SEMICONDUCTOR TIMES
FEBRUARY 2000 / 1
®
FEBRUARY 2000
FOCUSED ON EMERGING SEMICONDUCTOR COMPANIES
VOL 5 ISSUE 2
What is Infiniband?
Radar Scope
Tel: 519/884-9696, Fax: 519/884-0228
www.dspfactory.com
dspfactory
INH Semiconductor
Dan Murray, Todd Schneider, and Dr. Robert Brennan founded dspfactory in March
1998 to be “your source for miniature lowpower custom DSP solutions.” The company is a spin-off from Unitron Industries Ltd.
dspfactory has around 14 employees.
Chris Pettey, Art Arizpe, Larry Rubin, Clayton Newman, and Rick Pekkala founded INH
in Dec. 1999 to provide I/O connectivity silicon for computing and embedded systems.
INH is funded by Austin Ventures and JatoTech Ventures and will seek a second round
of funding in late 3Q00 or early 4Q00. The
company has 10 employees.
The InfiniBand Trade Association is a
switched-fabric I/O connectivity standards
group formerly known as System I/O. The
organization is led by 7 steering companies:
Compaq, Dell, HP, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, and
Sun. The Association is developing an industry specification for a channel-based,
switched fabric architecture that provides a
scalable performance range of 500MB/s to
6GB/s per link. Initial products based on InfiniBand are expected in 2001.
INH is developing ICs for Infiniband systems. Its chips allow system designers to create end-to-end Infiniband products. INH
products target the Infiniband SAN market.
The company is currently forming partnerships with system and adapter companies that
have agressive Infiniband product plans.
The InfiniBand Architecture will de-couple
the I/O subsystem from memory by utilizing
channel-based point-to-point connections
rather than a shared bus, load and store configuration. The newly designed interconnect
utilizes a 2.5 Gbps wire-speed connection
with 1, 4 or 12 wire link widths.
Eric Johnson, CEO
Chris Pettey, CTO
PO Box 201832
Austin, TX 78720
Tel: 512/468-1499, Fax: 720/221-1603
www.inh-semiconductor.com
Initially InfiniBand will be used to connect
servers with remote storage and networking
devices, and other servers. It will also be used
inside servers for inter-processor communication in parallel clusters.
www.infinibandta.org
dspfactory is developing ultra-low-power,
low-voltage DSPs. The company has developed a low power, miniature open DSP platform for portable audio processing. It offers
6 MIPS performance, while only consuming 0.8 mW running at 1.28 MHz with an
on-chip oscillator. Higher performance can
be achieved with an external oscillator.
The company’s product plans include the
Delta DSP chip, the Alpha analog interface
chip, Toccata, a DSP hybrid for hearing aids,
and a SmartCodec MCM for portable audio
applications. Toccata prototypes are scheduled for May with production in September.
Robert Tong, CEO
Dan Murray, President & COO
Todd Schneider, VP Technology
Dr. Robert Brennan, VP Research
80 King Street South, Suite 206
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2J 1P5
Realvision, Ltd.
Realvision is supposedly developing multimedia chips. Avi Fogel, R&D Manager,
avi@realvision.co.il
SIA Nov. 1999 Global Sales Report
($ billion)
North American Semiconductor
Equipment Report ($ billion)
Market 11/98 10/99 11/99 Y-to-Y M-to-M
Americas 3.7 4.2
4.3
16
3
Europe
2.8 2.9
3.1
11
8
Japan
2.3 3.0
3.2
39
8
Asia Pacific 2.6 3.4
3.7
39
8
Total
11.4 13.4 14.2
25
6
Source: SIA
Month
Shipments Bookings BK-to-BL
Jul. 99
1,375
1,531
1.11
Aug. 99
1,441
1,565
1.09
Sept. 99
1,413
1,511
1.07
Oct. 99 (final)
1,484
1,610
1.08
Nov. 99 (revised) 1,542
1,701
1.10
Dec. 99 (prelim.) 1,558
1,833
1.18
Source: SEMI
IN THIS ISSUE
Radar Scope ..................................... 1
Startup Profiles ................................. 2
People .............................................. 9
IPOs & Equity Placements ............... 10
Mergers & Acquisitions ................... 11
Business & Financials ...................... 13
Licensing & Partnerships ................. 14
Market Research ............................ 15
Trends ............................................ 17
New Products ................................. 17
Design Wins ................................... 20
Company Financials ....................... 21
Company Ranking .......................... 22
Stock Charts ................................... 23
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2 / FEBRUARY 2000
Radar Scope
(Continued from page 1)
ZettaCom
ZettaCom is a provider of “chipsets for the
next-generation internet infrastructure.”
Daren Lau, President
2833 Junction Ave., Suite 200
San Jose, CA 95134
Tel: 408/545-0550, Fax: 408/545-0551
www.zettacom.com
Startup Profiles
ADMtek
ADMtek, headquartered in Taiwan, was
founded in 1997 to develop networking ICs.
The company is a subsidiary of Accton and
has a combined total of about 60 employees
at their research centers in San Jose and Irvine, CA and Hsinchu, Taiwan.
ADMTek develops NIC controllers, transceiver ICs, hub ICs, and switch ICs. The company offers a single-chip 10/100 Ethernet
controller for PCI/Mini-PCI/CardBus, a USB
10/100Mbps/ HomePNA MAC chip, and the
Phoenix family of 10/100Mbps 5- and 8-port
Ethernet switching controllers.
ADMtek’s Pegasus USB 10/100Mbps/
HomePNA (1Mbps) MAC chip provides a
MII interface for an external 10/100Mbps
PHY and a 1M8 interface for an external
1Mbps HomePNA PHY. It is fabricated in a
0.35u process. Samples now.
The Centaur P/C is a single-chip 10/100 Ethernet controller for PCI/Mini-PCI/CardBus.
The Centaur is a PCI/Mini-PCI/CardBus Fast
Ethernet controller with an integrated PHY
for 10BASE-T and 100BASE-TX applications. It also has an MII interface for an external 1Mbps HomePNA PHY. Samples now.
The AL965 series of the Phoenix family are
10/100Mbps 5-port MII or Reduced MII Ethernet switching controllers. Maximum bandwidth is 1Gb to 1.6Gb. The chips have full
line speed capability of 14,880 packets/s for
SEMICONDUCTOR TIMES
10Mb and 148,810 packet/s for 100M. It has
bridging functions, such as local MAC address filtering, CRC, or direct mapping hashing schemes, for better address coverage. It
has a short routing decision time, configurable aging time, and embedded 1K entry
address tables. In prod. now.
Luke Huang
Sam Shih
Allen Lee
1F, 9 Industry E. 9th Rd.
Science-based Industrial Park
Hsinchu, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Tel: +886-3-5788879
Fax: +886-3-5788871
www.admtek.com
Aurora VLSI
Joan Pendleton and Ravi Reddy founded Aurora VLSI in July 1998 and incorporated the
company in January 1999 to develop Internet appliance processors and processor cores.
The company is privately funded and will
seek additional capital on an ongoing basis.
Aurora has 9 employees plus contractors.
Aurora’s flagship product line is based on a
bilingual processor core that executes both
Java and MIPS code. Its processor cores are
available in both single-scalar and 2-way super-scalar versions depending on the desired
price/performance point. Products include
Espresso, Espresso-M, DeCaf, DeCaf-M,
and MipSy Cores. Espresso is a Java 2-way
super-scalar core. Espresso-M features a Java
+ MIPS instruction set, 2-way super-scalar
core. DeCaf is a Java, single-scalar core.
DeCaf-M is a Java + MIPS instruction set,
single-scalar core. MipSy is a tiny MIPS instruction set core. Beta versions are available
now.
The Espresso Java Core is a 2-way superscalar processor core targeted at efficient,
high performance Java execution. Its performance running programs coded in traditional languages (i.e. C, C++) should be comparable to that of other 2 way superscalar processor cores at the same frequency and price.
The target frequency is 140 – 400MHz in a
0.25u process and 185 – 800MHz in a 0.18u
process depending on whether the core is implemented in an ASIC or full custom design.
The Espresso Java core can be used as a Java
host CPU, Java accelerator for PC add-in
cards, or an integrated Java coprocessor.
The core is predicted to achieve 32K/60K
Caffeine Marks at 200/400 MHz. The peak
execution rate is 8 instructions/cycle or 14
bytecodes/cycle. The core features proprietary hardware to accelerate common Java
specific functions and bytecodes. It has multiple 5-stage RISC pipelines, dual integer/
floating point operation units, configurable
instruction cache (32 to 16K bytecodes), configurable data cache (32 to 16K bytes), a configurable multi-ported local variable register set, and a highly multi-ported on-chip
stack.
The DeCaf Core is a small, low power single-scalar core targeted at wireless and other
portable applications that execute Java. Power consumption is expected to be 2mW/MHz
or less in a .18u process. The predicted hardware accelerated Java performance is 20K/
35K Embedded Caffeine Marks at 200/400
MHz. The core has a peak execution rate of
4 instructions/cycle (7 bytecodes/cycle).
The MIPSy Core is a tiny, low power 32-bit
MIPS II ISA processor core targeted at wireless and other portable applications. To
achieve the lowest power and smallest gate
count, floating point and address translation
(MMU) are not included. Power consumption is expected to be 1mW/MHz or less in a
.18u process. The core has a configurable
unified instruction/data cache (0 to 8K bytes)
and a 4 stage RISC pipeline. It requires approx. 20K gates with no cache and up to 60K
gates with a 8KByte cache. In a 0.18u process the core is expected to run at 200MHz
to 1GHz depending upon the implementation.
Aurora will develop ASICs to “silicon-prove”
the cores, most likely at TSMC. Aurora is
also planning on marketing Internet communications processors based on the bilingual
cores Espresso-M and DeCaf-M. The first of
these ICs is in the $15 range and targets in-
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SEMICONDUCTOR TIMES
ternet appliances and home servers. It is in
design with samples expected in 1H01.
Aurora is in discussion with MIPS Technologies to obtain a MIPS license. Aurora’s first
customer is expected to sign a license in late
Q1. Others are in discussions. Foundry partner relationships are in discussions as well.
Aurora is a member of Artisan’s IPNet program.
Aurora has carved out a niche by offering
bilingual MIPS/Java cores and tiny MMUless MIPS ISA cores. Traditional MIPS core
vendors do not offer hardware Java acceleration or tiny MMU-less products. Java vendors like Advancel and Ajile do not offer
MIPS ISA support and are targeting a lower
performance range than Aurora. The bilingual instruction set greatly reduces the software effort of the JVM and Java API ports.
According to Pendleton, Aurora’s “Configurable Pipeline Architecture” results in uncompromised performance for both Java and
MIPS code execution.
Joan Pendleton, PhD., Founder and coCEO (most recently co-founder and
president of Harvest VLSI Design
Center. She has worked on many
processor projects including SPARC
and MIPS.)
Ravi Reddy, Founder and co-CEO (most
recently founder and president of Red
Wallop, a design verification consulting
company. He has worked on many
processors including SPARC, PowerPC,
and PentiumPro.)
Matthew Raggett, Business Development
and Sales (formerly Director of North
American Sales for Phoenix/ Virtual
Chips)
4677 Old Ironsides Dr., Suite 240
Santa Clara CA 95054
Tel: 408/565-9650, Fax: 408/565-9654
www.auroravlsi.com
MultiLink
MultiLink Technology Corp. (MTC) was
founded in 1995 to develop ICs, modules,
and board level subsystems for the telecom
and datacom industries. In Q2 1999, Multi-
FEBRUARY 2000 / 3
Link secured $15M+ of venture capital financing, led by Brentwood. The company has
more than 50 employees.
MTC focuses on high bit-rate ICs for datacom and telecom applications like SONET/
SDH and Gigabit Ethernet. MTC manufactures an array of products for physical layer
electronics at high bit rates. These include
ICs and Multi-chip Modules for modulator
and laser driving, clock and data recovery,
and multiplexing and demultiplexing. MTC
offers a family of 10/12Gbps, 16-bit multiplexers and demultiplexers, variable gain/
limiting amplifiers, and 12GHz gain blocks,
D-flip/flop with slice amplifier, and XOR.
Multichip Modules include 10Gbps and
15Gbps modulator drivers and 9.953 and
10.664 Gbps clock recovery and data regenerators. MultiLink utilizes a variety of process technologies for implementing its products, including BiCMOS, GaAs HBT and
PHEMT, SiGe, and InP.
In Q3 ’99, MultiLink released its MTC1207
series of multiplexers. The MTC1207 is a reduced-power (2.5W) 10 Gbps 16-to-1 MUX
with an integrated CMU (Clock Multiplier
Unit) for use in SONET OC-192, SDH STM64, and Forward Error Correction (FEC) applications. The MTC1207 can provide direct
connection to external modulator drivers such
as the Multilink MTC5515. The MUX accepts 16 differential data channels at 622
Mbps (OC-12) and combines them into a 10
Gbps serial data stream. When used with the
MTC1204 CDRDMUX, the components
provide a complete physical layer solution
for high bit-rate fiber-optic transmission.
Dr. Richard Nottenburg, president
300 Atrium Drive, 2nd Floor
Somerset, NJ 08873
Tel: 732/537-3700, Fax: 732/805-9177
www.mltc.com
NanoAmp Solutions
NanoAmp was spun out of Enable Semiconductor in March 1999 when Enable was acquired by Lucent. Formed by former employees, members of the board, and investors of
Enable, NanoAmp was founded to build low-
power ICs. As part of the spin-off, NanoAmp
was given $10 million in initial seed funding, and the company is actively seeking additional investments. The company has about
30 employees.
NanoAmp’s current offerings are ultra lowvoltage and low-power SRAMs. NanoAmp
claims that its products in the standard lowpower memory field boast power characteristics up to 10x lower than the competition
with operating voltages up to 3x lower, ranging from 1V-3.6V. The company is extending beyond its patented memory technology
to include ASIC/ASSP functions, such as
controllers, logic standard cells, analog transceivers, non-volatile memories, multi-voltage compliant regulators, and I/O interfaces.
In early January, NanoAmp released a 4M
SRAM that operates at 85 ns @ 1.65v. Other
products currently shipping are 256K, 1M,
2M, and 4M SRAMS, as well as RAM/ROM
combinations. These devices are intended for
pagers, cellular phones, and other portable
devices. The chips are currently fabricated
at WSMC, UMC, and LG/Hundai
According to Mike McCoy, VP of marketing, NanoAmp has a three-pronged road map
for the future. First, the company will further develop and refine its SRAMs for portable devices. Next, the company will develop chips for power-sensitive medical implants. Finally, expanding beyond SRAMs,
NanoAmp is developing SOCs and RF chips.
The company is currently developing an RF
IC for contactless smartcards. NanoAmp and
Singapore IC design firm WiNEDGE Electronics, have entered into a technology partnership to develop an extremely low-power
1V SOC pager solution. The device contains
2M ROM, 2M SRAM, ADCs, DACs, and an
8051 core. Nanoamp is also developing a
stacked package containing its SRAM and
an undisclosed vendors FLASH for cellular
phone applications.
With their low-power SRAMs, NanoAmp
will be competing against Samsung and Cypress. According to McCoy, NanoAmp’s ad-
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4 / FEBRUARY 2000
Startup Profiles
(Continued from page 3)
vantage is the ultra-low voltage operation of
the chips. Announced customers include
Motorola, Siemens, Maxon, and Medtronic.
Mark Ebel, co-president and CTO (formerly held senior engineering positions at
VLSI, Synertek, National, and Intel)
Hugo Chan, co-president and COO
(formerly VP of operations at Enable)
Mike McCoy, VP of marketing (formerly
marketing director for low power
products at Enable)
David Harper, VP of sales, Europe
(formerly VP of international sales and
strategic marketing at Enable)
Kenny Liang, VP of sales, Asia (formerly
director of Asian sales at Enable and
technical director and director of Asian
sales and marketing at VLSI)
1982 Zanker Road
San Jose, CA 95112
Tel: 408/573-8878, Fax: 408/573-8877
www.nanoamp.com
Neocore
NeoCore was founded in 1996 “to provide
proprietary technologies for the network
management, security, and accounting markets.” The company has raised approx. $3
million from private investors and is currently
seeking a major funding round. Neocore has
12+ employees.
NeoCore claims to have developed a fundamentally new way to search for data based
on 2 ½ years of research. Neocore has developed a Digital Pattern Processing™ technology, which has received two patents, with
several more pending. Digital Pattern Processing greatly increases functionality in a
wide range of data lookup and content scanning applications.
NeoCore’s Digital Pattern Processing™ technology extends associative processing by
generating icons for the raw data and associating them with known patterns at speeds up
to 100 million associations per second. An
SEMICONDUCTOR TIMES
icon is a fixed length, logical representation
of the original data, which preserves all of
the logical properties of the data being represented. The process of generating an icon
is based on a breakthrough in finite field
mathematics and associating the icon with
the original data represents new thinking concerning the methodology used to perform
non-sequential comparisons of data.
This method permits virtually instantaneous
pattern recognition and manipulation of data
with little regard to data type, size, or content. Performance is flat and does not degrade, regardless of the size or amount of
data. Applications include firewalls, policy
enforcement software, content scanning, networked computing, and digital multimedia
asset management, among others.
NeoCore has developed a series of API libraries under the PacketEyes™ family and a
hardware platform for its technologies. Each
library contains a “build” engine with a simple user interface, allowing customers to customize the configuration to suit their needs.
Together or individually, they solve a wide
range of network security, packet accounting, and policy enforcement problems.
NeoCAM is a key data-indexing tool for fixed
field data appropriate for fast lookup, firewalls, and general datacom/telecom applications that can use fixed-length associations.
NeoData is a key data-indexing tool for variable length field data and can be used to evaluate long blocks of data and non-text data
streams, such as video or digital audio.
NeoSlider is a sliding window pattern matching device appropriate for content analysis,
scanning applications, security, and pattern
recognition. It can simultaneously perform
full packet content scanning for any number
of multiple-length keys.
NeoFilter, to be available in Q1, performs priority pattern matching or filtering of data
streams based on arbitrary precedence rules,
completely divergent key fields, and multilevel exceptions. It is appropriate for security and management applications like policy
routers and intrusion detection. NeoFilter is
designed specifically to enhance filtering rou-
tines within policy enforcement applications
whenever deep pattern drill-down and online
decision making are required. NeoPattern, to
be avail. in Q2, will have sophisticated pattern-matching capabilities, including key data
descriptors, fuzzy or “best” matching, and
inclusive/exclusive sets.
NeoCore has created an Associative Memory Controller that combines a RISC processor with RAM, which is more cost effective
and flexible than CAM. The Associative Processor is responsible for both the iconization
of data and the logical manipulation functions. After an initial set of icons has been
generated and stored, any new data can be
iconized and compared to the contents of the
Associative Memory. The NeoCore system
allows multiple Associative Processors to
share a single Associative Memory.
NeoCore is also developing the PacketEyes
network processor, to be available in Q2,
which works with PacketEyes libraries to
preprocess network data without involving
the system CPU. Firewall/policy vendors can
execute their policy enforcement engines directly on the PacketEyes board. The PacketEyes card incorporates a NeoCore ASIC,
which results in extremely high throughput.
With PacketEyes, latency attributable to
packet filter processing can be less than 10
msec. Enforcement tables can be changed dynamically in real-time with no lost packet
scanning. One PacketEyes card can process
up to 400 Mbps, constituting thousands of
connections per second. Multiple PacketEyes
can be coupled to achieve higher performance levels. PacketEyes will be provided
to developers of network security products
with a SDK suitable for creating applications
such as packet signature scanning, packet accounting, and packet filtering. PacketEyes
will be available in early 2000.
Neocore is focused on network security, network management, and network accounting
markets including firewalls, intrusion detection equipment, policy enforcement engines,
data and pattern recognition tools, and network management and monitoring devices.
The company also plans to introduce the tech-
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SEMICONDUCTOR TIMES
nology into database management, telecom,
Internet services, and filtering applications.
NeoCore will support a migration path to
hardware with ASSPs and Verilog cores. The
company has established relationships with
OEMs to enable their products with PatternBased Associated Processing. The company is also looking for early adopters for hardware versions of the product line. NeoCore
is in discussions with many firewall and policy management providers to embed its
technology in their products. Network processor vendors are looking at the technology as a way to accelerate the speed of lookups within their network processors. Telecom service providers are also investigating
the technology as a component of their strategy to migrate to packet-based voice switching. In essence, NeoCore is bringing technology to market in four forms: SDKs, IP
cores, ASSPs, and board level product.
Tim Dix, CEO (Co-counsel at Sparks Dix,
P.C. law firm. Co-founder of the
Colorado Springs Software Roundtable
and a director of the Colorado Institute
for Technology Transfer and Implementation)
Chris Brandin, CTO (formerly CEO of
Business Operating Systems, a
developer of computer systems used by
the New York Stock Exchange and
other exchanges)
Kenneth Whittington, Jr., Senior VP
Business and Product Development
(formerly CTO and VP of product
development at ITXC)
Alan Lofthus, VP, Sales & Corporate
Development (formerly held strategic
marketing positions at NCR Microelectronics, AT&T Global Information
Systems, and Symbios, including VP of
Strategic Initiatives, VP of Business
Units, and VP of Marketing)
Robert Moore, Dir. of Technology
(Formerly consulted to Digital, TRW
Space & Defense and MCI)
2864 S. Circle Drive, Suite 1200
Colorado Springs, CO 80906
Tel: 719/576-9780, Fax: 719/576-0790
www.neocore.com
FEBRUARY 2000 / 5
PCC
Pijnenburg Custom Chips (PCC), headquartered in the Netherlands, has been a custom
ASIC house serving the European market
since 1986. PCC has designed more than 150
ASICs, mostly for cryptography and telecom
applications. Now, PCC is releasing their
own chips, and the company is gearing up
to enter the U.S. market.
PCC is moving beyond designing custom
chips to offer their own chips aimed at cryptographic and telecom applications. For
cryptography, PCC is offering the PCC-ISES
and the PCC400. The PCC-ISES is a highspeed multi-functional cryptographic accelerator chip that provides cryptographic acceleration for large number modular exponentiation, symmetric key, and hashing functions. The device integrates an ARM7TDMI,
a true random number generator, 128KB
SRAM, tamper security circuits, and 3 separate cryptographic accelerators for RSA up
to 4096 bits, DES/3DES/SAFER, and MD5/
SHA-1/RIPEMD.
It has the capability to download authenticated custom software into internal RAM,
allowing users to expand the PCC-ISES
functionality, (with services for key generation, storage, escrow, exchange, recovery, or
revocation), or procedures that support protocols (for authentication, data integrity and
confidentiality, water marking, or electronic payment).
RSA 1024 bits private key performance is
300 cr/s without CRT (chinese remainders
theorem) or 680 cr/s with CRT. With symmetric-key cryptography, the DES and SAFER accelerator can achieve 400 Mbps for
DES and 3DES and 533 Mbps for SAFER
K64. MD5 hash code performance is
375Mbps.
The PCC400 is a secured smart card reader
chip for applications in home-based PC systems. It consists of a generic 8051 processor with on-chip RAM and ROM, combined
with RSA, DES, and SHA hardware accelerators. It also integrates a UART, random
number generator, and LCD, EEPROM,
smart card, and keypad interfaces. The
PCC400 has two different modes, a secured
mode and a general mode. PCC’s KeySmart
Technology enables enhances the security
of using smart cards by downloading the
application with authentication.
For telecom applications, PCC has designed
the PCC318 CAS detection chip. The
PCC318 is a mixed-signal CMOS IC for receiving and detecting CAS tones (CPE Alerting Signal) during speech for CIDCW Type
II and related services like FSK, DTMF, dial
tone envelope detection, and DC measurement for MEI support. The device uses a high
precision algorithm for the detection of CAS
signals during speech with high performance
for both Talk-off and Talk-down.
PCC also offers the PCC101 triple DES processor with throughput of 132Mbps and the
PCC201, a 1024 bit RSA chip. PCC has developed a comprehensive and high performance line of cryptographic accelerators.
The devices appear to be poised for success
in the US VPN market.
Piet van Pelt, marketing and sales manager
Henk Pruim, managing director
P.O. Box 330
5260 AH Vught The Netherlands
Tel: +31 73 684 84 50
Fax: +31 73 684 84 79
www.pcc.pijnenburg.nl
RealChip
In July 1998, Raj Raghavan and Suresh
Dholakia founded RealChip to design custom communications SOCs. An $8 million
first round of financing led by Redwood Venture Partners closed in November 1999. RealChip has more than 100 employees in their
Silicon Valley and Chennai, India locations.
From system and RTL level to chip fabrication, packaging, test, quality control, delivery, and second sourcing, RealChip manages the entire custom communication chip design and production process. RealChip’s custom solutions pull together IP from thirdparty sources and integrate that with the customer’s IP, firmware, and software. RealChip
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6 / FEBRUARY 2000
Startup Profiles
(Continued from page 5)
specializes in network SOCs, and their designs focus on new-generation devices and
equipment in the wired segment of the communications market for applications including Voice over Net, xDSL modems, cable
modems, LAN switches, remote access systems, digital WANs, routers, and information appliances.
When we talked to Craig Slayter, president
and CEO, and Gary Smerdon, VP of sales,
they emphasized that RealChip is more than
simply a custom design house. According to
them, RealChip has developed a new business model (which to us looks like an extension of the ASIC model). However, the company is careful to contrast itself with traditional ASIC suppliers, emphasizing that RealChip is involved in all levels of the chip
design process. Craig Slayter added, “We’re
focusing on an end-to-end solution, from design to delivery.”
RealChip has positioned itself not just as a
design shop, but also as a sort of middleman
with all of the proper contacts in place to
deliver communications SOCs. “The company provides one source for customerunique chips,” Smerdon said, “with its onestop capability to manage the fragmented,
complex, and time-consuming web of semiconductor industry relationships among IP
providers, EDA tool vendors, and dedicated
foundries.”
The business model can be separated into
three parts: engineering, IP, and EDA and
foundry relationships. The company has assembled a large staff of engineers, with their
Indian site being almost entirely devoted to
design. RealChip has invested over $10 million in IP resources. The company’s uppermanagement consists of industry veterans
who have put in place EDA and foundry relationships; Slayter said that RealChip can
act as a front-end for foundries, and they currently have $150 million worth of guaranteed wafer allocation for the next three years.
(RealChip is currently using UMC and
TSMC.)
SEMICONDUCTOR TIMES
At the end of this quarter, RealChip will release Reality Object, a set of communication IP building blocks that can plug-andplay into network SOCs. Slayter said, “Right
now, we believe we’re several months ahead
of any competitors in this space, and Reality Objects plug-and-play IP technology will
help us keep ahead of the competition.”
RealChip transforms customer ideas into viable chip products, with complete embedded firmware, drivers, and protocol stacks.
Customers receive a complete system-chip
design database; they are given chip prototypes, and they get associated firmware and
software. RealChip also provides volume
chips and second-source production. The
RealChip alternative lets customers engage
at any level of ASIC or SOC implementation they choose: from conceptual design,
system and RTL, front-end design and verification, IP selection and integration, physical design and verification, or foundry supply management.
RealChip has already designed several ICs,
including a 133 MHz communications IC
with 2 million logic gates and 2 Mb of
SRAM, which is fabricated on a 0.25u, 5LM
process; a 133MHz mixed-signal network IC
with 150K logic gates and 4 analog blocks,
which is fabricated on a 0.25u 3LM process;
and a 200MHz multimedia IC with 3.5 million logic gates and 200Kb SRAM, which
is fabricated on a 0.18u 6LM process.
RealChip has announced partnerships with
UMC, TSMC, Sun, Phoenix, Lexra, Amkor,
Virtual Silicon, Syntest, ISS, SPIL, Pivotal,
and Palmchip, and they have other partnerships in the works.
Craig Slayter, president and CEO (formerly senior VP at Phoenix Technologies)
Raj Raghavan, chairman, co-Founder, and
VP of strategic marketing (formerly
founded Virtual Chips)
Suresh Dholakia, co-founder and senior
VP of engineering (formerly founded
Silicon Automation Systems and
FrontLine Design Automation)
Thomas Liao, VP of operations (formerly
VP of the System Integration Division
at Mitsubishi Electronics)
Gary Smerdon, VP of sales (formerly
director of marketing for AMD’s
Networking Products Division)
Bhupen Shah, VP of software (formerly
VP of software development at Dazzle
Multimedia)
Richard Rubinstein, VP of SOC Engineering (formerly the founder and CEO of a
startup that developed advanced
embedded memory DSP architectures,
and, before that, he was the director of
i960 Microprocessor Engineering
Operations and program manager for
the P6 Pentium at Intel)
1290 Oakmead Parkway, Suite 318
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
Tel: 408/735-9065, Fax: 408/735-9081
www.realchip.com
SkyTune
SkyTune (formerly AuraVision) was founded in the early ’90s to develop PCI video
decoder ICs. In July ’99, SkyTune announced a new management team and product focus on DTV and datacasting ICs for
PCs and communications appliances. We
have been unsuccessfully trying to contact
the company and appear to have caught them
in the midst of being acquired, we believe
by BroadLogic (a spinoff of Adaptec),
though details have yet to be released.
In July ’99 SkyTune announced the
SKY951VP, a single-chip PCI video decoder
designed for DTV and datacasting applications. The device integrates a digital transport stream interface for VSB, OFDM,
QAM, and QPSK demodulators, an NTSC/
PAL/SECAM analog video decoder, a PCI
bridge with 5 DMA channels, and a digital
quality analog video comb filter pair. The
SKY951VP can be used for DTV as well as
conventional analog TV (NTSC/PAL/SECAM) applications.
The SKY951VP is designed for video systems where both digital video quality and
analog compatibility are equally essential.
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SEMICONDUCTOR TIMES
The device addresses the worldwide DTV
market – in particular, DVB-S for digital satellite broadcast, DVB-T for digital terrestrial broadcast in Europe, and ATSC for digital terrestrial broadcast in North America.
SkyTune’s technology partner and foundry
for the SKY951VP is Samsung. In November, SkyTune released a reference design,
based on the SKY951VP and Oren’s
OR51210 VSB Demodulator, for a sub-$100
PC-based DTV receivers. The SKY951VP
is sampling now with a complete reference
design and software suite for Windows 98
available.
SkyTune has also partnered with Sarnoff to
develop DTV receivers for PCs and information appliances. Under the agreement,
SkyTune will incorporate Sarnoff’s latest approaches for reliable reception of ATSC
DTV broadcasts into jointly developed products specifically for the PC and datacasting
information appliance markets. The goal is
to allow PC and information appliance vendors to build low-cost DTV and datacasting
reception capabilities into their products. The
initial device, the SKY5201, will be the
foundation for a family of low-cost, PC-centric ATSC broadcast receivers. Engineering
samples of receivers based upon the
SKY5201 will be available mid-2000.
The next device on SkyTune’s product roadmap is a complete single-chip DTV receiver, including digital tuner, demodulation, analog decoding, and a PC bus interface. The
BroadLogic acquisition has not been confirmed, however SkyTune’s products would
be complimentary given BroadLogic’s focus on satellite and digital terrestrial broadcasts.
Richard Johnson, president and CEO
(formerly VP of worldwide sales for
ZSP and QuickLogic)
Mike Stauffer,VP of systems engineering
(formerly VP and GM for Hyundai’s
Digital Video Systems Division)
Mike Noonen, VP of sales and marketing
(formerly VP of strategic marketing
and business development for 8x8)
FEBRUARY 2000 / 7
47865 Fremont Blvd.
Fremont, CA 94538
Tel: 510/252-6800, Fax: 510/438-9350
www.skytune.com
Starium
Eric Blossom, a leading cryptographer, and
Lee Caplin, a telecom executive, founded
Starium in Feburary 1998 to develop voice
encryption products. Both Blossom and
Whitfield Diffie, Diffie-Hellman key-exchange co-inventor, worked together at
Communication Security, which merged into
Starium last year. Starium has about 8 employees and has raised $2 million from private investors. The company is currently
seeking approx. $10 million.
Starium is focused on developing point-topoint voice-encryption technology featuring
strong cryptography for the consumer market. Most point-to-point voice-encryption
systems use scramblers or 40-bit encryption
keys. Starium will encapsulate all the functionality of a $3,000 STU-III, NSA’s thirdgeneration Secure Telephone Unit, in a credit
card size voice-encryption unit. The device
will cost less than $100 and can plugged between any POTS handset and base unit.
The company is developing single-chip solutions, with embedded DRAM, for wireless and land-line phones that would add a
“go secure” feature to the phone. The Starium ST8800 is a single chip solution providing voice encryption for telephones, cell
phones, and Voice-over-IP. Starium’s device
digitizes, compresses, and encrypts the human voice utilizing 168-bit Triple-DES and
2,048-bit Diffie-Hellman key-exchange
technology. The device will be introduced
in about 10 months.
The company’s roadmap includes cryptography products for Internet telephony and
computer telephony with voice/fax processing, in addition to wireless and land-line
POTS and PBX applications. Sun Microsystems has purchased approx. 30 units of Starium’s first-generation system as a beta-site
customer. Starium plans to ship products for
land-line applications (primarily corporate
security) in Q2, based on off-the-shelf chips,
and expects to ship tens of thousands of units
in 2000. The company views itself as a software/algorithm provider and is open to partnering with silicon providers. Eventually its
software and IP cores could be incorporated
into a larger SOC design or integrated into a
wireless chipset.
Whitfield Diffie, Board of Directors (A
Sun Distinguished Engineer, Diffie is
credited with creating public key
cryptography)
Lee Caplin, President & CEO
Eric Blossom, CTO (formerly with
Communication Security and Hewlett
Packard)
Bernie Sardinha, COO (formerly with
Cirrus and TeleCruz)
Bryan Richter, VP of Engineering (formerly with Cirrus and TeleCruz)
Steve Smith, Director of Hardware
Engineering (formerly developed chip
architectures for Mitsubishi and Texas
Instruments)
225 Cannery Row
Monterey, CA 93940
Tel: 831/333-9393, Fax: 831/333-9394
www.starium.com
Transmeta
Dave Ditzel, along with 7 colleagues, founded Transmeta in 1995 to “develop, in concert with OEM customers, platform solutions
for the Mobile Internet Computing market.”
The company has received funding from IVP,
Walden, Vulcan Ventures, George Soros
Fund, Deutsche Bank, Tudor, Integral, Invemed, Novus, and others. Transmeta has
more than 200 employees.
Transmeta’s premier product is the Crusoe
processor, an x86-compatible family of solutions for Mobile Internet Computing. Crusoe combines x86 software compatibility
with high performance and extremely long
battery life. The heart of Transmeta’s technology is the combination of a VLIW engine
and “Code Morphing” software. The technology has many applications, only the first
of which is the Crusoe processor.
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8 / FEBRUARY 2000
Startup Profiles
(Continued from page 7)
The Crusoe processor is a hardware-software hybrid that replaces millions of transistors with software. Rather than implementing the entire x86 processor in hardware, the Crusoe processor consists of a
compact hardware engine surrounded by a
software layer. The current implementation
of Crusoe uses roughly one-quarter of the
logic transistors required for an all-hardware
design of similar performance.
The hardware component is a simple, highperformance, low-power VLIW engine. A
software layer, called Code Morphing software, dynamically “morphs” x86 instructions into the hardware engine’s native instruction set. Transmeta’s software translates
blocks of x86 instructions once, saving the
resulting translation in a translation cache.
The next time the (now translated) code is
executed, the system directly executes the
existing optimized translation at full speed.
The Code Morphing software contains a dynamic compiler and code optimizer to search
out blocks of software that make up the repetitive sequences commonly found in applications and reduces them to a smaller set
of executable instructions. It learns what the
program is doing, and as it runs, continues
to improve using a technique called “Software Optimized Execution.” It can also adjust the Crusoe processor’s voltage on the
fly. The Code Morphing Software resides in
Flash ROM.
Transmeta’s LongRun power management
technology analyzes the application workload dynamically and continuously adjusts
the processor’s speed and voltage accordingly. With LongRun power management, saving 30% of the power only requires slowing
the processor by 10%.
Transmeta’s architecture allows it to evolve
the VLIW hardware and Code Morphing
software separately without affecting the
huge base of software applications. Upgrades to the software portion of a micro-
SEMICONDUCTOR TIMES
processor can be rolled out independently
from chip revisions and can be downloaded
via the internet. Crusoe’s hardware component is smaller, faster, and more power efficient than conventional chips. It is fully decoupled from the x86 ISA, enabling Transmeta to take advantage of the best hardware
design trends without affecting legacy software.
The TM3120 is $65 and $89 for the 333MHz
and 400MHz versions respectively. The
TM5400 is $119 and $329 for the 500MHz
and 700MHz versions respectively. The
TM3120 is in production. The TM5400 is
sampling with prod. in mid 2000. Systems
based on Crusoe processors are expected to
be available in 1H 2000. IBM fabricates the
processors.
The Crusoe family currently has 2 members.
Both devices feature an integrated North
Bridge controller and are compatible with
the complete range of x86-based operating
systems, although Transmeta expects that
Linux will be the primary OS for mobile
Internet devices.
According to Transmeta, the performance of
the TM5400 and TM3120 is roughly equivalent to a Mobile Pentium III 500 with 1/5 to
½ the power consumption. The Cruose processor is clearly an impressive device and is
sure to wins many sockets in the mobile
space. Yet the real issue is sustainability. It
has taken Transmeta 5 years to get this far.
How long will it take to introduce the next
generation? The field is littered with x86
competitors that have introduced good devices and than failed to keep up with Intel’s
relentless new product introduction schedule.
The TM3120, which operates at 333 –
400MHz and has a 96K L1 cache, is targeted at mobile Internet devices and features a
deep-sleep idle mode that operates at levels
as low as 20 mW. The average operating
power in everyday applications is under one
watt. The TM5400, which operates at 500 –
700MHz, is targeted at ultra-light mobile
PCs running Microsoft Windows and NT. It
features a 128KB L1 cache, 256KB L2
cache, and LongRun technology, which allows the processor to adjust both its frequency and voltage to the levels required by an
application. It typically operates at less than
1 watt while running ordinary office applications and as little as 8 mW when idle between keystrokes.
Transmeta is developing reference designs
for mobile systems that consume just 4 watts
when active, allowing a lightweight mobile
system with a 32 watt-hour Lithium battery
to deliver 8 hours of use. Transmeta is also
creating a Linux distribution to support its
OEM customers called Mobile Linux, which
is designed for systems without hard disks
and features enhancements in power management and in the reduction of the memory footprint. Crusoe-based mobile Internet
devices can use Mobile Linux to create a
robust and economical machine that can handle a full range of Internet plug-in applications.
David Ditzel, CEO & founder (formerly
Director of SPARC Labs and CTO at
Sun Microelectronics)
Mark Allen, President and COO (formerly
VP of operations for NVIDIA and CCube, and VP of worldwide manufacturing operations at Cypress)
James Chapman, VP of Sales and Marketing (formerly senior VP of sales and
marketing for Cyrix)
Douglas Laird, VP of Product Development & co-founder (formerly the
manager of several teams working on
advanced development projects at Sun’s
SPARC Labs)
Dan Steimle, CFO (formerly CFO of The
Santa Cruz Operations, Advanced Fibre
Communications, and Hybrid Networks)
3940 Freedom Circle
Santa Clara, CA 95054
Tel: 408/327-9830
Fax: 408/919-6540
www.transmeta.com, www.crusoe.con ■
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SEMICONDUCTOR TIMES
People
Altera appointed Mike Jacobs, formerly VP
of North America Sales at Analog Devices,
as Senior VP - Worldwide Sales, replacing
Pete Smyth who retired. Jacobs reports to
Rodney Smith, President and CEO.
www.altera.com
AMD appointed Hector de J. Ruiz, Ph.D.,
as president and COO, reporting to W.J. Sanders III, Chairman and CEO. Ruiz most recently served as president of Motorola SPS.
www.amd.com
Artisan appointed Eduard Weichselbaumer to the newly created position of VP of strategic programs, reporting to Mark Templeton, president and CEO. Weichselbaumer previously headed the Worldwide Library Sales
and Business Development team at Synopsys. www.artisan.com
ARC appointed Jan Tufvesson, former Ericsson VP, and consultant John Stockton, from
VLSI Technology, who previously organized
the creation of ARM, to its board. ARC has
also expanded its growth in Europe and the
US after more than doubling revenue from
the previous year. ARC has opened a subsidiary in Paris, France to support customers in
France, Italy and Spain. Thierry LeGall,
ARC’s Southern European Regional Manager, will head the Paris subsidiary. A second
subsidiary was opened in Herzlia, Israel, and
is headed by Ron Amir as Israeli Country
Manager. A third subsidiary is scheduled to
open in Germany in early 2000. The US office has hired Ray Burkley as director of
North American and Asian Sales. Bob Terwilliger, President and CEO. www.
arccores.com
Cadence appointed Matthew Chan, formerly
president of Asia at Novellus, as president
for the Asia Pacific region and corporate VP,
reporting to Ray Bingham, President and
CEO. Located in Singapore, Chan replaces
Jean-Claude Broido, who will be returning
to Europe as VP of sales for Europe.
www.cadence.com
Fairchild Korea Semiconductor appointed
Dr. Yang-oh Choi as Senior VP for Finance
FEBRUARY 2000 / 9
and Administration. Last April, Fairchild acquired Samsung’s Power Device Division in
Puchon for $417 million. The current workforce in Puchon is 1645 employees. Dan
Boxer, executive VP and chief administrative
officer. www.fairchildsemi.com
General Semiconductor announced that Andrew Caggia, CFO, has resigned and that
Robert Gange, VP and Controller, will serve
as acting CFO until a replacement is named.
Ronald Ostertag, Chairman and CEO.
www.gensemi.com
Global Communication Semiconductors
(GCS) appointed Bert Kus, formerly Plant
Manager of the GaAs IC Operation at Conexant, as VP of Manufacturing, reporting to
Dr. Owen Wu, President and CEO. GCS provides compound semiconductor foundry services to the telecom and high-speed networking industries. It currently offers HBT foundry service for both InGaP and AlGaAs processes. GCS also offers optoelectronic devices such as VCSEL and PIN diodes for the
fiber communications market and is providing SAW filter foundry service for handset
applications. The company plans to offer
PHEMT foundry services in Q1.
www.gcsincorp.com
Extreme Packet Devices appointed Richard
White as VP of Operations. White was previously president of Accelerix, a graphic accelerator startup that was acquired by MOSAID. Bruce Gregory, President and CEO,
www.extremepacket.com
ICT appointed Mark Scheitrum as VP of
marketing. Scheitrum previously held technical and marketing mgmt. positions at Intel,
Daisy, LSI Logic, and Cadence. He recently
started and built a System Level Design services organization within Cadence. Web
Chang, CEO. www.ictpld.com
IMP appointed Brad Whitney, most recently Corporate Senior VP, New Businesses at
Bourns, as CEO and President, reporting to
Zvi Grinfas, Executive Chairman. Prior to
Bourns, Whitney was President and COO of
Linfinity. www.impweb.com
ishoni Networks, formerly HiQ Networks,
appointed Greg Gum as VP of Business De-
velopment, Virendra Kirloskar as VP of Finance and Deepak Satya as Director of Product Marketing. Gum previously managed equity investments and strategic alliances in U
S WEST’s investment fund and incubator
portfolio. He also led the development and
roll out of the company’s Megabit DSL service. Kirloskar was most recently the Assistant Corporate Controller at KLA-Tencor.
Satya was formerly a Product Marketing
Manager at Com21.
Founded in May 1998, ishoni develops
Broadband Gateway Engines for OEMs to
provide easy voice and Internet service over
a single broadband connection to small business and home offices. Prakash Bhalerao,
President and CEO. www.ishoni.com
Lexar Media appointed Ronald Bissinger,
formerly VP of Finance and Business Development, and CFO at Ultradata, as VP and
CFO. John Reimer, President and CEO.
www.digitalfilm.com
Marvell appointed John Cioffi, Ph.D., and
Paul Gray, Ph.D., to its Board. Dr. Cioffi is
currently a professor with Stanford. He
founded Amati in 1991 and served as the CTO
until the Company’s acquisition by TI in
1998. Dr. Gray currently serves as the Dean
of the College of Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. He was also a
member of the board for Level One from
1993-1999. Dr. Sehat Sutardja, president and
CEO. www.marvell.com
Mellanox appointed Dave Sheffler, formerly VP of Sales and Marketing for the Americas at AMD, as VP of Worldwide Sales, reporting to Eyal Waldman, CEO and Chairman. Mellanox was founded in March ’99 to
develop InfiniBand ICs. The company currently has 39 employees and is growing rapidly. www.mellanox.com
Metalink appointed Alan Litchfield, former
director of sales for IBM’s technology group,
as VP of worldwide sales. J. Francois Crepin, president and COO. www.metalink.co.il
Monterey Design Systems appointed Aidan
Cullen, formerly director of finance, World
Trade, for Mentor, as CFO and Dinesh Bettadapur, most recently assistant GM of In-
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10 / FEBRUARY 2000
People
(Continued from page 9)
tel’s IA-64 processor division, as VP of corporate strategy. Jacques Benkoski, president
and CEO. www.montereydesign.com
Motorola appointed Fred Tucker as president of the Semiconductor Products Sector
(SPS), replacing Hector Ruiz, who is leaving Motorola for AMD. Tucker is currently
executive VP and deputy to the Office of the
CEO. Robert Growney, President and COO.
www.motorola.com
National promoted Roland Andersson from
Regional VP for Europe to Senior VP, Worldwide Marketing and Sales. Hermann Stehlik was promoted from Director of Marketing Communications, Europe to VP, Corporate Marketing and Communications. Brian
Halla, president and CEO. www.national.com
OPTi announces that Michael Mazzoni has
resigned from his position as CFO. Douglas
Gans will assume his duties. www.opti.com
Phoenix announced that its CFO, William
Meyer, will join inSilicon, its wholly owned
semiconductor IP subsidiary, as Executive VP
and CFO. Phoenix has begun a search for a
new CFO. Al Sisto, CEO of Phoenix.
www.insilicon.com, www.phoenix.com
QED appointed Les Crudele to its Board.
Most recently Crudele served as VP and GM,
Workstation Division, Enterprise Computing
Group at Compaq. Crudele has served as VP
and GM of the RISC Microprocessor Division at Compaq and held positions at Stardent, Stellar, Apollo, and Motorola. Tom Riordan, founder, president and CEO.
www.qedinc.com
QuickLogic appointed Dana Canatsy as corporate distribution manager. Canatsy was
most recently national account and national
distribution manager for Hitachi Semiconductor America. Michael Brown, VP of sales.
www.quicklogic.com
Rambus appointed Avo Kanadjian, formerly senior VP of memory marketing at Samsung, as VP of Worldwide Marketing, a new
position reporting to President Dave Mooring. www.rambus.com
SEMICONDUCTOR TIMES
S3 appointed Claude Barathon as President
of International Operations and Steve
Kennedy as Senior VP of Worldwide Sales
and Marketing. Barathon previously served
as Senior VP of Sales and Marketing at S3.
Kennedy served as VP of Sales, North &
Latin America and most recently as Executive VP of Worldwide Sales and Corporate
Marketing at Quantum. Ken Potashner, CEO.
www.s3.com
Scenix appointed Randy Berg, most recently director of sales for North America - West
at Cypress, as VP of sales. Bulent Celebi,
president and CEO. www.scenix.com
Sigma Designs appointed John Beck III, formerly VP of Finance and Administration at
Augeo Software, as CFO. Thinh Tran, Chairman and CEO. www.sigmadesigns.com
Silicon Magic appointed Dr. Kenyon Mei,
formerly VP of Engineering for PLX, as executive VP and COO. He has also served as
VP of Engineering, and GM of the Personal
Systems Division at Cirrus. Dr. Alexander Au,
president and CEO. www.simagic.com
Silicon Value, a supplier of full-custom
ASICs, has appointed 3 experts to its newlyformed technical advisory board. The new
board members are Dr. Srinivas Devadas, a
professor in the Electrical Engineering and
Computer Science Department at MIT, Dr.
Sharad Malik, a professor in the Electrical
Engineering department at Princeton, and Dr.
Pinaki Mazumder, a professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
department at The University of Michigan,
Ann Arbor. Udi Kra, president and cofounder. www.silicon-value.com
Sonics appointed Larry Gletzer, formerly
VP, worldwide sales for Numerical Technologies, as VP of sales for North America, Japan and Asia. Ed Pupa, formerly director,
business development for physical verification products at Cadence, was appointed as
director of Eastern region sales. Ed Smith,
most recently marketing director at QuickLogic, was appointed as director of business
development. Jim Fleury, senior VP of marketing and sales. www.sonicsinc.com
Synopsys appointed Dr. Jerry Lee as VP of
engineering for the physical synthesis product lines, reporting to Sanjiv Kaul, GM of
the Physical Synthesis business unit. Prior to
assuming his new position, Lee was VP of
engineering and worldwide design centers for
the Synopsys’ Professional Services Group.
He joined Synopsys last year, coming from
Cadence, where he served as VP of R&D for
the development of place-and-route and physical verification tools. Aart de Geus, president and CEO. www.synopsys.com
TriQuint appointed Nicolas Kauser to its
Board. From 1990 through his retirement in
1998, Kauser served as Executive VP and
CTO for AT&T Wireless Services (formerly
McCaw Cellular). Steve Sharp, President and
CEO. www.triquint.com
Triscend appointed Thomas (Tom) Nicoletti, formerly senior VP of business development and CFO at AtWeb, as CFO, reporting
to Stanley Yang, president and CEO. Before
AtWeb, Nicoletti served at eBay as a VP and
consultant. www.triscend.com
Xpedion Design Systems named Richard
Curtin, formerly with Viewlogic, Frontline
Design, Interra, and most recently Simpod,
as Senior VP, Sales and Marketing. Xpedion
provides EDA tools for developing wireless
communication systems and circuits. The
company was founded in 1997 and is funded
by TeleSoft Partners, Redwood Ventures,
ViVentures Partners, and private investors.
Ravender Goyal, president, CEO and cofounder. www.xpedion.com ■
IPOs & Equity Deals
CHRYSALIS-ITS has completed 4th round
financing of US$20.6 million led by new investor CIBC Capital Partners with additional investment from Goldman, Sachs & Co.
Other new investors include AGF, Altamira
Funds, Working Ventures, Royal Trust, Laketon Investments together with funds from
some original investors. The company has
raised more than US$35 million to date.
Steven Baker, president and CEO.
www.chrysalis-its.com
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SEMICONDUCTOR TIMES
inSilicon has filed a registration statement
with the SEC for an IPO of shares of its common stock. InSilicon’s proposed Nasdaq ticker symbol is INSN. Robertson Stephens will
act as the lead underwriter, which will be comanaged by Prudential Volpe Technology
Group and Needham & Company.
www.phoenix.com
MicroDisplay announced a $6 million investment from Daeyang E&C. This investment
constitutes MicroDisplay’s second round of
corporate capital investment and aligns the
display manufacturer with a second customer and partner in the Pacific Rim. Daeyang
announced a head-mounted display system
for the entertainment market at PC Expo in
1999 and has selected MicroDisplay as its
sole supplier for the displays to be included
in the product. Allan Abbot, CEO.
www.personaldisplay.com, www.micro
display. com
NewPort Communications closed $23 million in Series-B funding led by Integral Capital Partners and including Bessemer, Lucent
Venture Partners, Mayfield Fund, Vertex as
well as corporate investors, Cisco and Sumitomo. NewPort offers a CMOS 2.5 Gigabit/
OC-48 transceiver. Joe Vithayathil, VP of
Marketing and Sales. www.newportcom.com
SandCraft has raised $15.8 million in Series B financing assisted by Thomas Weisel
Partners. Investors include Sony, Mitsui &
Co., Allegro Capital, Dain Raucher Wessels,
Hikari Tsushin Capital, Kingdon Capital
Mgmt., MVC, U.S. Venture Partners, and Van
Wagoner Capital Management. Norman Yeung, CEO. www.sandcraft.com
Silicon Wave has raised $35 million in third
round financing from new investors Intel Capital, Seligman Technology Group, TDK, and
Velocity Capital Management, as well as existing investors Sevin Rosen, Ampersand Ventures, Signal Lake Ventures, The Benaroya
Company, and Japan Asia Investment Co.
Silicon Wave develops low-power radio solutions. Its SiW015 Radio Modem IC, developed for Bluetooth, integrates all radio, modem, and synthesizer functions into a single
chip. Silicon Wave has also announced its
FEBRUARY 2000 / 11
SiW100 Cable Tuner IC. David Lyon, chairman and CEO. www.siliconwave.com
Virage Logic has raised over $10 million in
third round funding, led by Crosslink Capital (formerly the Omega Ventures arm of Robertson Stephens) and including several individual investors from within the semiconductor industry. Virage develops application-specific embedded memory compilers and software tools. Adam Kablanian, president and
CEO. www.viragelogic.com ■
Mergers and Acquisitions
ASIC Alliance acquired CADWorx Consulting of Milpitas, Calif, a provider of consulting services to design groups developing
ASICs and FPGAs. Terms were not disclosed.
CADWorx founder Jayant Nagda will become a Regional VP of ASIC Alliance and
will be chartered with building ASIC Alliance’s presence in Silicon Valley, establishing ASIC Alliance’s EDA design tool practice, and advancing its C/C++ based design
and verification methodologies. MMC Networks has partnered with ASIC Alliance to
provide design and verification services for
network equipment vendors. Raymond Carlin, ASIC Alliance’s President and CEO.
www.asic-alliance.com
Broadcom has acquired BlueSteel Networks,
a developer of Internet security processors.
Broadcom will issue approx. 375,000 shares
of Stock in exchange for all shares of
BlueSteel Stock, valuing the transaction at
approx. $105 million based on Broadcom’s
recent stock price. BlueSteel has developed
an architecture for a family of ICs that will
perform cryptographic functions at system
data rates ranging from 100 Mbps to over 1
Gbps. Dr. Henry Nicholas III, President and
CEO of Broadcom, Suresh Krishna, Founder,
President and CTO of BlueSteel.
www.bluesteelnet.com, www.broadcom.com
Centennial Technologies (OTC: CENL) has
acquired the flash memory card business of
Intel, a business with ongoing annual revenues of approx. $20 million. Centennial’s acquisition includes the PCMCIA card families and the miniature card families. In exchange, Intel received cash and a note total-
ing $6 million, a payment of up to $4.5 million due upon the occurrence of certain contingencies, and approx. 16% of the outstanding shares of Centennial. Centennial posted
revenues of $14.3 million for the 6 months
ended September 25, 1999, all from its PC
card business. L. Michael Hone, Centennial
President and CEO, Curt Nichols, GM of
Intel’s Flash Products Division. www.centtech.com, www.intel.com
Conexant has acquired Microcosm Communications, based in Bristol, U.K., a supplier
of high-speed CMOS-based ICs for fiber optic communications for approx. $128 million,
plus certain payments tied to future performance, for a potential total consideration of
up to $180 million. Microcosm is expected
to achieve an annualized revenue run-rate
exceeding $10 million in the current quarter.
Microcosm’s products address the 155 Mbps
OC-3, 622 Mbps OC-12, and 2.5 Gbps OC48 market segments. Microcosm has customer relationships with the leading manufacturers of optical transceiver modules, including
the top five: AMP, Infineon, Lucent, Sumitomo and Nortel.
Conexant expects fiscal 2000 revenues from
the combined optical networking businesses
of Conexant and Microcosm to exceed $50
million, growing to annual revenues of more
than $100 million in fiscal 2001. Dwight
Decker, chairman and CEO, Gary Steele,
president and CEO of Microcosm.
www.conexant.com, www.mcosm.co.uk
Conexant has acquired the wireless broadband business unit of Oak located in Bristol,
U.K. for approx. $25 million. Part of Oak’s
larger consumer digital broadcast unit, the
Oak organization in Bristol is a separate business entity and has established itself as a developer of broadband wireless communications technology for the digital terrestrial TV
marketplace. Peter Claydon, GM for the
group, will continue to run the organization
and will report directly to Dan Marotta, VP
and GM for Conexant’s Digital Infotainment
Division. www.conexant.com
Cypress has acquired Galvantech, a supplier of niche high performance memories. Galvantech had average quarterly revenues of ap-
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12 / FEBRUARY 2000
Mergers & Acquisitions
(Continued from page 11)
prox. $10.7 million during the last 3 quarters
and has design wins at Cypress strategic accounts such as Lucent and Cisco. It is also a
preferred vendor to several datacom startups
such as Redback and Extreme Networks. Cypress will issue approx. 3.6 million shares in
exchange for all outstanding stock and options of Galvantech. The deal is valued at
approx. $133 million based on Cypress’ recent stock price of $37. T.J. Rodgers, Cypress’s President and CEO, Dr. Frank Lee,
founder and CEO of Galvantech.
www.cypress.com, www.galvantech.com
DuPont Photomasks has signed definitive
agreements to acquire IBM’s photomask
manufacturing organization located in Corbeil-Essonnes, France. DPI will acquire photomask production equipment previously
owned by IBM, from Altis Semiconductor, a
joint venture between IBM and Infineon. The
companies have also entered into a multi-year,
global supply agreement that will address a
significant portion of IBM’s externally
sourced mask needs. DPI will pay to IBM
and Altis Semiconductor approx. $40 million
over a multi-year period. The acquisition is
expected to add 6-9% to DPI’s revenues.
Marshall Turner, interim chairman and CEO.
www.photomask.com
Genedax announced two strategic deals that
set the stage for the company’s entry into the
market for design collaboration tools. The
company will acquire Expressive Systems,
a provider of Verilog and VHDL graphics
design partitioning software. Genedax also
signed a joint marketing agreement with
Rational Software. Genedax will gain access to Rational ClearCase configuration
management software that will provide Genedax customers with the capability to support
complex ASIC and IC design environments.
Genedax is committed to providing seamless
integration between UNIX and NT platforms,
and between VHDL and Verilog design
styles. Genedax is in beta now, and plans to
unveil its products by the end of Q1. Hal Alles, president and CEO, John Ott, VP of marketing and sales. Doug Day, president of Expressive Systems, Eric Schurr, senior VP, mar-
SEMICONDUCTOR TIMES
keting of Windows suite products at Rational. www.genedax.com
GlobeSpan has acquired Ficon Technology,
a communications software provider for packet-based broadband access and switching solutions, for approx. $90 million. Ficon is a
provider of solutions in the areas of IP, ATM,
and Voice over Packet. GlobeSpan plans to
retain all of Ficon’s employees including approx. 60 engineers. Vivek Bansal, founder and
President of Ficon, Armando Geday, President and CEO of GlobeSpan. www.
globespan.net, www.ficon-tech.com
GlobeSpan has acquired PairGain’s microelectronics group, designers of ICs and software for DSL applications, for 1,081,197
shares of GlobeSpan common stock (approx.
$147M) and a $90 million subordinated redeemable convertible note. GlobeSpan and
PairGain will enter into a supply agreement
for the sale of DSL chipsets to PairGain.
GlobeSpan is acquiring the group’s IP assets
and 40 DSL engineers. Armando Geday, president and CEO. www.globespan.net, www.
pairgain.com
Lucent has acquired Agere, a developer of
programmable network processors, for approximately $415 million. As part of the acquisition, Agere’s staff will join Lucent’s
Networks and Communications unit led by
Ed Roberts, VP and GM. Ford Tamer, Agere’s
CEO, will become GM for the unit’s network
processor group. Agere was founded in 1998
to develop 2.5 Gbps (OC-48c) fully programmable, multi-protocol network processors.
According to Dataquest, the programmable
communications processor market, which
includes network processors, is expected to
grow by more than 72% a year through 2003.
www.lucent.com, www.agere.com
Microtune has acquired Temic Telefunken
Hochfrequenztechnik GmbH of Ingolstadt,
Germany, a supplier of RF system solutions
to the cable, PC, and automotive industries.
Microtune will pair its broadband gateway
ICs with Temic’s complementary technologies and design expertise, producing solutions
for broadband communications. Hicks Muse,
which will own a substantial equity interest
in the combined company, arranged and fi-
nanced the merger and was the lead investor
in providing mezzanine funding for the
merged company. Terms were not disclosed.
Temic Telefunken was formed in 1997
through a management buyout from Daimler
Benz AG. Martin Englmeier, former president and CEO of Temic Telefunken has been
appointed as vice chairman of Microtune.
Douglas Bartek, chairman and CEO of Microtune. www.microtune.com
MUSIC has acquired Innovative Technology, a developer of network processors and
switching technology. Innovative’s Allegro
switching architecture can support 16 gigabit lines. The Allegro Network Processor,
combined with the Allegro Switch Fabric,
provides an 8 to 128 port scalable programmable packet processing solution supporting
layers 2 through 7. Terms were not disclosed.
David Walls, President, www.music-ic.com
NumeriTech, a provider of subwavelength IC
design to manufacturing solutions, has acquired Transcription Enterprises, supplier
of Computer Aided Transcription System
(CATS), which is used for preparing IC design data for semiconductor manufacturing.
Kevin MacLean, currently VP of Transcription, will become VP and GM of the subsidiary and Roger Sturgeon, founder and president of Transcription, will join the NumeriTech Board. Y.C. (Buno) Pati, president.
www.numeritech.com
PMC-Sierra will acquire Ireland-based Toucan Technology, an IC design company with
30 employees. PMC-Sierra currently owns
7% of the company and will purchase the remainder for approx. 150,000 PMC-Sierra
shares. Toucan offers extensive expertise in
telecom and DSP semiconductor design. Bob
Bailey, PMC-Sierra’s president and CEO, Pat
Sheehan, Toucan’s CEO. www.pmcsierra.com.
TSMC and TSMC-Acer Manufacturing
Corp. (TASMC) have signed an agreement
to merge TASMC into TSMC. In June ’99,
TSMC acquired 30% of Acer Semiconductor (ASMI) from the Acer Group, later renaming the facility TASMC. Since June,
TSMC has effectively taken over management of the facility. After the merger, the Acer
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SEMICONDUCTOR TIMES
Group will become one of the major shareholders of TSMC. The exchange ratio for
TASMC to TSMC would be 6 to 1, and will
be adjusted in a limited range according to
TSMC’s stock price.
TSMC and WSMC have also signed an
agreement to merge WSMC into TSMC.
WSMC, established in May 1996, is a dedicated IC foundry. Currently the third-largest
foundry in Taiwan, WSMC operates an 8-inch
fab using 0.25u and 0.18u process technologies. Production in the second 8-inch fab is
expected to commence in March 2000. The
total annual capacity for both fabs should
reach 400,000 8-inch wafers this year, and is
expected to reach 760,000 8-inch wafers in
2001. The exchange ratio for WSMC to
TSMC shares would be 2 to 1, respectively.
TSMC’s total annual capacity is expected to
increase from an estimated 2.8 million eightinch equivalent wafers in 2000 to about 3.4
million wafers as a result of the WSMC and
TASMC mergers. Dr. Morris Chang, TSMC
Chairman, Benny Hu, WSMC’s vice chairman. www.tsmc.com ■
Business & Financials
Alliance will recognize a $908 million pretax ($532 million after-tax) gain in its fiscal
fourth quarter ending April 1, 2000 as a result of the merger of USC and USIC with
UMC. The gain represents the appreciation
of Alliance’s investment in USC and USIC
based on the share price of UMC at the date
of the merger (NTD 112, or US$3.57), as well
as approx. $21 million additional gain related to the sale of USC shares in April 1998.
As a result of the merger, Alliance will own
283.3 million UMC shares, or approx. 3.2%
of the combined UMC Group, and will also
maintain its 25% and 3.71% capacity allocation rights in the former USC and USIC
foundries, respectively. www.alsc.com
Basis Communications has opened a new
R&D center to design software for a new generation of integrated network processing platforms. As its primary mandate, the software
design team will partner with its hardware
counterpart to develop Basis’ new family of
Service-Specific Network Processor platforms. Each product in the Service-Specific
FEBRUARY 2000 / 13
line is designed as the foundation for single
service, such as DSL. Stephen Price, senior
director heading up the center, was previously the director of business development and
strategy for IP communications at Lucent.
Director of Engineering Xiancheng Yuan
was formerly the director of research and
advanced development at PictureTel. Lloyd
Atkinson, COO. www.basiscomm.com
Denali has opened sales and support offices
in Europe and Asia and added several US
offices. Sanjay Srivastava, president.
www.denalisoft.com
Intel will build its first production facility for
300 mm wafers in Chandler, Ariz. The company will invest $2 billion to build and equip
the fab. It will initially begin production using a 0.13u process with copper metallization on 200 mm wafers in 2001 and transition into the production of 300 mm wafers.
Mike Splinter, senior VP and GM of the Technology and Manufacturing Group.
Metalink is building a mixed-signal design
center in Folsom, California, which will serve
as the company’s North American Headquarters. Heading the new design center will be
John Camagna, formerly a design manager
at Level One. The company currently has 90
employees worldwide and plans to significantly increase its staff. Tzvi Shukhman,
Chairman and CEO, J. Francois Crepin, President and COO. www.metalink.co.il
Philips has formed a new organization focused exclusively on the VPN market. The
new organization reports into Dave Auer,
group product line manager, Networking
Business Line. Philips’ current family of VPN
products includes the VMS115 and the new
VMS747 Security Processor. Scott McGregor, executive VP of the Emerging Businesses Unit at Philips. www.semiconductors.
philips.com
S3 will recognize an $800 million pre-tax
gain ($500 million after-tax) in Q1 2000. The
gain represents the appreciation of S3’s investment in USC. The event that triggered
this gain is the now completed merger of USC
into UMC. As a result of this merger, S3 now
owns approx. 252 million shares of UMC.
Ken Potashner, CEO. www.s3.com
Scenix has exceeded the one-million mark
in shipments of its SX Series communications controller, which entered volume production in early ’99. The Scenix approach
replaces hardware functions with Virtual Peripheral software modules. Systems into
which SX Series controllers have been designed cover a range of embedded applications, from PlayStation game controller peripherals to business card scanners, least-cost
phone call routers, and connected security
systems and cameras. Bulent Celebi, president and CEO. www.scenix.com
Vitesse has announced the formation of an
internal group to focus specifically on Storage Area Networks (SANs). The SAN Products Group combines the Fibre Channel and
Enclosure Management Product groups. Bob
Rumer, VP of the SAN Products Group.
www.vitesse.com
Winbond has successfully ramped its 0.175u
technology for 256Mb DRAM products. In
mid-’99, Winbond achieved manufacturing
capability for 0.2u 128Mb DRAM technology. Last month, the company successfully
staged the pilot production of the first 256Mb
DRAM using 0.175u technology. Yield rates
were satisfactory and initial performance results were far better than initially expected.
Winbond’s main products, 64Mb and 128Mb
DRAMs, are currently manufactured using
0.2u technology in Winbond’s Fab 4 and Fab
5 facilities located in Hsinchu. The company
plans to migrate all of its 64Mb, 128Mb, and
256Mb DRAM production to 0.175u by early 2000. By the end of 2000, the company
expects that the output of DRAMs will increase from 22K to 30K wafers a month. Jock
Ochiltree, president and COO of Winbond
America. www.winbond.com
Xilinx will recognize an approx. $400 million after-tax gain in its fiscal fourth quarter
ending April 1, 2000, as a result of the merger of USIC with UMC. The gain represents
the appreciation of Xilinx’s investment in
USIC. As a result of this merger, Xilinx will
own 222 million UMC shares, or approx. 2%
of the combined UMC Group. Kris Chellam,
senior VP and CFO. www.xilinx.com ■
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14 / FEBRUARY 2000
Licensing & Partnerships
Alien Technology has signed an agreement
with Toray International of Tokyo, Japan to
jointly develop processes and equipment for
the production of flexible flat displays. The
work will play a key role in the migration of
Alien’s Fluidic Self Assembly process into
volume production. This agreement is the first
in a long-term relationship that will ultimately
include the design, construction, and outfitting of Alien’s roll-to-roll (web-based) display production facility. The contract value
is not fixed but will total several million dollars. Glenn Gengel, Alien’s VP of Manufacturing, Yoichi Asazuma, Director of Toray.
www.alientechnology.com, www.torayintl.co.jp, www.toray-eng.com
Basis Communications has signed a licensing agreement with ARM. The first deliverable of this agreement will be to integrate the
ARM9TDMI microprocessor core into Basis’ new Service-Specific Network Processor
platforms. Lloyd Atkinson, Basis’ COO, Reynette Au, VP of worldwide marketing, ARM.
www.basiscomm.com
Gemplus, a provider of smart card-based solutions, will license its GemCore technology
to O2Micro, a supplier of ICs to notebook
manufacturers. Based on GemCore, O2Micro
will deliver a new CardBus IC, SmartCardBus, providing built-in smart card reader technology for notebook computers. GemCore is
a smart card reader solution that provides
OEMs with access to Gemplus’ reader operating system, interface chips, and engineering support. Using O2Micro’s SmartCardSensing technology, SmartCardBus can dynamically reconfigure itself to support either
PC Cards or smart cards. Thomas Hissam,
Gemplus’ VP, IT Security, Alex Lorenzi,
Corporate Hardware Director. Sterling Du,
O2Micro’s president and CEO, www.
o2micro.com, www.gemplus.com
Hitachi and UMC have come to an agreement regarding the principal terms of a joint
venture company to manufacture 300mm
wafers with process technologies of 0.18u and
beyond. The new company will be based in
the N3 building of Hitachi’s LSI Manufac-
SEMICONDUCTOR TIMES
turing Operation in Hitachinaka-city, Ibaraki prefecture, Japan. The site is expected to
become a strategic manufacturing facility for
both Hitachi and UMC, combining Hitachi’s
process and manufacturing technology with
UMC’s technology and foundry expertise.
Half of the capacity of the joint venture will
be reserved for Hitachi’s products, with the
other half reserved for products supplied to
UMC’s foundry customers. The joint venture
will be established by the end of February
2000 and start manufacturing operations from
2001.
Hitachi will contribute its 0.18u and beyond
process technology, as well as its experience
in the development of 300mm manufacturing systems. UMC will also contribute its
0.18u and beyond technology to the company, as well as provide know-how in silicon
foundry operations. Hitachi and UMC will
hold 60% and 40% of the equity respectively. Pilot production is scheduled for January
2001 with mass production starting in April
2001. The facility will have a capacity of
7,000 wafers per month in the 2nd half of 2001.
www.hitachi.co.jp, www.umc.com.tw
Hyundai, Infineon, Intel, Micron, NEC, and
Samsung will cooperatively develop a highperformance advanced DRAM technology
targeted for potential applications in 2003 and
beyond. The developers will work together
and with industry participants to develop the
architecture, electrical and physical design
and related infrastructure.
IBM, Infineon, and UMC plan to jointly develop advanced technologies for use in the
production of semiconductors. The companies will work together to develop common
process technologies for building logic chips
with circuit sizes from 0.13u to 0.10u. These
new processes will incorporate copper wiring and allow logic and mixed-signal circuitry and embedded DRAM memory to be combined on a single chip.
The development work will be conducted by
a team of scientists and engineers from all 3
companies at the IBM Semiconductor R&D
Center in the US. Each company will then
have the ability to implement the processes
in their own facilities. The companies expect
to make details on the first 0.13u technology
available to customers to initiate their designs
in Q2. TSMC announced that IBM approached TSMC first, however TSMC is developing its own 0.13u process and will start
0.13u risk production by the end of the Q1
2001. Dr. John Kelly, GM of IBM Microelectronics, Dr. Andreas von Zitzewitz, COO of
Infineon, Robert Tsao, Chairman of UMC.
www.chips.ibm.com, www.infineon.com,
www.umc.com
Infineon has licensed its CARMEL DSP core
to RealChip. CARMEL DSP’s CLIW (Configurable Long Instruction Word) technology allows SoC designers to extend the instruction set with application-specific instructions.
Infineon’s CARMEL DSP technology will be
used to create pre-configured SoC building
blocks that can plug-and-play into RealChip’s
SoC architectures, enabling multiple, configurable DSPs on the same platform. RealChip
develops custom communication chips, specializing in network SoCs. Shaul Berger, VP,
DSP Cores, Craig Slayter, RealChip’s CEO.
www.RealChip.com, www.infineon.com
S3 has made a strategic investment in Intellon to secure access to Intellon’s high-speed
Power Line home networking chip technology. S3 and Intellon will form an equity and
commercial relationship focused on R&D for
powerline-based Diamond HomeFree-branded home networking solutions. Terms were
not disclosed. Andrew Wolfe, CTO for S3,
Horst Sandfort, CEO for Intellon,
www.intellon.com, www.s3.com
S3 has partnered with Transmeta on the design and production of forthcoming Internet
devices powered by Transmeta’s Crusoe processor. Part of a larger family of planned Internet appliances from S3, the Transmetapowered devices are targeted at consumers
looking for an x86 compatible, Linux-based
Internet computing solution. Jim Chapman,
VP of Marketing for Transmeta, Andy Wolfe,
CTO for S3. www.s3.com, www.transmeta.
com
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SEMICONDUCTOR TIMES
S3 and VIA formed an executive management
team to run the recently established S3-VIA,
Inc. joint venture. Led by Ken Potashner,
Chairman; Wen-Chi Chen, CEO; and Rick
Bergman, GM, the S3-VIA management
team is focused on bringing a family of integrated graphics and core logic chipsets to
market in early 2000. Longer term, the team
will work toward redefining PC architectures
based on S3 and VIA’s CPU, graphics and
core logic IP.
STMicro and 8x8 have formed a strategic
partnership to develop and market ICs for
VoIP applications. The partnership consists
of a technology license agreement, under
which ST will license 8x8’s VoIP software
and DSP technology, and the joint development of certain VoIP ICs. In addition, ST will
purchase 3.7 million shares of 8x8 common
stock at a price of $7.50 per share for a total
investment of $27.75 million.
ST receives a non-exclusive royalty-bearing
license for 8x8’s VoIP software and its VP7
DSP core. 8x8 VoIP software includes call
control protocols, such as the MGCP, H.323,
and SIP. The first project will combine 8x8’s
DSP engine with ST’s microcontroller and
analog IC technology to produce a VoIP-enabled chipset for cable modems and cable TV
set-top boxes. In the second project, 8x8 will
adapt its communications stacks to ST’s microcontroller cores and its codec technology
to the ST100 DSP core. Alain Dutheil, ST’s
Corporate VP for Strategic Planning & Human Resources, Paul Voois, 8x8’s chairman
and CEO. www.8x8.com, www.st.com
Surf has reached an agreement with NEC to
integrate Surf’s software fax and modem solutions on NEC’s RISC platforms. NEC has
installed Surf’s technology into NEC’s 64bit MIPS architecture, VR4300 processor.
The recent announcement about the integration of the Surf modem into the Nintendo N64
for the Japanese market is a direct application of this agreement. Haruki Nagao, Senior
Manager, Application Software Engineering
Department of SSED at NEC’s Semiconductor group, Dr. Amnon Gavish, Surf’s CEO.
www.surf-com.com, www.nec-global.com
FEBRUARY 2000 / 15
TI and Clarent, a provider of carrier-grade
IP telephony solutions, have signed an IP telephony product development agreement. The
TI/Clarent solution includes several components. The first component will be a new CPE
device intended to allow the exchange of IP
telephony-based calls through DSL, cable,
and WLL technologies. The new devices will
be based on TI’s TMS320C54x DSP generation and a hardware reference design and
VoIP embedded communications software
from TI’s Telogy subsidiary. The CPE device
is also planned to include MGCP client extensions and network management software
components built by Clarent. The second
component consists of Clarent IP telephony
products that are already present in the carriers’ networks and which allow the customers’ calls to be routed globally using VoIP
technology. Field tests in the spring, with
general availability later in the year. Bill
Witowsky, CTO and senior VP, Telogy, Mike
Vargo, CTO and senior VP, Clarent.
www.ti.com, www.telogy.com, www.clarent.
com
Zoran and Amoisonic, one of China’s largest home video and audio OEMs, will partner to provide solutions for the DVD and
SVCD markets. Amoisonic and Zoran will
establish a joint development lab focused on
digital A/V technologies and products for the
China market. Since the inception of VCD
and SVCD, over 50 million digital video players have been sold in China. The popularity
of DVD in China is increasing, and the transition to this format is expected to bring sales
of 6 million DVD players this year in China.
Lu Huanwen, GM of Amoisonic, Dr. Levy
Gerzberg, President and CEO of Zoran.
www.amoisonic.com, www.zoran.com ■
Market Research
provements in speed and bandwidth levels
will propel the use of IEEE1394 into new
applications, such as home networking. The
new version of 1394 now provides 800 Mbps
speeds, dramatic increases in bandwidth, and
more flexible design options for manufacturers, with improved bus arbitration schemes
and guaranteed connections to legacy 1394
devices.
More than 8 million new PCs and more than
1 million new camcorders per quarter are now
being manufactured with1394 on board. The
trade association believes that 30 million new
1394-enabled PCs and more than 20 million
new 1394 chipsets will enter the market in
the year 2000, worldwide. The price of 1394
PHY and link layer ICs will be reduced between 30 to 40% this year, further encouraging the development of printers, scanners,
hard drives, and other peripherals. The technical committee has created a roadmap to take
the 1394-enabled products to speeds of 1.6
Mbs in 2001 and, eventually, to 3.2 Gigabits.
Work has also been completed for IP over
1394. www.1394ta.org or www.askfor1394.
com
Dataquest forecast worldwide wafer fab
equipment revenues to reach $25 billion in
2000, an increase of 43.5% from 1999 revenue. The industry is poised for double-digit
growth through 2002. On a quarterly run-rate
basis, the wafer fab equipment market hit a
low point in Q3 ’98 and recovered throughout 1999. However, the spurt in shipments
since September has turned what was expected to be a low, single-digit growth year for
1999 into one that saw nearly 20% growth.
Dataquest’s midyear 1999 spending forecast
assumed a demand for silicon capacity consistent with just over 12% growth, in terms
of millions of square inches (MSI) of silicon,
for 1999. Actual demand is now estimated
for 1999 to be 23% higher than 1998 levels,
with a large second-half demand spike from
The 1394 Trade Association announced that
significant new PC, peripheral, and consumer products with the IEEE 1394 multimedia
bus will appear
WW Wafer Fab Equipment Revenue Estimates
throughout the new
(Billions of U.S. Dollars)
year from manufacturers worldwide.
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
Revenue
17.5
25.1
34.0
38.3
34.6
They predicted that
Growth
(%)
19.4
43.5
35.8
12.5
-9.8
falling silicon costs
Source: Dataquest (January 2000)
and dramatic im-
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2004
34.6
0.0
16 / FEBRUARY 2000
Market Research
(Continued from page 15)
a broad range of semiconductors. “Silicon
demand actually began to plateau early in Q4
1999, as the fabs consuming the wafers were
full, and many semiconductor producers began accelerating equipment orders as a result.”
Dataquest reported the worldwide semiconductor market experienced double-digit
growth, for the first time since 1995, as 1999
semiconductor revenue surpassed $160 billion, an increase of 17.6% over 1998 revenue. One of the key factors was the firming
up of the DRAM market. Motorola posted
negative growth because the company divested a major product division and a product line.
www.dataquest.com
Forward Concepts’ report, “Automotive
Chips 2000” points out that the basic design
of automobiles is about to change dramatically. The 12V electrical system will give way
to a new 42V standard, allowing smaller wires
to be used at the higher voltage for electromechanical control of brakes, electrical motors, and other actuators. The market opportunity represents 50 million vehicles per year.
The overall market for semiconductors in the
automotive market will grow at an annual rate
of 8.8%, from $9.5 billion in 1998 to $17 billion 2005. www.forwardconcepts.com
SEMICONDUCTOR TIMES
JPA reports that desktop graphics controller
shipments grew by 3% during the Q3 1999.
3D chips account for the majority of those
shipments showing an increase of 11% from
the previous quarter and a 24% increase over
the same period last year. The market for
desktop graphics controllers continues to
grow despite the coming ramp of integrated
graphics core chipsets. However, JPA expects
desktop controller companies and add-in
board companies in particular to be pressed
by integrated chipsets in the next two to three
quarters. Over 29.3 million desktop controllers were shipped in Q3 ’99. Nearly 98% of
the shipments were 3D with just 2% VGC.
44% of graphics chips were on the motherboard – up a few points from the previous
quarter. Brand names account for 75% of addin board (AIB) volume, with the top 5 vendors accounting for 72%. Desktop controller
unit shipments were expected to grow by 5%
in Q4. www.jpa.com
SEMI reported that worldwide shipments of
silicon wafers reached 4.5 billion square inches in 1999, an increase of nearly 25% from
the prior year. 1999 wafer area shipments surpassed the prior peak set in 1997 when almost 4 billion square inches were shipped.
Wafer area shipments declined in 1998 to 3.6
billion square inches as a result of the semiconductor industry downturn that year. While
shipments of silicon increased significantly
in 1999, industry revenue is estimated to have
grown only about 8%. The ongoing demand
Top 10 WW Semiconductor Vendors by Revenue Estimates
(Billions of U.S. Dollars)
1998 1999 1998
1999
Rank Rank Company Revenue
1
1 Intel
22.8
2
2 NEC
8.2
4
3 Toshiba
5.9
6
4 Samsung
4.7
5
4 TI
5.8
3
6 Motorola
7.1
7
7 Hitachi
4.7
9
8 STMicro
4.2
8
9 Philips
4.4
10
10 Infineon
3.9
Others
64.4
Total Market
136.2
Source: Dataquest (January 2000)
1999
Revenue
25.8
9.2
7.6
7.1
7.1
6.4
5.5
5.1
5.1
5.0
76.2
160.1
Market
Share (%)
16.1
5.8
4.7
4.4
4.4
4.0
3.4
3.2
3.2
3.1
47.6
100.0
’98-’99
Growth (%)
13.3
12.0
28.4
49.5
22.0
-9.4
18.3
21.0
13.9
28.2
18.4
17.6
for better and larger wafers has resulted in
higher production and R&D costs for the silicon industry at a time when margins remain
depressed. SEMI believes improved profit
margins and ROI will be needed to fund the
future R&D and capital investments necessary to meet the needs of the semiconductor
industry. www.semi.org
Area Shipments
Revenue
Year
in MSI
in M$
1995
3,487
$6,002
1996
3,693
$7,057
1997
3,995
$7,023
1998
3,613
$5,443
1999 est.
4,500
$5,900
MSI = millions of square inches.
Source: SEMI
SEMI reported that North American-based
manufacturers of semiconductor equipment
posted a second-straight month of record orders in December 1999 and a Book-to-Bill
ratio of 1.18. The three-month average of
worldwide shipments in Dec. ’99 was $1.56
billion, 1% above the Nov. ’99 level, and 69%
above the Dec. ’98 level of $921 million. The
three-month average of bookings in Dec. ’99
was $1.83 billion, 8% above Nov. ’99 and
108% above the Dec. ’98 level.
Semico Research announced that the DRAM
industry had revenue growth of 44% in 1999.
For the year 2000, growth of 40% is projected. Embedded DRAM growth is projected to
grow 79%. www.semico.com
According to Semico, total foundry wafer demand will grow at a compound average rate
of 24% for the next 5 years. Semico believes
the industry has been under-investing in capacity for at least 2 years, particularly in fabs
at .25u or less. The industry has also postponed investment in 300 mm fabs. Unable to
afford a $2 billion fab, many IDMs (Integrated Device Manufacturers) may have to go to
a foundry. www.semico.com
The SIA reported that worldwide sales of
semiconductors skyrocketed to $14.2 billion
in November, up 24.8%, marking the highest
global sales numbers in the history of the industry by breaking last month’s $13.4 billion
record. Year-to-date sales are up 17.1%
through Nov. ’99 compared to the first 11
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SEMICONDUCTOR TIMES
months of 1998 and are outpacing the SIA’s
October forecast of 14.7%. Memory product
demand is particularly strong with FLASH
memory increasing 74.2% year-to-date in
1999, primarily driven by wireless communications. DRAM has increased 47.6% yearto-date in 1999 with PC and server demand
being the major drivers. ■
Emerging Trends
The BMW Group will offer digital satellite
radio in all its vehicles sold in the US. Starting as early as 2001, the company plans to
install radios capable of receiving 100 channels of commercial-free music, information
and entertainment programming in BMW and
Land Rover vehicles sold in the U.S. Sirius
Satellite Radio (formerly CD Radio, Nasdaq:
CDRD) will be the service provider. The
BMW Group will also work with Sirius to
develop data and telematic functions exclusively for BMW and Land Rover customers.
Sirius is building a digital satellite radio system that will broadcast music and entertainment programming to motorists throughout
the continental U.S. The company plans to
offer 50 channels of commercial-free music,
all created at the company’s National Broadcast Studio in New York City, and up to 50
channels of news, sports, and entertainment
programming for a monthly subscription fee
of $9.95. Sirius programming is scheduled
to commence late this year. Sirius also has
an agreement to install Sirius receivers as factory-installed equipment in new Ford, Mazda, Jaguar, and Volvo vehicles sold in the U.S.
Hans Duenzl, VP of BMW of North America, David Margolese, Sirius chairman and
CEO. www.bmwusa.com, www.siriusradio.
com
C-Cube has joined Planetweb, a developer
of Internet appliance software, as a partner
to help drive the new iDVD Internet appliance category. iDVD players will enable consumers to watch DVD movies, play audio
CDs, and utilize the Internet and e-mail. Over
time, iDVD players will be able to serve relevant and timely information to consumers
based on their viewing and listening habits
FEBRUARY 2000 / 17
and allow them to customize personal web
pages they can view on their televisions.
C-Cube recently announced plans to market
Internet-ready digital video home entertainment products using Planetweb’s Internet
software web engine in mid-2000. Using the
C-Cube and Planetweb solution, manufacturers will be able to design iDVD players,
DVD/Optical recorders, DVRs (Digital Video Recorders) and digital set-top boxes with
Internet capabilities. Jan Gullett, CEO and
President of Planetweb, Patrick Henry, CCube’s VP of Marketing and System Solutions, Home Media Systems. www.ccube.com, www.planetweb.com.
Siemens will refine and deliver the voice
communications element of the HomeRF networking specification. Siemens’ contributions
will enable the HomeRF Working Group
(HRFWG) to fulfill its promise of delivering
high quality voice capabilities, together with
data, in wireless home networks. Noel
Schnell, VP of Digital Products for Siemens
Communication Devices. www.siemens
cordless.com
The QDR SRAM Consortium, consisting of
Cypress, IDT, and Micron announced that the
initial design is complete for the first products based on the new SRAM standard for
future high-performance communications applications. Silicon for the first Quad Data Rate
SRAM, a 512K x 18 device, is now in the
manufacturing process, and customer samples
are slated for Q1. The first products will be
capable of performance up to 333 MHz. The
companies also announced an extension of
their collaboration on the QDR SRAM standard. They have defined initial roadmaps and
migration paths spanning to the 128-Mbit
density. www.QDRSRAM.com
USA Digital Radio announced a joint marketing and technology development agreement with Analog Devices. USA Digital Radio’s In-Band On-Channel Digital Audio
Broadcast (IBOC DAB) software will be integrated with ADI’s 32-bit SHARC DSPs for
use in digital AM/FM broadcast and radio
receiver products. Digital radio is designed
to give consumers superior sound quality and
crystal clear reception while listening to their
favorite AM and FM stations, and display new
data services on a radio screen, such as song
and artist identification, local traffic, weather, news and more. IBOC DAB uses the current radio spectrum to transmit existing AM
and FM analog simultaneously with new
high-quality digital signals. This provides an
opportunity for broadcasters and listeners to
convert from analog to digital radio without
service disruption while maintaining current
dial positions of existing stations. Robert
Struble, president and CEO, USA Digital
Radio, Jerry McGuire, DSP product line director, Analog Devices. ■
New Products
AMD introduced an 800MHz AMD Athlon
processor. Multiple Manufacturers are offering 800MHz AMD Athlon Processor-Based
Systems, including Compaq, IBM, and CyberMax. All new AMD Athlon processors are
now manufactured on AMD’s aluminum
0.18u process in Fab 25 in Austin, Texas. The
800MHz Athlon processor is $849 @ 1Ku.
Larry Hollatz, group VP of the Computation
Products Group, Dana Krelle, VP of Marketing for the Computation Products Group.
www.amd.com
C Level Design has introduced two new system-level design tools, CSim and System
Compiler. CSim is a design and simulation
tool for capturing and verifying systems using native C/C++ code as well as C++ libraries from C Level’s C++ class library. System
Compiler is the latest version of C Level’s
system-level synthesis tool that compiles C/
C++ code directly into HDL code ready for
logic synthesis and implementation. Together, these two tools operate in a single integrated environment that enables designers to
rapidly create, simulate, debug, verify, and
implement their C/C++ designs in HDL using a true top-down synthesis methodology.
C Level also introduced System C++, a new
class library for system-level design, verification, and synthesis. Daniel Skilken, president and CEO, David Park, VP of marketing. www.cleveldesign.com
C-Cube announced the DVxcel MPEG-2
CODEC, which can simultaneously recording and playing back broadcast quality video
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18 / FEBRUARY 2000
New Products
(Continued from page 17)
in Digital Video Recorders. It also encodes
and decodes video at broadcast quality for
DVD/optical disk and D-VHS recorders.
Samples now, production in Q2, $29 in volume. Patrick Henry, VP of marketing and
system solutions for C-Cube’s Home Media
Division. www.c-cube.com
Clear Logic introduced 6 new members of
its CL7000E and CL7000S families of pincompatible replacements for Altera’s MAX
7000E and 7000S CPLDs. The new LaserProcessed Logic Devices are guaranteed to
function in the same socket as the corresponding Altera MAX device, but cost as much as
75% less than their Altera counterparts. Don
Knowlton, VP of marketing. www.clearlogic.com
Conexant has developed a SiGe process for
wireless and high-speed networking applications. Conexant’s SiGe process has been implemented on its 0.35u BiCMOS technology, and has been optimized to enable lowpower SiGe devices. Conexant is manufacturing SiGe-based prototype devices that operate at maximum cut-off frequency of 50
GHz for a 3.3V transistor and 70 GHz for a
2.5V device. Conexant believes that its SiGe
process will yield the industry’s lowest-power communications ICs.
A family of products based on the new process are expected to enter production by midyear. Conexant initially will use its SiGe process technology to manufacture highly integrated, low-power RF ICs for wireless handsets and advanced wireless communications
terminals. A higher-frequency version of the
process will be released into production by
mid-2000 for use in manufacturing OC-192
SONET devices. Moiz Beguwala, senior VP
and GM of Conexant’s Wireless Communications Division, James Spoto, senior VP of
Conexant’s Platform Technologies group.
www.conexant.com
Divio is providing USB Isochronous driver
support to enable high-quality video applications across Apple’s product line. Divio’s
NW802 enables high-quality video capture
SEMICONDUCTOR TIMES
and faster frame-rate throughput via Apple’s
USB ports. Divio’s support of Apple’s Isochronous transport ensures dedicated bandwidth
to deliver continuous high-resolution video.
All Divio NW80x solutions utilize JPEG-Lite
compression based upon a DCT compression
algorithm that is claimed to dramatically surpass the jerky frame-rate performance and
inferior video quality associated with today’s
eyeball cameras. The NW802 is capable of
producing full-motion video at 30fps at 352
x 288 and up to 15fps at 640 x 480 resolution. Isaac van Kempen, VP of marketing,
www.divio.com
GlobeSpan has delivered a bus-powered USB
solution for multimode ADSL connectivity.
The reference design is based on GlobeSpan’s
programmable multimode Titanium chipset
and supports all ADSL standards, including
ITU G.992.1 (G.dmt), ITU G.992.2 (G.lite),
ANSI T1.413 Issue 2 and ANSI TR-59
(RADSL). GlobeSpan also announced a firmware upgrade to its Titanium ADSL chipsets
enabling them to support splitterless operation with all ADSL standards. Now service
providers can deploy any version of ADSL,
including G.dmt, G.lite, ANSI T1.413 Issue
2 or RADSL without splitters. Andrew
Weitzner, ADSL product line manager.
www.globespan.net
Lanwave introduced the SATURN-II family
of Code Division Spread Spectrum (CD/SS)
processors for the wireless communication
market. The company also signed a memorandum of understanding with NEC to promote a joint cordless telephone solution in
NEC’s Asia sales channel utilizing ICs from
both companies. The SATURN-II chipset
include the L9002DX2 Wireless Voice and
Packet Communication Processor, a standalone device for general digital spread spectrum wireless applications. The other two
members are the L9002VX2 Multiple Handset Cordless Telephone Chip and the L9320,
a CCITT G.721 compliant ADPCM Codec,
jointly targeting the personal radio, multiple
handset cordless telephone, and wireless
PABX applications. The SATURN-II family’s DSP architecture has been upgraded to
increase bandwidth utilization and multiple
client protocol efficiency. Kenneth Chan,
President & CEO. www.lanwave.com
LightSpeed has added the complete library
of IP cores from CAST to its InstantCore offering of pre-verified netlist IP cores for integration into its Module Based Arrays
(MBAs). LightSpeed now offers more than
68 cores from CAST, including microprocessors and related peripherals, and functions
specific to communications, DSP, and multimedia applications. Dave Lautzenheiser, VP
of marketing for LightSpeed, Newton Abdalla, CAST’s VP for IP. www.cast-inc.com,
www.lightspeed.com
LightSpeed claims to be the first ASIC vendor to offer fully tested, full-speed PCI-X
functionality. LightSpeed has licensed DCM
Technologies’ Corex-V10 PCI-X IP and offers a 133MHz netlist version of the PCI-X
core for implementation in its MBAs. The
PCI-X standard, adopted in the fall of 1999,
extends the 66MHz PCI standard to include
32-/64-bit, 133MHz performance. Hemant
Bharat Ram, CEO of DCM, www.dcmtech.
com
MMC announced the nP3400, its next generation network processor. The nP3400, a
software programmable, multi-processor, single programming model network processor,
has been optimized for high-volume LAN
applications, including 24 Fast Ethernet and
2 Gigabit Ethernet wiring closet stackable
switches. The chip will enable network equipment vendors to develop policy-enabled, future-proofed, field upgradeable, programmable switches at the price-point of mainstream
wiring closet solutions. The nP3400 can support policy-based Layer 2/3 and Layer 4+
switching.
The device integrates multiple software programmable RISC processors, nPcores, that
have been customized for networking functions. The nP3400 also integrates other modules whose structures have been validated in
earlier products from MMC. These include:
a non-blocking, hardware-based 4.4 Gbps
switching element, with Per-Stream Queuing and sophisticated scheduling, utilizing
AnyFlow technology; soft-configurable statistics engines for collecting usage information on a per-stream basis; and an embedded
policy engine with up to a 512 bit key and
128 rules.
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SEMICONDUCTOR TIMES
The nP3400 also contains flexible interfaces
that can be configured to provide: 24 ports of
Fast Ethernet and 2 ports of Gigabit Ethernet; 24 ports of Fast Ethernet, a Gigabit Ethernet port and a stackable port; or two devices can be combined into 48 ports of Fast Ethernet and 2 ports of Gigabit Ethernet. The
device contains on-chip Fast Ethernet and
Gigabit Ethernet MACs.
The nP3400 can process up to 6.6 million
packets per second, enough capacity for up
to four ports of Gigabit Ethernet. The number of nPcores on a nP3400 can be increased
four-fold in future revisions to provide more
processing capacity. Samples in Q1, production by mid-year. The 560 VBGA device is
below $100 in volume. Doug Spreng, president and CEO. www.mmcnet.com
MUSIC introduced the MUAC Routing CoProcessors, capable of best prefix match
searches of IPV4 addresses and exact match
of MAC addresses. Possessing seven selectable mask registers, MUAC offers synchronous operation and 32-bit ternary or 64-bit
binary compares. The cascadable device is
available in depths of 4K and 8K x 64-bit
words. Its performance is 20 million lookups per second. MUAC technology is also
offered as a core. Dave Sinofsky, VP of Sales.
www.music-ic.com
Novanet introduced the NOV2124, a single
chip quad channel ATM/POS PHY, processing data streams at 155 Mbps (OC-3) STS3c/STM-1. It is the first in a family of highspeed PHY layer devices to be released by
Novanet. The NOV2124 provides a Line Interface Unit (LIU), SONET framer, ATM and
POS processing units, a Utopia Level 2 Interface for ATM applications and a POS-PHY
Interface for Packet Over SONET applications. The chip is manufactured in a 0.35u
process and is sampling now. $70 @ 2.5K.
Elkana Ben Sinai, VP of Marketing and Sales.
www.novanetsemi.com
Patriot Scientific has received its first run of
the PSC1000A, a .35u version of the
PSC1000 family that also features several
new enhancements. The enhanced
PSC1000A can operate at speeds up to
120MHZ, and has several additions to the
FEBRUARY 2000 / 19
instruction set relative to the .5u PSC1000.
Patriot will begin shipping the PSC1000A to
a number of OEMs worldwide in February.
Jim Lunney, president and CEO.
www.ptsc.com
logic array, memory, or external pins, dynamically configures each ECU for any of 8 possible operations including: registered or flowthrough multiply, add, multiply-add, or multiply-accumulate.
Philips introduced the VMS747 Security Processor, which exceeds 256 Mbps IPSec processing (3DES and MD5/SHA-1 hashing).
The processor is based on transportable IP
blocks designed specifically for secure applications. These IP blocks are featured as
part of the company’s Velocity RSP7Security
Tool Set. The VMS747 also integrates an
ARM7. Security features include a Dual-state
processor architecture, encrypted program
code execution, anti-spoofing technology, and
an IPSec accelerator. Compaq’s Atalla Security Product Group is a beta customer. Samples in February, production in Q2. $42.79
@ 10K. Joe Wallace, product marketing manager. www.semiconductors.philips.com
QuickDSP family members support single
clock-cycle, 8-to 32-bit arithmetic functions
with no pipelining, including up to 220 MHz
multiplies and 394 MHz adds. The family
contains 4 members ranging from 292K to
662K system gates. The first member of the
QuickDSP family, the QL7180, and accompanying QuickDSP software, are expected to
be available in Q2. Chuck Tralka, director of
strategic marketing, Bill Smithson, VP of
engineering. www.quicklogic.com
PowerSmart has introduced software and
hardware tools for the evaluation and production of smart battery solutions using PowerSmart’s PS33X series of products. SB Tool for
Windows and SB Tool-Box, a hardware platform supporting multiple boards or packs,
will enable battery manufacturers to automatically program and test up to 4 battery packs
or modules and calibrate them within one
minute. SB Tool provides the means for data
capture, calibration, testing, and programming of PowerSmart’s battery capacity monitoring solutions. The combination of SB Tool
and SB Tool-Box allows the user to customize PowerSmart’s P3 ICs to critical application requirements and to maximize battery
performance by adapting PowerSmart’s 3D
battery models to the battery chemistry and
supplier used. www.powersmart.com
QuickLogic announced the QuickDSP family of ESPs, a combination of embedded DSP
performance and programmable logic flexibility. The QuickDSP devices include up to
18 Embedded Computational Units (ECUs)
with dedicated 16-bit adders and registers and
8-bit multipliers. Each ECU is connected to
the programmable logic array as well as the
RAM block array, permitting data to flow
between all three sections of the device. A
three-bit instruction set, sequenced from the
RF Micro Devices has introduced the company’s first component produced using a silicon germanium process (SiGe HBT). The
RF2461 is a CDMA/FM low noise amplifier/mixer 900MHz downconverter — a complete receiver front-end for dual-mode
CDMA/FM cellular applications. Process
technologies offered by RFMD include 3 other silicon-based technologies (Si BJT, Si BiCMOS, Si CMOS) and 2 GaAs technologies
(GaAs HBT and GaAs MESFET). Other
RFMD SiGe products currently in development include dual-band tri-mode LNA mixers for CDMA/TDMA, PCS, W-CDMA and
cdma2000 front-ends, as well as modulators,
upconverters, and driver amplifiers. Alastair
Upton, director of Digital Cellular products.
www.rfmd.com
SiberCore announced a ternary CAM-based
packet forwarding engine capable of searching 100 million packets per second. The initial product offering is expected in Q1. Ternary memories have a “don’t care” state that
allows maskable searches. SiberCore’s packet
forwarding engine integrates a ternary CAM
and the logic required to prioritize packets
and forward them. Dr. Ken Schultz, CEO.
www.sibercore.com
Silicon Labs announced the Si3210 ProSLIC,
an integrated CMOS analog telephone interface. The Si3210 integrates the subscriber line
interface circuit (SLIC), codec, and DC to
DC converter controller into a single CMOS
IC. The ProSLIC also integrates a five ringer
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20 / FEBRUARY 2000
New Products
(Continued from page 19)
equivalency number (REN) ringing generator, DTMF decoder and dual-tone generator.
The ProSLIC features programmable SLIC
impedance and a ringing generator that is
fully programmable for frequency, amplitude,
wave shape, and cadence. The device’s dualtone generator is programmable over the entire audio band, enabling support for a variety of signaling functions such as caller ID
frequency-shift keying (FSK) data, and
DTMF and other call progress tones. The
ProSLIC can generate battery voltages up to
-94.5V from a single 9V to 30V input. Samples now, production in Q2. David Bresemann, director of marketing for the Wireline
Products Division. www.silabs.com
Xilinx announced the Spartan-II family, the
company’s newest generation of FPGAs designed to be low cost programmable replacements for ASICs and ASSPs. The family offers programmable support for multiple I/O
standards, on-chip block RAM, and digital
delay lock loops for both chip-level and
board-level clock management. The devices
are produced on a 0.18u, 6-layer metal process. The family consists of 5 devices ranging in density from 15,000 to 150,000 system gates and 16K to 49K on RAM. Samples of the 150K system gate device are available now. All 5 models are expected to be in
production this quarter. The Spartan-II
XC2S100 FPGA with 100,000 system gates
will list for less than $10 in high volumes.
Wim Roelandts, president and CEO.
www.xilinx.com
ZiLOG announced a solution that will deliver cordless telephone and remote control capabilities to a line of Handspring Visor handheld computers. ZiLOG is working with
Handspring to develop the Wave Communicator wireless platform that combines voice
and data communication technology enabling
handheld-to-handheld and handheld-to-PC
communication without wires. By plugging
ZiLOG’s Wave Communicator wireless module technology into a Visor handheld computer, users will be able to activate and manipulate “connectivity-enabled” appliances
SEMICONDUCTOR TIMES
and electronics. The Wave Communicator
platform enables companies to combine cordless phone, handheld, and smart remote control capabilities. ZiLOG will begin licensing
the Wave Communicator wireless platform
in Q1. Steve Zmina, VP of ZiLOG’s Digital
Home Business Line, Ed Colligan, VP of marketing and sales for Handspring.
www.zilog.com ■
Design Wins
Conexant announced that Compaq has selected its LANfinity solution to deliver multifunction home networking and broadband
connectivity in the new Compaq EZ2700 PC.
Conexant’s LANfinity chipset combines V.90
dial-up modem, 10/100 Mbps Ethernet connectivity, and home phoneline networking
support. According to In-Stat, more than 20
million U.S. households will have multiple
PCs this year. In-Stat also estimates that the
U.S. home networking marketplace will grow
to $1.4 billion by 2003, with the vast majority based on products using HomePNA specifications. Chee Kwan, division director of
broadband products. www.conexant.com
Kopin has begun volume shipment of its CyberDisplay to Matsushita. The displays are
incorporated into Panasonic camcorders that
Matsushita is launching in Europe. Motorola
is supplying an ASIC, which is the interface
electronics between the CyberDisplay and the
Panasonic camcorder. The order marks the
second major camcorder order for Kopin’s
CyberDisplay. In July 1999, JVC began shipping its new CyberCam camcorder equipped
with the CyberDisplay. Matsushita uses the
CyberDisplay as the monochrome viewfinder in its new Panasonic NV-VZ-1 camcorders. Monochrome viewfinders are used in
approx. two-thirds of the 12 million camcorders sold each year worldwide. Dr. John C.C.
Fan, President and CEO. www.panasonic.
com, www.kopin.com
MMC announced that Cisco is using MMC’s
Network Processors in its recently announced
fixed form-factor, Layer 3 routing switches
targeted at mid-size networks. Cisco’s Catalyst 2948G-L3 and Catalyst 4908G-L3 employ MMC’s software-programmable, giga-
bit-speed network processors and flexible,
high-capacity switching engines to provide
policy-based, wire-speed Layer 3/4 switching and routing. www.mmcnet.com
NexFlash announced that the NexFlash MediaStik Serial Flash modules and memories
have been designed into several entry-level
digital cameras (under $200). Several on-line
resellers also offer the MediaStik modules for
entry-level digital cameras. Relisys, Mustek
and other manufacturers of digital cameras
have introduced affordable VGA (640 x 480
pixel) quality cameras using NexFlash’s Serial Flash modules and memories. The flat
45mm x 15mm (1.8” x 0.6”) “stick-like” size
makes the MediaStik module the smallest
Flash card available. The two-pin interface
and low-cost smart card connector help reduce camera system costs compared to other
Flash cards that use up to 50 pins. MediaStik
Flash modules are offered in 1, 2 and 4 megabyte capacities. Robin Jigour, VP of marketing. www.nexflash.com
SanDisk will supply Casio with its stampsize MultiMediaCard for storage of MP3 audio in the WMP - 1V Wrist Audio Player, a
wrist-type wearable MP3 player. The Wrist
Audio Player features a built-in 16MB flash
memory MultiMediaCard that enables the
device to store and play up to 66 minutes of
sound and music. The MultiMediaCard,
which SanDisk co-invented, is currently
available in 8, 16 and 32MB capacities with
64MB available in 2000. Nelson Chan, senior VP of marketing. www.SanDisk.com
TeraLogic announced that Matsushita (Panasonic) will integrate TeraLogic’s Janus
HDTV IC and reference platform into future
PC add-in cards. The cards will permit PC
users to get superior digital television and data
broadcasting services on their PCs. The Janus chip is capable of decoding and displaying onto a PC all 18 ATSC digital TV formats, including high definition formats such
as 1080i and 720p. Panasonic PC-DTV cards
are expected later this year. Other Teralogic
customers and partners include ACCESS,
Hauppauge, Kenwood, JVC, Lucent, Mitsubishi, NDS, NEC, Panasonic, Quantum, TiVo,
and Zayante. Peng Ang, CEO and chairman.
www.teralogic-inc.com ■
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Tel 781/899-6613 Fax 781/899-6357 www.pinestream.com info@pinestream.com
SEMICONDUCTOR TIMES
FEBRUARY 2000 / 21
Company Financials
Company
Symbol
Actel
ACTL
Alliance (1)
ALSC
Alpha
AHAA
Altera (2)
ALTR
AMCC
AMCC
AMD
AMD
Anadigics
ANAD
ARM (£)
ARMHY
Artisan
ARTI
Atmel
ATML
Audiocodes
AUDC
Aware
AWRE
Broadcom
BRCM
Burr-Brown
BBRC
C.M.D.
CAMD
C-Cube
CUBE
Cirrus (3)
CRUS
Conexant
CNXT
Cypress (4)
CY
Dallas
DS
DSP Group (5)
DSPG
Elantec
ELNT
ESS
ESST
Exar
EXAR
Galileo
GALT
Genesis Microchip GNSS
Globespan
GSPN
Hi/fn
HIFN
IDT
IDTI
Intel
INTC
Int’l Rectifier
IRF
ISSI
ISSI
IXYS
SYXI
Lattice
LSCC
Linear Tech.
LLTC
Logic Devices
LOGC
LSI Logic
LSI
Maker
MAKR
Maxim
MXIM
Micrel
MCRL
Micro Linear
MLIN
Microchip
MCHP
Microsemi
MSCC
MIPS
MIPS
MMC Networks MMCN
Motorola (6)
MOT
M-Systems
FLSHF
Oak
OAKT
PCTEL
PCTI
Pericom
PSEM
PLX
PLXT
PMC-Sierra
PMCS
Power Integrations POWI
QLogic
QLGC
Quicklogic
QUIK
Rambus
RMBS
RF Micro Devices RFMD
S3 (7)
SIII
SanDisk
SNDK
SDL
SDLI
Silicon Image
SIMG
Siliconix
SILI
SST
SSTI
ST Micro
STM
Current Qtr
Sales
Net Margin
46
5.8
13%
24
9.2
39%
48
6.3
13%
237
70.4
30%
46
12.1
26%
969
65.0
7%
40
4.4
11%
19
8.8
47%
5
0.3
6%
389
33.0
8%
10
4.1
40%
6
1.9
31%
161
36.9
23%
84
15.2
18%
12
0.5
4%
116
18.6
16%
151
27.9
19%
510
51.8
10%
208
47.5
23%
108
19.5
18%
26
33.9
130%
16
2.8
18%
89
11.4
13%
21
2.4
12%
24
8.0
33%
10
0.2
2%
21
0.9
4%
10
1.8
18%
177
31.2
18%
8212 2,108.0
26%
171
12.4
7%
23
0.5
2%
20
1.8
9%
115
8.0
7%
162
65.0
40%
3
0.9
30%
585
93.1
16%
5
0.9
18%
202
64.6
32%
60
11.8
20%
12
0.2
2%
129
28.1
22%
55
1.0
2%
22
6.6
31%
12
-0.4
-3%
1800
81.0
5%
11
0.0
0%
11 -14.0 -127%
23
1.0
4%
20
2.6
13%
12
2.4
20%
81
22.5
28%
30
7.5
25%
52
15.6
30%
11
1.3
12%
12
2.5
21%
73
12.6
17%
181
-6.9
-4%
83
10.0
12%
59
12.0
20%
8
-1.7
-23%
110
24.4
22%
48
5.7
12%
1478 184.3
12%
GM
62%
34%
44%
65%
71%
40%
48%
87%
N/A
40%
63%
64%
59%
53%
32%
56%
38%
46%
49%
52%
55%
61%
37%
57%
64%
67%
38%
78%
48%
61%
34%
27%
35%
60%
74%
53%
41%
82%
70%
56%
52%
52%
25%
N/A
64%
N/A
30%
40%
48%
42%
71%
80%
53%
67%
57%
71%
49%
2%
39%
44%
64%
45%
30%
40%
Last Qtr
Sales
Net
43
5.7
19
4.5
42
5.4
215
55.6
38
9.1
662 -105.5
36
2.7
16
2.8
5
0.5
340
17.3
8
2.9
5
1.4
138
27.2
78
12.8
9
-0.1
101
14.0
133
-9.4
452
38.0
185
26.4
102
17.7
23
5.8
14
1.7
75
8.1
19
1.8
22
7.1
16
4.0
17
-0.3
15
4.3
174
40.5
7328 1,458.0
152
5.1
20
-0.7
17
1.6
95
-5.0
148
58.5
3
0.4
540
54.8
4
0.8
180
58.4
50
9.4
12
-0.4
118
23.1
57
-2.1
19
5.1
23
4.9
1587
60.0
8
-0.3
10 -11.2
N/A
N/A
18
2.1
11
2.1
72
19.4
30
6.8
48
13.4
10
0.9
12
2.7
69
12.5
71 -11.1
68
6.5
48
7.4
5
-2.0
101
18.8
35
0.4
1274 135.3
Yr-ago Qtr
Sales
Net
40
4.1
13
-2.1
33
3.4
172
42.5
27
5.1
789
22.3
23
-3.8
13
1.9
3
-0.7
289
10.0
4
0.9
4
0.6
75
8.0
62
8.7
9
-0.6
96
12.4
153 -92.6
295 -57.1
146
-1.8
85
14.5
14
3.5
11
-8.0
78
4.8
16
0.6
14
4.2
11
0.2
8
-5.4
6
0.5
150 -10.0
7614 2064.0
133
19.8
27
-4.0
17
0.1
50
10.5
120
46.0
3
0.7
451
9.8
3
-0.4
145
46.5
38
-1.4
12
0.0
100
17.8
39
2.3
15
4.1
14
2.9
1900 -102.0
5
-0.8
22
-8.8
12
-0.8
15
1.6
8
1.1
45
9.7
20
4.2
30
7.1
8
0.2
11
2.1
42
5.6
42 -70.3
38
3.6
31
3.1
3
-1.6
77
6.4
18
-6.7
1133 121.8
GM
61%
18%
44%
56%
64%
39%
21%
80%
N/A
37%
72%
48%
58%
82%
28%
54%
-12%
26%
34%
53%
62%
40%
28%
54%
64%
59%
39%
70%
36%
58%
27%
15%
28%
61%
72%
43%
35%
79%
69%
38%
52%
51%
27%
N/A
71%
N/A
31%
47%
74%
41%
63%
78%
51%
64%
53%
80%
35%
-40%
40%
40%
52%
35%
-3%
38%
Sales
Growth
15%
77%
46%
38%
70%
23%
77%
51%
70%
35%
183%
53%
116%
36%
36%
21%
-1%
73%
43%
27%
84%
47%
13%
31%
77%
-5%
151%
66%
18%
8%
29%
-13%
16%
129%
35%
0%
30%
75%
39%
59%
3%
29%
39%
43%
-15%
-5%
127%
-50%
99%
38%
49%
78%
49%
73%
41%
12%
76%
335%
117%
92%
142%
44%
167%
30%
Copyright Pinestream Communications, Inc. 52 Pine Street, Weston, Massachusetts 02493 USA
Tel 781/899-6613 Fax 781/899-6357 www.pinestream.com info@pinestream.com
Qtr Ending
4Q99
2-Jan
3Q00
2-Jan
3Q00 26-Dec
4Q99 31-Dec
3Q00 31-Dec
4Q99 26-Dec
4Q99 31-Dec
4Q99 31-Dec
1Q00 31-Dec
4Q99 31-Dec
4Q99 31-Dec
4Q99 31-Dec
4Q99 31-Dec
4Q99 31-Dec
3Q00 31-Dec
4Q99 31-Dec
3Q00 25-Dec
1Q00 31-Dec
4Q99
2-Jan
4Q99
2-Jan
4Q99 31-Dec
1Q00 31-Dec
4Q99 31-Dec
3Q00 31-Dec
4Q99 31-Dec
3Q00 31-Dec
4Q99 31-Dec
1Q00 31-Dec
3Q00 26-Dec
4Q99 25-Dec
2Q00 31-Dec
1Q00 31-Dec
3Q00 31-Dec
3Q00 31-Dec
2Q00
2-Jan
1Q00
2-Jan
4Q99 31-Dec
4Q99 31-Dec
2Q00 25-Dec
4Q99 31-Dec
4Q99
2-Jan
3Q00 31-Dec
1Q00
2-Jan
2Q00 31-Dec
4Q99 31-Dec
4Q99 31-Dec
4Q99 31-Dec
2Q00 30-Dec
4Q99 31-Dec
2Q00 31-Dec
4Q99 31-Dec
4Q99 26-Dec
4Q99 31-Dec
3Q00 26-Dec
4Q99 31-Dec
1Q00 31-Dec
3Q00 31-Dec
4Q99 31-Dec
4Q99 31-Dec
4Q99 31-Dec
4Q99 31-Dec
4Q99 31-Dec
4Q99 31-Dec
4Q99 31-Dec
22 / FEBRUARY 2000
SEMICONDUCTOR TIMES
Company Financials
Company
Supertex
T.I.
Telcom
Tower
TranSwitch
Trident
V3
Vitesse
Xicor (8)
Xilinx
Zilog
Zoran
Symbol
SUPX
TXN
TLCM
TSEMF
TXCC
TRID
VVVI
VTSS
XICO
XLNX
ZLG
ZRAN
Sales
18
2554
16
23
22
35
2
89
31
264
65
20
Current Qtr.
Net Margin
2.4
14%
430.0
17%
4.1
26%
-20.5
-91%
7.4
33%
0.7
2%
0.2
10%
23.6
26%
-21.6
-70%
68.5
26%
-4.7
-7%
3.3
16%
GM
38%
49%
47%
6%
67%
31%
N/A
65%
38%
62%
40%
50%
Last Qtr
Sales
Net
17
2.0
2385 383.0
15
2.3
18
-4.7
19
10.0
24
-2.0
2
0.1
81
21.6
30
1.1
239
56.0
65
12.6
16
2.0
Notes: All figures are rounded to the nearest million
Sales growth = current qtr. sales / yr-ago qtr sales.
GM = Gross margin.
1. Alliance: Reflects $5.1M gain on marketable securities and
%5.1M equity income from USC.
2. Altera: Includes $10.3 million pre-tax gain on the sale of the
MAX 5000 family to Cypress.
3. Cirrus: Includes $34.3 million gain on the partial sale of the
company’s investment in Phone.com.
4. Cypress: Includes $36.2 million gain from sale of investments,
Yr ago qtr
Sales
Net
12
2.2
2034 199.0
12
-0.3
17 -15.5
14
2.5
21
-1.8
1
0.1
61
14.6
27 -10.0
172
36.1
54 -17.1
14
0.9
GM
46%
46%
31%
-13%
64%
39%
N/A
62%
14%
61%
27%
55%
Sales
Growth
48%
26%
31%
35%
63%
68%
50%
47%
15%
54%
21%
43%
Qtr Ending
3Q00 25-Dec
4Q99 31-Dec
4Q99 31-Dec
4Q99 31-Dec
4Q99 31-Dec
2Q00 31-Dec
1Q00 31-Dec
1Q00 31-Dec
4Q99 31-Dec
3Q00
1-Jan
4Q99 31-Dec
4Q99 31-Dec
$12.3 million charge to write off a manufacturing asset, and
a $11.9 million, one-time compensation charge.
5. DSP Group: Includes one-time capital gains of $47.2M
resulting from the sale of shares of AudioCodes. DSP Group
still holds approx. 15% of AudioCodes’ outstanding shares.
6. Motorola: Semis only. Net reflects semi op. inc. only
7. S3: Results include Diamond’s results from the date of
acquisition.
8. Xicor: Including restructuring charges of $23.7M relates to
the planned closure of Xicor’s wafer fab.
Company Rankings
Top Ten
Bottom Ten
NET MARGIN
ARM
Audiocodes
Linear Tech.
Alliance
TranSwitch
Galileo
Maxim
Aware
MIPS
Logic Devices
47%
40%
40%
39%
33%
33%
32%
31%
31%
30%
GROSS MARGIN
ARM
87%
Maker
82%
PMC-Sierra
80%
Hi/fn
78%
Linear Tech.
74%
PLX
71%
AMCC
71%
Rambus
71%
Maxim
70%
QLogic
67%
SALES GROWTH
S3
335%
Audiocodes
183%
SST
167%
Globespan
151%
Silicon Image
142%
Lattice
129%
M-Systems
127%
SanDisk
117%
Broadcom
116%
PCTEL
99%
NET PROFIT ($M)
Intel
2,108
T.I.
430
ST Micro
184
LSI Logic
93
Altera
70
Xilinx
69
Linear Tech.
65
AMD
65
Maxim
65
Conexant
52
NET MARGIN
Microsemi
2%
Micro Linear
2%
M-Systems
0%
MMC Networks
-3%
S3
-4%
Zilog
-7%
Silicon Image
-23%
Xicor
-70%
Tower
-91%
Oak
-127%
GROSS MARGIN
Alliance
34%
Int’l Rectifier
34%
C.M.D.
32%
Trident
31%
SST
30%
M-Systems
30%
ISSI
27%
Microsemi
25%
Tower
6%
S3
2%
SALES GROWTH
Rambus
Intel
Micro Linear
Logic Devices
Cirrus
Genesis Microchip
Motorola
ISSI
MMC Networks
Oak
NET PROFIT ($M)
Micro Linear
0
Genesis Microchip
0
M-Systems
0
MMC Networks
0
Silicon Image
-2
Zilog
-5
S3
-7
Oak
-14
Tower
-21
Xicor
-22
12
8%
3%
0%
-1%
-5%
-5%
-13%
-15%
-50%
Copyright Pinestream Communications, Inc. 52 Pine Street, Weston, Massachusetts 02493 USA
Tel 781/899-6613 Fax 781/899-6357 www.pinestream.com info@pinestream.com
SEMICONDUCTOR TIMES
FEBRUARY 2000 / 23
Philadelphia SOX Index
Intel – Still Going
Micron – DRAM Barometer
AMD – Athlon Power
Conexant – Broadband Power
Qlogic – Fibre Channel Leader
PMC-Sierra – Awesome Margins
AMCC – Strong Results
Copyright Pinestream Communications, Inc. 52 Pine Street, Weston, Massachusetts 02493 USA
Tel 781/899-6613 Fax 781/899-6357 www.pinestream.com info@pinestream.com
24 / FEBRUARY 2000
SEMICONDUCTOR TIMES
Startups In This Issue
✔ ADMtek – Networking ICs
✔ Pijnenburg – Cryptography and Telecom ICs
✔ Aurora VLSI – Bilingual MIPS/Java Processor Cores
✔ RealChip – Custom Communications SOCs
✔ dspfactory – Custom DSP Solutions
✔ Realvision – Multimedia Chips
✔ INH Semiconductor – Infiniband ICs
✔ SkyTune – DTV and Datacasting ICs
✔ MultiLink – High Speed Physical Layer ICs for SONET/SDH
✔ Starium – Voice Encryption ICs
✔ NanoAmp – Ultra Low-Power SRAMs, SOCs and RFICs
✔ Transmeta – Low-Power x86-compatible Processors
✔ NeoCore – Digital Pattern Processing technology
✔ ZettaCom – Internet Infrastructure Chipsets
General: Semiconductor Times is published monthly. Each issue contains profiles on startups and emerging semiconductor companies, industry news, financial and investment highlights. Subscribers receive
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