SEMICONDUCTOR TIMES FEBRUARY 1999 / 1 FEBRUARY 1999 ... · the Communications Engine or Digital Commu-nication Processors (DCPs), Communication Interface or Communications Programming

SEMICONDUCTOR TIMES FEBRUARY 1999 / 1

Copyright Pinestream Communications, Inc. 52 Pine Street, Weston, Massachusetts 02493 USATel 781/899-6613 Fax 781/899-6357 www.pinestream.com [email protected]

LTX announced that Accelerix has purchasedand taken delivery of a Delta STE, configurableto 512 digital channels, mixed signal instrumentsand the memory test option. Accelerix, a fablesssemiconductor company, produces high perfor-mance, single chip graphics accelerators withembedded memory for 2-D, 3-D, Video, DVDand MPEG applications in the notebook com-puter market. The Delta STE will be used forsingle insertion, multiple die testing at waferprobe and package test of Accelerix’s graphicsaccelerators. Richard White, President and CEOof Accelerix. www.accelerix.com

BASIS Communications, a Cirrus spin-off,announced its formation as a provider of Multi-Service Networking ICs for the integration ofvoice and data. The company will develop anddeliver “Network Application Focused Integrat-ed Solutions.” The company’s RISC based ICswill address the convergence of voice and dataover wide area Internet-Centric networks. In thespin-off from Cirrus, BASIS has acquired a port-folio of WAN and ATM products as well as oth-er traditional Serial I/O and Host Based con-troller products. BASIS will maintain a manu-facturing and services business relationship withCirrus to support the existing portfolio and fu-ture products. Michael Shealy, President andCEO, Lloyd Atkinson, senior VP and COO.

ISI’s MediaF/X architecture for audio, video,2D/3D graphics and memory control is com-prised of Interactive Media Core(s) that embedin consumer ICs working with industry standardCPUs. MediaF/X reduces system cost and im-proves performance by combining media accel-eration with memory control and by reducinghost bandwidth requirements for media opera-tions. Austin Ventures and Rambus participatedin the company’s first round of financing, com-pleted in June 1998. Tom Dye, founder, presi-dent and CTO. Tel: 512/502-0299, fax: 512/502-9065, www.interactivesi.com

MediaQ was founded in May 1997 to “deliversystems solutions in silicon enabling a widerange of consumer electronic appliances to con-nect to information, entertainment and commu-nication networks.” Private investors have fi-nanced the company to date. MediaQ is seeking$5 - $10 million in additional financing in thisquarter.

MediaQ develops highly integrated silicon so-lutions that accelerate the development of prod-

FEBRUARY 1999 FOCUSED ON EMERGING SEMICONDUCTOR COMPANIES VOL 4 ISSUE 2

Shealy was previously VP and GM of the com-munications division of Cirrus. Atkinson wasformerly the VP of the network access productsgroup in Cirrus’ Communications Division.Address: 3100 West Warren Ave. Suite A, Fre-mont, CA 94538. Tel: 510/668-0107, fax: 510/624-7690, www.basiscom.com

Integrated Memory Technologies (IMT) isbelieved to be developing Flash memory prod-ucts. Ching Jenq, President. Address: 2255 Mar-tin Ave., Suite E Santa Clara, CA 94022. Tel:408/986-1088, Fax: 408/727-8696.

Interactive Silicon Inc. (ISI), a start-up semi-conductor IP company in Austin, TX, has ap-pointed Jim Garrett , formerly vice chairmanand president of Micron Technology, as CEO.ISI was founded in 1998 to license semiconduc-tor IP to semiconductor manufacturers. The com-pany’s technology is used to improve bandwidthefficiency, resulting in higher performance, low-er power consumption, lower “noise,” and low-er system and component costs. The company’stechnology minimizes the amount of data trans-fer required, reducing memory bandwidth de-mand which improves performance without hav-ing to modify existing application software orsoftware interfaces. The technology improvesDRDRAM, SDRAM, EDRAM (embeddedDRAM), DDR SDRAM and other types ofmemory such as FLASH.

IN THIS ISSUERadar Scope ..................................... 1

Startup Profiles ................................. 2

People ............................................ 11

IPOs & Equity Placements ............... 12

Mergers & Acquisitions ................... 12

Business & Financials ...................... 13

Licensing & Partnerships ................. 14

Market Research ............................ 15

Emerging Applications ................... 16

New Products ................................. 17

Design Wins ................................... 21

Stock Charts ................................... 21

Company Financials ....................... 22

Company Rankings ........................ 23

Radar Scope

North American SemiconductorEquipment Report ($ billion)

Month Shipments Bookings BK-to-BLJuly 98 1,112 718 0.65Aug. 98 1012 572 0.57Sept. 98 846 481 0.57Oct. 98 (final) 852 638 0.75Nov. 98 (revised) 932 781 0.84Dec. 98 (prelim) 924 872 0.94Source: SEMI

SIA Nov. 1998 Global Sales Report($ billion)

Market 11/9710/98 11/98 Y-to-Y M-to-MAmericas 4.0 3.6 3.7 -7 2Europe 2.7 2.6 2.8 3 7Japan 2.7 2.1 2.3 -16 7Asia Pacific 2.7 2.5 2.6 -4 5Total 12.1 10.9 11.4 -6 5Source: SIA

2 / FEBRUARY 1999 SEMICONDUCTOR TIMES


ucts for the consumer electronic appliance mar-ketplace. The company’s products provide ap-plication-specific processing power to devicesincluding micro-notebooks, consumer Internetappliances, client computing devices, and smarttelephones. The company has a strategic part-nership with Hitachi. MediaQ is also a MicrosoftWindows CE Preferred Provider. Windows CE,consumer electronic appliances, S3 founders…If we had to guess, we’d say that MediaQ is de-veloping graphics chips for “Jupiterish” devic-es. We’ll see… Sales channels are being imple-mented now. Additional details are expected inlate March.

Ramesh Singh, president, CEO and co-founder (formerly GM of the HomeProducts Division at S3)

Ignatius Tjandrasuwita, VP of engineering andco-founder (formerly director of engineer-ing for mobile products at S3)

Sunder Velamuri, VP of sales and marketingand co-founder (formerly established theportable products group at S3)

Brian Davis, dir. of marketing (formerlyoversaw technology and business develop-ment opportunities for digital set-top boxesat Rockwell Sem.)

3303 Octavius DriveSanta Clara, California 95054Tel: 408/588-0080Fax: 408/588-0084www.mediaQ.com

NUWAVE Technologies (NASDAQ: WAVE),a provider of video enhancement technology, hasconcluded the design phase for conversion ofits NUWAVE video processor technology intoan ASIC. The Engineering Consortium (TEC),a fabless semiconductor and designer of lowvoltage ICs specializing in mixed signal ASICs,contracted by NUWAVE, has deliver the designfiles to ZMD , the foundry for the device. TheNUWAVE Video Processor (NVP) ASIC en-hancement technology manipulates video sig-nals with precise digital control. Additional tech-nology included in the NVP ASIC provides forproprietary preset software controls which al-low the user or content provider to easily ma-nipulate the amount and type of improvementrequired for viewing particular types of video

content (i.e., news, drama, sports, animation,etc.). NUWAVE may license the technology tosemiconductor manufacturers as well. Produc-tion in the Spring. NUWAVE was founded in1995. Gerald Zarin, President and CEO.www.nuwav.com

Sapphire Design Automation was recentlylaunched to develop “electrically correct” phys-ical design solutions for DSM chip design. Sap-phire’s mission is “to address the emerging EDAmarket segment between logic synthesis andplace & route tools by taking an innovative newapproach to solving the timing, power, and sig-nal integrity problems associated with deep sub-micron semiconductor technology.” The com-pany received $1.5 million in initial funding froma group of private investors including Bech-tolsheim and Andrew Yang. Sapphire’s foundersare Shashank Goel, president and CEO, Dr.Steven McCormick, VP of engineering, andNagesh Shirali, director of product development.Sapphire’s management team also includesKevin Walsh, VP of marketing, who joins thecompany from Avant!

Sapphire’s initial target audience is high-endASIC and customer-owned tooling (COT) EDAusers – estimated at more than $100 million andgrowing at 20 to 40% annually. Sapphire’s soft-ware will help define a new “virtual prototyp-ing” market adjacent to Synopsys’ installed baseof Design Compiler users, which it projects tobe worth more than $350 million annually whenmature. Sapphire’s “electrically correct” ap-proach addresses the need to accurately accountfor delay, cross talk, power consumption, resis-tive voltage drops, and reliability as part of theDSM design process. Beta testing now. The com-pany plans to formally introduce its products inMarch.

2310 Walsh Ave.Santa Clara, Ca 95051Tel: 408/970-0110fax: 408/970-0660www.sdai.com ■

C-PortC-Port was founded in Nov. 1997 to “radicallyimprove the networking industry’s ability todevelop, deploy, and provision the communica-tions services for the 21st century.” The compa-ny’s goal is to “enable network services in In-ternet time.” The company has raised $8 millionin first round financing from Charles River Ven-tures, Bessemer Venture Partners and Bench-mark Capital. Substantial second round financ-ing will be raised in the first half of ’99. Thecompany has 55 employees.

We have seen company after company role outASIC-based networking platforms, only to re-design them from scratch or acquire anothercompany just to get a new ASIC platform foreach technology transition. Communicationscompanies are squeezed between numerous con-flicting demands such as ever increasing perfor-mance, more functionality, faster time-to-mar-ket, lower cost, new and ever changing standards,simpler management and more. Software solu-tions, such as the traditional slow Cisco 7500router, can’t keep up with today’s performancerequirements. ASIC-based hardware solutionsare inflexible, costly, and simply a finger in thedyke. What’s need is an entirely new platform,which C-Port calls “Communications Ware.”

C-Port’s Communications Ware concept is a hi-erarchical open communications platform. At thelowest layer are the physical interfaces: Ether-net, T1/E1, OC-3, etc. Successive layers includethe Communications Engine or Digital Commu-nication Processors (DCPs), CommunicationInterface or Communications Programming In-terface (CPI in C-Port’s lingo), CommunicationsComponent Software (CCS) consisting of pre-written functions such as SARs, and finallyCommunications Application Solutions (CAS)such as a L2/3 Switch. The last ingredient is theCommunications Development Environment(CDE) which provides a unified design and de-velopment environment. The design environmentconsists of compilers, debuggers, simulators andsupport that enhance vendor productivity. C-Port’s system simulator is orders of magnitudefaster than a Verilog simulator yet is cycle accu-rate, enabling rapid modeling of system behav-

Radar Scope(Continued from page 1)

Startup Profiles



ior. When HP closed its Chelmsford tools de-velopment center, much of the world-class teamwas hired by C-Port.

C-Port is developing a family of Digital Com-munication Processors (DCPs), full-custom, ful-ly programmable micro-multi-processors opti-mized for communications applications. The CPIprovides a stable set of communications APIsthat maintain software compatibility across gen-erations of DCPs. A library of CommunicationsComponents such as IP Packet Forward, ATMSAR, HDLC Switch, and Packet over SONETwill be provided. The CPI will enable 3rd partyproviders to develop components as well. Rev.3 of the CIP has already been shipped to severalOEMs. At the Application level C-Port will de-liver a set of functional communications solu-tions such as L2/3 Gigabit Ethernet switch, ATMCell Switch, IP/ATM Switch that OEMs can useas a foundation for developing value-added so-lutions. Third party suppliers can also deliverapplication level solutions as well as additionaldevelopment tools.

C-Port’s platform will enable developers to roleout successive generations of products without“fork-lift” redesigns. OEMs will be able to in-crementally tailor their products for new stan-dards, applications, features and performancerequirements. C-Port is not revealing specificarchitectural or product details yet. However, theprocessor achieves 3000 MIPS (whatever thatmeans in communications terms), full-duplexaggregate bandwidth of 5Gbps, and will sustainwire-speed OC-12 performance. The processorhas a multi-processor architecture and consistof typical base-line instructions coupled withhigh level communications-centric instructions.It is designed to operate in a multi-processingenvironment, such as a processor per line card,across a high-performance fabric.

We’ve been touting the network processor con-cept for some time now. It appears painfullyobvious to us. General-purpose processors don’tcut it and ASICs are an exorbitantly expensiveundertaking in terms of cost, time, and resourc-es. The packet- and cell-processing world needsits own network-centric processor, just as thesignal processing world has DSPs. However, fewcompanies have made any noise in this area.Competitors include Softcom, MMC, Sitera,Tsqware, and possibly Xaqti, and Maverick.However none of these solutions offer a full

custom, open, universal communications plat-form. Each one addresses an aspect of the prob-lem and offers a step in the right direction, butwe think none can be claim to be the DSP of thenetworking world. While we need to see specif-ic product details for us to proclaim C-Port theholy-grail, we can say that they understand theproblem and appear to have the most compre-hensive vision for what’s required. C-Port has apowerful team consisting of full-custom micro-processor experts, network systems architects,and software tools developers. If anyone can doit they can. We look forward to product details.

Dr. Laurence Walker, CEO (formerly VP/GMof Nwtwork Division and Alpha Semicon-ductor Group at Digital)

Tom Brightman (cofounder of Cyrix andMediaGX architecture. Also a TMS320architect)

Dave Husak, CTO (founding engineer atSynernetics and CoreBuilder architect at3Com)

Clint Ramsay, VP, Marketing1 High St.N. Andover, MA 01845Tel: 978/974-9317, Fax: 978/974-9489www.cportcorp.com

Cognitive DesignsCDI was founded by Scott Finley in 1992 todevelop high-performance cryptographic chips.The company provides standard chips and pro-prietary design consulting services. CDI has 1employee – Scott! He believes he has designedmore cryptographic chips than anyone in theindustry has – 8 designs in silicon and 3 cores.He has worked at LSI Logic, Ultron Labs, andVLSI Technology and claims that many of thecryptographic chips on the market are his de-signs.

For the first few years, CDI provided contractdesign services. Recently, CDI introduced a fam-ily of general-purpose cryptographic chips thatoffer cost-effective bulk encryption and authen-tication using a variety of algorithms. Standardcryptographic products include the CDI 2000Triple-Key Data Encryption Standard (TDES)processor, CDI 2050 TDES and MISTY1 Pro-cessor with DMA, CDI 2100 TDES and SKIP-JACK Processor with DMA and PCI, and theCDI 3000 TDES, SHA-1, MD-5 processor withDMA and PCI. The CDI 2000 and 2050 are avail.now, the CDI 2100 and 3000 will be avail. in

Q1 and Q2 respectively. Eval boards are avail-able for all products.

Cryptographic Cores for Triple-Key DES (44-,88- or 176 Mbps), MISTY1 (264 Mbps), SKIP-JACK (64 Mbps), and Authentication (SHA-1,MD5 – 210Mbps) are available as well. Misc.cores include Dual-Channel DMA Controller,64-bit Random Number Generator and a Tar-get/Master PCI Interface.

Triple DES uses the single-key DES algorithmthree times (3 x 56 bits = 168 bits) for everydata block. MISTY1 is a secret-key cryptograph-ic algorithm developed by Mitsubishi. MISTY1is designed to provide greater security than DESor Triple-Key DES especially for linear and dif-ferential cryptoanalysis. The 128-bit key sizesignificantly reduces the success of brute-forcekey searches as well. An international patent(PCT/JP96/02154) is pending for MISTY. SKIP-JACK is a secret-key cryptographic algorithmdeveloped by the National Security Agency(NSA). It uses an 80-bit key and is designed toprovide greater security than single-key DES.

The CDI 2000 Hardware Encryption Processoruses the Triple-Key Data Encryption Standard(triple DES) to provide hardware encryption andmessage authentication. The device is capableof triple-key DES encryption at 88 million bpsin any 64-bit mode of operation. Faster DEScores that achieve 176 Mbps will appear in fu-ture chips. It contains a built-in 64-bit RandomNumber Generator to supply new key and ini-tial vector values. The device is targeted at net-work suppliers, computer peripherals and otherembedded systems.

It provides four key registers and two initial vec-tor registers, and supports ANSI x3.106 modesof operation in one, eight, and 64-bit block siz-es. The CDI 2000 supports numerous securityand reliability features, including bus paritychecking and tamper detection. System diagnos-tics are supported by a built-in Monte-Carlo Testcommand. The device supports 5V or 3.3V op-eration and can be clocked at 0 to 33 MHz. Itfeatures an activity monitor that shifts the de-vice into low power standby mode as well. Scottbelieves that the CDI2000 is the fastest and leastexpensive chip on the market. It is $10 in vol-ume.



The processor core is very small because mi-crocode ROM is much denser than random log-ic gates. A new ROM-based microcode versioncontains much of the microcode needed for theexecution of most Java bytecodes. The new ver-sion will be able to boot from a Multi MediaCard (MMC) flash card. Future versions willcontinue to reduce power and increase clockspeeds. Embedded DRAM will be incorporatedwhen the design is shrunk from 0.35u to 0.25u.Designs with multiple processor per chip are alsoenvisioned.

Imsys recently signed a license agreement withArray Printers AB in Gothenburg, Sweden. Ar-ray will use the GP1000 processor in printercontroller solutions. Ericsson is the foundry part-ner and will market the technology as well. CleanBean has been formed by Imsys to establish asales organization for Java-based embedded con-trol applications. Astrosoft Ltd. (in St. Peters-burg) is a software development partner and hasdeveloped a C/C++ compiler for GP1000.

Although Sun’s processors execute Java, theydon’t target the same applications as the GP1000.Sun’s processor consume about 10x as muchpower as the GP1000 and is significantly largereven though it is fabricated in a finer line pro-cess. Java executes faster on the microJava be-cause many bytecodes are executed by dedicat-ed hardware. However, the GP1000 is a real-time multiprocessing embedded microcontrol-ler and has some DSP features. It can producehalf-toned pages to a laser printer at a rate ofmore than 10 million pixels per second, far be-yond Sun processor’s capabilities. Imsys has abattery-operated Java demonstrator unit in de-sign.

This is a pretty cool device – it spans the com-plete programming range from nightmarish mi-crocode to the proclaimed Java panacea.

Lars-Erik Nordell, chairman (cofounder ofInnovativ Vision AB and managing directorof its subsidiary DocEye AB, the leadingsupplier of Document Image Processingsystems in Sweden)

Stefan Blixt, managing director,[email protected] (cofounder and chairmanof Versal AB, a computer terminal systemcompany)

Roger Sundman is responsible for Clean Bean

chine for high performance real-time applica-tions as well.

The Imsys GP1000 is a microprocessor withspecial features for Java as well as for low-levelcontrol of I/O signals and data-intensive appli-cations such as image processing. The proces-sor switches between 3 different personalities,i.e. microcode sets: When executing Java, theGP1000’s native instruction set is JVM byte-codes. Special microcodes support garbage col-lection and thread scheduling. A second instruc-tion set for 8-bit and 32-bit data is available forfunctions that are hardware-dependent or notsuitable for being programmed in a high-levellanguage. The third personality is the micro-machine, which executes wide microinstructionscontaining many different fields governing alldetails of the processor hardware. A “controlmicroprogram” controls many autonomous ac-tions of the machine and allocates time for thedifferent personalities and tasks.

Data-intensive processes such as document scan-ning, compression, and decompression can beentirely programmed in microcode. Imsys hasmicrocoded functions for scanning, image en-hancement, image buffering, compression / de-compression (of continuous tone and bi-levelimages), and halftoning. Imsys can develop cus-tomer specific microcode and is also planningon developing a higher-level language, whichcan directly produce microcode. The micro-machine can operate on data in almost everycycle, and can access resources not available onhigher levels, such as resources normally foundin DSP processors.

The device has 4 DMA channels, with a totalcapacity of 33 MBytes per sec, 3 general pur-pose 8-bit I/O ports, 8-level priority interruptsystem, multiple register sets, sleep mode,watchdog function, real-time clock, timers, andan on-chip oscillator and PLL. The device inter-faces directly to up to 128 MB of externalDRAM. It is fabricated in a 0.35u process andoperates at 66.7 MHz at 3.3V. Power consump-tion is only 350 mW, with a low 8 µW in stand-by mode. A development system and controllerboard are available, which run on Windows 95/NT. The GP1000 and development boards havebeen produced. Controller boards for two dif-ferent color printers have been built.

Competitors include hifn, VLSI Technology, inhouse solutions, and several chips developed bysecurity companies. However, Scott believes thatmost other offerings are expensive and slow. Hebelieves that a high performance solution with alow price point will enable triple DES crypto-graphic chips to proliferate in new high volumemarkets. An American ASIC company fabricatesthe devices.

Scott Finley, President and founder,[email protected]

295 Princeton-Hightstown Rd., Suite 11-242West Windsor, NJ 08512Tel 609/638-7691, Fax 609/897-1011www.cognitive-designs.com

ImsysImsys was established in the fall of 1992 by Ste-fan Blixt, Anders Grad‘n, and Christian Blixt.Imsys is owned entirely by the majority of itemployees, however addition capital may besought in the future. Imsys has 7 employees, 3contractors, and 10+ engineers at 3 businesspartners working full-time on projects relatedto its GP1000 processor.

Imsys develops processors for high-volumeembedded controller products. The companyoffers microcontroller components, softwaredevelopment tools, and reference designs. Theprocessors are optimized for high-speed real-time control and are also efficient at executingJava, having JVM bytecodes as one of their na-tive instruction sets. High-level functions can beprogrammed in Java while performance-criticalfunctions can be coded in assembler or highlyefficient microcode – cool.

Imsys believes that Java, with its establishedmeans of automatic transfer and installation ofsoftware, is an ideal language for applicationsthat require rapid development, high-level com-plex control, high volume, and low cost. Becausethe Imsys processor has a microcoded JVM, itexecutes Java rapidly and without using muchmemory. Flexible microcode and other architec-tural features make it an efficient low-level ma-

Startup Profiles(Continued from page 3)



Ynglingavägen 3s-175 77 Järfälla SwedenTel: 46-0-8-58039980, Fax: 46-0-8-58039055www.imsys.se

Ionas A/SIONAS (Integrated Optical Network Compo-nents A/S) was established in Jan. 1997 as aspin-off from NKT Research Center specializ-ing in the design and manufacture of integratedoptical components and DFB fiber lasers formulti-wavelength telecom networks. IONASbelongs to the Danish NKT group of compa-nies and is a sister company to GIGA. Its prod-ucts are based on more than 5 years of researchperformed at the NKT Research Center and theMikroelektronik Center at the Technical Uni-versity of Denmark aimed at developing ad-vanced integrated optical components. The col-laboration was concluded by the end of ’96 anda large part of the know-how and personnel wastransferred to IONAS. IONAS has about 20 em-ployees. The company continues to collaboratewith MIC.

The company was founded with starting capi-tal of DKK 25 million (approx. US$4M) and iscurrently a subsidiary of I.C. Holding A/S,whose shareholders consist of NKT Holding A/S and venture capital companies, Lønmod-tagernes Dyrtidsfond, Dansk Kapitalanlæg A/S and A/S Dansk Erhvervsinvestering. NKT hasa 63.25% holding in IONAS, each of the othershareholders have a 12.25% interest. I.C. Hold-ing is also the parent of Giga A/S, which man-ufactures ICs for the telecom market. Giga re-corded a turnover of DKK 53 million (approx.US$8.3 million) and a pre-tax profit of DKK 8million (US$1.3 million) in 1995 and experi-enced substantial growth in ’96. The boardmembers are currently discussing additionalcapital funding for IONAS.

IONAS develops Optical Integrated Productsbased on Silica-on-Silicon technology. The tech-nology is a combination of Plasma EnhancedChemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD) for theformation of the silica layers and Refractive IonEtching for the creation of the waveguide pat-terns. Products include both fiber optic and in-tegrated optical components including DFB Fi-ber Lasers, Fiber Bragg Gratings, and PlanarWaveguides.

The main fiber product is DFB fiber LASERsbased on Er-doped fiber and UV written Bragggratings. The fiber LASERs are typicallypumped by a semiconductor LASER operatingat 1480 nm. The short length of the DFB laserconsumes a fraction of the pump power. Theremaining power can be used to pump an addi-tional section of Er-doped fiber, enabling out-put powers of several tens of milliwatts.

The DFB fiber LASERs offer excellent spec-tral properties utilizing a single polarizationoperation mode. The LASERs feature a Signalto Noise ratio of 60 dB min and a very narrowline width in the range of 15kHz. IONAS cancustomize the center frequency and output pow-er to individual specifications. IONAS can pro-vide both single- and multi-wavelength LA-SERs. The multi-wavelength LASERs featureexceptional stability of the wavelengths rela-tive to each other – very important in WDMnetworks for which the LASER would be anideal source in test and measuring equipment.

In April ’98, IONAS introduced an ultra-nar-row linewidth DFB fiber laser with a linewidthof less than 1 kHz. Combined with a 60 dB SNR,the laser will allow for extreme precision insensor applications as well as other high-preci-sion measuring techniques. The laser is manu-factured by inducing a precisely chosen fiberBragg grating in the core of an Erbium-dopedfiber, which provides internal feedback. Com-bined with a unique packaging technique ityields a very narrow linewidth. The laser pack-age is 100x100x10 mm and comes with a pumpinput port and a signal output port. Any centerwavelength in the 1520-1585 nm bandwidth canbe produced.

In September IONAS introduced a single mode,narrow-linewidth DFB fiber laser operating at1 µm. The high purity wavelength having a la-ser linewidth of less than 500 kHz can be cus-tomer specified between 1.01 µm and 1.08 µm.The laser requires pumping by a 980 nm diode.It can replace bulky solid state lasers and elim-inate coupling loss to optical fiber since the la-ser is inherently inside the optical fiber. Outputpower levels can reach 20 mW, Signal to Noiseratio is 60 dB minimum.

In October 1997, IONAS licensed Bragg grat-ing patents from United Technologies ResearchCenter. Under the terms of the agreement, IO-

NAS is fully licensed to manufacture Bragggratings and sell them worldwide.

Ionas manufacturers reflective type fiber Bragggratings for dense WDM systems. The prod-ucts reflect a specific wavelength while trans-mitting all others and are designed to custom-ized specifications. Narrowband or broadbandfiber Bragg gratings are targeted at sensor ap-plications. The center wavelength of fiber Bragggratings is sensitive to strain, pressure, and tem-perature (via the thermo-optic effect), and canthus be used as sensors for these parameters.Grating parameters such as center wavelength,reflection / transmission level and bandwidthare designed to customized specifications aswell.

Ionas can also develop custom integrated opti-cal circuits, optical add/drop multiplexers, N xN thermo-optic switches, and electrically-ad-justable attenuators.

The total marked size for planar waveguide de-vices is forecasted to be more than US$4 bil-lion in year 2000. Competitors include Piri, andKymata amongst others. Most competitive ac-tivity comes from internal efforts in large com-panies such as Lucent, Nortel, and Hitachi. IO-NAS believes that its PECVD based technolo-gy produces superior uniformity control of re-fractive index and layer deposition on 5-inchwafers. Passive planar waveguide devices arein production now. Active planar waveguidefunctionality will be integrated during 1999.Customers include major telecom companiesworldwide. Ionas has a direct OEM based salesforce.

Lars Ronn, Managing Director and VP, Salesand Marketing (formerly in charge oftechnical and market operations inDenmark for Hitachi Europe)

Dr Lars U.A. Andersen, Process expertDr. Kevin Malone, Process ExpertCAT, building 347DK-2800 Lyngby, DenmarkTel: 45-45-25-6400, Fax: 45-45-25-6405www.ionas.dk

ITRANITRAN Communications was founded in Sept.1996 to develop power line modem ICs. Thecompany has raised $1.3 million from MelnickVentures and Argoquest and is seeking an addi-



tional $1 - $2 million now. ITRAN has 17 em-ployees.

ITRAN has developed several power line mo-dem chips operating at speeds of 10Mbps,1.5Mbps, 50kbps and 7kbps. ITRAN’s homenetworking and residential access solutions in-clude the 1.5Mbps ITM1 and the compatible10Mbps ITM10 power line modems. ITRANalso offers the 50kbps IT5000 and the extreme-ly robust 7kbps IT800 for home automation andutility service markets. The ITM1 physical lay-er is designed for seamless integration with anumber of micro controllers, including Ether-net, 802.11 (wireless) and Token ring MACs.

The power line is an extremely difficult com-munications medium, characterized by severalunpredictable and strong interferences includ-ing Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN),spikes, bursts, colored noise, and ContinuousWave (CW) interference. Power-line commu-nications channels are also corrupted by fastfading, have non-flat frequency response, andunpredictable jamming. ITRAN claims that itsinitial chip families achieve extremely high per-formance at a fraction of the cost of existingpower line communication chips. The solutionis based on a patent pending technology knownas Differential Code Shift Keying (DCSK).DCSK modulation is a non-conventional spreadspectrum system, providing high speed and re-liability with minimal silicon complexity. IT-RAN has filed patent applications for its DCSKtechnique and believes that it is sufficiently com-plex to present a high technological barrier topotential imitators. The ITM1 and ITM10 rep-resent additional patentable IP as well.

The ITM1 power line modem delivers 1.5 Mbpsof speed over residential power lines and is di-rectly compatible with Ethernet, 802.11 and IPprotocols. The device is a 30k-40k gate mixedsignal physical layer ASIC and requires just afew, low cost discreet components. No infor-mation is exchanged apriori between transmit-ter and receiver, making the component highlyefficient for ad hoc networks. The ITM1 sup-ports CSMA with Collision Detection and a 4-20Mhz transmission range with easy modifica-tion to other bands. The device is claimed to bethe most reliable high bit rate powerline com-

munication chip. The ITM10 operates at10Mbps and is downward compatible with theITM1. The ITM10 employs proprietary and pat-entable turbo-equalizing CDMA with interleav-ing and convolutional coding. It operates in the5Mhz to 15Mhz frequency range.

The IT5000 Power Line Network Interface Con-troller is a low cost, 50Kbps CEBus compati-ble implementation of ITRAN’s DCSK tech-nology. IT5000 devices can communicate witheach other up to 8x faster (50 kbps) than theCEBus standard rate (6.6 kbps). IT5000 ICscommunicate with other CEBus standard com-pliant transceivers on the network at the usualCEBus standard speed. Target applications in-clude voice based control applications over res-idential power lines. The 8Kbps IT800 employsDCSK modulation to enable extremely robustpower line communications. With its high ro-bustness to AWGN, pulses, CW interference,and high levels of spectral distortion, the IT800is claimed to be significantly more reliable thanother power line ICs. The IT800 is targeted atrobust device control, home automation, Auto-matic Meter Reading (AMR), security and oth-er high reliability applications.

ITRAN will introduce the ITM1, IT800 andIT5000 modems beginning in Q3 ’99. TheITM10 is scheduled to ship in Q4 2000. Futuredevelopment plans include integrated Ethernetand USB MAC layers, ASSPs for voice, audio,residential access and meter reading applica-tions, and phone Line and RF chips usingDCSK.

ITRAN will sell standard silicon products. IT-RAN also plans to selectively license its phys-ical layer designs to semiconductor companiesthat are leading gateway players, such as Inteland Broadcom, that don’t compete against IT-RAN in the sales of physical layer silicon tothe home network “spokes”. ITRAN is alsoforming a power line networking Special In-

dustry Group aiming at de facto standardiza-tion of its physical layer devices, the ITM1 andITM10. ITRAN will seek partners in network-ing, PC, consumer electronics, cable modem,xDSL, and residential gateway companies. IT-RAN is currently in negotiations with severalpotential strategic partners.

Numerous companies are entering the homenetworking market. RF and phoneline solutionsabound as well. As we discussed in the Enikiaprofile last month, our favorite is powerlinesince it’s ubiquitous and cheaper than RF to date.ITRAN has compared its solution with severalcompetitors with the results indicated below.What’s missing is a comparison with other lead-ing edge solutions, such as Enikia’s. While Eni-kia appears to have taken a DSP approach, IT-RAN relies on a very smart physical layer,which it claims will have a lower cost struc-ture.

In addition to the obvious home networking andmeter reading markets, high-speed powerlinenetworking can enable utilities to deliver broad-band services. In March 1998, Nortel and Unit-ed Utilities formed a joint venture company,NOR.WEB, to market Digital PowerLine tech-nology. Digital PowerLine, which was devel-oped jointly by Nortel and Norweb Communi-cations, part of United Utilities PLC, enablesdata communications to be transmitted overelectricity power distribution networks at speedsof more than 1 Mbps. Check out the Nor.website (www.nor.webdpl.com) to learn more aboutNor.web’s plans.

A power line communications chip contractdesign was completed and licensed in April1997. Evaluations are under way at severalAmerican and European public networkingcompanies. Several firms in the US Home Au-tomation and Networking industry have agreedto be beta sites for the ITM1 PHYlayer chip. InFeb. ’98 ITRAN announced a strategic relation


Competitive Landscape According to ITRAN

Modulation Est. Modem Est. ExternalCompany Technique Bit Rate Manf. Cost Components CostITRAN DCSK 1.5Mbps $3 $0.50Intellon OFDM 1Mbps $7 $3Intelogis FSK 350Kbps $5 $2ANI Spread Spectrum 100Kbps $7-$10 $2Echelon FSK 10Kbps Multi-chip soln Multi-chip soln



tem are made exclusively from organic materi-als. The control circuitry, including the elec-trodes, are made exclusively from organic com-pounds and printed directly onto the organicstorage elements. No silicon chips or externalcomponents are required to perform read/write/erase functions. Opticom’s use of organic orpolymer materials combined with its multi-layersystem design and architecture offers massivestorage capacity and ultra-fast access and trans-fer rates. It allows for a solid state, non-volatilesystem that is small, robust, has very low pow-er consumption and lends itself to Reel-to-Reelmanufacturing techniques.

The conducting properties of polymer were dis-covered in 1975 and the first polymer transistorwas developed in 1989. During the past severalyears Opticom has made a number of advancesin organic memory systems as indicated below.

Opticom’s technology has been refined over thepast few years, reflecting the progress in vari-ous fields of research including material com-position issues (chemical modeling and engi-neering of novel molecular structures), electron-ic circuitry design, memory architectures, print-ing and manufacturing technologies. Three dis-tinct memory systems have been developed andtested, of which the single layer Polymer Mem-ory system represents the latest iteration andpreferred platform for future memory products.

The first iteration, Microlens Focusing, was de-veloped between 1993 and 1995, using poly-mer microlenses as focusing elements incorpo-rated directly into the storage medium. The sec-ond system, Proximity focusing, removed thefocusing elements in order to achieve thinnersystem layers, and thus a larger capacity. In 1997the Polymer Memory system was developed. Asingle, thin layer of organic material sandwichedbetween two electrodes replaced the emitter/memory film/detector sandwich. A memory cellis spontaneously created by applying current ata certain voltage to a top and bottom electrode.The organic material is modified where the elec-trodes cross. By changing the voltage level, in-formation can be written, read or erased. Noactive circuitry is required within each memo-ry cell.

This is significantly simpler than conventionalmemories, which require from 1 to 6 transis-tors per cell. It offers the potential for much

smaller cells (0.1 – 0.4um2) and thus higher stor-age capacity. No silicon chips are used, not evenfor the control circuitry, which has several ad-vantages such as Reel-to-Reel manufacturing forcontinuously processing a substrate that iswound from one roll to another. This procedureis much more efficient than the wafer process-ing used to fabricate ICs or the discrete produc-tion of CD and hard disk systems. The RTR ap-proach may yield square meters of memory andprocessing devices per second. A typical roll sizemay be up to 1.25 meters wide, which will re-sult in a production capacity of several squaremeters per second.

A fully functioning Polymer Memory system canbe built on a surface area of just a few squaremicrons, with a total thickness of less than 10microns. The organic materials used in the Poly-mer Memory system can be coated or depositedfrom solution onto flexible substrates. Adding anew memory layer simply means coating anotherlayer on top of a previous one. The electroniccircuitry is then printed directly onto each suchlayer. With a total thickness of less than 0.5 mi-crons per layer, thousands of memory layers willfit within the form factor of a thin “credit” card.

Read, write and erase operations can be accom-plished in a massively parallel manner. A typi-cal memory area consisting of one million cellscovers less than 0.5 mm2. The memory areas canbe accessed in parallel in every memory layer.The combined effect is a very high data transferrate (all layers can be addressed individually),and very fast random access to large data words(vertical word architecture).

The Polymer Memory system is non-volatile.Less than a picojoule of energy is required toread, write or erase one bit of information, sev-eral orders of magnitude lower than rotating diskand tape systems. The power consumption is sosmall that the embedded battery capacity is ex-pected to last for the whole system lifetime (8 -10 years).

During 1997 Opticom has been focused on im-proving the system architecture, optimizing itsrewritable organic materials, developing highmobility, reel-to-reel (RTR) compatible semi-conductor materials, fabricating the control cir-cuitry on flexible substrates, developing highresolution printing techniques, and developinga RTR processing pilot line. The technology for

with Home Automated Living, a developer ofvoice control home automation software. HALhas agreed to purchase $1.37 million of IT5000chips in one year. HAL is collaborating withITRAN and the NASA design firm Jackson andTull to produce automated wall switches thatwill carry voice commands to the PC via exist-ing home power lines. Jackson and Tull is de-signing automated wall switches for HAL withtiny microphones and speakers which will en-able users to talk to their PCs from any room inthe house, hands free, where the switch is in-stalled. The new switch will also have sensorsfor motion and temperature control and will beCEBus compatible. The switch is expected tobe priced at under $100. Pretty cool.

ITRAN will establish a direct sales force andwill partner with distributors outside of the USand Europe prior to product release in Q3 ’99.Foundry negotiations are under way.

Avner Matmor, President (formerly VPOperations at Qualitau, a Santa Clara, CAbased provider of stress testing equipmentto the semiconductor industry)

Dr. Dan Raphaeli, Chief Scientist (a research-er at Tel Aviv University in the ElectricalEngineering Systems Department)

Eitan Einwohner, Director, BusinessDevelopment and N. American MarketingManager

15 Yehoshua Hatzoref StreetP.O. BOX 844Beersheva 84106 IsraelTel: 972-7-6235281, Fax: 972-7-6231246www.itrancomm.com

P.O. Box 460425San Francisco, CA 94146 USATel: 415/643-6240, Fax: 415/449 3502

Opticom ASAOpticom ASA, a Norwegian based R&D Com-pany, was founded in 1994 to develop all-or-ganic opto-electronic memory and processingsystem. Shares in Opticom are quoted on theOslo Stock Exchange SMB List. The Companyhas 29 employees and is engaged in 39 researchcollaborations world-wide.

Opticom is developing all-organic memory anddata-processing system. All-organic means thatthe memory medium and entire read/write sys-



building full scale WORM (write-once-read-many) devices has been developed to a stagewere it is ready for implementation. Two class-es of erasable films have also been developedto a level where fully operating, large capacitydevices can be built. Opticom has successfullybuilt and tested a 1 Mbit memory array basedon a newly developed all electrical, switchablememory architecture.

Opticom has developed a hybrid polymer/CMOS process that is based on existing siliconCMOS chip fabrication techniques, enablingfirst generation devices to be fabricated usingexisting silicon manufacturing equipment andfoundries. A design has been developed thatallows up to 5 memory layers to be included aspart of a 6-metal 0.25u CMOS process.

Opticom and its partners have developed, test-ed, and demonstrated organic based componentsrequired to build ROM/WORM and erasablememory systems. Pre-programmed read-onlydemonstrators have been developed, tested, anddemonstrated using rigid and flexible substrates.Access and data transfer speeds have been test-ed for erasable films. The basic logic design fora fully erasable memory system has been com-pleted, including simulations of all performanceparameters. Opticom has also developed thedesign for an all-organic parallel processing sys-tem, essentially an all-organic microprocessor.

In 1997, the company secured its first licenseagreement via the establishment of the US$15million Eidopt As joint venture with Eidos plc.The Eidopt project uses a multiple of the basic1-Mbit memory array for a hybrid silicon/poly-mer ROM computer games card which will of-fer access and data transfer rates more than1000x better than present CD and DVD appli-cations. Opticom, on behalf of Eidopt joint ven-ture, has contracted an independent chip designhouse and foundry to build the first fully pack-aged hybrid chip for delivery in ’99.

Opticom has 39 joint venture research partnersincluding Lucent and AMP. In 1998 Opticomlaunched a marketing effort to license its tech-nology world-wide. Opticom has identified a

number of potential partners in specific prod-uct areas and is in discussions with a number ofpartners, which may lead to the signing of ad-ditional licensing agreements.

Thomas Fussell, ChairmanHans Gude Gudesen, Research Director and

founderRobert Keith, Managing DirectorPer Erik Nordal, PhD, senior research

manager for opto-electronic systemsJohan Carlsson, PhD, Physicist in electronic

materialsGöran Gustafsson, PhD, Physicist in polymer

physics and microelectronicsMagnus Berggren, PhD, Physicist in polymer

physics and opticsBrynsveien 3BN-0667 OSLO NorwayTel: +47-22-97-09-30, Fax: +47-22-97-09-35www.opticomasa.com

RC MODULERC MODULE, a Russian electronics compa-ny, develops image processing and neural net-work software, embedded computers (part ofthe computer system on the International SpaceStation), and ASICs including the NeuroMatrixNM6403 Processor. RC Module has been fi-nanced via contract design projects and is cur-rently seeking about $500K from western in-vestors. The company had planned to achieverevenues of US$4 million in 1998, but due tothe financial crisis only expects to achieve aboutUS$1 million. The company has about 100employees.

The NM6403 is a high performance micropro-cessor with a super scalar architecture. It inte-grates a 32/64-bit RISC core and 1-64 bit DSPco-processor (patent pending) to support ma-trix calculations with elements of variable bitlength. The device has 2 identical 64-bit pro-grammable memory interfaces and 2 commu-nication ports, hardware compatible with theTMS320Cx comm port. The NM6403 achieves1200 MMAC at a 50MHz clock rate and 8-bit

operands. It is designed in 0.5um CMOS, witha 3.3V power supply and a BGA256 package.The NM603 will start shipping in March ’99.

The NM6404 next-generation version will havethe same RISC and VECTOR cores as theNM603 in addition to the following new fea-tures: 2-Mbits internal memory, access to in-ternal memory from neighborhood, 8-, 16-, 32-, 64-bit external memory support, SDRAM sup-port, FFT support, JTAG port, PLLs and powermanagement, and 200MHz clock in 0.24uCMOS.

A full suite of development tools are availableincluding a C++ compiler, assembler, linker,emulator, source level debugger, object files li-brarian, load and exchange library, run-time li-braries, and Cadence compatible behavioralVerilog model.

The NM6403 is available as a discrete IC, TIMmodule, or board level VME and PCI product.The PCI board is available in single or dual pro-cessor configurations. The NeuroMatrixNM6404 Processor will also be available as achip or PCI board.

Competitive products include digital VLSI Neu-roprocessors such as the Philips Lneuro, InovaN64000, or Siemens MA-16, neural networkaccelerator cards such as BrainMaker accelera-tors and the Nestor Ni1000, and fixed-pointDSPs such as the Analog Devises ADSP-2100,Motorola DSP561xx and TI 320C54x. RCMODULE believes that the NM6403 providessuperior speed vs. precision trade-offs than otheralternatives.

The NM6403 has achieved 4071 clock cyclesfor 256 point FFT. TI’s C62x DSP performs thesame task in 4225 clock cycles. The deviceachieves Alpha 500 MHz performance withHaramard Transform at 40 MHz clock rate.

The company plans to ship silicon and is inter-ested in licensing the design as well. TheNM6403 is fabricated at Samsung. A wafer


Benchmarks: Sobel Transform FFT Harmard-Walsh Forward pagationFrame size: 256-point 21 step, 1024 layers,Processor 384x288 bytes 32-bit data Init.data, 5-bit neurons/layerPentium II, 300 N/A N/A 2.58 sec N/APentium 200 21 frame/sec N/A 2.80 sec N/ATMS320C40, 50Mhz 6.8 frame/sec 0.46 ms N/A N/ANM6403, 40Mhz 37 frame/sec 0.08 ms 0.45 sec 1.54 sec



US contact:Zohar Peleg, director of product marketingand on-site coordinator for the Siemensproject (formerly applications manager andsystem architect for PC products at National)

P.O. Box 2128Cupertino, CA 95015-2128E-mail: [email protected]: 408/792-3322

Sybarus TechnologiesSybarus was founded to develop SONET ICsand software. Its mission is “to be unsurpassedin the ability to design and apply SONET basedcommunications technologies.” The companydesigns ASICs, ASSPs and cores for datacomand telecom companies, and firmware and soft-ware for SONET/SDH interfaces and networks.Sybarus is developing high capacity OC-48/192products for DWDM networks including Pack-et-Over-SONET (POS), SDH-Lite (SDH-L) anddirect Data-Over-Fiber (DOF) products.

Sybarus specializes in complete IC design, ver-ification, and support services for the Telecomand Datacom community. Using its IP, Sybaruscan develop ICs for SONET/SDH Section/LineTermination, STS/STM Path Termination andPayload Alignment, VT/TU Path Terminationand Payload Alignment, STS and VT Cross Con-nects, DS1/E1 Framers and Mappers, DS3/E3Framers and Mappers, ATM Cell Delineationand Processing, Cell/Packet Switch Fabrics,Segmentation And Reassembly, and HDLC(POS & FR) Processing.

Sybarus has also developed several toolsets,which claim to maximize code reuse, ensurecompliance to industry specifications (for SO-NET, SDH, ATM, POS, PDH), and minimizedesign and verification effort.

Verilog/VHDL PreProcessor (VPP) is a produc-tivity enhancement tool for IC designers. It en-ables design abstraction using simple extensionsto standard Verilog/VHDL, which results in areduction of code size (approx. 1/3 the numberof lines of code), an increase in productivity (av-erage 5x) in design and maintenance, and in-creased reusability through parametrization ofcode (for example STS-N pointer processor,where N is set to 1,3,12,48,192 at compile time).VPP is currently in use by several hundred de-signers and is the standard coding language at

foundry has not been selected yet for theNM6404. The company has several Russian andGerman customers and has also provided theNeuroMatrix 2-CPU PCI Board to HiNT (Fre-mont, CA) for evaluation. The NM6403 is RCModule’s first chip design. The company usesCadence and Synopsys design tools and is pre-pared to make high-end chips for external cus-tomers. RC Module is a certified Fujitsu DesignCenter in Russia and has a long-standing part-nership with Samsung. The company has sever-al reps worldwide including Alternative Solu-tions in France.

Given the Russian financial crisis and our me-dia-influenced Western bias, we questioned RCModule’s viability, considering the jeopardy in-volved in designing in a high-end sole-sourcedevice like the NM6403. Dimitir said Samsungproduces the processor and joint-marketing ne-gotiations are under way. If necessary, he wouldsign a contract to license the design in the eventthat “MODULE” Research Centre becomes in-solvent. The NM6403/4 appears to be very in-teresting and RC MODULE clearly has signifi-cant intellectual property – worth exploring.

Ioury Borissov, Managing DirectorMichael Jafrakov, Scientific DirectorDmitri Fomine, ASIC Section Manager,

[email protected]“MODULE” Research Centre3 Eight March 4Th StreetBox: 166, Moscow, 125190 RussiaTel: 7 095 152-9335, Fax: 7 095 152-4661www.module.vympel.msk.ru

Seagull SemiconductorSeagull was founded in June 1998 to develophigh integration and high performance system-on-a-chip products. Seagull’s mission is “to de-velop and market best-in-class VLSI ICs for highgrowth markets.” The founders, private inves-tors, and fees from a Siemens project have fi-nanced the company. Siemens is not an inves-tor, although it might choose to invest in the fu-ture. If so, Seagull would like to keep Siemens’ownership under 15%. Seagull will seek about$2 - $3 million in mid-’99. The company has 20engineers.

The company is focused on 2 major markets:Communications and Computer Telephony In-tegration, both of which can use Seagull’s com-bined RISC/DSP expertise. Seagull offers cus-

tomization and integration capabilities for ASSPchips and IP products. Seagull focuses on com-bining RISC and DSP on a single chip to handlecontrol tasks and signal processing respective-ly. Seagull can provide expertise in system par-titioning of software vs. hardware and program-mable vs. fixed-function hardware. Seagull’sexpertise includes complex IP such as RISC andDSP, communication modules such as Ethernet,T1/E1, and modems, analog cells such as PLLs,DACs, and ADCs, and system elements such asDMA, Caches, ICU, and UARTs.

Seagull has close cooperation with Siemens withongoing large projects. In July 1998, Seagullsigned an agreement with Siemens to start a newTriCore Processor project. In Dec. 1998, Sie-mens and Seagull signed an agreement to ex-tend their partnership on the development ofcores and modules for TriCore licensees andcustomers. Seagull has started to develop addi-tional IP for Siemens’s TriCore, a single-core32-bit microcontroller-DSP architecture opti-mized for real-time embedded systems.

Siemens is currently the only customer. Negoti-ations are in progress with several other poten-tial customers about projects in areas such asDVD. The company claims to have the resourc-es to handle multiple projects.

Seagull plans to market standard products in 1-2 years. The company has recently hired a soft-ware expert for real time algorithms and proto-cols for control and DSP. Seagull will expandthis capability in the future to provide completesolutions. Siemens is the foundry for the firstproduct. TSMC will be the foundry for futureproducts. Seagull plans to establish a rep salesforce worldwide.

Gigy Baror, President and founder (Gigyparticipated in the architecture definition ofNational’s 32532, Ross’ Danlite Sparc,AMD’s 29000, and Siemens’ Tricoreprocessors)

Zeev Bikowsky, CEO and acting VP of salesand marketing (formerly VP of coretechnology business unit at DSP Group)

Amnon Yeger, VP of R&D and founder (hasmanaged large design teams at Motorola,ACRI, EMC and ROSS)

1 Maskit St., P.O. Box 12580Herzelia Pituah, Israel, 46733Tel: 972-9-9516150, Fax: 972-9-9516153



TeraGen claims that its Thread Processor tech-nology will permit the rapid design of a broadrange of embedded processors, from simple 8-bit controllers to sophisticated 16-, 24- and 32-bit RISC processors and DSPs. The Thread Pro-cessor enables any device to be made fully com-patible with pre-existing instruction set archi-tectures permitting existing microcontrollersand DSPs to be replaced with significantly en-hanced versions, which can utilize pre-existingsoftware.

The technology is initially being targeted at fourareas: Enhanced performance versions of pop-ular microcontrollers and DSPs, integrated con-trollers which combine the functionality of mi-crocontrollers and DSPs, customized control-lers with enhanced instruction sets, application-specific features or custom peripherals, andapplication-specific devices such as protocol-translation chips.

The Thread Processor accommodates any ex-isting ISA, protecting software investments.Thread-based peripherals enable easy customi-zation of peripherals and co-processing func-tions. The technology is highly efficient and is90% ROM, RAM and Data Path, maximizingcircuit density. Teragen believes that it will leadto a 10:1 cost / performance improvement com-pared to current technologies.

TeraGen’s partners will begin production of thefirst commercial products built with the tech-nology in the first half of ’99. In Oct. ’98,ZiLOG started shipping the Z8E000, a $0.39(@500Ku) 8-bit OTP microcontroller. TheZ8E000, the newest member of the Z8Plus fam-ily, was designed in cooperation with TeraGenand uses some of TeraGen’s concepts. TeraGenwill initially license its technology to proces-sor companies. It will develop standard ICs inphase 2 of its strategy.

Donald Sollars, ChairmanGeorge Alexy, President and CEO (formerly

chief product marketing officer at Cirrus)Terry Gannon, VP of Engineering and

Operations2075 Landings Dr.Mountain View, CA 94043Tel: 650/404-8080Fax: 650/404-8090www.tera-gen.com ■

Current architectures are based on a single pro-cess model and are instruction set specific. Everincreasing performance demands lead to largedie sizes and poor cost / performance tradeoffs.Hardware fixed-function peripherals are “bolt-ed” around the core processor further increas-ing die size. New peripherals require new sili-con.

TeraGen has invented a new architecture calleda “Thread Processor” which is used to imple-ment all types of embedded processors, includ-ing microcontrollers, DSPs, and peripheral con-trollers. Thread Processing breaks down a com-plex task into multiple, independent processesthat can be performed concurrently. The threadprocessor can process any instruction set – in-cluding those in use by existing microcontrol-lers and DSPs. The architecture also allows asingle device to implement combinations of dis-similar instruction sets. TeraGen claims that itstechnology will lower cost, increase perfor-mance, and reduce application design cycles,while protecting existing software investments.The architecture also permits the functionalityof peripheral controllers to be incorporated intothe thread processor as internal software threads,rather than hardware, somewhat akin to Scenix’s“virtual peripherals” approach.

Incoming software instructions as well as on-chip-generated “soft peripheral” instructions arebroken down into parallel sequences of simplerinstructions called “threads.” Soft-peripheralsand a specific ISA are contained in ROM-basedthread processes. Incoming threads are sched-uled, by a Scheduler, for execution on one ormore “micro-thread engines” – highly opti-mized, small, on-chip processing elements.Thread processors may be built to processthreads in parallel, using one or more simulta-neous-acting, independent micro-thread en-gines.

TeraGen believes that the combination of an“open instruction set architecture” with “softperipherals” is ideally suited for the creation ofnext generation embedded processors. It enablesone chip to perform the tasks formerly allocat-ed to several and preserves the application ven-dor’s software investment. The architecture isalso claimed to be scaleable and extremely ef-ficient in its use of chip area.

several sites within large Telecom and Datacomequipment companies.

Sybarus is bringing to market it internal com-munications testbench for SONET/SDH/ATM/POS. The tool enhances the ASIC developmentprocess by reducing the verification effort whileincreasing the level of conformance testing.Manipulating and monitoring APS bytes, pay-load pointers, Packet streams, etc., can be a sim-ple as a few easy-to-use commands, due to theinternal protocol engines within the testbench.Automation of test cases simplifies circuit de-bugging and regression testing. The tool willbe available this summer.

Sybarus is developing an integrated SONET/SDH software package for Network InterfaceCards. It provides configuration management,fault management, state management, perfor-mance monitoring and maintenance manage-ment in a standards compliant and fully testedpackage.

The company is keeping very quite and will notdisclose any other details. Although the soft-ware products are nice, we’re guessing that thefocus is IC development. Stay tuned for addi-tional details.

16 Fitzgerald Road, Third FloorNepean, Ontario K2H 8R6 CanadaTel: 613/829-0040, Fax: 613/829-1186www.sybarus.com

TeraGenTeraGen was founded by Donald Sollars andTerry Gannon in Feb. 1997 to develop a newclass of microprocessor called a Thread Pro-cessing Unit for embedded applications. Ter-aGen raised $2 million in first round fundingfrom from InterWest Partners and Sequoia Cap-ital Partners and just closed a $6.6 million roundfrom the same V/Cs. The company has about17 employees.

The company is targeting the embedded pro-cessor market, estimated to be $12 billion in1998, growing to $25 billion in 2001. In theyear 2000, the average automobile is expectedto have about 35 processors and the averagehome may contain several hundred.




Alliance appointed David Eichler, formerly VPof Finance and Chief Accounting Officer forAdobe, as VP of Finance and Administrationand CFO. Alliance also named Brad Perkins,formerly VP and General Counsel for MissionWest Properties, as VP and General Counsel.N. Damodar Reddy, CEO and President.www.alsc.com

AMCC announced that Joel Holliday intendsto retire as CFO. A search is in process for hissuccessor. Holliday will remain with the com-pany for an unspecified time to ensure a smoothtransition. Dave Rickey, president and CEO.

Aspec Technology announced an executivemanagement restructuring strategy with Dr.Conrad Dell’Oca now serving exclusively asChairman. Douglas Klint, currently VP, Gen-eral Counsel, has been appointed acting Presi-dent and CEO. Michael O’Malley has beenappointed CFO and acting COO. O’Malley hasserved as a consultant to the Company sinceNovember. www.aspec.com

Dense-Pac named Ted Bruce, formerly seniormanager of North America Manufacturing forToshiba America, as president. Richard Dad-amo, who has served as interim president andCEO since August, will remain CEO and hasjoined the board. www.dense-pac.com

ESS announced that Matt Fong has joined thecompany as a Board member and will also beemployed as Advisor to the President. Fong wasmost recently California’s State Treasurer andthe Republican Nominee for the US Senate(CA). Fred Chan, President and CEO.www.esstech.com

Fujitsu Microelectronics named TakashiYabu as VP and GM of the Gresham Manufac-turing Division. He is in charge of the produc-tion of 64M SDRAMs. Yabu was most recentlyGM of the Technology Development Divisionof Fujitsu Ltd.’s LSI Group. Yabu replaced JunNakano, who has returned to Japan to work inthe Electronic Devices Group. Fujitsu will alsoadd a logic product line this year to increase thefactory’s efficiencies. Yuji “Gene” Ezura, pres-ident and CEO. www.fujitsumicro.com

Micro Linear announced that Arthur Stabe-now has retired as Chairman, CEO and Presi-dent for health reasons. David Gellatly has beenelected to serve as CEO and President. Since1982 Gellatly has been the principal of New

Technology Marketing, a high technology mar-keting consulting company.

MMC Networks appointed Fred Berkowitz,former director of engineering at Silicon Graph-ics, as VP of engineering. Alex Joffe, formerlyVP of engineering, has been promoted to exec-utive VP and CTO of MMC Networks. AmosWilnai, chairman and interim CEO.

Mosel Vitelic appointed Mark Grant , former-ly director of Intellectual Property and chief IPstrategist at National, as VP and General Coun-sel. www.moselvitelic.com

National named Jean-Louis Bories as execu-tive VP and GM of its Cyrix subsidiary. Borieshas been senior VP of the company’s Core Tech-nology Group since 1997. The company alsoannounced the formation of an InformationAppliance group to further its strategy of de-veloping system-on-a-chip solutions for the in-formation access market. The group will beheaded by Michael Polacek, who was namedVP, reporting to Bories. National also namedSenior VP Kevin McDonough as its secondNational Fellow. www.national.com

Peregrine promoted Milt Miller from Direc-tor of Sales to VP of Sales. Peregrine also namedDouglas Mathews, formerly VP of Endpointand Mobile Systems at ITRON, as VP of De-sign and Steve Whelan, formerly VP, Market-ing & Sales for Torrey Communications, as VPBusiness Development. All 3 report to StavoProdromou, president and CEO.

Scenix appointed Bulent Celebi, formerly VP/GM of the power mgmt., temperature sensor,amplifier and aerospace product lines at Ana-log Devices, as president and CEO. Celebi hasserved on Scenix’s board since the company’sformation and was involved in its product defi-nition and strategy. Steve Leung, president andCEO since co-founding the company, remainsas chairman. www.scenix.com

SMSC promoted George Houseweart to Se-nior VP and General Counsel, from Senior VPof Law and Intellectual Property. Paul Richman,Chairman and CEO. www.smsc.com

Synopsys appointed Andy Bryant, Sr. VP andCFO of Intel, and Dr. Sass Somekh, a memberof the Office of the President at Applied Mate-rials, to its Board. Dr. Aart de Geus, Chairmanand CEO. www.synopsys.com

SwitchCore, a developer of single-chip switch-es and wire-speed routers, appointed Nitish

Amin as director of business development. Pri-or to joining SwitchCore, Amin held key salespositions at several semiconductor suppliersincluding Digital, Intel and National. Per Ander-son, president of SwitchCore AB. Tel: 408/995-3850, Fax: 408/995-3858, www.switchcore.com

Three-Five Systems (NYSE: TFS) announcedthe resignation of Vincent Hren, President,CEO and Director. Three Five has retainedKorn/Ferry International to complete the searchfor a replacement. David Buchanan, Chairman,will assume the additional duties of Presidentand CEO on an interim basis. Three-Five hascreated the new position of CTO, which it ex-pects to fill during the first half of 1999. CharlesRahrig, VP of Engineering and Dan Schott,VP of R&D will report to this new senior exec-utive position. Three-Five is working on LCaD(Liquid Crystal active Drive) and LCiD (Liq-uid Crystal intense Display) technologies, aswell as LCoS (Liquid Crystal on Silicon) mi-crodisplays. Lawrence Kagemann, VP of Op-erations. www.threefive.com

Unitrode announced that Cosmo Trapani,Executive VP and CFO, will be leaving theCompany to pursue entrepreneurial interests ina move that has been planned for some time.Robert Richardson, Chairman and CEO.www.unitrode.com

Vantis promoted Andy Pease to VP of World-wide Sales and named his successor, MarkLunsford to the position of VP of North Amer-ica Sales. Pease now reports to Rich Forte, CEO.Vantis also appointed Vincent Tortolano, for-merly associate general counsel and director ofTechnology Law for AMD, as VP and generalcounsel. Rick Crowley, formerly National’s VPand Corporate Controller, has been appointedVP and CFO. www.vantis.com

Veridicom, a Lucent spin-off and provider ofsilicon-based fingerprint authentication solu-tions, appointed Michael D’Amour as CEO,replacing former CEO and founder Tom Row-ley, who remains at Veridicom and provides stra-tegic counsel on security projects. D’Amour wasformerly the president and founder of D’Amour& Associates, a consulting firm specializing inassisting high technology companies with busi-ness plan development, executive managementand funding. D’Amour also founded QuickturnDesign Systems. www.veridicom.com

Virtual Silicon Technology, a provider of semi-conductor libraries and physical design com-ponents, named Dr. Terry Thomas, formerly

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ing up through Layer 7. Alliance owned approx.28.4% of the total outstanding shares of Mav-erick. In Feb. ’98, Alliance entered into invest-ment and technology license agreements withMaverick to assist them in developing ICs formulti-layer network switches. Dr. Henry Nicho-las III, Broadcom’s President and CEO. G. Ven-katesh, Maverick’s President and CEO.

Cadence and Quickturn have amended theirmerger agreement to increase from $14 to $15the amount of Cadence stock that Quickturnstockholders will receive for each Quickturnshare. Jack Harding, president and CEO of Ca-dence, Keith Lobo, Quickturn president andCEO. www.cadence.com, www.quickturn.com

Cadence has agreed to acquire Design Accel-eration (DAI) of San Jose, a supplier of designautomation technology used in system-on-chipdesign, for about $27 million in cash and Ca-dence common stock. The 40 DAI employeeswill join the Cadence organization. DAI offersdesign analysis products that enhance designerproductivity through a flexible, intuitive analy-sis environment for design debug. DAI’s prod-uct portfolio includes DAI Signalscan for wave-form viewing, DAI Coverscan for code cover-age analysis, and DAI Comparescan for simu-lation comparisons and rules-based analysis.DAI was founded in 1993. More than 400 cor-porations including Broadcom, Compaq, Cyrix,Hitachi, HP, IBM, Intel, Motorola, National,Nortel, Silicon Graphics, Sony, Sun, and TI havepurchased DAI products. Glenn Abood, VP fordesign and verification products at Cadence.Dean Drako, president and CEO of DAI.www.designacc.com, www.cadence.com

Cypress and IC WORKS signed a definitiveagreement for ICW to merge with Cypress.ICW, a provider of system timing generationICs, had average quarterly revenues of about$17.6 million and net income of about $2.7million during the last three quarters of fiscal’99. The agreement provides for Cypress to is-sue 13.7 million shares in exchange for all out-standing stock and options of ICW. T.J. Rodg-ers, Cypress president and CEO, Ilbok Lee, ICWORKS president and CEO.www.cypress.com. www.icworks.com

C-Cube has acquired communication technol-ogy, patents, and personnel from TV/Com In-ternational, part of the Mindport Group , lo-cated in San Diego. The acquisition providesC-Cube with strategic communication technol-ogies for interactive cable and satellite digitalset-top boxes. The new products and the exist-

ing, with both horizontal and vertical interpo-lation. Chandra Reddy, president and CEO.www.sageinc.com

XEMICS has received 7.8M Swiss francs(about US$5.7M) from five new shareholderswho now hold 44% of the total shares. The oth-er 56% remaining with CSEM in Switzerland.XEMICS specializes in ultra low-power ICs andwas established 15 months ago as a spin-offfrom CSEM. A second round of financing isanticipated at the end of ’99. In 1998, its firstyear of operation, the company had revenues of19M Swiss francs (approx. US$14M). ThomasHinderling, Chairman, Roland Heer, CEO. ■

Mergers and AcquisitionsAmkor (NASDAQ:AMKR) has signed anagreement with Anam Semiconductor to ac-quire Anam’s K4 semiconductor packaging andtest facility located in Kwangju, Korea for upto $600 million in cash, plus the assumption ofup to $7 million in liabilities. K4 is a state-of-the-art semiconductor packaging and test facil-ity with over one million square feet of manu-facturing and support space. Currently, it is pro-ducing advanced semiconductor packages in-cluding PBGA, MicroBGA, SuperBGA andTSOP. www.amkor.com

Atmel has signed a non-binding memorandumof understanding to acquire the Smart Informa-tion Transfer (SIT) business of Motorola SPS.The proposed transaction does not affect Mo-torola’s other smart card-related businesses,such as its Worldwide Smartcard Solutions Di-vision (WSSD). Atmel claims that the acquisi-tion will position it as the world’s 3rd largestsmart card IC supplier. George Perlegos, At-mel’s president and CEO. Billy Edwards, cor-porate VP and director, Strategic Managementand Planning, Motorola SPS.

Broadcom has signed a definitive agreementto acquire Maverick Networks (see 7/98 is-sue), a San Jose, Calif.-based company devel-oping multi-layer switching ICs. Maverick’stechnology delivers Layer 3 Fast and GigabitEthernet switching and packet classificationfeatures to the workgroup switch market. Broad-com will issue 864,200 shares of its Class BCommon Stock in exchange for all shares ofMaverick Stock, about $127 million based on acurrent price of $147 for Broadcom. Maverick’stechnology is claimed to deliver line-speed,Layer 2-3 switching in hardware with a pro-grammable real-time packet processor operat-

managing director of strategic alliances anddesign systems for Nortel Semiconductors, asVP of strategic alliances. He also serves on theboard of directors of the Virtual Socket Inter-face Alliance (VSIA). Taylor Scanlon, presidentand CEO. www.virtual-silicon.com

ZiLOG appointed Michael Burger, formerlyVP of WW marketing and sales at QuickLogic,as Senior VP of Worldwide Sales. ZiLOG alsoappointed Dr. Gianpaolo Spadini, formerly VPof technology development at Microchip, as VPof technology development. Curtis Crawford,President and CEO. www.zilog.com ■

IPOs & Equity DealsAptix has received $11.5 million in a privateplacement led by Partech International and IN-VESCO Private Capital. All previous investorsalso participated in the round. Aptix provides asolution for prototyping complete systems andsystem-on-chip designs. The System Exploreris a reprogrammable system for integration ofsoftware with custom logic, off-the-shelf com-ponents and hard or soft IP. Aptix has experi-enced an annual average growth rate of over50% and has shipped over 400 System Explor-er products. In its most recent quarter, Aptixreceived orders for new systems from Ericsson,Rockwell Collins, TRW, iTEX, Fujitsu, iReady,Nokia and Siemens Wireless, amongst others.Amr Mohsen, president and CEO. Tel: 408/428-6200, Fax: 408/944-0646, www.aptix.com

NVIDIA (Nasdaq: NVDA) announced the IPOof 3.5 million shares of common stock at $12per share. Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, H&Qand Prudential managed the offering. The com-pany originally filed on March 6, 1998.www.nvidia.com

Sage has raised more than $6 million to date.Sage’s largest investor in ’98, the InveStar Ven-ture Fund has provided $3 million in funding.Sage announced sales increases of 400% overfiscal ’98 compared to ’97. Demand from cus-tomers such as Taiwan-based monitor manufac-turer LiteOn Technologies has fueled Sage’sgrowth as new LCD monitors based on Sagetechnology have gone into production. TheCheetah II ASIC automatically adjusts the vid-eo image to match the full size of the screen,the panel’s resolution and refresh rate, the spec-trum of available colors, and high quality scal-

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tors and software building blocks provide a re-liable and easy-to-use means for storage areanetworks (SANs) to easily control configura-tion, monitor status and isolate faults in com-plex storage systems. The acquisition of Sera-no strengthens Vitesse’s role in fibre channelSAN solutions and provides one-stop shoppingfor its high-end JBOD customers. Serano has13 employees and is located in ColoradoSprings, Colo. Michael Millhollan, GM of thedata communications division. Joe Edens, presi-dent and CEO of Serano. www.vitesse.com

Xilinx has completed the purchase of a numberof software assets that it was negotiating to buy.The software includes PLSynthesizer, a synthe-sis tool, ABEL, the most widely used high-lev-el description language for PLDs, and DesignNavigator, a team-based, web-enabled softwareenvironment that unites design entry, synthe-sis, place ’n route and simulation functions. ■

Business & FinancialsConexant Systems (Nasdaq: CNXT) has start-ed operations as the largest independent com-pany focused exclusively on semiconductors forcommunications. The company’s stock has be-gun regular trading on the NASDAQ using thesymbol CNXT. Rockwell shareholders of recordat the close of business on Dec. 11, 1998 re-ceived one share of Conexant for every twoshares of Rockwell stock. The American StockExchange will also begin trading options ofConexant (QXN). Conexant was created fromRockwell’s spin-off of its $1.2 billion Semicon-ductor business to Rockwell shareowners.

The new company is headed by Dwight Deck-er, who was previously president of RockwellSemiconductor Systems and is now chairmanand CEO of Conexant. Conexant’s managementteam includes: Moiz Beguwala, senior VP/GMfor the Wireless Communications Division, F.Matthew Rhodes, senior VP/GM of the Per-sonal Computing Division, AnthonyD’Augustine, senior VP/GM for the DigitalInfotainment Division, Kevin Strong, seniorVP/GM of the Personal Imaging Division, andRaouf Halim, senior VP/GM for the NetworkAccess Division. Conexant begins operationswith nearly 6,300 employees, including approx.2,100 located at its Newport Beach headquar-ters. www.conexant.com

Echelon (Nasdaq: ELON) has been notified byMotorola that Motorola will not supply theNeuron Chip family of processors after Janu-

PC-TEL purchased the Technology AllianceGroup (TAG ) from General DataComm(GDC) of Middlebury, Conn., for an undisclosedamount. PC-TEL will operate the group as itsnew Communications Systems Division, dedi-cated to developing and licensing modem, re-mote access and other telecom IP. The new di-vision will be headed by Frank Reo, VP ofbusiness development and licensing at PC-TEL.All 20 employees of TAG will join the Com-munications Systems Division and become PC-TEL employees. PC-TEL acquired 34 patentsand applications in the telecom area and gainedadditional presence on the ITU standards-set-ting committee. The patent portfolio includeseight V.34 and nine V.90 modem patents. Theportfolio acquired from TAG, in combinationwith PC-TEL’s 12 patents and applications inhost signal processing, gives PC-TEL the abil-ity to license key IP, further strengthening thecompany’s market position and expanding itsbusiness model by creating an additional profitcenter. The VisionQuest 2000 analyst grouppredicts that sales of HSP modems will grow150% in ’99 from ’98. TAG was created as adivision of GDC in 1998 to take advantage ofGDC’s IP. Peter Chen, president and CEO.www.pctel.com

STMicroelectronics has completed its acqui-sition of the Peripheral Technology Solutions(PTS) group from Adaptec. The Company an-nounced the acquisition on Nov. 25, 1998. AldoRomano, Corporate VP, Telecom Peripheral andAutomotive Groups. www.st.com

TI has entered into an agreement to acquireButterfly VLSI (see 1/99 profile), a developerof RF wireless technology targeting communi-cations in a range of up to 100 meters. Butter-fly, with sites in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Santa Clara,California, develops low cost chipsets that en-able RF wireless communications in the 900MHz and 2.4 GHz frequency bands. The com-pany employs about 60 people, primarily inengineering, who will become part of TI andoperate under the TI name. The purchase pricewas about $50 million. Gilles Delfassy, TI VPand manager of the Wireless Communicationsbusiness unit. Gideon Barak, Butterfly’s CEO.www.butterfly.com

Vitesse has agreed to acquire Serano Systemsfor common stock. Serano is a provider of en-closure- and platform-management solutions forfibre channel, and SCSI server and storage sub-systems using industry-standard protocols (e.g.SES, SAF-TE and IPMI). Serano’s semiconduc-

ing products will enable C-Cube to deliver acomplete digital set-top solution. Umesh Pad-val, president, C-Cube Semi Division. www.c-cube.com, www.mindport.com

Davicom has acquired Ethernet switch technol-ogy from NETiO Technologies. NETiO hasbuilt a core technology for the implementationof Ethernet and Fast Ethernet switching semi-conductors. NETiO was founded in 1997 todevelop 10/100 Mbps and Gigabit EthernetLAN switching products. Ting Herh, Chairmanand CEO of Davicom. David Lin, President andCEO of NETiO. www.davicom8.com

The Dii Group announced that Orbit , its whol-ly owned subsidiary, has signed a definitiveagreement to sell its wafer fab to Supertex, aSunnyvale, Calif., mixed-signal semiconductormanufacturer. As part of the transaction, Super-tex has guaranteed Orbit a multi-year supply ofwafers that utilize the specialized processes runin the facility. Dii expects that the sale will re-sult in about a $13-$14 million after-tax, non-recurring, noncash charge in the fourth quarterand anticipates the deal will be cash positive –contributing about $5 million. Ronald Budacz,chairman and CEO of the Dii Group, RonaldSnyder, President of Orbit, Dr. Henry Pao, Pres-ident and CEO of Supertex. www.diigroup.com

Genesis Microchip (Nasdaq: GNSSF) hassigned a definitive agreement to merge withprivately held Paradise Electronics of San Jose,CA, strengthening its position as the leadingsupplier of ICs for flat panel displays. Underthe terms of the merger, 4.5 million shares ofGenesis common stock will be exchanged forall outstanding shares and options of Paradise.Alexander Lushtak and another Paradise boardmember will join the Genesis board. Paradisepresident Jeff Diamond will serve as Genesis’sexecutive VP. Founded in 1996, Paradise devel-ops highly integrated mixed-mode ICs for theflat panel monitor market. Single-chip flat-panelsolutions are the way to go, and the Paradiseacquisition provides Genesis with a quick jump-start into the market. Paul Russo, Genesis chair-man and CEO, Stephen Solari, Genesis presi-dent and COO, Alexander Lushtak, chairmanof Paradise. www.genesis-microchip.com

ISD, which will retain its name and logo, hasbecome part of Winbond’s San Jose-based sub-sidiary, Winbond Electronics of America(WECA). David Angel plans to step down asCEO in 1999. Y.C. Chiao, CEO of Winbond.www.winbond.com.tw, www.isd.com



of revenues. Ron Jankov, senior VP and GM ofNeoMagic’s Multimedia Products Division.www.neomagic.com ■

Licensing & PartnershipsMOSAID has concluded a worldwide, non-exclusive patent licensing agreement with Fujit-su Ltd. Terms were not disclosed. MOSAIDcurrently has over 50 issued patents and morethan 100 pending, many relating to DRAMs.This represents MOSAID’s first such generalpatent licensing arrangement. MOSAID grant-ed Fujitsu ‘most-favored-licensee’ status as partof the agreement, due to the long-term businessrelationship between the companies and Fujit-su’s status as the first license. During the nego-tiations MOSAID was represented by The Con-sortium for Technology Licensing, Ltd., ofNissequogue, N.Y. MOSAID has engaged TheConsortium for Technology Licensing to act asthe Company’s agent in other discussions thatare currently underway with several large semi-conductor memory suppliers which MOSAIDbelieves are using its patented technology.George Cwynar, President and CEO, DanMathers, Senior VP of MOSAID, and GM ofits Semiconductor Division. www.mosaid.com

Photobit and Tower are cooperating on CMOSimage sensor technology. The firms have beenworking together for 2 years on custom and off-the-shelf CMOS image sensors. Disclosure ofthe Tower-Photobit cooperation follows Photo-bit’s announcement of a broad patent coveringits camera-on-a-chip technology and the launchof two new CMOS imagers. Nick Doudou-mopoulos, president of Photobit, Reuven Mar-ko, Tower’s VP of marketing and sales.www.photobit.com

RF Micro Devices has expanded its relation-ship with IBM to add access to IBM’s SiliconGermanium (SiGe) foundry services. The Com-pany has accelerated its efforts to design RFICsbased on IBM’s SiGe process and plans to useSiGe for a broad range of custom and standardRFICs. William Pratt, CTO, Jerry Neal, VP ofsales and marketing. www.rfmd.com

Sound Vision announced an agreement withIBM to work on production-ready digital cam-era designs for OEMs. The agreement is focusedon combining Sound Vision’s Clarity 2.0 digi-tal imaging ASIC and software with IBM im-age sensor chip technology. The Clarity 2.0ASIC integrates support for LCDs, Kopin’s Cy-berDisplay, Compact Flash, SmartMedia, USB,and RS232, and supports both CCD and CMOS

currently the president of Peregrine and is try-ing to oust ICS’ board in a proxy battle. TheCompany has also entered into a definitiveagreement to sell IP and engineering hardwareand software related to its datacom business to3Com for about $16 million in cash. ICS willhave certain licensing and technical supportrights, and will continue to sell and support itsexisting and prospective fast Ethernet transceiv-er product family to current and new custom-ers. Rudolf Gassner, Chairman. www.icst.com

ISSI has completed the planned additional saleof a portion of its Taiwan subsidiary to a groupof private investors. The company sold an addi-tional 6.5% of its holdings for approx. $4.5million, after Taiwan withholding taxes. In ad-dition, certain shares were sold to employeesof ISSI-Taiwan. As a result of these transac-tions, ISSI’s ownership in the Taiwan companydropped to approx. 42%. ISSI’s long-term goalis to have ISSI-Taiwan go public on the Taiwanstock exchange. ISSI originally established theTaiwan subsidiary in 1990 and assumed 100%ownership in 1993. ISSI-Taiwan coordinatesmanufacturing logistics for ISSI, performs fi-nal test on ISSI memory devices, and coverssales and marketing in Asia. Dropping below50% ownership positions ISSI-Taiwan for apossible public offering in Taiwan in 2000. InTaiwan, a company cannot go public if the totalforeign ownership exceeds 50% in the one-yearperiod prior to a public offering. Jimmy Lee,president and CEO. www.issiusa.com

NeoMagic announced that during Nov. ’98, itshipped the ten millionth unit of single-chipembedded DRAM multimedia accelerators.NeoMagic has also shipped the one-millionthunit of its newest product, the MagicMedia256AV multimedia accelerator. Announced inJune ’98, it is a 256-bit multimedia acceleratorwith audio, graphics, video and DVD playbackcapabilities. It integrates a 256-bit graphics ac-celerator and an AC97-compliant PCI/AGP au-dio codec with sample-rate conversion and adigital mixer. The 21-million-transistor chip hasDVD-playback acceleration with motion com-pensation and includes 2.5MB of built-inSGRAM. It supports 1024x768 resolution withtrue color and consumes less than 1 watt. Todate the MagicMedia256AV has been incorpo-rated into more than 15 different notebook PCsfrom Compaq, Dell, Gateway, HP, IBM, Sony,and Toshiba amongst others. For Q3 ’98, Neo-Magic shipped 48% of the total portable graph-ics market in terms of units, and achieved 57%of the total portable graphics market in terms

ary 31, 2001. Motorola is a stockholder of Ech-elon and will continue to seek synergistic usesof LonWorks networks and acceptance of theLonWorks system on conventional applicationspecific embedded processors. Toshiba also pro-duces Echelon’s Neuron chips. Bertrand Cam-bou, senior VP, Motorola Networking and Com-puting Systems Group. Ken Oshman, presidentand CEO of Echelon. www.echelon.com

IBM was awarded the most U.S. patents in1998, for the 6th consecutive year, shattering theprevious record by more than 40%. The com-pany received 2,658 U.S. patents in ’98, 934more patents than in ’97, and eclipsing the nextclosest company by 38%. IBM is the first com-pany to receive more than 2,000 U.S. patents ina single year. IBM’s 1998 U.S. patent portfolioincludes more than 700 software-related pat-ents and over 375 related to network comput-ing. Several dozen patents are directly relatedto silicon germanium and silicon-on-insulatorchip technology. The number of U.S. patentsawarded to IBM in the five previous years were1085 in ’93, 1298 in ’94, 1383 in ’95, 1867 in’96 and 1724 in ’97. The company’s IP portfo-lio generates more than $1 billion annually.

Other companies in the top ten for ’98 wereCanon with 1925, NEC with 1628, Motorolawith 1406, Sony with 1315, Samsung with 1305,Fujitsu with 1190, Toshiba with 1171, EastmanKodak with 1125, and Hitachi with 1094. IBM’sIP Network Site at www.ibm.com/patents of-fers free access on information for all U.S. pat-ents granted since 1971. Full images of 2.1 mil-lion U.S. patents issued since 1974 are avail-able, as well. In October 1998, the site addedEuropean Patents and published InternationalPatent applications. Nicholas Donofrio, seniorVP, technology and manufacturing.

ICS has entered into a definitive agreementunder which an investor group comprised of itssenior management together with affiliates ofBain Capital and Bear, Stearns & Co. will ac-quire all of the outstanding shares of ICS at acash price of $21.25 per share, approx. $261million based on 12.3 million outstandingshares. The transaction was unanimously ap-proved by ICS’ Board. Dr. Stav Prodromou,former president and CEO of ICS, opposes thebuyout. He believes that the offer is far belowthe current market valuation for similar fablessmixed-signal chip companies. Prodromou is

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GM of the Home Entertainment Business atZiLOG. Paul Goodman-Simpson, CEO ofWorld CallNET. www.mailtv.com,ww.zilog.com ■

Market ResearchAccording to Consumer Electronics Manu-facturers Association (CEMA) President GaryShapiro, Digital Television (DTV) momentumis building, as evidenced by sales of 13,176 unitsjust weeks after the launch of digital broadcastson November 1. At least two thirds of all DTVsets sold in 1999 are predicted to be HDTV sets.www.CESweb.org

According to Dataquest 7 of the top 11 ven-dors saw their worldwide revenue drop by atleast 14% in 1998. Intel was one of the few ven-dors to post positive revenue in 1998, with rev-enue surpassing $22.6 billion. The differentialbetween Intel and No. 2 vendor NEC increasedwith Intel’s semiconductor revenue being 2.7times that of its nearest rival. Philips, STMi-croelectronics, and Siemens all increased theirranking, leading to three European vendors intop 10 for the first time. www.dataquest.com

Gemplus has been ranked as the leading world-wide vendor of chip cards on a unit basis in1997. According to Dataquest chip cards are thehighest-volume electronics end product in theworld and smart cards constitute the largest andfastest growing segment of this market.

will become available to the viewer. NUONDVD offers high quality DVD functionality,including a full color user interface, smoothshuttle, special effect trick modes, and program-mability for new features. Richard Miller, CEO,Donald Thomas, Jr., Director of Peripheral Li-censing and Promotion. www.vmlabs.com

Winbond has taken a license for the Rambushigh-bandwidth memory-interface and will in-corporate the interface into forthcoming 144M/128M and beyond DRAMs. Sample in Q3, prod.in Q4. Dr. Kuang-Yi Chiu, Executive VP, AllenRoberts, VP/GM of Rambus’ Memory Tech.Div. www.winbond.com.tw, www.rambus.com

ZiLOG and World CallNET , a developer ofconsumer Internet software, announced thelaunch of email-enabled TVs, which may bepriced on a par with standard TVs. WCN’s Ul-tra Thin Client Protocol (UTCP) architectureand software technology has been integratedwith ZiLOG’s TV controller and embeddedmodem technologies to enable the rapid devel-opment of M@ilTV, a TV system that allowsconsumers to conduct personal communicationsthrough their TVs without the cost of a set-topboxes. WCN’s server-based software architec-ture makes it possible to offer this capabilitydirectly inside the TV at no significant premi-um in terms of the overall cost of the TV set.

The M@ilTV module (designed by WCN andproduced by ZiLOG) is designed to be com-pletely self-contained & pre-certified and willbe located completelyinside the TV box.Set-up by the consum-er will be as easy asconnecting theM@ilTV set to aphone socket. ZiLOGand World CallNEThave already started aMailTV implementa-tion program withVestel Corp. of Tur-key. Vestel, an OEMTV manufacturer, hassubstantial marketshares in key Europe-an countries such asGermany, Englandand France. Manufac-turing arrangementsfor the new technolo-gy within the U.S arealso under way. AydinKoc, Senior VP and

image sensors. Bob Caspe, founder and Chair-man, Ken Torino, dir. of IBM MicroelectronicsSCM Services. www.soundvisioninc.com

SST and Acer have signed a 5-year technologylicensing and foundry agreement. SST will li-cense its patented SuperFlash technology toACER and will receive royalty revenue fromACER for its use of SuperFlash in embeddedapplications. ACER will manufacture advancedtechnology products designed by and for SST.SST expects first production shipments fromACER’s foundries to take place in the year 2000.SST has previously announced licensing rela-tionships with IBM, Samsung, Sanyo, Seiko-Epson and TSMC. Stan Shih, chairman andCEO of Acer, Bing Yeh, president and CEO ofSST, Sohrab Kianian, dir. of technology licens-ing and bus. development at SST. www.ssti.com

VM Labs, creators of the NUON interactivemultimedia standard, announced the implemen-tation of new strategic peripherals partnershipsbased on its new peripherals licensing program.The partners will introduce an assortment ofcontrollers and accessories for NUON-en-hanced DVD players and set-top boxes in 1999.These products will allow users to enjoy highperformance videogames, educational and ref-erence applications, in addition to standardmovie and audio content playable on currentsystems. Peripheral partners include SC&T In-ternational, NYKO Technologies, Imagin.Net,and the Laral Group.

IDC expects DVD player shipments to reachalmost 9 million units in the US in 2002. Inaddition to a powerful set of advanced DVDfeatures, NUON DVD players provide videog-ames, Internet surfing, and a broad set of fami-ly resource applications, with high-quality 3-Dgraphics. VM Labs has garnered strong supportfrom the DVD industry based on the belief thatNUON’s DVD capabilities will enable contentdiversity, educational and entertainment valueand Internet connectivity through an all-in-oneDVD entertainment center, and therefore in-crease the appeal of DVD.

The NUON processor replaces the MPEG de-coder chip currently found in DVD Players. Afull range of NUON peripherals will include avariety of interactive controller devices, as wellas an Internet kit to add functions such as Webbrowsing and e-mail. A NUON enhanced DVDmovie disc is Open DVD compatible and willplay on any Open DVD player. However, whenplayed on a NUON DVD player all the addi-tional interactive and graphic enhanced features

Top 20 WW Semiconductor Vendors by Revenue Estimates(US$ Millions)

1997 1998 1997 1998 ’97-’98Rank Rank Company Revenue Revenue Growth (%)1 1 Intel 21,746 22,675 4.32 2 NEC 10,222 8,271 -19.13 3 Motorola 8,067 6,918 -14.25 4 Toshiba 7,253 6,055 -16.54 5 Texas Instruments 7,352 6,000 -18.47 6 Samsung 5,856 4,752 -18.96 7 Hitachi 6,298 4,649 -26.29 8 Philips 4,440 4,502 1.410 9 STMicro 4,019 4,300 7.012 10 Siemens 3,441 3,866 12.48 10 Fujitsu 4,622 3,866 -16.411 12 Mitsubishi 3,925 3,733 -4.913 13 IBM 3,391 3,245 -4.315 14 Lucent 2,762 3,100 12.214 15 Matsushita 2,847 2,645 -7.118 16 AMD 2,341 2,36 1.016 17 National 2,759 2,226 -19.317 18 SANYO 2,471 2,225 -10.020 19 Rohm 2,053 1,967 -4.221 20 Sony 1,974 1,829 -7.3Source: Dataquest



average shipments in Dec. ’98 were $924 mil-lion, 1% below the Nov. ’98 level, and 41%below the Dec. ’97 level. Three-month averagebookings increased in Dec. ’98 to $872 million,12% above the Nov. ’98 level, and 44% belowthe Dec. ’97 level. www.semi.org.

The SIA reported that worldwide semiconduc-tor sales jumped to $11.38 billion in Novem-ber, the highest mark since December 1997. Arally in the Japanese and Asia-Pacific marketsled total sales to a 5% increase from October.Sales in Japan and the Asia-Pacific climbed 7%and 4.8%, respectively. Chip sales in Europealso soared in November, climbing 7.3% fromOctober. The October-November upswing of5% is the biggest October-November jump since1990. www.semichips.org ■

Emerging ApplicationsCompaq launched a new line of Presario Inter-net PCs, which includes desktop models thatenable consumers to digitally network theirhomes using existing phonelines. Compaq’shome phoneline networking solution is basedon the industry standard set by the Home Phone-line Networking Alliance (HomePNA). Homephoneline networking uses existing in-homephone wiring to connect computers and oper-ates concurrently with any normal telephoneservice, including high-speed DSL Internet con-nections.

Compaq is also including WinGate Home 3.0Internet Sharing Software from Deerfield.com.WinGate allows up to three PCs in the home toshare a single Internet connection and is com-patible with all types of Internet access (ana-log, cable, DSL and satellite). The high-end Pre-sario 5670 comes with a home phoneline net-

In-Stat reported that cable modem unit ship-ments will grow by 60% in 1999. North Amer-ica drives the cable modem market and willaccount for more than 50% of cable modem unitshipments through 2003. In 2000, unit shipmentgrowth will increase to 120% as the DOCSISstandard cable modems become widely avail-able at retail in North America. However In-Stat believes that the quick move from DOC-SIS 1.0 to DOCSIS 1.1 will cause consumerconfusion in North America in ’99. Cable mo-dem vendors are expected to have DOCSIS 1.1modems certified and available on retail shelvesin late ’99. Cable modem revenues will hit $800million in 2003 while the semiconductor dollaropportunity reaches $250 million in 2003.www.cahnersinstat.com

Microdesign Resources reported that world-wide shipments of high-end (32-bit and 64-bit)embedded microprocessors grew 37% from theprevious year, to almost 250 million units. Thevolume leader was Motorola’s 68K familywhich includes ColdFire shipments. ARMachieved 5x growth after years of signing lic-ensees. We assume that much of this growth isin the digital cellular market and expect theirvolumes to continue to climb. Hitachi’s SuperHfamily grew modestly, impacted by Sega’s de-cision to pull its Saturn console (which uses 3SuperH processors) from North Americanshelves. Sega’s new Dreamcast console onlyuses one SuperH processor and has not beenintroduced yet. Intel and AMD each took a thirdof the embedded x86 market, leaving the lastthird for National and ST, amongst others.

A survey of nearly 300 networking profession-als, recently conducted by Sage Research, findsthat most are looking to upgrade their older cat-egory 3, category 5 and STP cabling to enhancedcategory 5, category 6 and fiber optic cabling.57% will upgrade at least part of their networkswithin 2 years. Sage projects that fiber, enhancedcategory 5 and category 6 cabling will replacecategory 5 cabling as the most common cabletypes within the next two years. As installationand equipment costs continue to fall, fiber op-tic cabling is becoming the cabling of choice.www.sageresearch.com

According to SEMI , the North American semi-conductor equipmentindustry posted abook-to-bill ratio of0.94 for December1998. Three-month

Dataquest forecasts a $6.8 billion worldwidemarket for chip card by 2002 with a 38% growthrate. Dataquest projects that smart card reve-nue worldwide will represent 70% of the chipcard market by 2002, up from 56% in 1997.Dataquest also forecasts that Japan and the U.S.will be the fastest-growing regions for chip cardsales from ’97 to 2002, with sales increasingfrom $14 million in ’97 to $390 million in 2002for Japan, and from $19.5 million to $532 mil-lion for U.S.

Europe had 77% of worldwide chip card reve-nues in ’97. The European market will remainthe largest region with 48% of global sales by2002. The report forecasts that, by 2002, theAsia Pacific will account for 30% of worldwidesales, the Americas (excluding the U.S.) willaccount for 9% of sales, and the U.S. will ac-count for 8% of sales. The Japanese market isexpected to account for 6% of sales by 2002.

Dataquest splits chip cards into 2 categories:smart cards that include embedded microcon-trollers, and memory cards that include embed-ded memory and possibly other logic functions.According to Dataquest, chip cards are evolv-ing from fixed-function microcontrollers intoprogrammable systems, capable of download-ing, managing, and running multiple applica-tions. In the future, they will perform essentialidentification and security functions in comput-ing and Internet access. www.gemplus.com

According to IDC , home networking productswill be among the hottest technology area in1999. The growth in home offices is seen as akey factor behind vendors’ interest in home net-working solutions. There are 37 million homeoffice households in the U.S., of which 8 mil-lion have more than two PCs. Currently, thereare about 910,000 home office households withLANs – representing 71% of the 1.3 milliontotal U.S. households with LANs. By 2002, thenumber of home office households with localnetworks is expected to increase to more than 8million. www.idc.com

Market Research(Continued from page 15)

U.S. Home Office PC Forecast, 1998 - 2002 (millions)

1998 1999 2000 2001 2002Home office 37.3 40.2 43.2 46.5 49.6Home office w/PC 26.3 29.3 32.4 36.0 39.2Home office w/multiple PCs 7.8 8.5 9.7 10.7 12.1Source: IDC

Total 1998 unit volumes and growth rates

Processor Units (millions) CAGR (%)68K 83 5MIPS 50 4ARM 48 400SuperH 26 10x86 12 36i960 9 0ST20 7 200PowerPC 5 4029K 2 -25MCore 1 —SPARC <1 —TOTAL 244 37Source: MicroDesign Resources, 1999



work adapter, a 1.5 Mb Max Digital Modem, a10 Mbps Ethernet port, and an IEEE-1394 port.The Presario 5600i is available is several con-figurations, some of which include Ethernet, ahome phoneline network adapter and a 1.5 MbMax Digital Modem (G.Lite/V.90). RodSchrock, Senior VP and Group GM, ConsumerProducts Group. Mike Rubin, Director and GM,Presario Desktop Division. www.compaq.com

The Double Data Rate Synchronous DRAM(DDR SDRAM) memory chip standard hasreceived support from 29 manufacturers of en-abling technologies in addition to 12 leadingDRAM suppliers. These additional 29 compa-nies include makers of chipsets, connectors,clock drivers, modules, and buffers. DDRSDRAM is a new, open memory chip standarddeveloped and approved by JEDEC.

Support components are available from Hita-chi, Hyundai, IDT, Micro Linear, Motorola,Pericom, Philips, Sanyo, and T.I. The parts gen-erate differential clocks, provide 2.5V SSTL_2compatible voltage sources, and offer buffer-ing for registered modules. The major modulemakers all have plans to support DDR-basedmodules. The new high-speed DDR 184-pinmodule DIMM is supported by Amp and Molex.Via and Opti are developing a DDR chipsetsfor the PC market. Alpha Processor, Inc. is de-veloping a DDR based chipset to support theirprocessors, and VLSI is developing chipsets forconsumer applications. Semiconductor memo-ry companies supporting DDR SDRAM includeFujitsu, Hitachi, Hyundai, IBM, LG, Micron,Mitsubishi, NEC, Samsung, Siemens, Toshiba,and Vanguard. Most are already sampling DDRand all will ship in volume in 1999.

Philips and British Airways are conducting a2-month field trial of Philip’s I-CODE smartlabel RFID technology. British Airways will usethis technology to help identify 75,000 suitcas-es travelling with passengers from Munich,Germany and Manchester, UK to London’sHeathrow airport. The trial, which began lastmonth, represents the first large-scale trial toidentify airline luggage, using disposable “smartlabels” to speed up luggage handling, reducemissing baggage and increase security.

Each “smart bag tag” contains an IC, that canbe programmed with detailed information suchas the date and time the luggage is checked in,the weight, as well as a unique identificationnumber and the passenger’s destination. The I-CODE IC can be placed between two layers ofpaper, inside the baggage tag currently used by

ing a high-performance 100-MHz frontside busand AGP graphics. Mobile Super7 chipset sup-port is available from ALi and VIA. Toshiba’sSatellite 2520 uses the 300-MHz Mobile AMD-K6-2 processor. The Mobile AMD-K6-2 oper-ates at a core voltage of 1.8V and dissipatesless than 8W running typical applications.AMD-K6-2 processors integrate 9.3-million-transistors and are manufactured on a 0.25u, 5-layer-metal process technology. The 333-, 300-and 266-MHz Mobile AMD-K6-2 processorsare $299, $187 and $106 respectively at 1Ku.S. Atiq Raza, AMD co-COO and CTO.www.amd.com

ATI announced the RAGE XL and RAGE XCgeneral purpose graphic accelerator chips. Thenew .25u graphics chips provide high-quality,full AGP 2X acceleration and 2D, 3D and vid-eo acceleration for corporate computing sys-tems. The RAGE XL integrates a TransmissionMinimized Differential Signaling (TMDS)transmitter to support digital flat panels usingthe P&D, DFP or DDMG standards. TMDSprovides a direct digital link from the computerto the flat panel, with no need for D/A and A/Dconversion. RAGE XL supports TFT panelsresolutions up to 1280x1024.

The RAGE XL and RAGE XC are softwarecompatible with all RAGE PRO designs, andpin compatible with the RAGE 128. For 3Dacceleration, the RAGE XL and RAGE XC in-tegrate a 1.2 million triangles/second set upengine. AGP support, including 2X timing,SideBand Addressing and AGP texturing, fur-ther reduce CPU and bus bandwidth require-ments. The chips have a 4KB on-chip texturecache and support for Gouraud shading, single-pass bi-filtering, and Direct 3D texture light-ing, among other 3D features. Motion videoacceleration features include hardware DVDdecode through Motion Compensation) andIDCT (Inverse Digital Cosign Transformation)functions which provide full frame rate play-back of DVD content. Image quality is enhancedthrough smooth video scaling and 4-tap hori-zontal and 2-tap vertical filtered scaling tech-niques. Samples now, production in March.Philip Eisler, director of component marketing.www.atitech.com

Broadcom has commenced high-volume ship-ments of a custom 10/100 BASE-TX Control-ler IC for 3Com’s Fast EtherLink XL 10/100PCI NIC. The IC is the first in a family of sin-gle-chip controller solutions being developedby the two companies, based on the Broadcom

airlines. The IC is attached to an antenna, whichalso lies inside the label, and communicates withthe scanner by radio signals, from a distance ofup to 1.2 meters away. No battery is requiredinside the label as the I-CODE chip is poweredby the radio signal from the scanner. Severalsmart labels can be scanned simultaneously,speeding up the baggage handling process. Theinformation on smart labels can be re-pro-grammed, or added to, without the need to printand attach a new label. www.semiconductors.philips.com ■

New ProductsACD announced a family of Dual-Speed “Su-per Class” Ethernet Hub Controllers. TheACD300xx family is a 10/100Mbps Ethernetsolution that integrates 8-, 12-, 16-, or 24-ports,a high performance, dual-speed hub engine, in-tegrated bridging function, MACs, and AddressResolution Logic (ARL) into a single 3.3V IC.The only external components required arePHYs and ASRAM. The architecture removesthe limitation of existing dual-speed hubs thatuse a single 2-port 10/100 bridge to convert 10Mbps traffic on one port to 100 Mbps traffic onanother port. The ACD300xx family allows ev-ery port to simultaneously operate at 10 or 100Mbps, eliminating congestion on all ports. Prod.now. Prices vary from $28 for the 8-port deviceto $48 for the 24-port device at 10Ku. Jay Deng,president, CEO and co-founder, Brian Gillings,VP of sales, marketing and customer applica-tions. www.acdcorp.com

AMCC introduced the S2066, CMOS quad-channel transceiver. Each of the S2066’s fourchannels operate at 1.25 Gbps (full duplex) inconformance with IEEE 802.3z Gigabit Ether-net specification. The S2066 is targeted at high-density switching applications such as Ether-net backbones, multi-port Gigabit Ethernetcards, switched networks and data broadcastenvironments. Production now, $68 @ 100. JackBasi, director of marketing for datacom andcomputer products. www.amcc.com

AMD announced availability of the low-powerMobile AMD-K6-2 processor family for note-book computers. With a top speed of 333 MHz,AMD claims to offer the highest speed mobileprocessor – for now. The Mobile AMD-K6-2,also available at 300- and 266-MHz and is thefirst PC processor for notebook computing thatuses AMD’s 3DNow! technology. The K6-2supports Socket 7 notebooks, as well as Super7platforms that offer advanced features includ-



Digi-(PHY) 10/100 Ethernet PHY technology,for the Ethernet NIC and LAN-on-Motherboard(LOM) market. The Digi-(PHY) core architec-ture has been shipping for over one year inBroadcom’s Quad-(PHY) family and has beendeployed in over 20 million Ethernet switch andhub ports worldwide. The Digi-(PHY) archi-tecture has been ported to 0.5u and 0.35u sin-gle-poly CMOS process and supports both 3.3Vand 5V operation. Jim Jones, Director of Mar-keting of 3Com’s LAN Connectivity Division.Kirk Blattman, Director of Engineering for3Com. Marty Colombatto, VP and GM ofBroadcom’s Networking Business Unit.

Broadcom announced the BCM5218 Octal-(PHY) Transceiver, an 8-port transceiver for the10/100 Ethernet switch market. It is Broadcom’sthird successful implementation of integratingeight 10/100BASE-T transceivers into a singlechip. The BCM5218 supports both the RMIIand SMII interfaces. Samples now, prod. in Q1,$26 @ 10Ku. www.broadcom.com

Burr-Brown announced the VSP2080, a front-end signal processing IC for CCD digital cam-eras. The device features correlated double sam-pling to extract the video information from thepixels, analog control of 0dB to 34dB gain forvarying illumination conditions, and black lev-el clamping for an accurate black reference. TheVSP2080 operates from 2.7V to 3.6V and ispriced from $2.25 @ 1Ku. Prod. now. ForwardConcepts predicts that the worldwide digitalcamera market, which includes portable and PC-attached cameras, will grow to over 7 millionunits in ’99 and 17 million units in 2001. DonReynolds, strategic marketing engineer.www.burr-brown.com

Cirrus introduced an analog front-end interfacechip (CS7620) that provides superior imagequality and design flexibility for CCD digitalstill cameras. Designed in conjunction withPolaroid and IBM , the chip provides all of thefunctions necessary to bridge between the CCDand still-camera processor. IBM is the manu-facturer of Polaroid’s CCD designs. Accordingto Semico Research the digital still cameramarket is expected to reach 6 million units in’99 growing to 26 million units in 2002. TheCS7620 integrates all of the critical functionsrequired to interface with a variety of CCDs: acorrelated double sampler (CDS) for superior

tionality and RAM/ROM memory. Due to theD16000 family’s open architecture, OEMs canmix and match DSP functions from DSPGroup’s advanced, proprietary algorithms suchas TrueSpeech Triple Rate Coder, Voice Rec-ognition, True Full Duplex SpeakerPhone, Call-er ID and CID on Call Waiting, FlexiSpeechplayback, Least Cost Routing, Automatic GainControl, and Call Progress and Tone Detection.Several major OEMs have already committedto new product lines based upon the D16000family. Gideon Wertheizer, Corporate VP ofMarketing, Jan Abelev, Director for TelephonyProducts. www.dspg.com

DSP Group unveiled the CT8016 DSP, featur-ing a low-cost, low-power G.729A+B SpeechProcessor. The device is targeted at Voice overInternet Protocol (VoIP) and Voice over Net-work (VON) applications. In addition to theITU-T standard G.729A+B (8 Kbps) — an op-tional Speech Coder for H.323 video and voiceconferencing — the CT8016 also provides DSPGroup’s TrueSpeech Coder (8.5 Kbps) built intoWindows 95/98 and standard G.711 PCM cod-ers. Any Speech Coder can be used in full du-plex mode simultaneously with acoustical echocancellation for full duplex speakerphone ap-plications, as well as telephony signal detec-tion and generation. Victor Koretsky, TechnicalMarketing Director.

GiGa introduced the GD16361/GD16362, a10Gbps transmitter and receiver chipset forSONET applications. The chipset takes up lessthan 60% of the area used by higher pin countPQFP packages and consume less than half thepower of competing products. Coded-mark-in-version (CMI) enables system designs to meetand exceed SONET requirements at OC-3 ratesin telecom-network applications such as crossconnect and access boxes or in datacom appli-cations including ISP Routers and ATMs. TheCMI Interface is being widely deployed in Eu-rope to reduce system costs by allowing the useof copper and eliminating the need for optics inshort-distance applications. The chipset featuresa true Loss of Signal (LOS) detection as de-fined by the ITU-T G.775 standard and an on-chip equalizer working up to 300m RG-6/Ucable. Available now. Bill Woodruff, VP ofGiGA North America Marketing. www.giga.dk

GlobeSpan introduced the G2237 chipset forHDSL2 modem applications, which use PulseAmplitude Modulation (PAM) techniques. TheG2237 chipset is based on GlobeSpan’s XDSL2silicon platform, a fully programmable, high

image quality, a DRX enabled ADC for vari-able resolution images, a flexible on-chip tim-ing generator, and two programmable DACs.Samples now, prod. in Q2. Douglas Holberg,director of Crystal Imaging and Video Productsat Cirrus. Dr. Stuart Spitzer, director of ImageSensor Technology Division of Polaroid.www.cirrus.com

Conexant announced a single-chip CMOS im-age sensor that provides high-resolution, XGAquality while lowering system costs and powerrequirements compared to CCDs for digital stillcameras. The device provides superior visualquality with low noise performance, excellentcolor reproduction and 10-bit digital resolution.The sensor uses a small, 7-micron square pixelsize that lets OEMs develop digital cameras withlower-cost half-inch system optics. The deviceoperates at 3.3V and is claimed to be the onlysolution to integrate a 10-bit ADC and timinggenerator. A special windowing mode operatesfrom 25 to 30 fps to provide an output for real-time LCD and digital zoom functions. Samplesin Feb., prod. in March, $30 @ 10Ku. KevinStrong, senior VP and GM for the PersonalImaging Division. www.conexant.com

Cypress is sampling its entire family of Ul-tra37000 CPLDs. All devices will be in full pro-duction by quarter-end. The family is support-ed by Release 5.1 of Cypress’s $99 Warp2VHDL-based design tools. The Ultra37000 fam-ily consists of 14 devices, ranging from 32 to512 macrocells. It offers a fixed timing modelthat guarantees pin-to-pin propagation delaysas fast as 5 ns for the 32-macrocell device, and7.5 ns for the 256-macrocell device. The devic-es are available in 3.3-V and 5-V versions andoffer In-System Reprogrammability, through aJTAG-compliant serial interface. Abundant rout-ing resources enables pin-locking and “speed-locking” for all devices. Warp includes supportfor Jam, an open standard (sort of) that allowsATE and on-board microcontrollers to programthe devices. Prices ranges from $1.25 to $49 inhigh-volume quantities. Christopher Norris, VP,PLD division. www.cypress.com

DSP Group unveiled its D16000 family of“System-On-A-Chip” DSPs. The new familyprovides customized solutions for advancedspeech applications such as Digital Phones, CarKits, Digital Answering Machines, FeaturePhones, and Portable Digital Voice. The D16000family of products is highlighted by a single ICcomprised of an embedded DSP Core, analogCODECS, AFE circuitry, Host Controller func-

New Products(Continued from page 17)



density, low power design. The G2237 offerssingle wire pair multimode operation in eitherMSDSL or HDSL2 mode through firmwaredownload. The chipset supports CAP, 2B1Q andPAM line codes for MSDSL, HDSL and HDSL2applications. The G2237 chipset offers equip-ment suppliers a seamless migration path fromMSDSL modems using 2B1Q or CAP linecodes to an HDSL2 modem using PAM linecode with OPTIS (Overlapped PAM Transmis-sion with Interlocking Spectra) power densitymask. It has been sampling since October ’98.Angelo Stephano, VP of worldwide marketing.www.globespan.net

Harris announced 2 reference designs for build-ing Class D audio amplifiers for the professionaland home theater markets. They include a 125/220-watt full-bandwidth amplifier and a 250-watt subwoofer amplifier. Harris’ Cool AudioClass D switching amplifier is more than 90%heat efficient. Alpine and Goldpeak are devel-oping end products based on the technology.The ref. designs feature THD < 0.1% at 1kHzand 110W into 8 ohms, SNR > 110dB relativeto full power, DC to 80 kHz small signal band-width and 28kHz power bandwidth, no cross-over distortion, and a slew rate of 8V/(mu)s.Patrick Begley, senior manager of audio prod-ucts. www.semi.harris.com

Hi/fn (Nasdaq:HIFN) introduced a public keyprocessing IC designed to speed up calculationsused in public key cryptography for VPN andelectronic commerce applications. The Hi/fn6500 Public Key Processor contains a true ran-dom number generator and performs modulararithmetic more efficiently than any generalpurpose processor, completing 50,000 publickey or 200 private key 1024-bit RSA computa-tions per second. These functions are madeavailable through a high-level cryptographicAPI. The 6500 is compatible with the mostwidely used key exchange and digital signaturealgorithms, such as RSA, Diffie-Hellman andDSA (Digital Signature Algorithm). Samplesnow. $44.70 - $64.70 @ 10Ku. Bob Monsour,VP of marketing. Tel: 408/399-3500, Fax: 408/399-3501, www.hifn.com

IDT announced a 20% price reduction for theTQFP-packaged RC3041 RISController, mak-ing it the industry’s first 32-bit RISC processorpriced in volume (100Ku) at less than $5 (ac-cording to IDT). The RC3041 is currently usedin EchoStar’s DISH Network satellite digitalreceiver, Bay Networks’ cable modems andHughes’ Direct PC. Phil Bourekas, director of

SmoothCore beginning on Q2. A one projectdesign license starts at $325K. Charlie Cheng,president and CEO, Patrick Hays, VP and CTO.www.lexra.com

Lucent introduced the Everest 900MHz digitalcordless chipset, which it claims will enablecordless phone manufacturers to deliver prod-ucts with world class clarity and range at up tohalf today’s typical costs. The programmablechipset consists of two B900 DSPs, twoCSP1009 Communications Signal Processors(four-channel codecs), and two W9009 RFtransceivers designed for the 900MHz ISMband. The B900 is a new 3.3V version of Lu-cent’s DSP1609 (100MIPS DSPs), with addi-tional memory. The chipset enables 6 hours oftalk time and 7 days of standby time. ThomsonConsumer Electronics and BellSouth will in-troduce phones using this chipset. The 900MHzdigital cordless phone market is expected togrow at an estimated 57% annual rate throughthe year 2002, according to Forward Concepts.The market is expected to expand from an esti-mated 4.4 million units in ’98 to 26.5 millionunits by the year 2002. The chipset is $14.95 @100Ku. Samples now, prod. in Q1. Steve Kauf-man, GM of consumer ICs.

Mediamatics, a National company, announcedPantera-DVD, a fully integrated DVD-On-A-Chip solution for consumer DVD players.Pantera-DVD integrates all the back-end func-tions of a typical DVD player, including hostprocessing. Mediamatics also introduced a man-ufacturing kit with complete system software.Pantera-DVD is compatible with all six DVDregions and both the PAL and NTSC viewingstandards. Pantera-DVD is fully compatiblewith all DVD specifications, CDDA, Video CDand China’s emerging SuperVCD format, andsupports a variety of audio standards includingDolby Digital AC3 and DTS. Pantera-DVD in-tegrates a 32-bit RISC processor, Audio RISC-DSP, MPEG hardware, 10-bit Video DACs,graphics and NTSC/PAL encoder. Mediamat-ics has been working closely with several lead-ing consumer electronics companies in Japan,Southeast Asia, South America and Europewhich will announce Pantera-DVD-based play-ers this quarter. Pier Del Frate, VP of market-ing at Mediamatics. www.mediamatics.com

Micrel-Synergy introduced the SY87701V andthe SY87700V, protocol-independent clock re-covery ICs featuring output frequency rangesof 32Mbps to 1.25Gbps and 32Mbps to175Mbps respectively. Both devices may be

marketing and applications for the micropro-cessor division. www.idt.com

Intel announced the Pentium III processor brandname for its next generation microprocessorcode-named Katmai. Scheduled to be intro-duced later in Q1, the Pentium III processoroffers enhanced multimedia realism. Katmai, a32-bit processor, includes Streaming SIMDExtensions, a set of 70 new instructions de-signed to enhance 3D, imaging, and video ap-plications. The Pentium III processor will usethe slot 1 and slot 2 connector. In Q1 the Pen-tium III will be offered in 450- and 500-MHzslot 1 versions with a 512K L2 cache and a 100-MHz bus. Intel also disclosed the Intel PentiumIII Xeon processor brand name targeted for theserver and workstation market segments. JamiDover, VP, Intel Sales and Marketing Group,and director, Worldwide Marketing Operations.

Lexra announced its next generation LX4180,a MIPS-R3000 class RISC processor core, ar-chitecturally compatible with the LX4080. Itemploys a 5-stage pipeline and executes allMIPS I instructions except for unaligned loadsand stores. The core operates at 155 MHz, oc-cupies 2.75 mm2 and consumes 175 mW in a0.25u process. The die size with 8KB of instruc-tion cache and 8KB of data cache will be lessthan 10 mm-squared. In standby mode, the pow-er consumption of the LX4180 is <50uW.

The LX4180 has several enhancements includ-ing: MIPS16 Instruction Compression, wheremost commonly used 32 bit instructions can beexpressed in 16 bits, reducing program size byup to 40%. EJTAG Debug Support – When themicroprocessor is deeply embedded inside ofan ASIC, a common interface methodology,such as EJTAG is necessary. The LX4180 is oneof the first RISC cores to implement 100% ofthe EJTAG 1.5.2 specification. The optionalMAC engine for DSP applications can completeone MAC instruction every cycle without stall-ing the CPU pipeline.

The LX4180 also incorporates system friendlyfeatures including strict use of single edge clock-ing, flexible memory architectures and cachesizes, instruction extension capability, and, aflexible, PCI-like system bus. Lexra is focusedon providing the design tools and methodolo-gy, system level interfaces, and silicon processportability that will enable easy integration ofits processors into customer applications andclaims that this is one of its major competitiveadvantages. The LX4180 will be available as aRTL core in Q1 and as a foundry optimized



programmed to operate in a wide range ofBellcore-compliant frequency bands and oper-ate at 3.3V or 5V. The low-jitter, devices can beprogrammed “on-the-fly” for any required fre-quency. Typical applications include the portsand backplanes of SONET, ATM, Gigabit Eth-ernet, and Fiber Channel equipment, fiber op-tic modules, and high-speed servers. DonaFlamme, dir. of marketing. www.micrel.com

Photobit announced 2 new products in its lineof videoconferencing chips. The new sensors,the PB-100 and PB-300, are CIF-size (352 x288) and VGA-format (640 x 480), respective-ly. Both employ Photobit’s patented “active-pix-el” technology as well as the company’s pro-prietary TrueBit Noise Cancellation and True-Color features. The sensors output color ormonochrome full-frame 8-bit digital video at30 fps. They feature electronic pan, tilt, andzoom, auto-exposure, and full programmabili-ty via a serial interface. The pixel array, the tim-ing and control logic, and the ADCs are all on-chip. www.photobit.com

PMC-Sierra announced a Layer 3 upgrade forthe EXACT Gigabit Ethernet and Fast Ethernetswitching chipset. The EXACT AfterBurnerupgrade allows users of PMC’s EXACT chipsetto support IPV4 forwarding for applicationssuch as VLAN routing, IP Packet-Over-SONET(POS) switching or edge routing. AfterBurnerprovides the EXACT chipset with IPV4 Layer3 routing capability, identification of higher lay-er protocols (such as OSPF, RIP, BGP, ICMP)and a Layer 3 Control and Management Inter-face to simplify the attachment of external CPUmanagement resources. It supports up to131,072 routes using a longest prefix matchingalgorithm, and provides a 512 entry ARP cache.The EXACT AfterBurner upgrade is availableat no additional cost for systems using the EX-ACT chipset, consisting of the PM3370 octal10/100 Ethernet port controller, the PM3380Gigabit Ethernet port controller and the PM3390and PM3391 EXACT bus switch matrix devic-es. Vernon Little, director of marketing for Eth-ernet Products. www.pmc-sierra.com

Siemens introduced the MUNICH 128X(PEB20324H), a 4-port, 128-channel version ofits MUNICH 32 protocol controller IC. TheMUNICH 128X is a 128-channel WAN Proto-col Controller that provides 4 independent 24/32-channel HDLC Controllers, each with a ded-

Gold IP program, meaning it is already beingused by UMC customers. Customers that areseeking the Direct RAC must license it fromRambus. UMC also announced that in 1999 itwill have production-ready 0.18u and copper-interconnect technology. Jim Ballingall, VP ofworldwide marketing for UMC Group (USA).Tel: 408/733-8881, fax 408/733-8090,www.umc.com.tw. Dave Mooring, VP and GMfor Rambus’ PC Division. www.rambus.com

VLSI introduces the VSC11 0.15u drawn gatelength process. VSC11 features copper-basedinterconnect, embedded FLASH memory, dig-ital, analog and RF mixed-signal capabilities andoptions to simultaneously optimize an IC forhigh-performance and minimal power consump-tion. VSC11 is a 0.15u drawn (0.12u effective)gate length process, with a fully contacted met-al 1/2,3 pitch of 0.46/0.52-micron. The processuses up to five layers of metal for signal rout-ing with a sixth layer supporting signal re-dis-tribution for Flip Chip packaging. At an 80%silicon utilization, this yields 7.2-million logicgates per square centimeter of silicon area in 5-layer metal designs, double that of the 0.2u VLSIVSC10 process now entering full production.

VSC11 uses a low k dielectric material betweenmetal lines on the same layer. VSC11 also of-fers the option of copper interconnect on theupper two layers of metal. VLSI studies havedemonstrated that at 0.15u geometries, copperinterconnect offers performance enhancementsfor relatively long routings for block-to-blockconnections, and power and clock distributiongrids. At lower layers with shorter connectionruns, aluminum interconnect retains competi-tive performance and remains less expensive tomanufacture. VLSI will migrate to an all-cop-per interconnect strategy for process generationsthat follow VSC11.

VSC11 operates internally at 1.5V, with I/Osoptimized for driving 3.3V with tolerance for5V signals. VSC11 can also support a 1V core,for ultra low power applications. Dual-gate ox-ide technology enables 3.3V drive with 5V tol-erant I/Os and is also used to enable analog cir-cuits used on mixed-signal chips (majority ofVLSI chips) to operate at 3.3V for improveddynamic range. VSC11 supports a cut-off fre-quency (fT) of greater than 65-GHz. Evalua-tion Libraries in Q1, production libraries in Q3.Prototypes in and production in Q4. AlfredStein, chairman and CEO, Rajeeva Lahri, se-nior VP for corporate R&D. www.vlsi.com.

icated 64-channel DMA Controller and a Seri-al PCM Interface Controller. The device cansupport up to 128 full-duplex serial PCM chan-nels. The chip performs Layer 2 HDLC format-ting/deformatting at data rates from 8 kbps to2.048 Mbps or V.110/X30 protocols up to datarates of 38.4 kbps. The MUNICH 128X is tar-geted at telecom and datacom applications, in-cluding routers, switches, access concentrators,and access equipment. Samples now, prod. lat-er this quarter, $62.35 @ 10Ku. Klaus Luecke,dir. of product development for Data Access.

SMSC introduced the LAN83C183, a 3.3V, 10/100 Mbps Fast Ethernet PHY. The LAN83C183comes as a result of SMSC’s relationship withSEEQ and is pin-compatible with SEEQ’sTQ80223. Samples now. Robert Hollingsworth,VP of Marketing, Andy Lambrecht, Dir. of Stra-tegic mktg. for LAN products. www.smsc.com

Solidum has launched its packet classificationtechnology for multi-gigabit networks. Solidumhas a packet classification language, compilerand interface card that enable developers to builddevices that support classes and QoS. Solidum’stechnology facilitates a new generation ofchipsets, NICs and networking equipment thatcan support more complex mixes of traffic andquality standards such as Differentiated Services(DiffServ). PAX is claimed to perform tablelookups, access control, packet filtering andmore at lower costs than alternative methods.PAX is based on a programmable state machineapproach, is scalable and technology efficient.Solidum claims that PAX strikes the most cost-efficient balance between hardware and soft-ware for Packet processing. Solidum will ini-tially target three groups: Developers of ICs andNICs, manufacturers of microprocessors, andmanufacturers of networking equipment. Eval-uation copies of packet classification technolo-gy based on the PAX language are available now.Pricing for the evaluation package begins at$10K, to be applied towards the purchase ofthe development environment for $49K. Soli-dum was founded in 1996 with private funding.Misha Nossik, VP, Business Development, Fe-liks Welfeld, co-founder and CTO.www.solidum.com

UMC Group announced that it is the firstfoundry to offer the Direct Rambus ASIC Cell(RAC). Rambus has successfully fabricated andcharacterized the RAC in the form of test chipson UMC’s 0.25u process. The Direct RAC de-livers 1.6 gigabytes per sec over a 72-pin inter-face. The Rambus Direct RAC is part of UMC’s

New Products(Continued from page 17)



Virata’s Helium Integrated Software on Sili-con (ISOS) has bee selected by OpenCon Sys-tems, for OpenCon’s next generation of ADSLproducts for Local Exchange Carriers and ISPs.OCS will use Virata’s Helium ISOS solutionfor its new family of line card and gateway Ac-cess Technology Products. Helium is a low-cost,phy-neutral chip that provides high-speed ac-cess capability for multiple-user endpoint de-vices such as modems, gateway devices, andline cards for channel banks and DSLAMs.OpenCon Systems, Piscataway, New Jersey, wasfounded in 1991 and is a turnkey provider ofTransmission and Access, Network Manage-ment and Communication Software Solutionsto the communications marketplace. OlegLogvinov, Dir., Product Development for OCS.Charles Li, Senior Director, Access Technolo-gy Products for OCS. Martin Jackson, Virata’sCTO. www.opencon.com, www.virata.com ■

Xilinx announced the new XC9500XV familyof 2.5V CPLDs. Manufactured on the latestgeneration FastFLASH process, the newXC9500XV CPLDs provide the same advancedarchitectural features and densities as the pop-ular 3.3V XC9500XL family introduced lastyear, with device offerings of 36, 72, 144 and288 macrocells. Evert Wolsheimer, VP/GM ofthe CPLD Business Unit. www.xilinx.com ■

Design WinsHarris announced that its RF ICs will be in-corporated into ShareWave wireless technolo-gies aimed at the home networking market. TheICs will be utilized in ShareWave’s Cresta Dig-ital Radio, a key component of the ShareWaveDigital Wireless technology portfolio. Share-Wave envisions a central server (a PC, residen-tial gateway or set-top box) serving as the Mul-timedia Furnace that wirelessly connects a va-riety of digital devices throughout the home.The chips are being used in ShareWave PC-to-PC and PC-to-TV product designs that allowmultimedia data – including full-motion videoand CD-quality audio – to be moved wirelesslyat high speeds. The Harris chips allow 4Mbpsdata rates using direct sequence spread spec-trum (DSSS). ShareWave and Harris are alsoexploring ways to integrate Harris’ 11 Mbpschips into ShareWave’s next generation prod-uct technologies. Ron Van Dell, VP/GM ofHarris’ Communications Products Business, JimSchraith, ShareWave president and CEO.www.sharewave.com, www.semi.harris.com

Sensory shipped their one-millionth speechrecognition chip in 1998. Since 1995, Sensoryclaims to have usurped 85% of the dedicatedspeech recognition chip business with applica-tions in telephones, toys, clocks, light switch-es, electronic learning aids, automotive add-ons,security devices, PC peripherals, home automa-tion and personal electronics. Sensory uses aproprietary neural network technology, whichenables accuracy rates as high as 99% even inthe presence of moderate background noise.Their custom IC designs incorporate all thespeech recognition needs including, memory,processing, power, filtering amplification, dig-ital and analog conversion, plus timing func-tions and a variety of I/O capabilities. Senso-ry’s software solution can run on any DSP, withfar less MIPS and memory requirements thancomparable quality approaches.

Sensory design wins include Uniden’s Voice-Dial Cordless Phones, Sony’s Voice Controlled

Music System, Sega’s Voice Lock-On Gun, VOSSystems’ INTELAVoice voice-operated lightswitch, Sharper Image’s Handheld Voice Dial-er, Playmate’s Voice Laser Gun and Radica’sGirl Tech product line. Mark Frankel, VP ofSales. www.sensoryinc.com

Sierra Research and Technology signed anagreement in which Filanet will license theSierra Managed 10/100 Mb/s Stand-Alone Eth-ernet MAC. The agreement will allow Filanetto quickly produce, market and sell ASSP’sbased on Fast Ethernet technology. The Sierra10/100 Ethernet MAC has been proven in morethan a dozen semiconductor processes, and isshipping in PCI-based NIC applications, bridg-es, hubs, routers and other networking/data com-munication applications. The 10/100 MAC corehas been licensed to numerous semiconductormanufacturers worldwide. Dr. Ken Friedenbach,Director of Engineering at Sierra. www.srti.com

Filanet (Mountain View, CA) is developingIEEE-1394 and USB connectivity solutions fornetworking environments. Investment partnersinclude Weiss, Peck and Greer, Menlo Ventures,Stanford University, and individual investors.Avner Ben-Dor, founder and CEO, was previ-ously VP of Engineering at Kalpana. Rene Tron-coso, Dir. of Product mktg., [email protected]: 650/968-9711, www.filanet.com

Sigma Designs and Boca Research announcedthat the new BocaVision ST2001 PC Internet/information appliance, or set-top box, incorpo-rates Sigma Designs’ EM 8220 DVD/MPEG-2decoder chip for DVD and MPEG playback. TheST2001 provides Web browsing, email send-ing/receiving, PC functions, and DVD audio andvideo CD playback. The BocaVision ST 2001features Network Computer’s feature-rich, openInternet standards-based TV Navigator. Betatesting in Q1, volume shipments in Q2.

Using NCI’s TV Navigator software along withthe Oracle Video Server and Sigma Designs’REALmagic MPEG decoding technology, theST2001 achieves full motion 30 fps streamingvideo with an easy-to-use Web-based interface,giving service providers the ability to deliveron-demand movie channels and new interactivevideo services. IDC estimates that the informa-tion appliance market will reach a penetrationlevel of over 41 million units by the year 2002.William Wong, Sigma Designs’ VP of market-ing. Tom Elowson, director of marketing forBoca Research. www.sigmadesigns.com

Micron

Texas Instruments

Philadelphia SOX Index

Intel



Current Qtr Last Qtr Yr-ago Qtr Sales NetCompany Symbol Sales Net Margin GM Sales Net Sales Net Growth Growth Qtr Ending3Dfx TDFX 61 2.1 3% 37% 33 3.1 22 2.1 172% 0% 4Q98 31-Dec8x8 EGHT 10 -3.2 -32% 45% 9 -3.7 12 0.1 -18% -3300% 3Q99 31-DecActel ACTL 40 4.1 10% 61% 39 3.8 37 3.4 9% 21% 4Q98 3-JanAlliance ALSC 13 -2.1 -16% 19% 11 -5.9 25 -2.4 -46% -13% 3Q99 31-DecAlpha AHA 33 4.8 15% 44% 30 4.2 31 3.2 6% 50% 3Q99 27-DecAltera ALTR 172 42.5 25% 62% 164 40.1 157 36.7 10% 16% 4Q98 31-DecAMCC AMCC 27 5.6 21% 65% 25 4.9 20 4.0 36% 40% 3Q99 31-DecAMD AMD 789 22.3 3% 39% 686 1.0 613 -12.3 29% -281% 4Q98 27-DecAnalog Devices ADI 298 26.3 9% 45% 296 9.1 332 51.0 -10% -48% 4Q98 31-OctArtisan ARTI 3 -0.7 -23% 100% N/A N/A 3.3 0.2 -9% -121% 1Q99 31-DecAspec Tech. ASPCE 4 -6.0 -150% -50% N/A N/A 6.0 0.5 -33% -200% 4Q98 30-NovATI ATYTF 327 50.0 15% 37% N/A N/A 168.0 24.5 95% -70% 1Q99 30-NovAtmel ATML 289 8.5 3% 38% 274 4.2 240 -94.7 20% -109% 4Q98 31-DecBroadcom BRCM 70 12.8 18% 58% 53 8.2 17 2.5 305% 412% 4Q98 31-DecBurr-Brown BBRC 62 8.7 14% 50% 61 7.5 69 9.9 -10% -12% 4Q98 31-DecC.M.D. CAMD 9 -0.6 -7% 28% 8 -0.8 8 -0.9 8% -33% 3Q99 31-DecC-Cube CUBE 96 12.4 13% 54% 86 13.0 90 11.6 6% 7% 4Q98 31-DecCirrus CRUS 153 -92.6 -60% -12% 170 -121.0 241 18.5 -36% -601% 3Q99 26-DecConexant CNXT 295 -57.1 -19% 25% 265 -233.8 384 20.6 -23% -377% 1Q99 1-JanCypress CY 124 -3.8 -3% 33% 126 0.5 134 0.0 -7% #DIV/0! 4Q98 3-JanDallas DS 85 14.5 17% 53% 83 13.4 95 17.9 -11% -19% 4Q98 3-JanDSP Comm. DSP 43 5.8 14% 41% 35 8.7 32 8.6 33% -33% 4Q98 31-DecDSP Group DSPG 14 3.5 25% 62% 17 3.5 17 3.4 -15% 3% 4Q98 31-DecElantec ELNT 11 -8.0 -75% 31% 12 3.5 11 1.1 -4% -827% 1Q99 31-DecESS ESST 78 4.8 6% 28% 52 -7.5 71 -12.0 11% -140% 4Q98 31-DecExar EXAR 16 0.6 4% 54% 19 1.8 27 2.3 -41% -74% 3Q99 31-DecGalileo GALTF 14 4.2 31% 64% 12 2.9 13 4.4 4% -5% 4Q98 31-DecGenesis Micro GNSSF 9 2.2 25% 57% 6 1.9 3 0.5 172% 340% 2Q99 30-NovHarris (semis only) HRS 136 11.2 8% N/A 143 9.1 175 12.1 -22% -7% 2Q99 1-JanHi/fn HIFN 6 0.5 8% 70% 5 0.4 6 0.9 -3% -44% 4Q98 31-DecIDT IDTI 136 -4.6 -3% 39% 131 -237.1 144 2.4 -6% -292% 3Q99 27-DecIntel INTC 7,614 2,064.0 27% 58% 6,731 1,559.0 6,507 1,743.0 17% 18% 4Q98 26-DecInt’l Rectifier IRF 133 19.8 15% 27% 128 0.0 145 6.7 -8% 196% 2Q99 31-DecISSI ISSI 27 -4.0 -15% 15% 26 -29.2 39 -9.7 -32% -59% 1Q99 31-DecIXYS SYXI 17 0.0 0% 28% 16 -4.5 14 1.3 19% -100% 3Q99 31-DecLattice LSCC 50 10.5 21% 61% 48 9.9 60 13.7 -16% -23% 3Q99 2-JanLevel One LEVL 79 10.4 13% 59% 67 8.6 51 1.1 55% 845% 4Q98 27-DecLinear Tech. LLTC 120 45.9 38% 72% 116 44.4 117 43.6 3% 5% 2Q99 27-DecLinfinity (1) SYMM 11 0.0 N/A N/A 11 N/A 15 2.0 -22% -100% 2Q99 31-DecLogic Devices LOGC 3 0.0 0% 45% 3 -6.3 4 0.0 -11% #DIV/0! 1Q99 31-DecLSI Logic LSI 445 13.1 3% 35% 390 -282.8 323 30.7 38% -57% 4Q98 31-DecLucent LU 821 N/A N/A N/A 811 N/A 775 6% N/A 1Q99 31-DecMaxim MXIM 145 46.5 32% 68% 155 49.4 135 42.8 7% 9% 2Q99 26-DecMicrel MCRL 38 -1.4 -4% 38% 35 6.6 31 5.2 24% -127% 4Q98 31-DecMicro Linear MLIN 12 0.0 0% 52% 12 0.3 15 1.6 -20% -100% 4Q98 3-JanMicrochip MCHP 100 17.9 18% 51% 104 17.6 104 13.1 -3% 37% 3Q99 31-DecMicron (semis) MU 428 N/A N/A 9% 372 N/A 440 N/A -3% N/A 1Q99 2-DecMicrosemi MSCC 39 2.3 6% 27% 44 3.7 44 3.1 -11% -26% 1Q98 3-JanMIPS MIPS 15 4.1 27% 99% 12 3.3 13 -10.4 20% -139% 2Q99 31-DecMitel MLT 163 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 68 N/A 140% N/A 3Q99 25-DecMMC Networks MMCN 14 2.9 21% 71% 14 3.0 8 0.6 79% 383% 4Q98 31-DecMotorola (semis) MOT 1,900-1,225.0 N/A N/A 1,773 N/A 2,089 168.0 -9% -829% 4Q98 31-DecM-Systems FLSHF 5 -0.8 -16% 31% 4 -0.2 6 0.1 -17% -900% 4Q98 31-DecNational NSM 510 -94.4 -19% 18% 470 -104.8 720 28.9 -29% N/A 2Q99 29-NovNeomagic NMGC 67 8.6 13% 40% 53 7.0 37 6.5 82% 32% 3Q99 31-OctOak OAKT 22 -9.7 -44% 47% 20 -14.2 49 7.6 -56% -228% 2Q99 31-DecPericom PSEM 15 1.6 11% 41% 15 1.6 12 1.2 21% 33% 2Q99 31-DecPMC-Sierra PMCS 45 11.4 25% 78% 42 5.4 32 9.6 43% 19% 4Q98 31-DecPower Int. POWI 20 4.2 21% 51% 20 4.3 16 2.4 30% 75% 4Q98 31-DecQLogic QLGC 30 7.1 23% 64% 28 5.2 21 3.9 45% 82% 3Q99 31-DecRambus RMBS 11 2.1 20% 80% 10 1.7 9 1.6 13% 31% 1Q99 31-DecRF Micro Devices RFMD 42 5.6 13% 35% 31 2.4 13 1.1 212% 409% 3Q99 31-DecS3 SIII 42 -70.2 -169% -40% 47 -35.4 102 -8.1 -59% 767% 4Q98 31-DecSanDisk SNDK 38 3.6 9% 40% 32 2.5 40 7.2 -5% -50% 4Q98 31-Dec

Company Financials



Notes: Sales growth = current qtr. sales / yr-ago qtr sales.All sales figures are rounded to the nearest millionNet growth = current qtr. net inc. / yr-ago qtr. net inv.GM = current qtr. gross margin.

1) Motorola and Linfinity Net represent operating income

Company Rankings NET MARGIN GROSS MARGIN SALES GROWTH NET PROFIT ($M)

Top Ten Linear Tech. 38% MIPS 99% Broadcom 305% Intel 2,064Maxim 32% Rambus 80% RF Micro Devices 212% T.I. 189Galileo 31% PMC-Sierra 78% 3Dfx 172% ST Microelectronics 122MIPS 27% Linear Tech. 72% Mitel 140% ATI 50Intel 27% MMC Networks 71% ATI 95% Maxim 47Vitesse 26% Hi/fn 70% MMC Networks 79% Linear Tech. 46PMC-Sierra 25% Maxim 68% Vitesse 73% Altera 43DSP Group 25% AMCC 65% TranSwitch 65% Xilinx 34Altera 25% QLogic 64% Level One 55% AMD 22QLogic 23% Galileo 64% QLogic 45% Int’l Rectifier 20

NET MARGIN GROSS MARGIN SALES GROWTH NET PROFIT ($M)Bottom Ten Tower -25% Conexant 25% Seeq -26% Aspec Tech. -6

Zilog -32% Stanford Telcom 19% VLSI -28% SST -78x8 -32% Alliance 19% ISSI -32% Elantec -8SST -37% ISSI 15% Aspec Tech. -33% Oak -10Xicor -37% Xicor 14% Cirrus -36% Xicor -10Oak -44% SST -3% Exar -41% Zilog -17Cirrus -60% Cirrus -12% Tower -46% Conexant -57Elantec -75% Tower -13% Alliance -46% S3 -70Aspec Tech. -150% S3 -40% Oak -56% Cirrus -93S3 -169% Aspec Tech. -50% S3 -59% Mot. (semis) -1,225

Company FinancialsCurrent Qtr. Last Qtr Yr ago qtr Sales Net

Company Symbol Sales Net Margin GM Sales Net Sales Net Growth Growth Qtr EndingSeeq SEEQ 6 -1.3 -23% 25% 7 -6.9 8 1.1 -26% -218% 1Q99 31-DecSMSC SMSC 45 0.8 2% 32% 41 0.6 43 -2.0 6% -140% 3Q99 30-NovSST SSTI 18 -6.7 -37% -3% 18 -7.3 20 -3.8 -10% 76% 4Q98 31-DecST Micro STM 1,133 122.0 11% 38% 1,039 101.6 1,104 126.0 3% -3% 4Q98 31-DecStanford Telcom STII 37 -0.5 -1% 19% 41 0.3 41 1.6 -9% -131% 3Q99 31-DecSupertex SUPX 12 2.2 18% 45% 13 2.2 14 2.4 -14% -8% 3Q99 31-DecT.I. TXN 1,993 189.0 9% 44% 2,113 164.0 2,428 -285.0 -18% -166% 4Q98 31-DecTelcom TLCM 12 -0.3 -2% 31% 13 -6.1 15 1.9 -19% -116% 4Q98 31-DecTower TSEMF 17 -4.2 -25% -13% 15 -4.9 31 4.3 -46% -198% 4Q98 31-DecTranSwitch TXCC 14 2.5 18% 64% 12 1.9 8 0.4 65% 525% 4Q98 31-DecTrident TRID 21 -1.8 -9% 39% 24 -2.7 27 -1.9 -23% -5% 2Q99 31-DecUnitrode UTR 40 -2.9 -7% 47% 30 3.0 59 10.5 -32% N/A 3Q99 31-OctVitesse VTSS 60 15.4 26% 62% 54 16.5 35 10.4 73% 48% 1Q99 31-DecVLSI VLSI 138 14.8 11% 38% 131 -3.6 193 22.0 -28% -33% 4Q98 25-DecXicor XICO 27 -10.0 -37% 14% 25 -8.0 31 -7.5 -14% 33% 4Q98 31-DecXilinx XLNX 167 33.9 20% 61% 156 27.8 149 31.6 13% 7% 3Q99 2-JanZilog ZLG 54 -17.1 -32% 27% 53 -21.7 59 0.4 -8% -4863% 4Q98 31-DecZoran ZRAN 14 0.9 6% 55% 12 0.4 14 1.7 1% -47% 4Q98 31-Dec



Startups In This Issue

✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ C-Port – Communications Processor Platform

✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ Cognitive Designs – Cryptographic Chips

✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ Imsys – Triple ISA Microcontroller with Java

✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ IONAS – Optical Components and DFB Fiber Lasers

✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ITRAN – Power Line Modem ICs

✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ Opticom – All-Organic Polymer Memory

✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ RC MODULE – NeuroMatrix Super-Scalar Processor

✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ Seagull Semi – System-on-Chip Products

✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ Sybarus – SONET ICs and Software

✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ TeraGen – Thread Processors

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SEMICONDUCTOR TIMES FEBRUARY 1999 / 1 FEBRUARY 1999 ... · the Communications Engine or Digital Commu-nication Processors (DCPs), Communication Interface or Communications Programming