A roundup of all the news generated from the Globalpress Summit Conference being held in Santa Cruz, which promises to host the "the world's leading technology companies as well as innovative start-ups as they talk/ showcase their news and views". Now in its eighth year, the industry event runs 26 - 29 April 2010.
Our man in place on the West Coast, David Manners - Senior Components Editor on Electronics Weekly, and author of the Mannerisms blog - reports on all the stories emerging from the event.
2010
Thursday 29 April
Lattice Stops Investing In High-End FPGA
Lattice Semiconductor has decided to stop investing in the high density, high performance end of the FPGA industry to concentrate on the low and mid-range segments, according to Sean Riley, Lattice’s general manager for high density solutions, speaking to the Globalpress Summit Conference in Santa Cruz earlier this week.
The Price Of 4G Silicon Must Come Down Quickly
LTE silicon prices need to be driven down quickly if LTE is to enjoy a faster market adoption than 3G, according to Craig Miller, vice president for marketing and development at Sequans, speaking at the Globalpress Summit Conference in Santa Cruz today.
Samsung Taping Out 32nm Foundry Designs
Samsung has foundry customers taping out on 32nm and expects to be in risk production on 32nm in the next few month, Ana Hunter, Samsung's foundry vice president, told EW at the Globalpress Summit Conference in Santa Cruz earlier this week.
Wednesday 28 April
TSMC To Build Third GigaFab
TSMC is to start building its third GigaFab later this year. TSMC already has two GigaFabs each capable of running 100,000 wafers a month. Fab 15, the name of the third GigaFab, will also be able to run 100,000 wafers a month.
Gesture Recognition For Handhelds
At the Globalpress Summit Conference in Santa Cruz this week, Kionix, the MEMS sensor specialist which is a subsidiary of Rohm, introduced a software tool called Gesture Designer which can be used in handheld devices to sense gestures.
QuickLogic Sees Gold In Handheld Video
QuickLogic has verified its display enhancement and power saving ICs to work with OLEDs, according to CEO Andy Pease speaking at the Globalpress Summit Conference in Santa Cruz, earlier this week.
Tuesday 27 April
Altera Warns On Grey Market ICs
People should be extremely wary about buying ICs on the grey market, warns Altera, because grey market parts have been causing systems failures.
MEMS Needs To Be More Accessible
MEMS is one of the fastest growing industry segments in the world, set to almost double in revenues from $2.7bn last year to $4.8bn this year, the MEMS panel at the Globalpress Summit Conference in Santa Cruz was told today by Gartner's research director, Stephan Ohr.
Gennum Delivers 3D
Gennum, the Canadian video broadcast, telecommunications, networking and storage specialist, is looking to 3D for a big boost to revenues and profits, Martin Rofheart, senior vp for analogue and mixed signal at Gennum told the Globalpress Summit Conference in Santa Cruz today.
Ascendant Has Concerns Over UK Investment Trend
UK and Ireland high-tech investment figures for Q1 2010 look good on the surface, but hide disturbing trends, according to Ascendant, the technology-focused investment company.
Altera Introduces Stratix V Design Software
Next month, Altera will release its Quartus 2 design software for Stratix V, the company's 28nm FPGA family, said Danny Biran, senior vp of marketing at Altera, in a keynote address at the Globalpress Summit Conference in Santa Cruz yesterday.
'Bell Swoosh' Is The Pattern Of Semiconductor Recovery
The 'Bell Swoosh' will determine the pattern of the semiconductor industry recovery, according to Dave Bell, CEO of Intersil in a talk to the Globalpress Summit Conference in Santa Cruz today.
2009
Thursday 2 April 2009
Actel starts move to 65nm
Actel has started the process of migrating its flash-based programmable logic chips to a new generation of process.
Gennum's Bishop's Stortford design centre to grow
The Gennum/Tundra merger will have only positive effects on the Gennum design centre in Bishop's Stortford.
How bad are things in Silicon Valley? CEOs differ
According to Steve Sanghi, CEO of Microchip Technology: "Shipments running to catch up with real demand can look like growth." After that there is a lot of hard work in real demand creation."
Wednesday 1 April 2009
Optimising both static and dynamic power is key to low-power ICs - Rhines
The growth of power consumption in electronics products is growing at 35 per cent a year and server farms are consuming 60bn kilowatt/hours a year and growing at 50 per cent. Something has to be done, said Wally Rhines, CEO of Mentor Graphics, opening the third day of the Globalpress Summit Conference in San Francisco today.
Kionix unveils Tri-Axis accelerometer
Kionix, the 16 year-old New York-based MEMs company, announced a tri-axis accelerometer at Globalpress Summit Conference in San Francisco.
Few disagreements on 4G licensing, says Qualcomm
4G will not be bedeviled with the same kind of legal disputes which marred the roll-out of 3G, according to Michael Mamaghani, director of marketing at Qualcomm.
Tuesday 31 March 2009
Canada's No.1 semiconductor company to be formed in May
Canada's biggest semiconductor company will be created in May by the proposed merger of Gennum and Tundra, the Globalpress Summit Conference in San Francisco was told this morning.
Tensilica launches universal digital broadcast processor core
A processor core which can run all the world's digital broadcasting standards has been produced by the custom processor company Tensilica, and it has been designed into SOCs by five out of the top ten semiconductor companies.
Programmables flag in battle with ASIC
Is programmable logic stuck in a niche? Or has it got a whole new future in the consumer market? Much of the first day of the Globalpress Summit Conference in San Francisco yesterday was devoted to the prospects for the sector.
MEMS market about to take off
Every semiconductor company will have to move into MEMS, but process standardisation permitting foundry manufacturing is a long way off, a panel on the first day of the Globalpress Summit Conference in San Francisco concluded yesterday.
Monday 30 March 2009
Altera by-passing 32nm, moving direct to 28nm, says CEO
Altera is moving directly to 28nm, by-passing the 32nm node, according to John Daane, CEO of Altera, speaking to the Globalpress Summit in San Francisco today.
2008
The event ran 31 March to 3 April in 2008, and the following is the record of last year's conference...
Friday 4 April 2008
Sensor Platforms targets motion and location for CE products
Using cheap sensors to add cost-effective location and motion capabilities to consumer products is the business of the Silicon Valley company Sensor Platforms.
Polyfuel bids to speed time to market for laptop fuel cells
By the end of this year, fuel-cell membrane specialist Polyfuel expects to complete a reference design for fuel cells which should accelerate the time to market for fuel cells for laptops.
Grids to the rescue of 45nm IC designs - Tela Innovations
Tela Innovations says it can help IC designs at 45nm by adjusting the structure of a design to fit a pre-determined shape, the Globalpress Summit Conference in San Francisco was told yesterday.
CMOS IC generates its own frequencies on-chip - Mobius
Mobius Microsystems of Sunnyvale, California, a spin-out from the University of Michigan in 2004, announced a CMOS IC which generates its own frequencies on-chip at the Globalpress Summit Conference in San Francisco yesterday.
Thursday 3 April 2008
AMCC boasts of OTN leadership
"AMCC will be the absolute, unequivocal leader in OTN" (optical transport networks), declares AMCC CEO Kambiz Hooshmand at the Globalpress Summit Conference in San Francisco yesterday.
MTI Micro aims for fuel cell first
US firm MTI Micro Fuel Cells intends to be first to bring a fuel cell product to the market with a direct methanol-based device next year which will allow you to recharge a mobile phone seven times before it needs a top-up of methanol.... more
EDA industry broken - CEO of eSilicon
The EDA industry's business model is broken, which accounts for the financial difficulties being experienced in the sector, according to Jack Harding, CEO of eSilicon and a former CEO of EDA market leader Cadence, speaking at the Globalpress Summit Conference in San Francisco, yesterday.
Hamster power or FPGAs to solve US energy crisis
Hamsters could be the answer to the excessive use of energy by the US, it was stated at the Globalpress Summit Conference in San Francisco, on April Fool's day.
Wednesday 2 April 2008
EDA tools heading for generational break down - Mentor
EDA tools are about to break down, according to Wally Rhines, CEO of leading EDA tools supplier Mentor Graphics. "We're always talking about new technologies, but adoption takes a long time because engineers become comfortable with their design tools and design flow."
Synplicity and Synopsys aim for synchronicity
Synplicity will bring to Synopsys a capability in the FPGA market which Synopsys has long sought but not yet developed, and a capability in rapid prototyping which Synplicity has made its speciality.
Tuesday 1 April 2008
The Return of the ASIC
The Return of the ASIC was predicted by the CEO of eASIC, Ronnie Vashista at the Globalpress Summit Conference in San Francisco yesterday.
How will Intel address the multi-core problem?
Intel's business strategy may be under threat from a technological problem which was described as 'perhaps unsolvable' at a technical conference in San Francisco this week.
Xilinx launches Virtex-5 FXT 65nm platform
Xilinx launched the last of its four 65nm platform FPGA products in the Virtex-5 family at the Globalpress Summit Conference in San Francisco yesterday.
Mobile phone projector shows 2.5m display
A tiny colour display projector suitable for use in a mobile phone has been demonstrated by US firm Microvision at the Globalpress Summit Conference in San Francisco this week.
ON Semi reveals plans for AMI business
Following the takeover of AMI Semiconductor by ON Semiconductor, ON is developing the AMI product line and finding product synergies.
UWB fabless semiconductor start-up ships first products
Pulse-Link, the UWB (ultra-wide band) fabless semiconductor start-up, is shipping its first products.
Monday 31 March 2008
Xilinx CEO: FPGA industry at a turning point
The programmable logic industry needs to change to a model where customers, rather than technology, drive product development, according to Moshe Gavrielov, the new CEO and president of Xilinx opening the 6th Globalpress Electronics Summit in San Francisco today.
(Picture - http2007, under Creative Commons Attribution Licence)