Electronic Business articles from December 2002

Electronic Business archives from December 2002

It's e-business. And it's turning electronics companies into models of efficiency.
December 1, 2002... Everywhere in the electronics industry today, collaborative e-business is simplifying operations, improving quality control and cutting costs. It's transformation time for the value chain. How are you going to play to win? Your product is...

Thoughts on leadership. (Editor's Note).
December 1, 2002... It is with great pleasure that I introduce our annual CEO of the Year issue. Each December, we bestow this honor on one worthy electronics executive. As you've seen by our cover, this year we honor Aart de Geus of Synopsys Inc. I've had...

Letters.
December 1, 2002... AGILENT: THE TRUE HP? On the whole, I thought your article [Agilent's journey: "Unfinished business," October 2002, page 36] was balanced; but here are a few comments: Ned as president of Agilent Technologies: As a former HP VP (I...

Billions and billions of transistors. (The Chip Advisor).
December 1, 2002... At In-Stat/MDR's recent Microprocessor Forum 2002, Intel Fellow John Crawford described how high-end microprocessors built within the next five years will contain more than a billion transistors. This figure is a major milestone in our...

Web-linked contract terms held unenforceable. (On the Law).
December 1, 2002... Sellers want the protection of contract clauses--like disclaimers and mandatory arbitration--but are leery of offending buyers with them. So they sometimes obscure these clauses in hopes that buyers won't notice them, but will nevertheless be...

Consumer spending holds; business caution continues. (Analysis).
December 1, 2002... Consumer spending continues to be the only real driver of economic recovery this year. The U.S. economy would be stagnant, if not declining, at this point if it weren't for the continued resilience of America's shopping-crazed consumers. As an...

Reversal of fortunes: more high-tech companies plan reverse stock splits to prop up share price. (Finance).
December 1, 2002... Remember those heady days when companies were announcing stock splits every year or so? In these days of depressed stock prices, some of those same companies have not only hit the brakes, but slammed into reverse. And the effect can be, well,...

Lowering the boom: high-tech companies see credit ratings drop. (Finance).
December 1, 2002... Downgrading is on the rise, and credit agencies say expect more of the same. Within a three-day period in early October, the high-tech industry saw three leading electronics companies--Arrow Electronics Inc., Avnet Inc. and Lucent...

IP crap shoot? Fabless companies may find some cores not so portable. (Business Trends).
December 1, 2002... Fabless chip makers beware: Some intellectual property (IP) cores your foundry partner offers may not be as portable as you hope. Increasingly, with the system on a chip (SoC), fabless companies want to use third party IP to avoid building...

Good years for games. (Business Trends).
December 1, 2002... The tech industry has definitely seen better times. "Last year [2001] was the most difficult and challenging year in the history of the semiconductor industry," concluded Dwight Decker, CEO of Newport Beach, CA-based Conexant Systems Inc. But...

The ghost of telecom past: survivors tremble, as debt-free competitors return. (Business Trends).
December 1, 2002... The telecommunications industry is having a Dickensian Christmas, but with a twist. Instead of being haunted by ghosts of former business partners chained with the shackles of past greed, its nightmares are filled with competitors rising from...

Troubled waters for submarine patents. (Business Trends).
December 1, 2002... An action by the U.S. Supreme Court could make it more difficult to enforce submarine patents, viewed by many electronics companies as a nuisance. The high court denied a request by Lemelson Medical, Education & Research Foundation LP,...

C-Port Network Processors. The future is programmable.
December 1, 2002... With the flexibility of the C-Port[TM] Network Processor family, you will be ready for whatever the future brings. The C-Port family is an integral part of Motorola's comprehensive communications processor portfolio, which provides the...

Triumph of a new design paradigm: the reliance of ODMs and their OEM customers on outsiders for cell phone designs is staggering. (Special Editorial Section: Leadership Series).
December 1, 2002... To PARAPHRASE TOM HANKS' famous analogy in the movie "Forrest Gump," life in the cell phone industry is like a box of chocolates--you never know which company you're going to find inside. While the label on the handset may say Alcatel,...

70% of all networking equipment designs specify PowerQUICC. We're working on the other 30%.
December 1, 2002... Since its introduction, we've shipped millions and millions of the original PowerQUICC design, and recently shipped our millionth PowerQUICC II unit. What's behind this enormous popularity? An architecture that offers unparalleled levels of...

The fastest way to take security out of the network speed equation.
December 1, 2002... Build faster networking equipment and take it to market at record speed. The Motorola family of S1 security processors lets you achieve both. Easily integrated with our popular communications processors, the Motorola security processors are...

All a-board? It's harder than ever for small companies to recruit board members. (Business Trends: Management).
December 1, 2002... Jerry Carlson is the kind of person you might want on your board of directors. A 23-year veteran of Hewlett-Packard Co., he worked closely with both of the company's founders; he was HP's first corporate controller; and he managed several...

The Aart of De Geus: our CEO of the year is a first-rate musician, but orchestrating Synopsys is his true passion. (CEO of the Year).
December 1, 2002... Lead guitar players are notorious ego-maniacs but not Aart de Geus, lead guitarist of Silicon Valley's Full Disclosure Blues Band. "Whenever I play with Aart, he's part of the whole," says bass player Gary Smith. "Once we get the rhythms down,...

EDA's ok: EDA vendors are thriving amidst the industry recession, thanks to growing demand for their tools and an influx of new investment. (EDA Market).
December 1, 2002... WHEN VIC KULKARNI, CEO of Santa Clara, CA-based Sequence Design Inc., joined the privately held electronic design automation (EDA) company in early 2000, Sequence along with the rest of its industry, was virtually ignored by Wall Street. Today,...

Leading in lean times: tips and tricks to keeping a work force motivated. (Human Resources).
December 1, 2002... IT'S GOTTEN BAD, very bad: "employee morale is very low in the high-tech sector" says Alan Barr, president of Creative Change Associates, an organizational development consulting firm in Pittsfield, MI. Between epidemic downsizing and a stock...

Option(al)' expenses? The move to expense stock options leads to an examinations of devilish details. (Finance).
December 1, 2002... As the public's mood about corporate behavior progressively soured throughout this year, a handful of high-tech companies announced they would begin to expense stock options. So far, General Electric, Computer Associates International,...

Supply-Chain soap opera: intractable inventory problems prompt much discussion, few solutions. (Strategic Planning).
December 1, 2002... MONEY TALKS. Lucent Technologies Inc.'s Jose Mejia doesn't think anybody's listening, so he uses $100 bills to get their attention. Weary of a contract manufacturer's pitch on its ability to manage component inventory, Mejia, president of...

Verification tools--a sleep aid? (Commentary).
December 1, 2002... Many executives and managers are having a hard time getting some shut-eye in the Valley these days. Everyone is feeling the pressure to perform at peak productivity during this downturn, from design managers to chief executive officers. If...