| ST, NXP to merge wireless businesses |
Source:Peter Clarke, EETimes, April 10 2008 |
| http://www.eetimes.eu/germany/207100879 |
NXP BV and STMicroelectronics NV will combine their wireless operations to form a joint
venture company. ST will own 80 percent of the venture; NXP gets the other 20 percent along
with $1.55 billion in cash from ST. Nokia also endorsed the deal, saying the wireless supply
chain needs consolidation. |
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| IBM to acquire Israeli storage firm FilesX |
| Source:Paul McDougall, EETimes, April 10 |
| http://www.eetimes.eu/israel/207101028 |
FilesX's software provides continuous data protection for applications and servers as well as
supporting business users in remote offices. IBM said Thursday that it reached a deal to acquire
FilesX, an Israeli developer of software that controls digital storage systems and protects
corporate data. |
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| U.S. high-tech lobbying grows |
| Source:George Leopold, EETimes, April 10 2008 |
| http://www.eetimes.com |
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In a record year for lobbying, the U.S. high-tech industry showed growing political clout during
2007. According to a survey of special interest lobbying, the Center for Responsive Politics said
in a survey released Thursday (April 10) that a record $2.8 billion was spent by corporations,
industries, labor unions and other special interest groups. |
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| Global semiconductor industry: India Taking the lead |
| Source:Ved Prakash, ITvoirnetwork, February 11 2008 |
| http://www.itvoir.com |
Drop in US consumer spending and the impending market crisis, driven by high energy prices
and the subprime turmoil, has started hitting the global semiconductor industry. But the Indian
semiconductor industry is taking different path altogether. Since chip growth is ultimately
dependent on consumer demand and , with a reduction in income-tax for the salaried classes in
India and rise of salaries according to sixth pay commission pushing up spending power, there
is bound to be a surge in the uptake of consumer electronics like PCs spending power of
consumers. Thus most verticals will remain unaffected by these market lows and hence the
market for most multinational chip companies will shift to emerging countries like India, China
and Brazil. |
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| Romania's growth is double-edged sword |
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Source:Drew Wilson, EETimes, April 11 2008 |
| http://www.eetimes.eu |
Romania tells two stories. On the one hand, foreign investors consider the country the most
attractive destination for investment in Central and Eastern Europe. According to a survey by
the Center for European Economic Research (ZEW), 37 percent of foreign investors polled
consider Romania the most attractive site, ahead of Poland at 34 percent and the Czech
Republic and Hungary at 6 percent each. |
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| World Bank: Rising productivity drives CEE growth; Slowdown ahead |
| Source:Drew Wilson, EETimes, April 11 2008 |
| http://www.eetimes.eu |
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Central and Eastern Europe's productivity gains – the amount each worker produces in a period
of time – have boosted economic growth, doubling per capita income from 1999 to 2007, says a
recent report by the World Bank. In the CEE region, per capita income was $8,605 in 2006, up
from $5,592 in 1998, mainly due to rising efficiency of labor and capital as countries continue
to shed Soviet-era work ethics and modernize infrastructure. |
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| Analysis: Is the ST, NXP wireless JV the start of IDM break-up? |
| Source: Peter Clarke, EETimes, April 11 2008 |
| http://www.eetimes.com/ |
|
The move by STMicroelectronics NV and NXP BV, two of Europe's leading semiconductor
companies, to merge their wireless businesses, giving ST an 80 percent ownership of the
resulting JV while NXP — left with 20 percent stake — is enriched to the tune of $1.55 billion, is
a radical step. But it is likely not be the last. Creating fine-grained, fabless, niche-market
champions has become the name of the semiconductor game. |
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| Hyderabad's Fab City bags $4 bn investment |
| Source: Vishwanath Pilla & Vivin Matthew, Moneycontrol.com, April 12 2008 |
| http://www.moneycontrol.com |
|
The much-hyped Fab City in Hyderabad got the boot as the semiconductor hub of India, but
now it's been reenergised attracting almost USD 4 billion in investments. The 1,200 acre space
in Hyderabad was supposed to help the nascent semiconductor industry take off. But the Fab
City project didn't get a good response. Another industry however is blooming in this very
place; one which makes solar panels for exports to Europe and North America. The panels are
used to convert solar energy into electricity. |
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| “Don’t write off 2008, the underlying semiconductor industry is in good shape” says Future
Horizons’ Malcolm Penn |
| Source: EDN, April 14 2008 |
| http://www.ednasia.com |
|
Fear of a US recession combined with bad news in the financial markets is making the chip
market jittery, according to Future Horizons’ CEO and chairman Malcolm Penn. But whilst
these near-term uncertainties are clearly unsettling the market, Penn believes company
balance sheets are strong and the underlying industry fundamentals have rarely been in better
shape. “Rising ASPs will trigger a market recovery,” comments Penn. “If it does not occur in
2008 then it will be 2009, however, it is far too early to write off 2008.” |
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| Qualcomm Ventures Debuts In India With Investment In Tessolve
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| Source: VC Circle, April 15 2008 |
| http://www.vccircle.com |
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Qualcomm Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of the eponymous telecom chip maker,
has announced its maiden equity investment in India in Tessolve Services, the US and Indiabased
provider of solutions and platforms for semiconductor testing, packaging, qualification and failure analysis. Tessolve is founded by Raja Mancikam and others. |
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| SoC cost, complexity driving IP collaboration |
| Source: George Leopold, EETimes, April 15 2008 |
| http://www.eetimes.eu |
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Growing complexity and the staggering costs associated with designing systems-on-chip are
forcing companies to seek collaboration on a variety of intellectual property issues. Chip
industry executives and IP vendors speaking at a IP symposium here on Tuesday (April 15)
agreed that greater collaboration is needed on issues like design reuse and standards. The key
drivers are complex designs that are gradually moving to 45-nm feature sizes and skyrocketing
costs associated with chip design and generating internal IP. Company engineers estimated the
cost of some SoC designs has soared to $100 million per device. |
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| Keynote speakers differ on the health of the US patent system |
| Source: Gabe Moretti, EETimes, April 15 2008 |
| http://www.eetimes.eu |
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The IP Symposium is a collocated event to the Embedded Systems Conference and is taking
place today and tomorrow at the Fairmont Hotel in downtown San Jose, California. It should
come as no surprise that the first day of the IP Symposium was almost entirely dedicated to
legal and business issues related to the industry. Of the 12 sessions offered the first day, one
was in two parts, only two addressed engineering issues. It must be said, though, that it is
extremely important for engineering managers, or for anyone contemplating a startup venture,
to have some knowledge and appreciation for the legal vagaries that impact the development
and use of Intellectual Property. At a time when every EDA startup must assure venture capital
firms that it will not infringe existing patents and will generate its own patents portfolio in
order to get funded, the keynote speeches by Peter Detkin and Michael Meurer were
appropriate. |
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| Synopsys enables first Vietnam-spun IC |
| Source: EETimes, April 17 2008 |
| http://www.eetasia.com |
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Synopsys Inc. has enabled the IC Design Research and Education Center (ICDREC) to achieve
first silicon success with SigmaK3, the first IC designed entirely in Vietnam. The SigmaK3 digital
IC was designed solely with Synopsys solutions and methodologies with the assistance of
Synopsys consultants. As part of the collaboration, Synopsys trained 20 digital IC designers in
Vietnam to help kick-start the country's IC design initiative. |
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| Rules need a re-write, say IP experts at forum |
| Source: Rick Merritt, EETimes, April 17 2008 |
| http://www.eetimes.eu/design/207400147 |
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The rules of the road in intellectual property need a re-write, according to speakers at the
Intellectual Property Symposium. Government needs to overhaul the overarching patent system
and industry needs to hammer out new practices at silicon, software and system levels, said
experts gathered at the inaugural event here. The event came just days after Senate leaders
effectively shelved the controversial Patent Reform Act that aimed to address a wide variety of
issues ranging from patent quality to litigation. In a keynote address, Jon Dudas, director of the
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, said the agency could see a record 500,000 patent
applications this year, but their quality is deteriorating and compromise on how to rework the
system remains elusive. |
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| Slowing growth to spur analog semiconductor deals |
| Source: Anupreeta Das, Reuters , April 17 2008 |
| http://www.reuters.com |
|
Analog chip makers, faced with slowing industry growth and looking to put their piles of cash to
use, are likely to spur deal-making in coming months. The pace of deal-making among analog
semiconductor companies had lagged behind the overall technology sector because of strong
growth opportunities within the industry. The analog semiconductor industry grew at about 25
percent annually from the mid-1990s until about five years ago, driven by exponentially
increasing demand for these chips from industries as far-ranging as housing and
communications. |
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| IITB signs MOU on Nanoscience & Nanotechnology |
| Source: EETimes, April 18 2008 |
| http://www.eetindia.co.in |
|
The signing of a joint Memorandum of Understanding paves the way for numerous future
research collaborations and exchanges of students and staff between the University of
Cambridge and the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB). Professor Alan Windle was in
Mumbai, on behalf of Cambridge Vice-Chancellor Professor Alison Richard, to present the
Memorandum for signing by Prof. Ashok Misra, Director, IIT Bombay. |
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