THE SEMICONDUCTOR EVENING NEWS
September 14th, 2005
Cubic Wafer, in anticipation of growth form its 3D stacking technology,
has relocated its headquarters to Austin, Texas and naming Ed Healy, chief executive officer and Abhay Misra as vice president
of operations and engineering. According to Russ Johnsen, chairman of the board of Cubic Wafer. "The benefit of having a management
team in place with the skills Ed and Abhay bring is their ability to immediately capitalize on our technology by implementing
a strategic plan for achieving a revenue stream in the short term without losing sight of our long-term objectives. We are
confident Cubic Wafer is positioned to create an industry shift to transform and advance the integration possibilities of
the semiconductor industry."
Cubic Wafer indicates that its process technology for the vertical
integration of silicon die will offer solutions for consumer electronic products such as cameras, PCs printers, and wireless
devices.
The two new members of Cubic’s team plan to establish partnerships
with chip companies to enable dramatic reduction of chip production costs. Specifically targeted are high volume Asian foundries,
assembly and packaging companies.
Cubic Wafer’s process technology is used to fuse integrated
circuits at the die or wafer level. The company bills the technology as “The chip becomes the board.” This
technology can be used to bond together chips manufactured with different process technologies such as analog and digital
CMOS processes with over a million communication contacts per square centimeter. These contacts or bonds are reported to be
one-thousand time shorter than the IO connections found on today’s horizontal chips. The reduction of IO length portends
to lower power and higher speed chip solutions. The company also indicates that it solution combines the best advantages
of system-in-packaging and system-on-chip design methodologies to obtain a very cost-effective, smaller, faster, and lower
power solution.
Arkados, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of CDKnet.com (OTC BB:
CDKN), has produced its first chip for the powerline communications market. The AI-1100 powerline communications chip has
been permits electric sockets to act as high-speed Internet portals.
The AI-1100 chip integrates HomePlug powerline technology along
with the well-known ARM9 processor.
Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Sigma Designs Inc. (NASDAQ:SIGM)
at the International Broadcasters Convention announced a chip solution for low-cost, high-definition IPTV based on Microsoft’s
TV Internet Protocol Television software platform. The new chip, Sigma Design’s SMP8634 media processor used for the
design of IPTV-ready receivers, along with Microsoft’s platform gives settop box companies the capability to produce
products to deliver full-service home IPTV services. The chip supports a number of standard peripherals and interfaces to
lower settop manufacturers’ cost. USB2.0, IDE, Ethernet, HDMI, VC-1 and H.264 (MPEG-4) video codec support are some
of the features integrated into the chip.
According to Ken Lowe, vice president of strategic marketing at
Sigma Designs. "Platforms based on Sigma's SMP8634 and Microsoft IPTV Edition offer the dual benefit of achieving a dramatically
new user experience and significantly lowering the cost of IPTV-ready receivers. Ultimately, high-definition content will
help come alive for consumers as a clearly differentiated service."
At Microsoft, Phil Corman, director of Worldwide Partner Development
for the Microsoft TV Division indicated that the solution developed with Sigma Designs will bring benefits to settop manufacturers,
"Our collaboration with Sigma is a great example of driving innovation in the IPTV industry that will ultimately enable an
exciting world of next-generation TV and connected-entertainment experiences that consumers do not enjoy with today's legacy
TV offerings. The combination of Sigma's new SoC and the Microsoft TV IPTV Edition software platform will bring significant
benefits to set-top manufacturers, IPTV service providers and consumers alike."
Sigma’s SMP8634 media processor integrates decoder engines,
graphics acceleration, multi-standard audio decoding, a dedicated secure processor, flash memory, digital rights management
(DRM) engines, a 300-MIPS host CPU, a 3.2 GB/second unified memory controller, an Ethernet 10/100 controller, dual USB 2.0
controller, and IDE controller.
Hardware partners that have confirmed support for the Microsoft
TV platform include Linksys-KiSS, Motorola Inc., Scientific-Atlanta Inc., Tatung Co. and Thomson.
Integration Associates has moved further into the ZigBee chip market
with the development of a one-stop ZigBee solution with Oki Electric Industry Co. Ltd. (TOKYO:6703. The joint solution combines
Oki’s ML7065 chip and Integration’s ZigBee Stack. The ZigBee Compliant certified solution supports the CompX ZigBee
Stack in Asia and the ZigBee Stack in North America and Europe.
Noting that the solution had applications in the home, medical monitoring
and industry markets was Akira Kamo, President of the Silicon Solutions Company at Oki Electric, "With the combination of
Oki's ML7065 and Integration's CompXs ZigBee Stack, customers can establish a low data rate wireless network to control a
wide range of applications from lighting, HVAC, production and storage facility logistics, to home appliance and health care
monitoring. Using the advanced low data rate wireless technology, Oki will contribute to establish the next generation home
and factory automation, focusing on reliability, safety, and comfort."
Oki’s ML7065 IEEE802.15.4 compliant LSI chip includes a 2.4GHz
RF, physical layer (PHY) and a Media Access Control layer (MAC). The chip entered volume production in June 2005. Built on
a 0.22 micron CMOS process, the LSI chip has a standby current that is less than 2uA.
Integration reported that its Integration IA4420 Transceiver has
been selected by BRK Brands, Inc., the producer of First Alert, a very popular home safety products. The transceiver and Integration’s
EZMAC protocol, known as Integration’s EZRadio technology, are central to the design of BRK’s ONELINK smoke and
carbon monoxide series of safety products.
BRK’s ONEKINK products bring low-cost home protection to a
new level, According to Mark Colello, senior vice president and general manager, BRK Brands, Inc., "These new products make
it possible for all homeowners to have whole-home protection without huge costs or hassles. With Integration's EZRadio technology
we were able to deliver homeowners a complete, cost-effective solution to provide the first interconnected alarm network for
both fire and CO emergencies."
ONELINK offers homeowners a complete wireless network of alarms
that communicate vital security and safety information to each other and the homeowner via an early warning system. The voice
warning system can be installed in every room in the house and has been designed to inform the homeowner of the location of
the smoke or carbon monoxide leak in the house. A beep warning signal can also be selected.
One can find the First Alert ONELINK home safety system at The Home
Depot, one of the largest home improvement retail stores in the world.
