Electronic Business articles from April 2002

Electronic Business archives from April 2002

Cycles are here to stay (fortunately). (Editor's Note).(Editorial)
April 1, 2002... How do you control those nasty semiconductor industry cycles? The question came up-again--at one of those traveling forecast seminars in San Jose not long ago. The moderator's answer: "It ain't gonna happen." True enough. But perhaps an even...

Letters.(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2002... THE NEED FOR INDEPENDENT BOARDS MOTOROLA TRAIN WRECK Thank you for your strong stance in support of independent boards that are not rubber stamps for management, and your support of Walter Hewlett in your February column ["Corporate...

Surveying Yamhill. (The Chip Advisor).(Column)
April 1, 2002... In an excellent piece of investigative journalism for the San Jose Mercury News, reporter Therese Poletti revealed significant details about an Intel plan, code-named "Yamhill," to define 64-bit extensions to the x86 architecture. Yamhill would...

Electronics will lag general recovery. (Analysis).
April 1, 2002... Most economic analysts and policy-makers were surprised when the preliminary government report on the nations overall level of economic activity showed some scant growth during last year 's final quarter. In contrast to the steep 1.3%...

Popping poison pills: High-tech companies suffer from takeover anxiety attacks. (Finance).
April 1, 2002... Like the intake of Paxil across the United States after Sept. 11, high-tech companies have been popping pills to ease their anxiety over attacks that are unforeseen and uncontrollable. The pills in this instance, however, are financial...

Top heavy? "Enron-itis" spurs self-exams. (Finance).
April 1, 2002... There's nothing like a disaster to heighten awareness of things most people take for granted. When the news broke that many Enron Corp. employees had lost their retirement savings, a lot of companies sprang into action, assuring employees...

Greenspan's music plays well. (Business Barometer).
April 1, 2002... This month's polling of purchasing managers shows a marked improvement over the past 10 months. Over a third expect an increase in overall business conditions in the next 60 days. On February 27, U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan...

How to sink a submarine: Ruling in a Lemelson case is a victory for electronics companies. (Business Trends).
April 1, 2002... A panel of federal judges has dropped a damaging depth charge on submarine patents, which have been onerous to the electronics industry for several years. Submarine patents are so called because the applicant secretly and continuously...

Damn the downturn! Full speed ahead! Beholden to no one, Denali plies an aggressive course. (Business Trends).
April 1, 2002... The year 2001 was the worst of times for dozens of small electronics companies, but the best of times for Denali Software Inc., Palo Alto, CA, which has found a nice niche that straddles EDA and chip IP. In a year when many companies...

Not taken lightly: Is electronic switching losing the battle in terabit networks? (Business Trends).
April 1, 2002... The CEO of an optical communications solutions supplier is urging companies to abandon electronic-circuited switches that sit in the middle of high-speed telecommunications networks in favor of all-optical solutions. Dr. David Huber, president...

Horses for courses in wireless networking: It's still anybody's race. (Business Trends).
April 1, 2002... Set-top box (STB) makers are divided over which wireless home networking technology is better in their new generation systems: Bluetooth, 802.11x, Home RF or even plain old-fashioned DECT. STB manufacturer Pace Micro Technology Plc.,...

Bringing investors up to speed: Would real-time reporting help or hinder management? (Business Trends: Management).
April 1, 2002... Fed up with the perpetual game of earnings management on Wall Street, USA Networks Inc. has decided it won't play any more. When the New York-based broadcasting network published its quarterly results last fall, the company announced that it...

Cultivating & Success: James Truchard's National Instruments is transforming its industry by replacing expensive standalone test equipment with software-based "virtual instruments". (Cover Story).
April 1, 2002... JAMES TRUCHARD could afford to spend the rest of his days on a beach in the Bahamas or perhaps working on the perfect golf swing. Instead, when not working as CEO of Austin, TX-based National Instruments Corp. (NI), he usually can be found in...

Getting real: It's the only way to build a company during economic adversity. (Best Small Companies).
April 1, 2002... HOW TOUGH WAS 2001 ON START-UPS? So tough that Bernd Braune stopped drinking coffee. "There was enough adrenaline without caffeine," says Braune, CEO of Get2Chip Inc., San Jose, CA, a 2-year-old developer of EDA software for systems-on-chips...

The EC's Super Mario. Monti Zealously investigates antitrust and M&A issues in Europe. (Regulation).
April 1, 2002... In BRUSSELS they call him "Super Mario" - after the Ninetendo game character; Jack Wlch knows him as the Euro-official who derailed his dream of crowning a triumphant career at General Electric Co. with the takeover of Honeywell International...

Hello, China? DSP makers answer the call for help building Chinese cell phones. (Digital Signal Processing).
April 1, 2002... Elaine Ho is the kind of customer domestic and foreign cell-phone makers are fighting over in China. The successful 28-year-old was an early adopter of the mobile phone, which she finds essential in her work as an English interpreter in the...

Powering through design challenges: Big payback from integrated power management. (Special Advertising Section).
April 1, 2002... Two years ago, Kyocera Wireless Corp. of San Diego faced an intolerable situation. As a leading vendor of cellular telephone handsets, the company is in a competitive market with cutthroat margins. Yet Kyocera didn't have one power management...

Dealing components: What's the best hand for global distributors and their customers? (Distribution).
April 1, 2002... COMMUNICATIONS EQUIPMENT maker Tellabs Inc. ended 2001 like most of its brethren: sitting on a pile of unused inventory. At its five manufacturing sites around the globe, excess components gathered dust, while unit pricing on the devices...

Know your customer's unspoken needs. (Commentary).(Column)
April 1, 2002... "Listen to what they want--deliver what they need," a successful real estate broker friend replied when I asked her how she had electronics industry, particularly in our field, which is providing made it in her competitive business. The same...