Electronics Weekly articles from June 2004

Electronics Weekly archives from June 2004

Synthesis and physical design tools support FPGA and structured Asics.
June 2, 2004... Magma Design Automation has unveiled synthesis and physical design tools for FPGA and structured Asic devices. Blast FPGA takes RTL code and combines with FPGA vendors' place and route software. The synthesis technology is bought in. "Almost a...

French white light ; super-continuum.
June 2, 2004... A white light super-continuum has been produced using a holey fibre pumped with two wavelengths, reports www.optics.org. French researchers from IRCOM in Limoges apparently coupled 1.064[micro]m from a Nd:YAG, and its second harmonic, into the...

Standard ICs are money in the bank - ST.
June 2, 2004... Having a standard product portfolio provides a regular income which supports the higher margin differentiated product business, according to STMicroelectronics. "It's a cheque in the bank every month," said Pasquale Pistorio, CEO of ST. "The...

Getting to grips with project management.
June 2, 2004... An 'Introductory Certificate in Project Management' has been launched by professional body the Association for Project Management (APM) in partnership with the Department for Education and Skills (DfES). The course is aimed at helping people...

Win an iPod with our digital edition.
June 2, 2004... Continuing this week is your chance to win an iPod. Electronics Weekly is offering readers of its digital edition the opportunity to win a 15Gbyte Apple iPod. For your chance to win go to: www.electronicsweekly.com/digital/competition

Bookham US buy raises question over amplifier plant.
June 2, 2004... Bookham Technology has said it could consolidate its sites after acquiring US firm Onetta for around [pounds sterling]13m in shares last week. The firm also expects to move headquarters to the US by the end of Q3, said a spokeswoman. "We will...

CriticalBlue to show Cascade synthesis tool offload code.
June 2, 2004... CriticalBlue's embedded processor development tools are now available for commercial licensing. The Scottish firm will be demonstrating Cascade, a co-processor synthesis tool, at DAC next week. Cascade takes code destined for a system's main...

Tool integrates design flow in supply chain.
June 2, 2004... EDA and electronics manufacturing tool provider Zuken will show its product lifecycle management (PLM) software for the first time at DAC. The tools help to integrate the electronic engineering design flow into the overall manufacturing and...

Pulsic sings praises of Lyric physical design framework.
June 2, 2004... Bristol-based EDA company Pulsic is launching the latest version of its Lyric Physical Design Framework at DAC. This will have an extended single shape-based data model which supports detailed floorplanning, and automatic and interactive...

Digital design for 0.13[micro]m processes and below.
June 2, 2004... Cadence will be concentrating on digital design for 0.13[micro]m processes and below at DAC, with the company touting RTL-to-GDSII 90nm reference flows based on its Encounter platform from both TSMC and IBM. Among its announcements are a global...

Firm expects piezoelectric actuator in products next year.
June 2, 2004... Cambridge-based firm 1Limited is expecting to see its piezoelectric actuator technology, Helimorph, in products by the end of the year. "We have customers and we are expecting production to start in Q4," the company's CEO Mark Shepherd told EW....

VaST Systems adds two tools to engineering environment.
June 2, 2004... System-level tool firm VaST Systems Technology will be promoting its CoMET 5 system engineering environment for virtual prototyping of complex multi-processor, multiplexed bus systems and systems-on-chip at DAC. The package includes two new...

World's smallest RFID tag reader makes its debut.
June 2, 2004... This is the world's smallest and lowest-cost 13.56MHz RFID tag reader, claims Wokingham-based developer Innovision Research & Technology. Known as 'io', it includes an on-board RISC processor allowing it to be programmed to accommodate changes...

Record power efficiency claimed for UDC phosphorescent OLED materials.
June 2, 2004... Universal Display Corporation, the New Jersey organic light-emitting diode (OLED) developer, has claimed record-breaking power efficiency for a white backlight made using its phosphorescent OLED (PHOLED) materials. In a paper presented during...

Single UV exposure process in Philips thin flexible LCDs.
June 2, 2004... Also at the Society for Information Display conference in Seattle - see above - Philips was showing its thin flexible LCDs; made by coating a plastic foil with a fluid mixture, followed by a single ultra-violet (UV) exposure process. "This is...

Beagle manager defends mission in face of ESA lander design criticism.
June 2, 2004... Attempting to design and build a Mars lander to tight deadlines as a hitchhiker in an already-defined orbiter was the key mistake in the failed Beagle 2 mission, last week's European Space Agency report concluded. However, the cause for...

Cadence opens Russian R&D centre for tool development and training.
June 2, 2004... Cadence has opened an R&D centre in Moscow. The company said the office, its first in Russia, is also the first of its kind to be opened by an overseas firm in the country. The 70-strong team will focus on EDA tool development and will also...

EDA start-up speeds design for small geometries.
June 2, 2004... A start-up EDA company claims to have addressed the problem of reaching design closure for very small geometries in reasonable time, by developing a routing tool that performs routing, extraction, analysis and optimisation concurrently. Silicon...

IR plans $40m investment creating 120 jobs in Wales.
June 2, 2004... International Rectifier (IR) will invest $40m to bring its eight inch wafer fab in Newport, Wales into production, creating 120 new jobs. In 2002 IR bought two fabs from ESM (the former Newport Wafer Fab) for $81m. One was a 150mm fab, the...

Digital video company expands product range.
June 2, 2004... Cambridge digital video design firm Ovus is hoping to add professional monitoring systems and personal video recorders to its range of products based around digital television. "The set-top box market is fiercely competitive," said Martin...

Royal Academy shortlist drawn up.
June 2, 2004... The shortlist of finalists for the [pounds sterling]50,000 Royal Academy of Engineering's MacRobert Award for innovation has been announced. Sharp Laboratories of Europe has been shortlisted for its electrically switchable 2D-3D displays....

Mentor makes C synthesis tool available to all.
June 2, 2004... Mentor Graphics is bringing to market a C synthesis product previously only available to select customers. Catapult C takes standard C or C++, with no extra instructions, classes or timing information, and produces Verilog or VHDL code for an...

Powerline home data networking is 'sexy and works', claims analyst.
June 2, 2004... There is still a market for powerline communications, according to consultant firm Rethink Research Associates. "We shouldn't sneeze at HomePlug," said Peter White, managing director of Rethink, speaking at Mediacast 2004. "It has lacked a...

Verisity makes more goods from Axis hardware merger.
June 2, 2004... Verisity has unveiled further fruits from the merger of its verification tools with hardware from Axis, the firm it bought earlier this year. SpeXtreme combines software verification running on a workstation with acceleration and emulation...

Improved analysis boosts tool's design coverability.
June 2, 2004... TransEDA has improved the analysis of its VN-Cover tool, which it said would help engineers increase coverage of their designs. "The ultimate goal for designers is to get 100 per cent coverage," pointed out Modesto Casas, the firm's head of...

Flash memory market to grow 45 per cent.
June 2, 2004... The flash memory market will grow by 45 per cent this year according to IC Insights, driven by increased unit volumes but not by prices. While Q1 2004 flash shipments increased 11 per cent compared to Q4 2003, prices are lower than forecast...

Scant prospect for satellite broadband.
June 2, 2004... Satellite is going to have to work hard to gain any foothold in the broadband access market, according to industry experts speaking at the Mediacast 2004 show. "Currently satellite is a last resort stopgap until DSL arrives," said Juan...

Toshiba wins silicon prize.
June 2, 2004... Toshiba Electronics Europe won best silicon innovation in this year's Cable & Satellite International/Mediacast awards with its Donau TC90400XBG/FG system-on-chip family. The chips for digital video broadcast and multimedia home platforms are...

Technology links 3D images with reality.
June 2, 2004... New Zealand and Japanese researchers have developed technology to link moving 3D virtual reality (VR) images to reality. The first use is to animate a children's book called 'Giant Jimmy Jones' (pictured). Calling the technology eyeMagic, the...

Sense made of change ; in climate.
June 2, 2004... In order to monitor the impact of climate change, researchers at the University of Southampton are sinking hardy sensors capable of forming an ad hoc network up to 90m into a Norwegian glacier. The glacier advanced dramatically during the 1990s...

WiFi Alliance logo clears confusion.
June 2, 2004... The Wi-Fi Alliance has created a logo to cut 802.11 confusion. "The logo is specifically designed for consumers selecting a product in retail stores," said Alliance MD Frank Hanzlik. "It helps ensure they buy products that work together." There...

Video processor firm develops codec for embryonic standard.
June 2, 2004... Alphamosaic of Cambridge has produced a codec for the forthcoming H.264 video codec standard. "We believe it is the first to be demonstrated on production silicon," product marketing manager Chris Cytera told EW. Although the prototype codec...

Bookham cuts off GaAs in Caswell.
June 2, 2004... Bookham Technology is mothballing its GaAs manufacturing line at Caswell with the loss of around 60 staff. A spokeswoman claimed that the optical modulator line could be resurrected if the market returns. The redundancies will leave around 200...

Agere takes early lead in W-CDMA processors.
June 2, 2004... Agere has managed to snatch the top market share for mobile W-CDMA/GSM baseband processor chips, but is not expected to maintain this lead, according to analyst company Strategy Analytics. "Agere has been successful in winning the NEC design-in...

Cambridge Silicon Radio to recruit over 100 staff.
June 2, 2004... Cambridge Silicon Radio (CSR) is looking for more than 100 staff. "The company needs to add well over 100 people this year," said Richard Ord, v-p of Bluetooth business at CSR. As many as 75 of the new staff will be based in the UK. The...

Circatex shakes off grant shackles as MBO pulls it from administration.
June 2, 2004... PCB manufacturer Circatex has been pulled out of administration by a management buy-out (MBO) which will enable it to make a fresh start unencumbered by the problems of the old business. The Tyneside-based company, originally created by an MBO...

Semiconductor equipment book-to-bill jumps in April.
June 2, 2004... The semiconductor production equipment book-to-bill ratio moved up to 1:14 in April from the 1:09 ratio in March, according to SEMI International the trade body which represents the manufacturers of equipment used to make semiconductors. SEMI...

Microchip claims 6-pin MCUs are smallest.
June 9, 2004... Microchip has introduced a line of 6-pin flash-based microcontrollers in SOT-23 packages, claiming them to be the world's smallest. Called the PIC10F family, "these devices provide a solution for many markets and uses that are not typically...

Sleepless in Seattle with SID.
June 9, 2004... With the Seattle 2004 Society for Information Display conference finished, Steve Bush asked industry luminaries what impressed them. The SID (Society for Information Display) 2004 conference covered almost every display technology, from...

US firm says Europe will tighten mobile location law.
June 9, 2004... The E112 legislation setting out European requirements for locating a mobile phone in an emergency is liable to be tightened up soon, according to US location specialist TruePosition. "The legislation in place is passive legislation, meaning...

Three-way push as Xilinx splits latest top-end Virtex 4 FPGAs.
June 9, 2004... Xilinx has announced Virtex 4, its top-end FPGAs, with three different families for general purpose, signal processing or high-speed serial applications. Virtex 4 is the first implementation of the firm's ASMBL architecture, which lays down...

Proposals call for Galileo research.
June 9, 2004... A $67m call for proposals on research, development and demonstration activities for Galileo, the European satellite radio navigation programme, has been announced. This is the second call for proposals for Galileo research activities and is...

Advantage Japan.
June 9, 2004... With market trends pointing to an Asian-dominated decade in electronics, the president of Renesas Technology, Satoru Ito, believes he is in the right position to take maximum advantage. He spoke to David Manners ooking down from his 34th...

Cavendish targets embedded EEPROM and flash with micromachined memory.
June 9, 2004... Cavendish Kinetics has released details of its micromachined electromechanical memory, called Nanomech and designed to rival embedded EEPROM and flash memory. Three separate basic technologies have been developed by the firm: a fuse, a...

UK gets back to winning ways...
June 9, 2004... An Electronics Weekly survey of market confidence raises expectations of job prospects, says Richard Wilson usiness confidence in the UK electronics industry is beginning to look healthy and widespread again after three years of a market...

Point defect sizes give off cavity mode light.
June 9, 2004... Researchers in Japan have demonstrated cavity mode light emission at telecoms wavelengths from a three-dimensional photonic crystal, by introducing point defects of different sizes. The team stacked logs of crystalline GaAs to form a 3D...

Role of copper in superconductors.
June 9, 2004... This prototype, built by students at the University of Washington, is designed to help the visually impaired navigate around objects. A ring of 24 IR LEDs, a camera and real-time software compare diode-illuminated and ambient scenes, and feed a...

Mapper and framer chips control traffic management on networks.
June 9, 2004... Agere Systems has launched what it claims are the most integrated mapper and framer chips, aimed at meeting the increasing need for traffic management on telecom networks. The firm's Datamapper system-on-chip family integrates over 30 functions...

Dutch IP firm develops micromachined non-volatile memory.
June 9, 2004... Netherlands-based Cavendish Kinetics claims to have developed a micromachined non-volatile memory that rivals EEPROM in density, and expects to offer it to fabs over the next two years. "We are an intellectual property [IP] company," chief...

Welsh optoelectronics incubator looks to meet target.
June 9, 2004... OpTIC Technium, the north Wales optoelectronic business incubator and technology centre, has three weeks to hit its target of having "between six and 12 firms" installed by the end of Q2. Ian Maxwell, optoelectronic sector manager at the Welsh...

Radstone moves into [pounds sterling]10.5m HQ.
June 9, 2004... Radstone Technology has moved into a [pounds sterling]10.5m headquarters building on the Tove Valley Business Park in Towcester. The supplier of high-end embedded computer boards for defence and aerospace applications will concentrate its...

Nuclear fusion and stuff like that...
June 9, 2004... On July 1 Cassini, the multi-agency spacecraft launched in 1997, will fire its engines for 90 minutes and nose into orbit around Saturn, passing just 20,000km, or 0.3 planetary radii, from its surface. On board is the MAG experiment, which has...

Online gaming and VoIP drive comms network investment.
June 9, 2004... Consumer interest in voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP) and online gaming is driving investment in telecoms networks, as service providers deploy technology to efficiently control the traffic over networks. "We saw a big wave in investment in...

Semiconductor film found to be powerful THz source.
June 9, 2004... Thin films of the semiconductor indium nitride (InN) have been shown to emit terahertz (THz) frequency radiation with powers similar to those available from well-known bulk semiconductor sources. With powerful THz sources few and far between,...

Comms operators face challenge of home fibre firms.
June 9, 2004... The next big challenge to the major telecommunications operators could be from a wave of entrepreneurial firms deploying fibre-to-the-home (FTTH). The price of the technology has now come down to a level which makes it economic for domestic...

Alvarion embraces WiMAX with broadband platform.
June 9, 2004... Alvarion from Israel has launched a 3.5GHz broadband wireless access (BWA) platform which is designed to meet the requirements of the 802.16 WiMAX standard. The firm said the platform, called BreezeMAX 3500, has been developed from scratch...

Northern Ireland jobs safe -- Seagate.
June 9, 2004... Seagate jobs in Northern Ireland are safe, said the firm, as it announced nearly 3,000 redundancies in plans to save $150m a year. The hard drive maker said the cuts represent around seven per cent of its global workforce, and include voluntary...

Voice, data and video triple-play is key to future.
June 9, 2004... Voice, data and video is the goal of every satellite TV, telecoms, cable and and mobile operator and the key is doing it all over the Internet, according to Zarlink Semiconductor. The three applications are known as triple-play in the industry....

PC-based test system sales grow as firms make savings.
June 9, 2004... PC-based test is being adopted more widely as firms try to make their manufacturing and development activities more cost effective. This is the view of leading virtual test system supplier National Instruments, but it is also supported by the...

Processor family gets software emulation.
June 9, 2004... Embedded software development firm Virtio has created software emulation for Motorola's i.MX family of processors. The emulation provides a virtual version of the i.MX hardware and development tools. Engineers can develop applications,...

US viewers get improved ads as consumers flock to DVRs.
June 9, 2004... Digital video recorders (DVRs) are transforming advertising in the US as the technology begins to take off in the home. Independent consultant Paul Bristow said the technology has had an unexpected benefit as it has made advertisers nervous...

Edinburgh DRAM test equipment firm lands deal with Infineon Technologies.
June 9, 2004... Acuid has won a lucrative order for its DRAM test equipment from Infineon Technologies. "Clearly this is our largest order," Acuid's CEO Hans Rohrer told EW. Both sides in the deal are remaining tight-lipped about its value, although the model...

90nm analysis tool assesses clock gating.
June 9, 2004... US firm Sequence is demonstrating a power analysis tool for 90nm designs at this week's Design Automation Conference in San Diego. Called PowerTheater-nm, the tool works at the register transfer level and assesses the effects of clock gating, a...

STEP scheme seeks firms for summer student work experience placements.
June 9, 2004... STEP Enterprise, the group that places students with firms for work experience, is still looking for companies to take students on summer placements. Set up by Shell and backed by the DTI, SEMTA and the IEE, the STEP programme is specifically...

Amino hopes for [pounds sterling]61m float value.
June 9, 2004... Amino Technologies expects to have a market capitalisation of [pounds sterling]61m when it floats on the AIM stock exchange today (June 9). The seven year-old company hopes to raise [pounds sterling]7m of new money through the placing. It...

Embedded design talk in Brighton.
June 9, 2004... Product specialists from semiconductor firms such as National Semiconductor, Texas Instruments and Analog Devices were in Brighton last month speaking at the EW design seminars held at the Nepcon exhibition. Frederik Dostal from National...

Clip-on Nokia mobile cover ; spells messages in mid-air.
June 9, 2004... A clip-on cover for Nokia's 3220 mobile phone has 12 LEDs which allow users to write short messages in mid-air. Wave the phone from side-to-side and a motion sensor in the phone will sequence the LEDs to blink in the correct sequence to spell...

MEP applauds manufacturer's stand on WEEE.
June 9, 2004... Welsh contract manufacturer Axiom has won praise for its stance on the WEEE Directive. "It's very encouraging to see a Welsh SME such as Axiom taking its environmental responsibility seriously," said local MEP Eluned Morgan. Pictured are...

Government cash for design centres faces tug-of-war after rival proposal.
June 9, 2004... A debate is raging over the most effective way to secure Government support for a national network of microelectronics system-on-chip (SoC) design centres. An industry-backed proposal to win Government funding to create a network of SoC design...

Free web-based medical seminars.
June 9, 2004... The ETL Semko division of test and certification services company Intertek is to provide a series of free web-based seminars for the medical device industry over the summer. www.uk.intertek-etlsemko.com

A passion for plastic.
June 16, 2004... Bored with his work in thin film silicon Professor Henning Sirringhaus took on polymer electronics, which in 1988 was a very immature market and is reaping the benefits through his company today. He spoke to Harry Yeates rofessor Henning...

NASA to use UK-designed satellite instrument to analyse pollutants.
June 16, 2004... A satellite instrument designed by UK scientists to provide detailed analysis of atmospheric pollutants is being used in NASA's next mission. The Aura satellite will look at our air quality and changing climate, and find out whether the ozone...

Book a lead-free conference seat.
June 16, 2004... There are still places left at the International Conference on Lead-free Electronics, to be held in Amsterdam on June 21-23. Speakers include Quyen Chu from Jabil Circuits, Katsuaki Suganuma of Osaka University and Siemens' Karin Schottenloher....

Plextek details 5GHz power amplifier in US.
June 16, 2004... Essex-based Plextek was showing off this 5GHz power amplifier at the IEEE International Microwave Symposium in Texas last week. The amplifier, which works between 4.9 and 6GHz, is made on GCS' Californian InGaP HBT (heterojunction bipolar...

Distributor sees rising shortages in components.
June 16, 2004... Distributor Acal has said it expects increasing product shortages for electronic components later in the year. The firm, which also announced results for the year to the end of March 2004, said there was limited evidence of product shortages...

CML Microsystems to profit from success of Hyperstone.
June 16, 2004... CML Microsystems expects to have a tier one customer and several smaller customers on board at the interim period for its Hyperstone products. The Hyperstone microcontroller business was acquired last summer and has proved the highlight of...

UK Bluetooth firm samples chip for enhanced data rate standard.
June 16, 2004... Cambridge-based Bluetooth firm CSR has revealed a chip for the 3Mbit/s Bluetooth v1.2 EDR (enhanced data rate) standard. Called BlueCore4, it is the fourth generation of CSR Bluetooth IC. "We think it is the first EDR chip in the world to...

Neuroscience discovery can help blind see with tongues.
June 16, 2004... An unusual electrode array, known as a tongue display unit, will result in a seeing aid for the blind. The device will follow a significant neuroscience discovery made by Professor Maurice Ptito of Universite de Montreal in Canada when using a...

Prospect of all-Bluetooth PC with enhanced data rate.
June 16, 2004... Bluetooth is being touted for a wider range of applications as its data rate is tripled to 3Mbit/s. The upgrade, announced at WiCon World in Amsterdam, is called Bluetooth EDR - enhanced data rate. "Portable music is the hottest [Bluetooth]...

Processor IP firm denies talk of joint venture closure.
June 16, 2004... SuperH, the microprocessor IP firm, has strongly denied a claim it is closing its doors and transferring its assets back to parent firms Renesas Technology and STMicroelectronics. Initial reports on the closure of SuperH came from analyst Jim...

Qinetiq eyes 2006 as date for flotation.
June 16, 2004... Defence research firm Qinetiq has reaffirmed its plans to float on the stock exchange, but not until 2006 at the earliest. Media reports this week suggested the former Government agency was bringing forward its flotation plans. "First of all we...

Intel to adapt NOR for flash data market.
June 16, 2004... Intel, the second largest NOR flash supplier, is trying to re-engineer its technology to make it suitable for data storage so it can compete in the fastest growing part of the flash market currently addressed by NAND flash. "We are going to...

Amplicon eyes medical opportunity.
June 16, 2004... Industrial computer and comms systems supplier, Amplicon Liveline has identified medical electronic systems as a business opportunity as it looks to build on strong sales in the first three months of the year. The Brighton-based systems...

Co-founder of Xilinx dies at 80.
June 16, 2004... Bernie Vonderschmitt, Xilinx co-founder and former CEO, has died at the age of 80 in his hometown of Jasper, Indiana. "This is a very sad day for Xilinx and the entire semiconductor industry. Over the years I have been so grateful for his...