Electronic Business articles from January 2006

Electronic Business archives from January 2006

Defense electronics hit close to home: DD(X) soldiers on through the political process.(Raytheon Co. got contract to build Ship Systems Integration and Design Detail for the Navy)(Bath Iron Works Corp. developing DD(X) destroyers)(Editorial)
January 1, 2006... No matter where you live in the U.S., some facet of the defense industry is never far away. Indeed, the upgrading of Network Centric Warfare, as Geoffrey James writes in this issue's feature "The War at Home," will benefit many electronics...

The future of electronics?(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2006... Kevin Krewell's Semiconductors column in the October 2005 issue ("The Coming Photonic Revolution," page 30) suggested that the future of electronics resided in photonics. Although it is clear that optoelectronics will always have a sizable role...

Pinned down on compatibility.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2006... I wanted to let you know of a couple of minor factual errors in "Quiet Power" (December 2005, page 30). You said that AMD had acquired Austin-based microprocessor vendor Nexgen, but the company was actually based in Santa Clara, Calif. You also...

Future shock.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2006... In "The Future That Never Was" (December 2005, page 46), Geoffrey James makes a very misleading statement directly under the heading "The Beckman analog computer." The IBM 360 was certainly not the first commercial general-purpose (digital)...

The problem with recycling: why the industry must strive to share the burden.(Commentary)
January 1, 2006... Any discussion of electronics recycling must recognize the intense competitive pressures within our industry and the potential impacts any given recycling system could have on the competitive balance. Government decisions about electronics...

Hanging on a heartbeat: the implantable medical device market is set to take off--can the electronics industry capitalize?(market trends)
January 1, 2006... The first cardiac pacemakers would have put Frankenstein s monster to shame. Plugged into a wall outlet, the bulky boxes delivered shocks through electrodes strapped to the patient's chest. Flash forward 50 years, and pacemakers and implantable...

Roller-coaster ride ahead: are we set to repeat the 1999-2002 boom-bust cycle?(economic outlook for the semiconductor industry)
January 1, 2006... If you're getting a feeling of deja vu, it may be because 2006 is beginning with the economic environment for electronics looking eerily similar to that of early 1999. Both years begin in the United States with similar recent rates for economic...

NAND is grand, and NOR's a snore: Intel and Micron in $5 billion NAND joint venture.(FINANCE)
January 1, 2006... On November 21, 2005, Intel suddenly stepped into the red-hot NAND flash memory market. The chosen route was an alliance with Micron Technology, in a $5 billion blockbuster deal creating a new joint manufacturing company. Intel's entry...

Charitable impulses: electronics heavyweights hold the pace of corporate giving steady.(MANAGEMENT)
January 1, 2006... Arising tide doesn't always lift all boats, at least not in the electronics industry. As business conditions improve, a random sampling of electronics companies reveals that they have no specific plans to increase corporate philanthropic...

How healthy is your supply chain? Risk-management service helps avert supply disruptions.(PROFILE)(Company Profile)
January 1, 2006... Electronics component exchanges were big during the dot-com boom: Literally hundreds of trading sites sprang up between 1999 and 2001. Most promised to simplify the electronics supply chain; few are still around today (see "The Revolution That...

Too much sense, too little response.(Response Management)(supply chain forecasting)
January 1, 2006... There is a growing focus on solutions that "sense" what is going on in a business--alerting users to gains in demand signals, plant failures, supply outages, and similar occurrences. The vendor and analyst communities have labeled these tools...

The clash of the flash: NAND and NOR battle for heart of the cell phone market.(semiconductors)(flash memories)
January 1, 2006... The year 2005 was a banner year for NAND flash memory. Revenues grew by 57 percent, rising from $6.5 billion in 2004 to an estimated $10.2 billion in 2005 and surpassing revenues of NOR memory for the first time, according to figures from IC...

Brand-new approach? Despite a lot of talk about branding, most chip companies are still novices.(semiconductor industry)
January 1, 2006... Both Intel and Advanced Micro Devices plan to start 2006 with new branding campaigns for their microprocessors. Marketing juggernaut Intel, whose $300 million campaign for Centrino made that chip synonymous with "wireless notebook" in the minds...

EMS revs up in auto electronics: industry anticipates that carmakers will outsource more manufacturing.(Supply Chain Nanagement)
January 1, 2006... Electronics vendors have a kind of love/hate relationship with the auto industry: The exacting standards of automakers make it a tough industry to break into, but once you're there, you can look forward to a long and profitable relationship....

End of an era: Cadence and Synopsys plan to acquire fewer startups. Will it really matter?(Electronic Design Automation)(Cadence Design Systems Inc. and Synopsys Inc.)
January 1, 2006... Cadence Design Systems CEO Mike Fister and Synopsys CEO Aart de Geus aren't exactly pals, but there's one area where they're in violent agreement: that they're going to execute fewer acquisitions than in the past. However, although the...

Build, test ... and now ship: SATS companies are increasingly managing more of the supply chain for their customers.(Capital Equipment)
January 1, 2006... When you think of semiconductor assembly and test service (SATS) providers, supply chain management may not immediately come to mind as a service they offer. But it's an emerging trend quickly sweeping across this $15.2 billion industry, and...

M&A'S huge year: a glut of investment capital, stronger stock markets and weak IPO demand are fueling a boom in tech mergers and acquisitions.(initial public offering)
January 1, 2006... Agilent Technologies considered a range of options last year while deciding how best to sell its 40-year-old semiconductor division. Other chip makers were interested in buying some, but not all, of the division's product lines. Agilent also...

The war at home: how the war in Iraq is changing the relationship between defense and commercial electronics.(military electronics industry)(Network Centric Warfare of U.S. military)
January 1, 2006... It's a truism that armies are prepared to fight the previous war rather than the current one. That's certainly been the case in Iraq, where the Bush administration clearly anticipated something more like the relatively bloodless Gulf War than a...

Broadcom inside: this semiconductor company is still a teenager in the industry, but it wants to be inside every business and home communication device on the planet.(PROFILE)(Company Profile)
January 1, 2006... Broadcom is hardly a household name, but the company's products are everywhere. If you use a Bluetooth headset with your cell phone, there's a good chance that the Bluetooth chip inside the phone was made by Broadcom. Have a Motorola cable...