| Xilinx developing 60 IP cores |
Source:The Hindu , December 14 2007 |
| http://www.thehindu.com |
Xilinx, a $2-billion fabless semiconductor company, is developing 60 IP cores from its
Hyderabad R&D centre, the biggest outside the U.S. The company has also created a software
wing to support its product development activity. |
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| IC Insights lowers chip forecasts |
| Source:Mark LaPedus, EETimes, December 14 2007 |
| http://www.eetimes.eu |
IC Insights Inc. has altered its chip forecasts and 2008 is not expected to be a banner year, as
previously thought. A new IC Insights report shows integrated circuit sales growing a modest 5
percent to $220.3 billion in 2007, compared to $209.5 billion in 2006, when the IC market rose
9 percent from the previous year.
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| Gartner puts new spin on IC rankings |
| Source:Mark LaPedus, EETimes, December 14 2007 |
| http://www.eetimes.eu |
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Gartner Inc. has put a slightly different spin on the projected top-10 chip rankings for 2007. In
the rankings, Intel Corp. is projected to be the world's largest chip maker again, followed in
order by Samsung, TI and STMicroelectronics. Gartner combined the sales of Infineon
Technologies AG and its DRAM spin-off Qimonda. As a result, Infineon is in fifth place in the
ranking in terms of worldwide sales for 2007.
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| Bell Labs Is Gone. Academia Steps In. |
| Source:G. PASCAL ZACHARY, December 16 2007 |
| http://www.nytimes.com |
PAY me now, and pay me later. That’s the new mind-set at some leading research universities
in dealing with business — and the essence of an emerging model for how corporations can tap
big brains on campus without having to pay their salaries. |
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| Faster Chips Are Leaving Programmers in Their Dust |
|
Source:John Markoff, The New York Times, December 17 2007 |
| http://www.nytimes.com |
When he was chief executive of Intel in the 1990s, Andrew S. Grove would often talk about the
“software spiral” — the interplay between ever-faster microprocessor chips and software that
required ever more computing power.
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| Life is still beautiful for EEs |
| Source:EETimes, December 17 2007 |
| http://www.eetasia.com |
|
Life is relatively good for engineers—at least according to their responses to the EE Times
Annual Salary and Opinion Survey. Among the findings in this year's questionnaire is that
engineers in the United States have median earnings, including benefits of $108,800, slightly
higher than last year's median of $104,300. That compares with European respondents' median
of just over $61,000. Japanese engineers reported median earnings of $65,400. |
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| India taps IT incubators to boost manufacturing |
| Source:K.C. Krishnadas, EE Times, December 17 2007 |
| http://www.eetindia.co.in |
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The India government has set out to establish several IT incubators in the country to attract
investment and boost electronics manufacturing. |
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| Worldwide shipments of electronics systems will grow 5% in 2007 |
| Source:evertiq, December 17 2007 |
| http://www.evertiq.com |
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The new report forecasts an average annual increase of 7% for worldwide electronics systems
growth between 2006 and 2011, when the total will reach $1.60 trillion. |
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| India eyes fixes for education |
| Source:Sheila Riley, EETimes, December 17 2007 |
| http://www.eetimes.com |
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Engineering education in India is in trouble. There simply aren't enough instructors for the
numbers of students. That's true even at the seven top-tier IITs, or Indian Institutes of
Technology. By one measure, India is a victim of its technological successes. Professors can
make much better salaries in industry, and they're flocking to it. |
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| Wanted: Indian EE professors |
| Source:Sufia Tippu, EETimes, December 17 2007 |
| http://www.eetimes.com |
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The shortage of engineering teachers in India is even more dire than U.S. observers are aware,
Indian academics report. "Unfortunately, if you talk about it, you are dubbed a bad guy, so
most of us have stopped talking about it," said Sowmyanarayanan S. Sadagopan, a professor and
founding director of International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT-Bangalore). |
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| Digital age in its infancy, says World Electronics Forum |
| Source:Amir Ben-Artzi, EETimes, December 17 2007 |
| http://www.eetimes.eu |
The electronics industry faces a bright future, according to Gary Shapiro, president of the
Consumer Electronics Association and secretary of the World Electronics Forum. Shapiro spoke
at the World Electronics Forum (WEF) that gathered in Tel-Aviv, Israel. The forum hosted 40
delegates from 16 countries. They discussed issues like green electronics, recycling, free trade,
standards, telecommunications, and energy consumption. |
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| New trends rebalance global manufacturing capacity |
| Source:EETimes, December 18 2007 |
| http://www.eetasia.com |
|
In the second half of the decade, iSuppli Corp. says it is tracking a new series of strategic steps
for electronics contract manufacturers that focuses on other factors beyond labor cost when it
comes to selecting a location for production. This is based on the analyst's "Electronics
Manufacturing Capacity Database. |
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| Moser Baer, Titan Energy, Videocon apply for units under fab policy |
| Source:Moumita Bakshi Chatterjee, The Hindu BusinessLine, December 18 2007 |
| http://www.thehindubusinessline.com |
Barely three months after it announced semiconductor policy guidelines, the Government has
received formal proposals from three companies — Moser Baer, Videocon and Titan Energy —
for availing themselves of incentives under the mega-scheme, with a combined investment
value of about Rs 20,000 crore. |
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| Qualcomm acquires SoftMax |
| Source:CIOL, December 18 2007 |
| http://www.ciol.com |
|
Qualcomm Incorporated announced that it has acquired San Diego-based SoftMax Inc., a market
leader in noise reduction for mobile devices. SoftMax brings multi-microphone noise
suppression and echo cancellation expertise to Qualcomm, broadening the audio and voice
capabilities of the Company's product portfolio for integration into devices such as mobile
handsets, Bluetooth headsets, VoIP phones and notebook PCs. |
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| U.S. R&D funding faces shortfall |
| Source:Mark LaPedus, EETimes, December 18 2007 |
| http://www.eetimes.com |
The U.S. Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) blasted the U.S. government over the lack of
action taken to enhance America's competitiveness in the global economy. |
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| ASP falls said to weigh on small/medium size displays |
| Source:John Walko, December 18 2007 |
| http://www.eetimes.eu/design/204805998 |
The average selling prices of small/medium size displays for mobile phones, PDAs, handheld
games and automotive applications for long term contracts continued to decline during the
third quarter of the year, albeit at a slower pace than in previous quarters, according to
market research group DisplaySearch.
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| VCs: Cleantech up but semis down in '08 |
Source:Mark LaPedus, EETimes, December 18 2007 |
| http://www.eetimes.eu |
Venture capital dollars for clean technology are projected to grow in 2008, but semiconductor
funding will decline next year, according to a survey from the National Venture Capital
Association (NVCA). |
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| India among 5 nations sharing half of world production |
| Source:The Economic Times, December 19 2007 |
| http://www.ibef.org |
Five countries - the US, China, Japan Germany and India - account for nearly half of the world's
GDP as measured by buying power in US dollars, according to a new World Bank report. |
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| TI bets on analog tech to drive growth |
| Source:The Economic Times, December 19 2007 |
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The growing semiconductor market in India is seeing the $13.7-billion high-tech major Texas
Instruments (TI) betting on analog technologies to drive its major growth in the country. TI,
which was the first tech MNC to start its development centre in India in Bangalore in 1985, is
now focusing on the domestic market with its array of technologies, especially analog. Larry
Tan, president, TI Asia, said, the Indian market has got the potential to become a high-volume
segment with multiple industries adopting its technologies. India has also emerged as one of the fastest growing markets globally for TI and in Asia, it is the fastest. For now, TI is looking
at three main segments, which will be driving its growth — industrial, automotive and medical
electronics. Besides it has also been providing technologies in the area of energy saving
devices. As per the Indian Semiconductor Association-Frost & Sullivan (ISA-F&S) survey report
for 2007-08, the total available market (TAM) revenue for semiconductors in India during 2006
were estimated at $1.26 billion and this is expected to rise to $3.18 billion by 2009. The CAGR
is expected to be 36 percent. The optimism in the Indian market for TI stems from the fact
that there are a growing number of MNCs who are setting up their manufacturing their base in
the India, which provides the opportunity to tap into its technology. Further, there are also a
growing number of Indian companies, which are adopting TI technologies to build products for
the global and domestic market. TI has in its portfolio over 30,000 products of which the high
performance analog parts portfolio is over 16,500 devices. Annually, it sees over 4,000 new
devices based on analog technologies.
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| Wipro-Newlogic gets Wi-Fi certification |
| Source:Business Standard, December 19 2007 |
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Wipro-NewLogic, the semiconductor intellectual property business unit of Wipro Technologies,
has announced that its WiLD IP VD4 reference platform has achieved Wi-Fi certification for a
complete WLAN solution.
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| Toshiba and IBM extend semiconductor research and development collaboration |
| Source: EDN Asia, December 19 2007 |
| http://www.ednasia.com |
|
IBM and Toshiba Corp. have entered into a joint development agreement on 32nm bulk
complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process technology. Through this
collaboration IBM and Toshiba plan to accelerate development of next-generation technology
to achieve high-performance, energy-efficient chips at the 32nm process level.
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| IDG Ventures Invests In 3D Tech Company Incubated At Stanford, IISc |
| Source:VC Circle, December 19 2007 |
| http://www.vccircle.com |
|
IDG Ventures India, the Bangalore-based early stage technology venture capital fund, has made
an undisclosed investment in a technology startup incubated by Stanford University and the
city-based Indian Institute of Science (IISc). The company - 3D Solid compression Pvt Ltd
(3DSoC) - was co-founded by Fritz Prinz (a Professor in Stanford), B Gurumoorthy (a professor in
IISc), Krishnan Ramaswami and K K Venkatraman.
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| Gartner lowers capex forecast in '08 |
| Source:Mark LaPedus, EETimes, December 19 2007 |
| http://www.eetimes.eu |
|
The fundamentals are falling apart in semiconductor equipment, as Gartner has once again
lowered its capital spending forecasts for 2008. Amid a slowdown in the IC industry, Gartner
Inc. has once again lowered its capital spending forecasts for 2008. Capital spending -- and the
fab equipment markets -- are expected to decline next year.
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| Mixed mood seen for semis in '08 |
| Source:Mark LaPedus, EETimes, December 19 2007 |
| http://www.eetimes.eu |
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Semiconductor executives anticipate moderate revenue growth -- and below historical averages
-- in the coming year, according to a recent global survey conducted by KPMG LLP.
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| US slowdown likely to hamper exports: PM |
| Source:CIOL, December 19 2007 |
| http://www.ciol.com |
|
India's economy could grow by 10 per cent a year by 2012 with the right set of policies, but the
US subprime crisis might trim exports and capital flows, stated prime minister Manmohan Singh
today.
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| Tax rates for IT hardware may be reset |
| Source:Regina Anthony, Livemint.com, December 20 2007 |
| http://www.livemint.com |
|
In an attempt to make India, which is one of the world’s preferred destinations for software
and back-office work, a regional—if not global—hub for hardware manufacturing, the Union
government is readying a policy that could see total tax on hardware coming down from the
current 16-34% to 5-7%.
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| iSuppli cuts IC outlook amid global woes |
| Source:Mark LaPedus, EETimes, December 20 2007 |
| http://www.eetimes.com |
|
iSuppli Corp. has cut its forecast for semiconductor revenue growth in 2008, due to "global
economic woes." The research firm now predicts global semiconductor revenue will rise to
$291.4 billion in 2008, up 7.5 percent from an estimated $270.9 billion in 2007. This represents
a 1.8-percentage-point reduction from iSuppli's previous prediction in September of a 9.3
percent increase for the year.
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| Wind River receives F&S award |
| Source:CIOL, December 20 2007 |
| http://www.ciol.com |
|
Frost & Sullivan has named Wind River Systems as the 2007 European Automotive Software
Company of the Year.
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Dear readers,
May the spirit of Christmas
Bring you joy
That lasts all through the New Year
Have a Wonderful Christmas…
…
and a Magical New Year! |
