| Editor's Note |
| It's always fun when analysts disagree. For some time now, a number of Wall Street analysts have been warning about a buildup of excess inventory, which they fear could derail a strong rally by chip firms. But others flatly disagree, saying inventories remain lean by historical standards and that there is no reason for alarm. Today's top story focuses on programmable logic vendor Altera, but the debate has much more broad implications. Industry-wide, there appears to be a genuine difference of opinion about what whether inventory levels are rising to the point they might put a significant speed bump on the road to continued growth.
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| Top Story |
Analysts split on Altera inventory build fears
Several Wall Street analysts expressed concerns about inventory buildup by programmable logic vendor Altera following the company's strong first quarter financial report. But others, including Paul McWilliams, editor of a technology investment newsletter, maintain that these concerns are off base.
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| Semiconductor News |
Analysis: Freescale moves closer to IPO
Freescale Semiconductor Inc.'s growing revenue, improving operating performance and steps taken to adjust debt maturities combined with a favorable equity market have put the IC vendor several steps closer to its goal of selling shares in an initial public offering.
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IBM demos faster, cheaper alternative to e-beam litho
Using a tiny silicon tip attached to a flexible cantilever, IBM has created a 3-D patterning technique that it says is faster and cheaper than e-beam lithography. IBM's "nanoscale milling machine" has a resolution of about 15 nm—about twice as small as e-beam litho—and potentially could go even smaller. IBM plans to use the technique for prototyping nanoscale CMOS electronics, optical components and meta-materials and for making shape-matching templates that direct the self-assembly of nanorods or nanotubes.
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Renesas gets in-touch with Immersion touch interface
Renesas Electronics America Inc. and Immersion Corp. have collaborated to provide a system-level solution that enables designers of consumer electronics; white goods; and medical, building automation and office equipment to integrate haptic [touch] feedback in product designs.
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IBM Micro is hiring in U.S.
Amid a series of job cuts, IBM Corp. plans to fill about 100 manufacturing jobs at its chip facility in Essex Junction, Vt., according to a report.
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| Business News |
Restructuring weighs on ST-Ericsson results
Wireless chip maker ST-Ericsson made a net loss of $154 million on net sales of $606 million in the first quarter of 2010. The company said it expected a flat second quarter to follow. Net sales increased by 7.9 percent compared with the same period a year before
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More chip firms top estimates, but ST comes up short
Several more chip makers--including Cypress Semiconductor, Microsemi, PMC-Sierra and Lattice Semiconductor--reported quarterly sales that beat analysts' expectations, but bellwether European semiconductor firm STMicroelectronics came up short of estimates.
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Rambus' sales jump 425 percent
Thanks to a deal with Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Rambus Inc. said sales for the first quarter of 2010 were $161.9 million, up 425 percent sequentially from the fourth quarter of 2009 and up 492 percent from the quarter a year ago.
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Photonics IC vendor files for IPO
NeoPhotonics Corp. has filed an initial public offering of shares of its common stock in the United States.
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Cabot, Cymer, Ultratech post results
AE, Cabot, Cymer, Ultratech and other fab tool vendors posted strong results.
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| Technology News |
Down to Earth: Shuttle astronaut looks back while pondering the future
Space shuttle comamander George Zamka is adjusting to life back on Earth while contemplating his next move in space.
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| Design News |
ESC: FitBit teardown as therapy
A casual encounter at the right time sends an imaginative and driven, out "of-shape engineer on a journey of passion, frustration, learning, marriage, birth " and the on-going struggle for mental and emotional survival against all the odds. There are many like him, but help is available.
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Viewpoint: Maximizing the value of your IP
There is no doubt that leveraging IP for reuse is here to stay. The economic and time-to-market advantages are too enormous to forego. However, there are serious challenges to overcome given the high cost of verification and the risk of collateral design damage consequential to RTL modification.
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| ESC Silicon Valley |
ESC panel addresses 3-D GUI designs
A panel session at the Embedded Systems Conference will address the challenges of designinging graphical user interfaces for embedded applications.
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| Course: From FPGA to ASIC |
| There are two reasons for migrating from FPGAs to ASICs, and many more reasons why that migration could easily go astray. The Fundamentals of FPGA-to-ASIC conversion presents the principles and the tools available to do it right, including a real-world example using Altera's HardCopy ASICs.
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Dylan McGrath is editor of the EE Times Newsletter, which brings you the latest semiconductor and design news.
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