on Tier I account design win momentum combined with the rapid launch of the SVP-EX has enabled us to grow our LCD-TV
revenues by 115% in the March quarter. Overall, flat panel television revenues grew sequentially by 76% and have grown to
become more than 60% of our business. We currently expect to build on that growth again and add sequential growth in the range
of 25-30% in the flat panel television segment in the June quarter. Although the Digital CRT business in China is down seasonally
more than we expected due to a slower than expected Chinese New Year sell through, we do believe we're holding market share
and expect this business to grow modestly in the June quarter. We expect our two existing Tier I OEM's to continue to ramp
production into an expanding market, and we have added two new Tier I OEM's along with other leading ODM customers who we
expect to ramp into production in the June quarter, so we are now more confident than ever that we will be able to grow overall
revenues sequentially by 20-25% in each of the next three calendar quarters."
For the quarter ended March 31, 2005, Trident reported revenues
of $16.1 million compared to the $15.4 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2004 and $13.8 million for the quarter a
year ago. Trident also reports that its clients include four of the top six Tier I LCD-TV OEMs.
APRIL 29th, 2005
Mercury Computer Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRCY), a company that has
diversified into the semiconductor IP Core and EDA design tools market, reported that its total revenues for the third quarter
ended March 31, 2005 increased 42 percent year-over-year to $64.3 million. The company's OEM Solutions, which focuses on semiconductor
solutions, saw its revenue advance on the same order, growing to $14.2 million, up $4.9 million from last year and up $3.8
million sequentially.
"We are pleased with the strong results posted for the third quarter,
in our defense and commercial businesses," said Jay Bertelli, CEO of Mercury, "On the strength of our backlog, particularly
in our defense business unit, we anticipate full-year revenues to be at the top end of previous expectations, or $245 million."
The company also has a medical unit, the Imaging and Visualization Solutions and a computer unit, Momentum Computer.
APRIL 28th, 2005
Texas Instruments Incorporated (NYSE:TXN) (TI) with revenues
of $2972 million for its first quarter of 2005, down six percent sequentially, has indicated that the wireless semiconductor
revenue outlook has changed. According to Rich Templeton, CEO at Texas Instruments. "While the overall environment for
cell phones will likely support a lower growth rate than last year, we continue to have high expectations for our wireless
operations in 2005. In the first quarter, TI's wireless revenue grew 15 percent from a year ago and declined 14 percent sequentially
following a strong fourth quarter. Recent market reports have confirmed that TI is the world's top provider of semiconductors
used in the wireless market, and we expect to gain additional share this year in the fast-growing market for 3G UMTS modems
based on the strength of our digital signal processors." Mr. Templeton added, "The market environment is improving.
We believe the inventory correction in TI's standard semiconductor products at distributors that began in the third quarter
of 2004 is complete, as demonstrated by sequential growth in revenue and orders for these products. We expect that the inventory
correction associated with our DLP(TM) products used in high-definition televisions and projectors will continue into the
second quarter, although the rate of reductions should subside."
APRIL 28th, 2005
PDF Solutions, Inc. (Nasdaq:PDFS), a design for manufacturing company,
reported that its revenue for its first quarter of 2005, ended March 31, 2005, reached a record $18.1 million, equivalent
to a 43 percent increase in revenue over the same quarter last year. For the first quarter, PDF's Integrated Design-To-Silicon-Yield
solutions accounted for $12.56 million in revenue, its yield software licenses for $3.45 million and gain share (a percentage
on semiconductor shipments from customers) was $2.1 million. Gain share revenue was more than double over last year’s
levels.
APRIL 28th, 2005
Intel Reports Quarterly Revenue Increases - Cellular
Processors Double
Intel, the world's leading microprocessor manufacturer, reported quarterly sales of $9,434
million for its latest quarter ended April 2, 2005. This was up from $8,091 million reported for the same quarter a year ago.
Intel also indicated that year-over-year its microprocessor revenue was $6,895 million, up from $6,150 million a year ago,
but down from $6,993 million reported for its last quarter. Flash revenue for the latest quarter was also down sequentially
to $578 million from $643 million. However flash revenue was up on a year-over-year basis from $417 million. Chipset and board
revenue was essentially flat on a sequential basis at $1,961 million, but up from $1,524 million from the same quarter a year
ago.
Intel also indicated that in the quarter it logged record shipments
of application processors for cellular phones. Intel says that unit sales almost doubled over first quarter of last year.
This was attributed to a ramp in volume needed to supply cell phone customers like Motorola, Palm and Samsung. Other
major events in the quarter included Toshiba’s selection of Intel's 854 chipset for use in a high definition DVD player,
Fujitsu's selection of the Itanium processor for its line of enterprise servers, the introduction of Intel's first 90 nanometer
based flash chips and working microprocessor samples of a 65 nanometer based microprocessors - production scheduled for four
300 mm factories in 2006. Intel also introduced its WiMAX chip and announced plans to further develop WiMAX solutions with
ZTE, one of China's largest telecom equipment companies. Additionally, Intel plans to conduct WiMAX field trials with Alcatel.
APRIL 27th, 2005
Apache Design Solutions, a private EDA company that focuses on dynamic
power design solutions, announced that its revenue has grown over 80 percent for its first quarter when compared to the same
quarter last year. The company also noted that its RedHawk-SDL tool, the company's lead product, has been used to produce
over 100 taped out chip designs from over 30 customers.
Andrew Yang, CEO of Apache commented on the design tool and the
tapeout milestone, "As the complexity of dynamic power integrity increases, our continuing technology advancements have enabled
us to keep pace with customers' needs and to gain their confidence in solving critical design issues. Achieving a major milestone
of 100 production tapeouts demonstrates the maturity of our solution and establishes RedHawk as the market leader in dynamic
power sign-off."
Apache has established subsidiary offices in Japan and Korea to
further expand its markets and support demand from around the world. The company also has sales and support offices in San
Diego, CA; Dallas, TX; Nice, France; and Bangalore, India.
APRIL 26th, 2005
Nassda, an accelerated transistor simulation company, announced
that its revenues increased 26 percent year-over-year and 10 percent sequentially. For the latest quarter ended March 31,
2005, revenues were $12.3 million.
Commenting on the increase and the company's acquisition by Synopsys
was Sang Wang, CEO of Nassda, "We are very proud to have achieved another quarter of sequential revenue growth and returned
to profitability with a 12% operating income, despite the substantial costs incurred related to the pending acquisition. Our
total cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments balances have also increased to $107.9 million at March 31, 2005,
Due to the pending acquisition, we are not providing any business outlook or guidance for the coming quarters."
APRIL 25th, 2005
NetLogic Revenues Jump 43 Percent, Announces Low Power
Network Processor
NetLogic Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ:NETL), a high growth network processor fabless company,
announced an first quarter of 2005 revenues of $21.8 million, a sequential increase of 43 percent over fourth quarter revenue
of $15.2 million. Ron Jankov, CEO, gave reasons for the increase, "Demand for our knowledge-based processors continued to
grow as customers migrated to 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) infrastructure to handle increased processing needs. Two major events
drove the first quarter's revenue increase. First, we saw a significant order late in the quarter as a current customer needed
additional product to stock a new production line in Asia. We view this stocking order as a one-time event. Second, we received
a pull-in of an order for a major build of a new product."
The company with the announcement of its revenues reported that
it developed a low-power version of its NL5000 knowledge-based processor, which the company reports also has a higher operating
speed and costs less to manufacture. The processor is estimated to require 40 percent less power than previous versions.
APRIL 25th, 2005
Digi International Reports Revenue Gains, Optimistic About
the Year
Digi International Inc. (NASDAQ: DGII), which operates in the integrated circuit market through
its NetSilicon Inc. subsidiary reported that its revenue for the second quarter of its fiscal 2005 year reached $29.3 million
compared to $27.3 million in the second fiscal quarter of 2004. For the six months ended March 31, 2005, Digi stated revenue
of $58.8 million compared to revenue of $53.6 million for the same period in 2004. Digi's Device Networking Solutions products,
which include NetSilicon and the company's device server product lines, also reported larger revenue gains. Overall that unit
had revenue of $10.1 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2005 compared to $9.0 million in the second quarter of fiscal
2004. For its third quarter, Digi projects revenue will be in the range of $29.3 million to $30.8 million. For the entire
fiscal 2005 year, Digi foresees an overall gain in revenue of about 10 percent over 2004 levels.
During the latest quarter, NetSilicon announced the NS9369, its
third NET+ARM microprocessor and associated software suite of support tools.
APRIL 21, 2005
MIPS Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: MIPS), a RISC microprocessor IP
Core and Contract Silicon company, reported that revenues for its latest quarter, its third quarter, were $16.8 million. This
was up from $12.6 million for the same quarter a year ago. At the same time the company reported that its latest quarterly
royalty revenue rose to $8.6 million, up 45 percent from $5.9 million in the same quarter a year ago.
Casey Eichler, CFO at MIPS Technologies detailed the royalty revenue,
"Robust licensing activity, driven by the 24K core family but evident throughout our entire product line, resulted in 11 new
licenses this last quarter. Six of these new agreements represent business from new licensees, bringing the total number of
licensees to over 100. Royalties continue to reflect the increasing number of new and existing MIPS-Based applications found
in the dynamically growing digital consumer and networking markets."
John Bourgoin, CEO at MIPS Technologies gave even more details,
"The breadth and strength of our licensee base is evidenced not only in our royalty growth this quarter, but also by the fact
that over half of our royalty paying customers generated more than $100,000 in quarterly royalties. Our licensing revenue
also grew again as global industry leaders and startups alike continue to realize the compelling cost, power, and performance
advantages of designing their SoCs with MIPS-Based solutions from MIPS and our licensees. The 24K and 4KE core families in
particular, continue to hit the 'sweet spot' of higher total system performance with low power and area savings for a broad
range of digital entertainment and networking applications." MIPS has won a number of new licenses recently in the DTV and
VoIP markets.
APRIL 21, 2005
MicroEmissive Displays plc, a relatively new public company that
designs and manufacturers full-color microdisplays, announced first time revenues for the year ended December 31, 2005. The
company reported turnover for the year as GBP 12 thousand compared to GBP 12 thousand last year. For the fourth quarter revenue
included sales of the company's QVGA resolution microdisplay products. The company also reported it now has three customers
and has proceeded on work for a pilot production line.
Bill Campbell, Chief Executive at MicroEmissive commented on the
company's orders and commercialization effort, "MED is making solid progress in commercialising its microdisplays for portable
consumer electronics products. The Company enters 2005 with an encouraging order book and is on track to meet Directors' expectations.
We are excited by the new opportunities being presented to us." The company's products are targeted at portable consumer electronic
products such as digital cameras, mobile phones and night viewers.
Earlier this year, MicroEmissive entered into an agreement with
United Microelectronics Corp. to start the wafer fabrication of its low-power OLED microdisplays. MicroEmissive Display licensed
microdisplay technology from Cambridge Display Technology in 2002.
APRIL 20th, 2005
Soitec (Euronext Paris), one of the world's leading suppliers of
Silicon On Insulator (SOI) technology, and a bell weather of the acceptance of SOI semiconductor process technology, announced
sales of 40.6 million Euros for the fourth quarter of its 2004 to 2005 year. For the total year sales were 138.9 million Euros
representing a 57.6 percent revenue growth over last year. Fourth quarter sales grew 56.0 percent over last year's fourth
quarter. For last quarter, the third quarter, sales were 31.9 million Euros.
For next year the company has projected sales to increase 40 percent
in dollars. With its report the company also noted the technical achievements of its joint development agreement with Freescale
Semiconductor, Inc. The two companies have developed strained SOI devices that offer a 70 percent increase in electron mobility,
which gives the companies the capability to manufacture at the 45 nanometer level.
APRIL 14th, 2005
AMD has announced that its microprocessor business has achieved
record sales growth. Robert J. Rivet, AMD's CFO gave some of the details, "Our microprocessor business delivered record sales
in what is typically a seasonally down quarter, driven by increased sales across all product categories. We continued to gain
momentum with year-over-year sales growth of 31 percent, highlighted by AMD Opteron(TM) and AMD Athlon(TM) 64 processor sales,
each of which more than doubled from a year ago." He also commented on AMD's performance in the memory market, also for the
company's first quarter of 2005, "The NOR Flash memory market continued to experience industry-wide oversupply and strong
pricing pressure. We experienced a rise in unit shipments, but our average selling price (ASP) declined significantly, resulting
in weaker than expected sales."
Overall for the first quarter of 2005, AMD reported sales of $1.236
billion compared to $1.264 billion in the fourth quarter of 2004. For the Computation Products Group (CPG), which includes
microprocessor revenue, AMD reported sales of $750 million, which is up 31 percent from the first quarter of 2004 and three
percent from the fourth quarter 2004 levels of $730 million. The growth in microprocessor sales was attributed to record
high server and mobile processor sales and the greater China market. AMD also indicated that AMD64 processor sales grew a
record 30 percent sequentially and represented 63 percent of CPG sales. Additionally, AMD indicated operations improvements.
AMD's manufacturing process transition from 130 nanometers to 90 nanometers was ahead of schedule and yields were higher than
anticipated. Other events in the quarter included new server and enterprise customers. AMD lists these new customers as Akamai,
Cable & Wireless, EDS, Goodyear, Honda, Lucas Films, MBNA, MetLife of Mexico and SingTel EXPAN Data Centers.
In the Memory Group sales were however down 29 percent to $447 million
from the first quarter of 2004 and down 11 percent from $504 million in the fourth quarter of 2004.
Spansion, which has just filed an IPO with the SEC, and is the NOR
Flash venture of AMD and Fujitsu has begun shipments of its 256 Mbit Flash chip to three of the top headset manufacturers,
which are heavy users of flash technology. AMD also reported in the quarter that Spansion had begun volume shipments of a
512 Mbit NOR flash chip for embedded applications. Spansion also received Most Valued Partner award from Samsung Electronics
Co Ltd. for 2004 and Best Supplier award from Lenova Mobile Communications Technology.
APRIL 12th, 2005
Novel Gasoline Chip Company Reports
600 Percent Gain in Revenue
FemOne, Inc. (OTC:FEMO) (BULLETIN BOARD: FEMO), a company with technology to reduce your automobile
gas bill and to keep you and the world healthy, has just reported a healthy growth rate. The company says that its consolidated
revenues for the quarter ended March 31, 2005 were $1,600,000. This is a 72 percent increase over the fourth quarter of 2004
and an estimated 600 percent increase in revenue over 2004.
Ray W. Grimm, CEO of FemOne, Incorporated, attributed the gain in
sales to its BioPro Technology division, "Our new BioPro Technology division and its bioenergetically enhanced products such
as the BIOPRO EMF-Harmonization Chip and the BIOPRO Qlink have really created a buzz domestically and internationally. Over
the last few months, we have had some very experienced and influential industry-leaders join our sales force."
The BioPro Technology division offers BIOPRO Econo Fuel Chips and
the BIOPRO Cell Chip. The Econo Fuel Chips have been shown to offer a 15 percent savings in automobile fuel consumption and
decrease the overall pollution of automobiles. The BIOPRO Cell Chip has been shown to eliminate potential health hazards of
cell phones. The company illustrates via a CAT scan, that the use of regular cell phones result in a rise of temperature of
the human brain. The company's BIOPRO Cell Chip helps eliminate that problem for cell phone users.
The company has indicated that it expects solid performance in the
second quarter of 2005.
APRIL 12th, 2005
Perfisans Networks Corp. (OTCBB:PFNH), a public fabless chip company
focused on the Gigabit Ethernet market, is now on Aurelius Consulting Group, Inc. radar screen. Aurelius, which has started
analyst coverage of Perfisans, will also lead Perfisans' institutional and retail investor relations programs.
Perfisans offers the ENA1001 Gigabit Ethernet Accelerator chip.
A chip that according to a contracted report has won acceptance in the network market. Mr. Joe Berwind, who wrote the contracted
buy-side report about Perfisans stated, "With current bookings of $1.5 million, and a further $3.0 million anticipated, Perfisans
is well on track to meet its $8.0 million target for 2005, with 3/4 of the year remaining. It also sees nothing ahead of the
company to inhibit it or reduce estimates for the out years. The Company is apparently poised for a period of hyper-growth.
Indeed, management's own estimates for sales growth illustrate a lucrative opportunity I have not witnessed very often. Should
the Company succeed and meet its projections, investors at these levels and appreciably higher could be handsomely rewarded."
To Hon Lam, CEO of Perfisans clarified the outlook given in the
report, "I look forward to this report reaching our shareholders as it definitely shows the opportunity that Perfisans has
in an ever-growing market. Although Perfisans has operated on limited resources in the past year, we have reached many milestones
due to our terrific team of engineers and our contacts within this sector. As such, since launching our first product in September
2004, we have secured our first orders during the last quarter of 2004 and look forward to securing additional orders in the
next two quarters."
Perfisans Holdings, Inc. was founded in 2001.
APRIL 5th, 2005
Ramtron International Corporation (Nasdaq:RMTR), a producer of nonvolatile
memory chips used as replacements for flash, SRAM and DRAM chips, has obtained a $4 million revolving line of credit from
Silicon Valley Bank. According to Mike Devery, Senior Relationship Manager at Silicon Valley Bank in Boulder, Colorado, "Ramtron's
FRAM memory business is growing and gaining momentum, which makes it an ideal business partner for Silicon Valley Bank. Silicon
Valley Bank specializes in helping high-technology companies grow, and we are pleased to help Ramtron realize its full potential
with our tailored financial services." According to Ramtron, the line of credit should save about $160,000 in annual fees.
Ramtron just recently entered the 1 Mbit SRAM, DRAM and Flash market with the introduction of its 1 MBit FRAM memory chip.
MARCH 31st, 2005
OASIS SiliconSystems Holding AG Acquired for $94 Million
SMSC (Nasdaq: SMSC), noted for its IO and network integrated circuit
products, has diversified into the automotive integrated circuit market with its acquisition of OASIS SiliconSystems Holding
AG. Reflecting the value of the company, SMSC paid, net of cash acquired, an estimated $94 million for the company. OASIS,
which offers chips for the automotive infotainment market is noted for its Media Oriented Systems Transport technology. This
technology has been critical in the automotive market, where OASIS counts its customer brand name wins as Audi, BMW, Fiat,
Jaguar, Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, PSA, Saab and Volvo. OASIS' technology provides an integrated approach to audio,
video, text, data and control information to make for a comfortable and well organized driving experience.
Steven J. Bilodeau, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
of SMSC commented, "The acquisition of OASIS marks another major step in SMSC's diversification strategy by moving into a
new vertical market with the leader in automotive infotainment networking in Europe. This acquisition enables the Company
to strengthen its business with broader product lines, accelerates overall revenue growth and provides for greater leverage
to SG&A. Furthermore, it provides geographic diversity and increases brand visibility by establishing SMSC as an important
semiconductor provider in Europe. With a now well balanced business, we are able to leverage our technology solutions across
automotive, computing, consumer electronics and industrial markets, which will further increase long-term returns to shareholders."
OASIS
is based in Karlsruhe, Germany and has a chip design team in Austin, Texas. In 2004, OASIS had revenue of $50 million. OASIS
expects to see double digit growth in 2005.
MARCH 28th, 2005
In an early quarterly signal about the condition of the graphics
and television fabless processor markets, ATI Technologies, company reported second quarter, fiscal 2005 earnings of $608
million, an increase of 31 percent over the same quarter last year. However, the year over year results masked a slight
sequential decline, attributed to the company's seasonal financial patterns. ATI's most recent first quarter came in
at $614 million.
The company indicates that once its over its third quarter, when
sales are forecast to dip between $560 million to $600 million, afterwards sales in its consumer business segment should improve.
For the fourth quarter, ATI expects its consumer business to double its third quarter revenues. For its fourth quarter ATI
also forecasts its PC business to be better than seasonal. "In addition to posting solid year-over-year results,
ATI performed well in a seasonally down quarter," said David Orton, ATI's Chief Executive Officer. "Strong sales of discrete
PC products helped to offset the anticipated seasonal weakness in our digital consumer business, which we expect will rebound
nicely in the second half. With the best solutions for visual applications in the PC and digital consumer markets, we're excited
about our prospects for the rest of 2005 and beyond. The share repurchase plan announced separately today reflects the confidence
of the board and management team in ATI's long-term growth potential."
MARCH 16th, 2005
CSR Acquires Clarity Technologies for $17.1 Million
CSR plc (LSE: CSR), one
of the world's leaders in the Bluetooth integrated circuit market, has acquired Clarity Technologies, Inc. Clarity's audio
and voice processing software, for voice extraction and echo cancellation functions, is used to improve the performance of
wireless headsets, handsets and automotive based hands free systems. CSR already has major Bluetooth market positions in the
wireless headset, mobile handset and PC industries and with the acquisition is expected to further its position in the audio
and automotive hands free systems market - where automotive safety is a growing and major concern. John Hodgson, CEO of CSR
commented, "This is an exciting acquisition for us. Not only does Clarity give us access to leading customers in the US
automotive sector but its patented software will give us a key competitive advantage in audio, which we believe will continue
to be the largest Bluetooth application into the future. Bluetooth products, such as next generation wireless telephony stereo
headphones for PCs and MP3 players, will demand better quality noise reduction and echo cancellation and in our view CVC is
the best software in the market to provide this."
MARCH 16th, 2005
ATI Acquires India Based Audio Embedded Software Developer
ATI Technologies has finalized
the acquisition of CuTe Solutions Pvt. Ltd. of Hyderabad, India.
CuTe has a history as a developer of embedded software for audio and speech based DSP integrated circuit applications. The
acquisition is expected to strengthen ATI's positions in the audio end of the multimedia market. ATI's rise to one of the
top North American fabless companies has been mainly fueled by the company's 3D graphics expertise. Adrian Hartog, Senior
Vice President and General Manager, Consumer Business Unit, at ATI Technologies Inc. stated, "With CuTe's expertise in audio,
our customers can look to ATI for the industry's best integrated multimedia solutions.” Dasaradha Gude, Managing Director,
at ATI Technologies India Pvt. Ltd. indicated that CuTE was delighted to join a company with strengths in the graphics and
video market. He expects that CuTE will further strengthen ATI's product line offerings.
MARCH 16th, 2005
LSI Logic Increases
Guidance
In a sign that the integrated
circuit market has begun to improve, LSI Logic has increased its first quarter 2005 revenue guidance. The company now projects
that its revenue will be in the range of $420 million to $435 million. This is up from its previous guidance in the range
of $400 million to $415 million. The company attributes the increase to strength in the Consumer and Storage Components segments
of its business and an improvement in inventory conditions through the supply chain. The post-Christmas quarter is not usually
considered optimum for consumer sales, however LSI Logic indicates that growth in that segment is being led by the DVD recorder
market and a ramp of new digital audio products.
MARCH
16th, 2005
SpatiaLight, LCoS Microdisplay Company, Increases Revenue
Over Five Fold
Indicative of a market
receptive to liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) microdisplays, SpatiaLight, Inc. (NASDAQ:HDTV), has reported that its revenue
for 2004 increased to $1.16 million, up from $0.22 million in 2003. The company reports that at the end of 2004 it had $9.1
million in cash and cash equivalents.
MARCH 16th, 2005
Mimix Broadband to Acquire Celeritek's GaAs Assets
Mimix Broadband, Inc. and
Celeritek, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLTK) have entered into an agreement whereby Mimix will purchase substantially all of the GaAs assets
of Celeritek. The purchase price is estimated at $2.8 million in cash and includes Celeritek's radio frequency integrated
circuits, low noise amplifiers, gain blocks and power amplifier modules - all of which are based on the GaAs semiconductor
manufacturing process.
Mimix Broadband, Inc. is
involved in a related and complimentary area. The company designs and markets microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) for microwave
and millimeter-wave for wireless communications applications.
MARCH 15th, 2005
China Resources Logic Allocates HK$1.5 Billion for its Semiconductor Business
China Resources Logic has
indicated, via the Global News Wire, that it plans to spend HK$1.5 billion on its semiconductor operations between 2005 and
2007. About one-third of that sum will be spent in 2005. The company indicated that its semiconductor business was approximately 48 percent of its total revenue
last year and that the company plans to increase its wafer fabrication capacity from 1.3 million units to 2 million units
in 2007. The company also plans to invest the funds in a number of chip design houses that have operations in consumer integrated
circuit development like MP3 player chips.
China Resources, originally
a furniture company, diversified into the semiconductor market in 2001 and has operations in the chip market through a number
of Chinese based semiconductor companies.
MARCH 15th, 2005
Winbond to Acquire National’s
PC Super IO Chip Business
Winbond Electronics Corp has entered
into an agreement to purchase National Semiconductor’s PC Super I/O business. The cost of the transaction is expected
to be in the order of $NT 2 billion.
The acquisition should further solidify
Winbond’s leading position in the Super I/O chip market. National’s PC Super I/O revenue is estimated at about
4 percent of National’s total revenues. National’s PC Super I/O employees,
about 150, are primarily located at National’s R&D division in Herzlia, Israel.
National Semiconductor also recently
reported plans to sell its assembly and test facility in Singapore. National Semiconductor has begun a program to focus the company strictly on its analog
business, which may result in the company moving away from in-house manufacturing.
MARCH 14th, 2005
FPGA Market in Apparent Upswing
Contrary to trends in other
segments of the IC market, a number of the mainstream FPGA chip companies have announced positive forecasts for revenues for
the first quarter. These include Altera, Xilinx and Actel. Altera increased its forecast to a 6 percent sequential gain from
the fourth quarter, compared to previous guidance of 1 percent to 3 percent. The company indicated that sales to its customers
in the communications segment had increased faster than had originally been anticipated.
The company also reported that more than 250 customers had purchased its new 90 nanometer Stratix II FPGA family of
chips.
Actel also anticipates a
similar sequential gain in its upcoming first quarter sales. The company projected
that its gross margin would be in the order of 59 percent.
Finally, the market leader,
Xilinx has reported that it anticipates that for its March quarter of fiscal 2005 it expects sales to increase 5 percent to
8 percent sequentially. This is up from guidance of between 1 percent and 5 percent
given earlier. Xilinx expects its gross margin to be in the order of 62 percent.
So will FPGAs gain a higher
percentage share of the IC market as we move into the second half of the first decade?
With the fast pace of change in technology no one can say for certain. However, FPGAs offer a much lower cost alternative
to the ever growing non-recurring engineering charges that are required for ASICs and custom chips. And with lower unit costs
for FPGAs as a result of the arrival of mainstream 90 nanometer semiconductor processors,
FPGAs are considered by some in a better position to take away market share from the higher volume segments of the
standard cell ASIC market. Furthermore, there are rumblings that FPGA architectures may replace or offer a cost-effective
replacement for the age-old microprocessor architecture used in today's PCs. If
true, this would require Advanced Micro Devices and others such as Intel, to rethink their entire operations. Something that would require a tremendous change in these companies entire technology infrastructure -
and perhaps require these companies turn in the old guard.
MARCH 10th, 2005
Agere
Systems Acquires Modem-Art Ltd. for $145.1 Million
Agere Systems Inc.
in an apparent bid to strengthen its position in the cellular market has agreed to acquire Modem-Art Ltd. for $145.1 million.
The company offers programmable modem engines, which currently includes the MA1050 processor. The MA1050 processor is a highly
integrated baseband 3G-WCDMA processor chip for UMTS and GPR / GPRS / EDGE handset terminals.
Luc Seraphin, Vice
President of Agere's Mobility Division indicated that Modem-Art's UMTS physical layer technology will allow Agere to continue
to deliver reliable advanced network products for the years to come. Agere and Modem-Art already as a result of an 18 month
relationship, introduced silicon and software solution that Mr. Seraphin says has received widespread acceptance. In February,
Agere sampled its first 3G product, Sceptre HPU, which combined Agere's dual mode protocol stack and EDGE technology with
Modem-Art's programmable processor to give W-EDGE capability. Modem-Art, based in Israel, has 40 employees.
MARCH 9th, 2005
Asian Holidays
Cited for Sharp February Decline at Taiwan's Chip Companies
Although Nanya Technologies
has bucked the downward trend, several other chip companies have not been so fortunate. Mediatek, which has been set back
through a number of legal battles and intense competition in the DVD chip market, reported that its February sales figures
were NT$2,770 million compared to NT$3,033 million. Powerchip Semiconductor also reported a month to month sales decline.
That company attributed its sales decline to a 10 percent decrease in the number of working and selling days in February as
a result of the Chinese New Year / Lunar Year holiday. Powerchip estimated that the holiday resulted in a 10 percent decline
in shipments. It also said that the lower DRAM ASP (Average Selling Price) was also a factor. For February 2005, the company
reported sales of NT$ 4,231 million compared to January 2005 number of NT$5,312.
Sunplus Technology,
also based in Taiwan, reported sales of
NT$ 1,261 million in February compared to NT $1,571 million in January 2005. For the month of February microcontroller revenue
at Sunplus was estimated at $NT 192.8 million, LCD chip revenue at $NT 169.1 million and multimedia chip revenue at $NT 777.7
million.
Promos Technologies
another Taiwan based DRAM manufacturer
indicated that its February revenue was also off. For February its sales were $NT 2,910 million compared to NT$ 3,200 million
in January 2005. ProMos attributed the decline in revenue to a lower ASP for DRAMs and a reduced number of working days due
to scheduled maintenance.
Winbond Electronics
Corp., a company with both standard off-the-shelf chips and foundry services indicated that its February revenues tumbled
to $NT 1,690 million from last February's numbers of $ NT 2,750 million. There was also a month to month decline. For January
2005, Winbond reported revenues of $NT 1,930 million. Winbond attributed the decline to the Chinese New Year and lower prices
in the DRAM spot market. Winbond said that after the holidays, customer demand increased. Specifically it said that inventory
adjustments of its customers Pseudo PSRAM chips appeared to be completed. Increased demand for these products is anticipated
to improve the company's performance in March.
Finally, Novatek, a
provider of peripheral chips, TFT driver chips and STN driver chips had revenue of $NT 1,533 million in February 2005 compared
to 1,751 million in January 2005. However, these numbers are up substantially from $NT 1,387 million that the company recorded
in December of 2005. Novatek obtains the vast majority of its revenue from its LCD TFT and STN driver chips, which are sold
to the cellular market.
MARCH 9th,
2005
Broadcom Furthers Position in Bluetooth Headset Market with Planned Zeevo Acquisition
Broadcom, which has already established itself as a player in the Bluetooth chip market, has signed a definitive agreement
to acquire Zeevo, Inc., a fabless chip company that provides Bluetooth headset chips and software. Robert A. Rango, Group
Vice President of Broadcom's Mobile & Wireless Group indicated that the acquisition is central to Broadcom's plan to be
the leader in the top three market segments of the Bluetooth market. The primary markets for Broadcom's Blutonium Bluetooth
chips and WIDCOMM Bluetooth software are the cellular phone, PC and peripheral markets. Bluetooth is generally used for short
range (a few meters) electronic device to device communications, as opposed to other longer range wireless data communications
standards, such as WiFi. The purchase price of Zeevo was $32.0 million. The transactions is planned to be primarily in cash
and is expected to close by the end of Broadcom’s current quarter.
MARCH 8th,
2005
Optical MEMS Company, Gemfire, Acquires Assets of Newport Opticom
In a move to enhance
its production capabilities, Gemfire Corporation, a Photonic Integrated Circuit company, completed the acquisition of the
assets of Newport Opticom Inc. (NOI). With the acquisition, Gemfire acquired NOI's advanced switch technology, a technology
that can be used in Gemfire's passive silica Planar Light Circuits (PLC) and Si-polymer PLC waveguide fabrication. The move
is seen as a way to expedite NOI's product commercialization efforts. Gemfire's eight inch MEMS and silica wafer fabrication
facility and process know-how is expected to shorten NOI's manufacturing, design and development time NOI had used MEMS foundry,
where the product manufacturing cycle has been noted to be lengthy. Because MEMs design is intricately tied to the manufacturing
process, foundries without solid MEMS process development experience can turn out to be a roadblock to quick commercialization.
MARCH 7th, 2005
Nanya
Technology Reports Sequential Increase in DRAM Sales For February
Nanya Technology, one
of Taiwan's and the world’s major DRAM chip manufacturers, reported a slight
increase in sequential month to month sales in February. For February 2005 revenues were $NT 3.73 billion versus $NT 3.56
billion in January 2005. This was despite a 13 percent drop of the average selling price. Nanya reported a 20 percent increase
in unit shipments and a 2 percent negative impact from currency exchange rates.
The sales figure for February represents a significant increase over sales for the same month last year, which were
$NT 2.75 billion. For February 2005, Nanya reported that it obtained 26 percent of its revenue from China, 31 percent from
America, 19 percent from EMEA, 6 percent from Japan, 15 percent from Taiwan and 3 percent from AP.
MARCH 2, 2005
Kopin Reports Record Revenue – Microdisplay Technology
Cited
Kopin Corporation (NASDAQ:KOPN) reported revenues of $87.4 million for the year ended December 25, 2004 up 14 percent
from its 2003 level of $76.6 million The company said that 2004 saw record revenue
for its CyberDisplay products as well as strong performance from its HBT transistor product line.
Kopin's 922k color filter VGA CyberDisplay
may help break new revenue records as a result of a line of multimedia video eyewear glasses launched by Icuiti and Oriscape. Icuiti's V920 3D video eyewear is based on Kopin's Color Filter VGA microdisplays. These unusual eyeglasses, intended for the consumer "mobile" market, provide a complete
computer and multimedia experience in either darkness or sunlight. The eyewear creates a virtual image that is the equivalent
of a 54 inch flat panel screen viewed from a distance of nine feet. The eyewear
can also be used to check your email.
MARCH 2, 2005
OmniVision Reports Revenues, Guidance Suggests
Uncertainty Next Quarter, Toys Suggest More
OmniVision Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:OVTI)
is one fabless semiconductor company that caught the crest of the CMOS image sensor wave.
As an illustration of this, the company reported that its revenue for its third quarter ended January 31, 2005 was
$101.9 million. This compares to the companies annual revenue run rate in the
order of $50 million just a few short years ago. So has the wave crested? Last year, its third quarter revenue was $93.6 million. The company projects that next quarter its revenue will range between $93 million
and $103 million.
So with the cellular phone camera market
CMOS image sensors needs attended to, what will OmniVision do for growth? The
company was last seen at the American International Toy Fair in New York. There at booth 5240, the company has been demonstrating
applications of its OV810 low-cost image sensor. Hasan Gadjali, director of marketing for advanced products, says that the
OV810 will enable low-cost toys to be built with intelligent optical sensor technology. The company believes that the sensor
will result in very advanced, low-cost intelligent toys. Specific toys the company points to are dolls that recognize their
owners, toy trains that will respond to train signals and toys that move according to commands - all which seems to suggest
that it won’t be long before toys will learn to pick up after themselves. In the future, you won't have to tell your
daughter to put her dolls in the toy chest. The dolls at the end of the day (9:00
P.M. exactly) will walk to their doll house and tuck themselves neatly into their tiny beds. Unless their teenage dolls, in
that case they will drive their toy car to their doll house, and of course will be programmed to arrive at unpredictable times. Well behaved dolls will cost more.
The OV810 is available now. OmniVision
gives the price at $1.50 per unit in die form for volume production.
MARCH 2, 2005
Catalyst's Mixed Signal Revenues Continue to Show Sharp Increases
Catalyst Semiconductor (NASDAQ:CATS), a
programmable and analog mixed signal fabless semiconductor company reported that its third quarter revenues, ended January
31, 2005, were $13.7 million with a net income of $0.11 million compared to $16.9 million with a net income of $2.4 million
for the same quarter in 2004. For the second quarter of its fiscal 2005 year,
sales were $15.6 million.
The company indicated that the decline
in revenues was attributed to a decrease in unit volumes and average selling prices for its EEPROM chips and a decrease in
unit volumes for its Flash products. The company's new analog mixed signal products
accounted for about $0.73 million or 5.3 percent of total revenue for the its latest third quarter, which was a significant
increase from the $0.55 million recorded in the second quarter of 2005 and the $0.31 million recorded in the third quarter
of fiscal 2004. Because of the increases, analog and mixed signal products have
risen as a percentage of total sales.
FEBRUARY 28th, 2005
eSilicon Continues its Revenue Growth
– Reports Tripling of Sales
eSilicon Corporation, a one-stop design and manufacturing semiconductor
house, announced that for its fiscal third quarter it had revenue of $27 million compared to $9 million in the same period
last year. The company also noted expanded profitability. eSilicon credits its success to its general contractor model. Under
that model, the company discerns which wafer and package foundry and semiconductor process will provide the lowest cost and
best performance given the constraints of a given chip design.
FEBRUARY 24th, 2005
Marvell, Despite its Size, Sees Revenue Growth Near 50 Percent
Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: MRVL), one of the largest fabless semiconductor companies in North America with operations in broadband, network and data
storage chips, reported that its revenues for its latest fiscal year and fourth quarter, both ended January 29, 2005, increased. For the year, Marvell’s
revenue was $1,224.6 million, up 49 percent from $819.8 million over last year. Revenue for the fourth quarter was $340.3
million, an increase of 40 percent over the same period last year.
In its latest fourth quarter Marvell said that it had strong WLAN shipments for new applications such as the Sony PSP.
The company expects that its 802.11 technology will also find applications in the VoIP market.
FEBRUARY 23rd, 2005
Apple’s iPoD Helps Rockets Wolfson’s Revenues 58
Percent
Wolfson, whose semiconductors are used in a range of gadgets including Apple's iPod and Sony's popular PlayStation
game console, reported that its yearly 2004 revenues increased 58 percent to $119.3 million. The company also reported that
in 2004 its design wins increased 50 percent to 250. These design wins
were from a number of well known international companies such as Apple, Hewlett Packard, LG Electronics, Pentax, PalmOne, Samsung, Sanyo, Scientific-Atlanta,
Sharp, Sony, and Toshiba. Japan based revenues increases were
dramatic, tripling, according to the company. For its wafer fabrication needs, Wolfson presently relies on Magnachip (Korea), Chartered Semiconductor (Singapore),
CMSC (China) and TSMC (Taiwan).
FEBRUARY 17th, 2005
LanOptics, which derives its revenues from its chip subsidiary,
EZchip Technologies, reported that its 2004 revenues hit $4.75 million, up from $1.76 million in 2003. The jump, according
to one market research study, has made the company one of the leaders in the Gigabit Network Processor chip market.
LanOptics says that it now has 44 customers and that most of its products are in the early production stage.
FEBRUARY 17th, 2005
In the midst of the flip-flop race between Nvidia and its major
competitor, ATI Technologies, Nvidia reported that its revenue for fiscal 2004 year (which ended January 30, 2005) increased
to $2.01 billion from $1.82 billion. The struggle for the number one prize as top fabless graphics company is expected to
continue between the two companies as each race to produce the next generation graphic chips on the next generation semiconductor
process faster. But they each can only move so fast. The multi-billion dollar development and manufacturing alliance between
Toshiba, IBM and Sony, which has resulted in the development of the cell processor, looms over the two. The cell processor,
which is multiprocessor, or multi-core design, has significant market potential. One question that remains to be answered
is whether or not future Nvidia and ATI chip products will have as many microprocessor cores as the cell processor?
FEBRUARY 17th, 2005
Ramtron, which can be credited as the first company to challenge the
memory chip market with a nonvolatile technology that has both a fast write and read time, reported that its sales have continued
to climb. Although the company's memory chip densities are far below the 512 Mbit levels of DRAMs and Gbit levels of Flash
designs, the company was able to generate almost $60 million in sales in 2004. Precisely, for its fiscal 2004 year, Ramtron
had revenue of $57.8 million, up significantly from $40.2 million in 2003. Ferroelectric memory chip products grew at an even
faster rate. According to the company, its core FRAM product revenue grew 86%. So will Ramtron suddenly come out with a 512
Mbit ferroelectric RAM that will end the reign of the DRAM king. Will have to wait and see. But according to Ramtron's projected
revenue for 2005 it would seem doubtful. Maybe 2006?
Ferroelectric memory, unlike flash memory, has fast
read times and fast write times. Because it is a non-volatile memory, it has potential to replace main memory DRAMs in computer
applications.
FEBRUARY 17th, 2005
Faraday Technology Corporation, one of the largest ASIC design companies
in the world and considered the largest in Taiwan, reported that its January 2005 sales increased 35 percent over January
2004 levels. The company's sales for January 2005 were NT$467,157,000 compared to NT$345,350,000 in January 2004. The company
reported that sales of ASICs were 80.1 percent of the total, design services were 6.9 percent and IP core sales made up 13
percent of total sales. Faraday has been active in the development of new ASIC designs based on 0.13 micron technology.
FEBRUARY16th, 2005
Bluetooth Chip Sales Results
In, Up 247 Percent At CSR
CSR plc with the announcement of its unaudited financials stated that
it has grown its Bluetooth chip market share to over 50 percent in the fourth quarter. CSR provides Bluetooth chips to a growing
number of handset and headset companies. For the latest fourth quarter, CSR says that 41 percent of its design wins were from
handsets and headsets. This included 14 mobile phone design wins and 33 headset design wins. Mobile phone wins included Nokia,
Samsung and Motorola. Headset design wins included Motorola, LG and Logitech. In 2004, CSR landed design wins, which the company
estimates is 69 percent of the industry total. CSR points out that its closest competitor had 37 design wins in 2004.
Notable events in CSR’s fourth quarter include design wins in
the automobile market from such notable companies as Honda, Cellink, Hosiden, Harman Becker and Motorola. Other notable design
wins that CRS listed included Kyocera, Philips, Nokia, Dell and Logitech. CSR products were used in a Bluetooth reference
design, a MP3 players, a GPS modules, a PC card and mouse keyboard and media pad, respectively.
FEBRUARY 16th, 2005
Ansoft Corporation reported that its revenue for the third quarter
of fiscal 2005 ended January 31, 2005 hit $17.4 million, up significantly from $14 million for the same quarter a year ago.
The company, which offers advanced chip design software for wireless applications, said that it expects revenue to also increase
in its fourth quarter. The company has developed a design flow, which allows for the modeling of inductors within integrated
circuits, critical for the development of the most advanced and lowest cost wireless electronic devices. UMC, one of world’s
largest foundries, has taken steps to accept designs based on the flow from its fabless customers.
FEBRUARY 15th, 2005
Taiwan Semiconductor
Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), contrary to earlier predictions of a fall in revenue, reported a sequential and year-over-year gain
in revenues. For January revenues rose 4.6 percent over December. January sales totaled 20.84 billion dollars. January over
January sales increased 8.8 percent. Request More Information - Specify
Company, Product, Etc.
FEBRUARY 15th, 2005
Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE:CY) announced on
the 14th of February that it has entered into a definitive
agreement to acquire SMaL Camera Technologies, a provider of ASIC controller and wide dynamic range CMOS image sensors. The
move is apparently part of Cypress’ strategy to enter into the high-volume camera chip business. In 2004, Cypress acquired
another image sensor integrated circuit company, Belgium based FillFactory N.V., which is now a part of Cypress’ Memory
Products Group. SMaL will also be integrated into the memory group.
SMaL is noted for the thinnest camera on record (6 mm-thin). With
the acquisition, SMaL brings with a customer base that it has shipped over 2 million of its credit-card cameras to. These
customers in addition to the leading tier one automotive companies, include Creative Labs, FujiFilm, Logitech, NHJ Limited,
and Oregon Scientific
Cypress has offered to purchase the company for $42.5 million in cash.
As with most acquisitions today, the buyout is tied to a performance-based incentive plan. These plans often attach an extra
bonus under the condition the acquired company achieve specific performance goals within specified time limits – that
is revenue levels. SMaL had revenue of $10.5 million in its fiscal 2004 year. Projected revenues for SMaL are $20 million
in 2005. Request More Information -
Specify Company, Product, Etc.
FEBRUARY 15th, 2005
IC Test Foundry Sees Sequential Sales
Increase
ASE Test Limited, a contract test chip company, or test
foundry, reported a sequential and year over year gain in revenue. Because the company’s revenue are indicative of the
health of its customers, primarily fabless and IDM based semiconductor companies, the increase in revenues signals that the
IC market may be on track for a firm recovery in 2005. ASE reported a 2.8% sequential gain and a 9.2% year-over-year gain.
Request More Information - Specify
Company, Product, Etc.
FEBRUARY 11th, 2005
SMIC, China’s Lead
Foundry, Denied $750 Million Loan
From
the Los Angeles Times today comes news that the United States Export Import Bank has turned down Semiconductor Manufacturing
International Corp. (SMIC) loan application. The loan was valued at $750 million. . Excerpts from the piece indicate that
Micron Technology, the only major DRAM manufacturer left in the United States, had a role in the decision.
The Los Angeles Times indicates that Micron’s position was that the loan should be denied because it increases competition
to the point that United
States semiconductor companies can’t expand manufacturing based employment growth. Micron points to its shuttered factory in Utah,
where the company had planned to hire over 3000 employees. The other argument is that the loan would have improved American
exports - one of the goals of the Export Import bank. SMIC had planned to use the funds to purchase semiconductor equipment
from Applied Materials, a company based in the United States.
The
loan is a potentially explosive political issue. American semiconductor companies over the last ten years have in-sourced,
according to some estimates, hundreds of thousands of foreign H1-B visas into the United States. The semiconductor industry has long complained to the United States
Congress of a shortage of American engineering talent. Because of the alleged lack of talent, these same semiconductor companies
have begun to outsource those same jobs to countries such as India and
China.
This has been to the lament of many foreign nationals in the Silicon Valley –
a valley, which some has characterized as empty of Americans. Some foreign nationals now must consider the hard choice of
selling their Silicon Valley homes and heading back to their native lands to find a secure
job, or staying here and refinancing their homes to stay afloat. American engineers, who have long ago left the chip market
for different industries, on the other hand, seem less concerned. The American
point of view is that jobs that American chip companies create in America
will not go to Americans, but to in-sourced and naïve foreign nationals. Why the disconnect between American engineers, thought
to be some of the most innovative in the world, and semiconductor companies? As
one Taiwan chip executive puts its, all the engineers in the Silicon Valley are Chinese. That Taiwan executive
moved back to Taiwan to start a company.
Although, the H1-B visa limit was let to briefly drop back from its high of 195,000 per year to 65,000, the United States
Congress just approved an increase to 85,000.
FEBRUARY 10th, 2005
Fujitsu
to Increase Semiconductor Capital Expenditures
Fujitsu
will increase its semiconductor capital expenditures to 50 billion yen for its upcoming fiscal year, which starts in April,
2005. That is an 80 percent increase over last year’s level. Fujitsu has a 12 inch wafer fabrication facility under
construction in Japan that is scheduled to ship product in September of 2005.
FEBRUARY 9th, 2005
IPFlex Reports Sales Success with One-Clock Reconfigurable Multiprocessor
IPFlex has reported that license
sales for its DAPDNA-FW II Integrated Development Environment
have reached 100 in less than 10 months. Licenses of the design tool are a good
indication of future revenue levels of IPFlex’s one-clock reconfigurable multiprocessor chip.
The
design tool is used by IPFlex customers to develop change-on-the-clock electronic gadgets.
The company has planned a new release of the design tool for later in 2005. The tool simplifies the process of multiprocessor
based system design – that is systems that incorporate more the one microprocessor core.
Multiprocessor
core systems are expected to replace most single microprocessor systems that are used today. Graphics processors and security
encryption boards is where significant demand is seen. With the transition,
tomorrow’s PC will have the power of today’s supercomputers. For
multiprocessor system development, the IPFlex design systems supports up to 10 microprocessor cores.
FEBRUARY 9th, 2005
Mosys’s Revenue Takes Heart-Stopping Dive
Monolithic System Technology, Inc., (also known as Mosys), which was one of the first companies to come
out with the one-transistor SRAM cell marketing concept, saw its latest quarterly revenue fall dramatically. Total revenue in its fiscal fourth quarter was $1.2 million compared to $3.4 million a year ago. License
revenue dropped dramatically in its fourth quarter, which ended December 31, 2004, to $0.1 million from $1.9 million for the same period a year ago.
So
is the problem temporary or permanent? It’s always hard if not impossible to tell. Mosys is in the high-growth IP core
market. But a number of companies have come out with new and very different one-transistor SRAM cells.
FEBRUARY 9th, 2005
National Instruments Acquires Well-Known EDA Company
National
Instruments announced the acquisition of Electronics Workbench. Electronics Workbench’s tools have been widely accepted
in the university community in North America and Europe. The company’s tools are used to solve circuit simulation and board layout
problems.
FEBRUARY 8TH, 2005
ATI Technologies Acquires Terayon’s
Silicon IP
ATI Technologies, Inc.
has entered into an agreement with Terayon Communication Systems, Inc. to acquire its cable modem silicon intellectual property
(IP). As part of the agreement, Terayon plans to transfer 25 of its employees to ATI.
The transaction is expected to cost ATI $14 million in cash. Only $6.95 million will be paid immediately, the remainder
will be paid once certain milestones are obtained.
One of the apparent reasons
for the acquisition is ATI’s desire to keep its hold on the HDTV market, which it has recently captured. According to
ATI, it has shipped over 5 million digital television chips in 2004 alone. Digital television customers, which ATI lists include
ALPS, Changhong, Funai, Hisense, Hitachi, JVC, Kreatel, Mitsubishi, Pace, Philips, Panasonic, Samsung, Sanyo, Sharp, Scientific Atlanta, Sony, Thomson, Toshiba,
and Xoceco.
ATI goes on to state that
is ATI's THEATER and NXT demodulators
have 85% market share and its XILLEON MPEG decoders have 40% market share in the ATSC/DCR Markets. One of the reasons for the acquisition is that ATI wants to keep its resources focused on its core video
and home access solutions businesses. ATI didn’t want to lose that focus through an internal effort to design its own cable modem chips. Terayon, which is well-known in the cable modem market, has sold over three million of its TJ 700x series
cable modems.
FEBRUARY 7, 2005
Freescale Acquires
PrairieComm
Freescale Semiconductor
has acquired the assets of PrairieComm Inc., a cellular fabless company known for its CDMA, TDMA, GSM and UMTS system-on-a-chips
and software. Freescale’s acquisition includes the company’s
headquarters in Meadows, Illinois
along with offices in Atlanta, Georgia and
Bangalore, India.
With the acquisition, Freescale also obtained 120 employees. Of these about 60 are in the United
States and another 60 in India.
FEBRUARY 4, 2005
Taiwan’s January Chip Sales Come In Mixed
United Microelectronics
and Powerchip Semiconductor, two heavyweights in Taiwan’s
chip industry reported unaudited results for January 2005. Powerchip reported
revenue of NT$ 5.31 billion for the month, a 71 percent increase over January 2004. Month to month the gain was 5.6 percent.
Powerchip reported that the January gain was a result of a higher average selling price in January compared to December. Powerchip
also announced that it has started mass production at its second 300 mm DRAM wafer fab (Fab 12B). The fab produces DRAMs based
on a 0.11 micron process. The fab is expected to enter mass production in the
first half of 20045.
On the downside, United Microelectronics, a major foundry that numerous fables companies rely on for production, reported
that its January 2005 sales continued on a downward trend. For January 2005, the company reported revenue of NT$ 7.14 billion,
a 13.9 percent drop from last January and a staggering 19.65 percent drop from December 2004 sales. United Microelectronics have fallen since September 2004, when sales peaked at $NT 11.86 billion. January 2005 revenues
in fact were considerable lower than any month in 2004.
FEBRUARY 3, 2005
China’s Foundry Reports Solid 100 Percent Growth
Semiconductor Manufacturing
International Corp. (SMIC) announced fourth quarter sales of $291.8 million, a 100.2 percent gain over the same period last
year. The company also bucked the chip foundry trend and reported a 6.2 percent sequential quarterly gain from $274.8 million
in the third quarter. SMIC also reported that its fab utilization rate was in the order of 95 percent, far above the 60 to
70 percent figures reported by other foundries. And that high utilization rate was with an increase in wafer shipments. Wafer
shipments at the company increased to 304,000 from 264,000 over the third quarter of 2004.
So what’s the secret
to success? One is the demand from China’s
growing fables community. Another is a 12 inch fab to meet the demand and another is perhaps price. SMIC reports that its
blended ASP decreased to $917 in the fourth quarter from $991 in the third quarter.
SMIC plans to offer 90 nanometer
technologies this year. In 2004, the company obtained significant revenue from its advanced 0.13 micron technology.
FEBRUARY 3, 2005
Quicklogic Reports Record FPGA Orders
Quicklogic, an FPGA chip
company, reported that new orders for its fourth quarter were the highest in the company’s history. Apparently, low
power is the secret to success in today’s energy concerned world. Quicklogic says that its QuickPCI II and Eclipse II
FPGAs, which Quicklogic believes are the lowest power FPGAs in the industry, are expected to begin generating significant
revenue early this year.
QuickLogic Corporation,
also announced revenues for the year and the quarter ended December 31, 2004. Revenue for 2004 increased to $44.6 million,
up 6% from revenue of $42.0 million in 2003. Fourth quarter revenue was however
down 7 percent from the third quarter of 2004.
FEBRUARY 3, 2005
Power Management
Down
On Semiconductor, a power
management oriented company, reports that its fourth quarter revenue was down 4 percent from its third quarter. The company
expects sales to be down another 4 to 5 percent in the first quarter. The company also reports ASPs were down about 1 percent
from the third quarter. Revenue for the fourth quarter was $306.8 million.
FEBRUARY 3, 2005
Elpida’s Memory Chip Sales Clock
In
With reports of steep drops
in DRAM prices, Elpida Memory reports that it dramatically increased sales to 56.1 billion Yen for its latest quarter ended
December, 31, 2004. This compares to revenue of 26.8 billion Yen for the same period last year. Net profit also increased
to 3.4 billion Yen from a net loss of 9.7 billion last year. Hitachi, which owns a 25 percent stake in the venture, reported
a gain of 15 billion Yen from Elpida’s initial public offering
FEBRUARY
2, 2005
Cortina
Systems and Azanda Networks Merge Chip Operations
Cortina
Systems announced that it has acquired Azanda Network Devices. Cortina and Azanda are fabless chip companies with operations
in Ethernet network and telecommunications market. Cortina, along with its SONET / Ethernet network chips, will now offer its customers Azanda’s traffic management chips.
Azanda has already relocated its staff to Cortina’s headquarters in Sunnyvale, CA.
FEBRUARY 2, 2005
Agilent Acquires Microarray Company
Agilent
announced today that it has acquired Computational Biology Corp. Along with the acquisition, Agilent acquired access to Computational’s license to use the Whitehead Institute’s Protein-DNA interaction patent. The
United States
patent, Chromosome-Wide Analysis of Protein-DNA Interactions, is docketed as U.S. patent number 6,410,243.
Agilent's
Integrated Biology Solutions business, as well as technology through Agilent’s acquisition
of Silicon Genetics, will be called on for the development of Computational Biology’s technology. With Computational’s
technology, Agilent plans to discover how regulatory proteins control gene activity and function. The microarray technology acquired from Computational is expected to be pivotal in the determination of
how disease effects regulatory proteins and hence DNA’s capability to cope with disease.
FEBRUARY 1, 2005
NVE Announces Cypress MRAM Samples Part of Agreement
NVE reported yesterday
that Cypress Semiconductor MRAM samples were covered as part of its agreement with Cypress.
Cypress Semiconductor’s Jeff Kaszubinski led the MRAM design commercialization effort at Cypress.
JANUARY 31, 2005
Sony Reports 22.6 Percent Drop in Semiconductor
Revenue
The semiconductor unit was
Sony’s hardest hit unit this quarter. Semiconductor revenue for the three months ended December 31, 2004 was 53.755
billion yen ($522 million) compared to 69.46 billion yen a year ago. For the nine months ended December 31, 2004, semiconductor
revenue totaled $1,900 million, up 4.6 percent over the same period a year ago.
Sony has lowered its capital
expenditure budget in an apparent response to the downturn.
Sony’s video and television
hardware segments recorded year-over-year quarterly gains of 6.1 percent and 3.9 percent respectively.
JANUARY 31, 2005
NEC Corp. Reports Significant Drop in LCD
Driver Chip Revenue
NEC Corp., also based in Japan,
reported that its semiconductor sales for its latest quarter, ended December 31, 2004, were 165.3 billion yen, down 5.7 percent
from the same quarter last year. NEC reported that sales of chips to the automotive market grew as liquid crystal display
(LCD) driver chips decreased significantly. NEC Corp. also reported that sales
at its Display Division dropped about 50 percent from its year ago quarter. According
to NEC this was due to the transfer of its Plasma Display Panel business. NEC reported that its color display sales grew.
Like Fujitsu, NEC also reported that sales of consumer logic chips were sluggish in its third quarter.
In United States dollars, for the third quarter, NEC’s semiconductor sales were
$1,605 million.
JANUARY 31, 2005
Fujitsu Reports 7 Percent Drop in Semiconductor Sales
For its third quarter, ended
December 31, 2004, Fujitsu’s Electronic Devices division reported that semiconductor revenue fell 7.3 percent from the
year ago period. Semiconductor sales were 96.4 Billion Yen in Fujitsu’s
third quarter. For the nine month period, semiconductor sales gained 10.5 percent to reach 316.5 billion yen. For its fiscal year, which ends in March 2005, Fujitsu forecasts that its total semiconductor sales will
reach 420 billion yen, up 4 percent over last years revenue of 403.9 billion yen. Also for its fiscal year, Fujitsu forecasts
that logic chips will make up 72 percent of its total sales, and system memory, which includes flash chips, 28 percent.
The decrease in revenue was
attributed to weakness in the company’s flash memory and consumer logic chip products. The division reported, however,
that orders of advanced technology increased. Flash chip revenue in Asia was reported as sluggish
and flash price declines led to the decline in flash revenue.
Meanwhile, Fujitsu continues
with the facilitization of its Mie Prefecture
wafer fabrication facility. That facility is on schedule to produce integrated circuits with 90 nm and 65 nm feature lengths
on 300 mm wafers. The company also has revised its capital expenditures for its fiscal year downward to 50 billion yen from
55 billion yen. This however is still a 66.1 percent gain from last years 30.1 billion yen spent for semiconductor equipment
and factories.
JANUARY 31, 2005
Infineon announced that all
of its operating unites, which include Automotive and Industrial, Wireline Communications, Secure Mobile Solutions and Memory
Products, all reported sequential quarterly revenue declines. The automotive unit declined 10 percent, the wireline unit 7
percent, the secure mobile unit 14 percent and the memory unit 5 percent from the prior quarter ended September 30, 2004. All in all, Infineon total revenues declined 9 percent from 1,993 million Euros to 1,816
million Euros.
For its next second quarter,
Infineon sees a slight increase in revenue at its automotive and industrial group. The wireline group is expected to remain
flat. The Secure Mobile Solutions Group, which depends on the mobile phone market
for sales, is expected to have a sales decline larger than the last quarter. In the
memory sector, Infineon sees DRAM price pressure in its second quarter, however the company expects produce more DRAMs, specifically
high performance DRAM chips. The higher production levels of more expensive high end chips could offset revenue and earnings
decline from a weaker DRAM market.
JANUARY 31, 2005
Cypress Semiconductor, which
reported an 11 percent drop in fourth quarter revenue from year ago levels, sees future growth at its solar cell division,
Sunpower. Cypress subsidiary revenue, which includes Sunpower’s
solar cell revenues, increased 31 percent from the previous quarter. Sunpower is in the midst of production expansion in the
Philippines. That facility is expected
to double capacity to 50 megawatts, worth an estimated $150 million in annual sales.
Cypress other units reported mixed results. Cypress’ WAN and SAN unit recorded an 11 percent sequential drop
and the WIT/WIN segment 16 percent. The computation and consumer segment increased 13% from the prior quarter.
Cypress Microsystems, which
is in the Cypress’ subsidiary segment with Sunpower,
has been promoting its Programmable System-on-Chip mixed signal array and Sunpower Corporation’s solar cells.
JANUARY 31, 2005
AMIS Reports Strong
Gains in Mixed Signal Sales
For the latest year, AMI Semiconductor
reported a significant rise for mixed signal chips. Standard mixed signal product
revenue increased to $290.6 million from $241.4 million. For the quarter, mixed
signals revenue increased to $74.3 million from $62.2 million. AMIS mixed signal foundry sales however dropped almost 40 percent
in the fourth quarter to $20.4 million from $32.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2003.
JANUARY 31, 2005
Dalsa’s Semiconductor
Business announced revenue of $16.2 million in the fourth quarter (2004), an 18.6% increase from the same period last year.
Total semiconductor revenue for the year was $65.8 million, up 22.1% over 2003.
Dasla reported activity from
ASICs. Its application specific contract revenue was $2.1 million in the quarter. Follow-on sales from the application specific
contracts increased 75 percent in 2004 over 2003 levels with strength reported in the fourth quarter.
Dalsa anticipates increased
sales in the second half of 2005. One of the reasons is volume production of MEMS devices based on new process technologies.
JANUARY 31, 2005
ISSI, IDT and Transwitch Cut Staff – Hundreds to Exit
Three United States chip companies have just announced staff reductions.
Integrated Silicon Solution, Inc. (ISSI), Transwitch and Integrated Device Technology
(IDT) all reported the news as part of their recent earnings announcements. ISSI has announced it will reduce its United States based workforce and rely more on its Taiwan
and China workforce. ISSI’s US workforce is to be reduced 30 percent by March 31, 2005.
Transwitch, which secured 62 design wins at 29 customers in its latest fourth quarter, also reported that it reduced its employee
count 18 percent. Integrated Device Technology (IDT) plans to eliminate 240 out of a work force of 3000. Like ISSI, IDT’s
lay offs are to be in North America. IDT’s
Salinas California operations are to be consolidated into
IDT’s San Jose corporate headquarters to save about
$4 million a year. The layoffs are expected to eliminate positions that range
from manufacturing to R&D. All in all, IDT expects to save between $5 million
and $6 million a quarter. Approximately 20 percent of the savings is attributed
to R&D cuts. The three companies join Cypress Semiconductor and National
Semiconductor, which just a short time ago announced employment readjustment programs.
JANUARY 31, 2005
Agere Systems on See-Saw
Agere Systems for its most
recent quarter saw sequential gains in its storage chip unit, however all of its other segments posted declines. This resulted
in a sequentially quarterly drop in revenue to $410 million from $439 million. This compares to last year, when quarterly
revenue was at $516 million.
For its March quarter, Agere
sees sales swinging up or down, somewhere between $400 million to $420 million.
JANUARY 31, 2005
Lattice Sees Quarterly Revenue A Little Higher
One has to wonder if Lattice’s entry into the FPGA market will put it back onto the growth track. It has been a while since the company acquired Agere’s
FPGA division. For its next quarter, Lattice sees the high end of its revenue
forecast, slightly exceeding its fourth quarter 2004 sales of $48.5 million. Lattice’s
revenue hit $57 million in the third quarter of 2004.
JANUARY 27th, 2005
Netlogic’s Revenue Jumps Over 250 Percent
NetLogic Microsystems, a company
that has forged content addressable memory technology into a line of intelligent
line network processors, reported that its revenue for the year ended December 31, 2004 increased 253 percent over last year. For the fourth quarter, revenue increased 182 percent over the fourth quarter in 2003. Sales for 2004 reached $47.8 million. The
company currently has cash and cash equivalents on hand of about $41.4 million.
JANAUARY 27th, 2005
Philips and STMicroelectronics Forecast Near-Term
Declines for Chips
Both Philips and STMicroelectronics don’t see a good start to 2005. STMicroelectronics projects that its first
quarter sales will decline 4 to 12 percent from its most recent fourth quarter and remain at the first quarter level into
the second quarter of 2005. Philips, which recently reported displeasure with
the performance of its semiconductor division earnings, doesn’t expect the situation to improve in its next quarter.
Philips forecasts that revenues at its semiconductor division next quarter will decline in the high single digits from its
most recently completed quarter.
JANUARY 27th, 2005
Metalink Sees Continued High Sales Growth In 2005
Metalink,
which has numerous design wins for its record breaking, high-speed VDSL chips, anticipates that its revenues will climb higher
next year. For 2005, the company cautiously estimates that its revenue levels will reach $30 million. This compares to $22.1
million in 2004 and $14.9 million in 2003. Metalink’s current short and
long term cash is pegged at about $50 million.
JANUARY 27th, 2005
300 mm Wafer Capacity Still Requires Large Capital Expenditures
Despite the belief that semiconductor revenues in 2005 will be flat, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company,
the largest foundry in the world, still plans to increase its capital expenditures levels to the $2.5 billion to $2.7
billion range this year. One of the major reasons is the need to invest in 300
mm wafer fabrication equipment, which is more costly than 200 mm equipment.
STMicroelectronics, which expects to outperform the semiconductor market in 2005, does however plan to keep costs down.
In order to accomplish this and increase sales in the Asia Pacific region, STMicroleectronics will shift manufacturing from
Europe and the United States to the Asia Pacific region. By the end of 2005, STMicroelectronics
is expected to have over 50 percent of its chips manufactured in Asia. STMicroelectronics
is also expected to reduce R&D expenditures in terms of dollars to about $1.5 billion from the $2 billion it spent in
2004. STMicroelectronics expects R&D spending to remain the same in terms
of percentage of total revenue.
JANUARY 26th, 2005
Biochip
Market Marker In
Affymetrix Inc., the well-known leader of the biochip market, announced
revenues for 2004 and its fourth quarter ended December 31st, 2004. The company’s year-over-year revenue increased to
$346.0 million from $300.8 million in 2003. The company’s fourth quarter came in at $107.7 million, significantly above
the $89.2 million in last year’s fourth quarter. Affymetrix’s sales for its third quarter, 2004, were $79.9 million.
Fourth quarter 2004 revenue included a record $57.4 million in GeneChip’ sales, and product and wafer sales to
Perlegen Sciences Inc. of $1.3 million.
JANUARY 26th, 2005
Although many investors are now skeptical of NVE Corp and its MRAM
technology, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA_ apparently isn’t. Its apparent faith in NVE’s
experience and lengthy patent portfolio, have led DARPA to grant a two year contract valued at $520,000. The contract is for
the development of next-generation spin-dependent tunneling junctions (SDTJ). SDTJs are fundamental to the operation of MRAM
memory cells, ultra-sensitive sensors and biomagnetic sensors.
JANUARY 26th, 2005
World Am Communications, Inc. announced today its intent to acquire 90 percent
of Senz-It, Inc. Senz-It has technology, which allows for the identification of molecular structures. Based on molecular
imprinted molecular polymers, the cost of sophisticated sensors, that is sensors that can detect impurities in the air and
water in the parts per billions, is expected to drop to a level that will be affordable for many home and office applications.
JANUARY 25th, 2005
ISSI’s Quest to Diversify from Memory Includes Acquisition
Integrated Silicon Solution, Inc. has negotiated an agreement to acquire Integrated Circuit Solution, Inc. (ICSI),
a company it had a previous equity interest in. ICSI has developed integrated
circuits for MP3 music and card controller applications. ICSI is a public company
traded in Taiwan.
JANUARY 25th, 2005
More Semiconductor Earnings Raise Red Flags
With the announcement of Silterra’s 45 percent drop in sequential quarterly revenue (to $23.1 million from $42.4
million) one has to be a little concerned about the market. Still the IC market seems to have significant life in it, although
maybe not short-term upside potential. Silicon Laboratories, which has been one of the stars in the semiconductor industry,
also showed a sequential drop in revenue. However Silicon Labs expects sales to start to climb again in its next quarter.
The gain though is not expected to result in record quarterly sales.
JANUARY 25th, 2005
How is the MEMS Market?
The MEMS market is difficult to monitor. One reason is that it is diversified and addresses different end-markets.
Another is that there are few public companies that address only the MEMs market. However there are a few MEMS company that
could be considered pure plays. One of these is MEMSCAP, based in Europe. Although the company reported an improvement in margins, and has announced significant
foundry shipments for MEMS microphones, from such companies as Knowles, MEMSCAP doesn’t seem to quite have the power
to overcome the fall of the United States
dollar and a number of delays.
In terms of Euros, the company increased revenue to 8.8 million in 2004 from 7.7 million in 2003. However for its latest
fourth quarter, in terms of Euro, sales decreased from 2.1 million to 1.8 million. In
terms of U.S. dollars the numbers were better however. For the full year, which ended December 31, 2004, revenues were $10.9
million compared to $8.8 million for all of 2003.
JANUARY 24th, 2005
AudioCodes’ Revenues Up 87 Percent
AudioCodes
Ltd., a provider of Voice over Packet technologies, which includes both systems and chips, reported that its revenue for the
year ended December 31, 2004 increased 87 percent to $82.8 million from $44.2 million in 2003.
Furthermore the company reported that its Mediant 2000 Media VoIP Gateway was the single product that passed and exceeded
requirements of the third Speech Quality Test Event held by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) in
June and September of 2004.
JANUARY 21st, 2005
WJ Communications, a company that develops ICs for RFID reader applications,
has just recently acquired Telenexus, Inc. Telenexus in late December was reported to have entered into an agreement with
LG Industrial Systems Co Ltd. to develop an RFID algorithm for potential use in LG's RFID reader systems.
JANUARY 21st, 2005
Some say they do. But like all financial forecast methods, you never
really know for certain. If more patents spell more revenue, International Business Machines Corp. will have a better year
than other companies this year. According to preliminary information released by the Department of Commerce's United States
Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), IBM ranked number one in United States patents in 2004. The same position it had
last year.
IBM was far ahead of second place Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.
Ltd. (based in Japan). IBM received 3,284 patents in 2004 compared to Matsushita's 1,934. Following Matsushita were Canon
Kabushiki Kaisha, Hewlett-Packard Development Company L.P., Micron Technology Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd and Intel
Corp., which was number seven on the list. Samsung rose from number 9 in 2003 to number 6 this year, beating out Intel, which
retained its number seven position. The score, Samsung 1,604 and Intel 1,601. However, United States patents don't
tell the whole story. In today's global economy the number of foreign patents also has to be considered.
One final note, the United States Government scored 829 preliminary
patents in the study. The United States Government does license its patent technology.
JANUARY 21st, 2005
Wavics, a fabless chip company based in Korea, is to become a part
of Agilent Technologies. Agilent plans to use Wavic's design technology to produce its cellular modules, but with lower power.
These new modules will also contain Agilent's popular MEMs technology, the FBAR (film bulk acoustic resonator) MEMs duplexor.
The duplexor has enabled Agilent to reduce the overall size of cell phones.
JANUARY 20th, 2005
Intersil Divests Fading Xicor EEPROM Product Lines
When Intersil acquired Xicor, Xicor’s EEPROM sales were already
in decline. In part, because Xicor had refocused its operations on mixed signal ICs through a series of acquisitions. Apparently,
Intersil also doesn’t think Xicor’s serial EEPROM product line fits in well with its current plans. Intersil announced
today that it would sell the serial EEPROM line to IC Microsystems, an IC company based in Malaysia. IC Microsystems chip
products include DACs, phone and radio frequency chips.
JANUARY 18th, 2005
Analog Devices Driving Towards Japan
Analog Devices said it would increase its presence in Japan in order
to improve automotive chip sales. The company plans to establish an automotive chip division in Japan in February 2005. The
company hopes that this will help boost its automotive chip sales from $860 million in 2003 to $2.4 billion in 2008.
JAN 14th, 2005
Hynix Semiconductor to Increase Semiconductor Capital Expenditures
Several reports indicate that Hynix Semiconductor will increase its
memory chip production expenditures this year. Hynix has planned to spend 2.2 trillion won on memory chip production in 2005,
up 22.2 percent over 2004. Twelve inch wafer fab capacity is expected to be the focus of the investment. Hynix is a major
producer of DRAM chips and has operations in SRAM and flash memory chips - Jan 14 2005
JANUARY 13th, 2005
Gennum, Metalink and M-Systems See Higher Revenues
Gennum Corporation,
a producer of audio and video chips, announced earnings for its quarter and year ended November 30, 2004. For the quarter,
the company reported that its revenue was $34.4 million compared to $32.5 million for the same quarter in 2003. For the year,
Gennum reported revenue of $136.7 million compared to $125.4 million in its fiscal 2003 year.
Gains in the fourth quarter were attributed to increased revenues from its video and data communications products.
Data communication’s revenue increased to $3.1 million in the fourth quarter from $0.7 million in the fourth quarter
of 2003. This was partly due to the acquisition of SiGe Semiconductor’s
line of optical transceivers and trans-impedance amplifiers. Video revenue gains
increased 7.1 percent in the fourth quarter over the prior year. This was attributed to broadcasters upgrading their facilities
for digital and high definition television.
Metalink, a high speed
DSL chip producer, has predicted its 2004 revenue to increase 48 percent from 2003. Metalink’s projects 2004 revenue
of $22 million compared to $14.9 million in 2003. For its fourth quarter, Metalink sees $5.5 million to $5.7 million, compared
to $4.7 million last year. Metalink has won contracts for its DSL chip, in part, because its DSL chips, are among the fastest
available.
M-Systems Flash Disk
Pioneers also expects improvements in revenue for its fourth quarter. The company estimates that its fourth quarter revenue
will be over $110 million. This compares to $87.8 million in revenue the company
reported for its third quarter. Posted Jan 13th, 2005.
JAN
12 2005
Semiconductor
Capital Spending Boom in 2005?
Along with Intel’s improved revenues for its fourth quarter, comes good news for semiconductor equipment companies
and perhaps even EDA vendors. Intel Corp, which accounts for a large share of
the worlds semiconductor equipment purchases, has said that it plans to increase capital improvements to $5.2 billion in 2005, up from $3.8 billion in 2004. R&D spending is expected to climb to 8 percent from 2004 levels to $5.2 billion.
JAN
12 2005
Earning's Warnings
Earnings warnings continue. Infineon Technologies and Zoran Microelectronics reported that sales have or are expected
to decline for the next quarter’s report. Both companies intend to announce final results near the end of January 2005.
On a more positive note, QLogic Corp. (has revised
its guidance upward. The company says now that it expects revenue to be somewhere around $5 million
JAN 11 2005
SiGe Semiconductor Announces
Five Fold Increase in Revenue
SiGe Semiconductor, a Canadian semiconductor company focused on the wireless markets, announced a five fold increase in sales over last year.
The company reported revenue of US $20.1 million for its 2004 year. SiGe Semiconductor’s
shipments also passed the 30 million unit mark. Applications such as Bluetooth,
Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) and wireless LANs from countries such as China have been instrumental in the
increase. SiGe Semiconductor has plans
Will Silicon Carbide Acquisition Pay Off ?
Advanced Power
Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:APTI), a power semiconductor company, has entered the Silicon Carbide market. The company announced it has acquired PowerSicel, Inc. for approximately $5.4 million in cash and stock
options. The acquisition gives the company access to technology similar to Cree
Research and an avenue to improve its RF power technology. Silicon Carbide has been used in high temperature and MEMs applications
Advanced Micro Devices
Revises Guidance Downward
Advanced Micro Devices announced
that it expects revenues for the fourth quarter to be lower than previously projected. The company however anticipates that
fourth quarter revenue will be slightly higher than its most recent third quarter. The company has stated that sales from
products in its Computational Products Group increased from the third quarter. However its flash memory product sales have
decreased from last quarter.
JANUARY 10th, 2005
Monthly Semiconductor Sales Point Downward
December revenue from Taiwan’s semiconductor manufacturing contractors
indicates that growth may have temporarily ended for chip companies. Besides just sequential December to November revenue
drops, the preliminary data suggests that year-over-year gains are also in trouble. Advanced Semiconductor Engineering recorded
a sequential decrease of 8.99 percent, but managed to have a 8.18 percent year-over-year increase this December. United Microelectronics,
one of the world's leading foundries, saw a year-over-year gain of 6.36 percent and a month-to-month sequential decline of
4.28 percent. ASE Test Limited, a provider of contract semiconductor test services, showed one of the steepest declines. December
monthly revenue was down 18.8 percent sequentially. ASE Test’s year-over-year also saw a decrease, down 1.5 percent.
Even Taiwan’s largest foundry operation, TSMC, reported a 5.1 percent month-to-month sequential decrease. TSMC was in
positive territory as far as its year over year monthly figures went.
So does this mark the beginning of a downward trend? Some tend to
think the decline may be a direct result of the emergence of China’s semiconductor production capabilities. .Reports
indicate that China’s semiconductor manufacturing prices are consistently lower than Taiwan’s.
JANUARY 7th, 2005
Xilinx Revises Guidance
Downward
Xilinx, one of the world’s
largest producers of FPGA chips has announced that its December quarter revenue will be down 11% to 12% sequentially. Xilinx
had previously given guidance of between 5% to 8% sequentially
JANUARY 6th, 2005
Korea
Establishes Semiconductor Trade Surplus
Korea’s Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy reported that exports of semiconductors for 2004
rose 35.8 percent over 2003 levels to $26.84 billion. For 2004, Korean imports of semiconductors reached $23.7 billion, or
a 11.3% increase over 2003.
Powerchip
Semiconductor Reports Year-on-Year Gain in Sales
Powerchip
Semiconductor Corp reported parent sales for December of $NT 5.03 billion compared to $NT 2.82 billion in the same month last year. For the full year, sales more
than doubled over 2003 to $NT 57.44 billion
from NT$ 22.97 billion. Powerchip is a major producer of DRAM memory chips
National Semiconductor
to Lay off 550
As another sign that predictions
of a decline in semiconductor revenues for 2005, National Semiconductor has reported it will eliminate 550 jobs. Those to
lose their jobs are expected to be employed at National’s manufacturing plants in the United States, Europe
and Asia. However approximately 100 other types
jobs will be lost, which includes workers at National’s corporate headquarters. The move is expected to reduce National’s
worldwide workforce by 6 percent.
|
