June 2010 Archives

The UK's business culture of late payment of bills has received a boost from Dell who have, according to The Forum of Private Business, extended the time it will take to pay bills from 50 days to 65 days giving the excuse of  'current economic conditions'.

Thanks to the New York Times and Marginal Revolution for this one - the ten states most likely to default on their debts.

Having gone mano a mano with foreign regulators, Intel now seems very keen to get its get its US-based regulatory issues settled without any official judgment.

'A new 10 cm klystron, developed by Mullard, develops a peak power output up to 10 megawatts with a power gain in excess of 50dB. It is among the largest tubes of its kind in the world.'

So, 50 years ago this year, starts a story in Electronics Weekly's edition of September 21^st 1960.

'It comes to my attention that we're being ripped off. Our chips are being faked and sold for a fraction of the price we sell them for. This requires immediate action', runs an entry in Ed's diary.

Those private equity so-and-sos are back again. Luke Collins kindly points out an article in the New York Times which says the PE companies have amassed $500 billion with which they wish to wreak their particular brand of misery on unfortunate companies.

In 1923 this was one of the songs sung by the dons and undergraduates after dinner at Cambridge University's Cavendish Laboratory.

There was once a company which fell on hard times. Things were so bad for it that the company which had done more than any other to kill it off - then one of the five most valuable companies in America - invested $150 million in the impoverished company just to keep it going.

I am assured that an innovative fiscal initiative employed by Henry I in 1124 retains the force of legal precedent, and could be resurrected by Chancellor George Osborne to help in his efforts to prevent a repetition of the credit crunch.

The chip upturn is following its traditional pattern - inventory levels remain low, double ordering appears common, lead times are lengthening and capacity is straining to keep up with demand..

With 2010 looking like being one of the best, if not the best-ever, growth year for the semiconductor industry - with growth projected of anything from +30% to +40% - my thanks go to IC Insights for this: The ten best growth years in the history of the semiconductor industry.

Diversification is a wonderful thing. Now that TSMC is in the solar business through the 20% stakes it has bought in Motech and Stion, the company has said it will power a couple of fabs with solar energy.

'Fish are noisy eaters, according to Fred Methner, a Berlin amateur diver who has made a hobby of recording fish sounds on tape through a special underwater microphone developed by a German firm.'

So, 50 years ago this year, started a story in Electronics Weekly's edition of September 21^st 1960.

'Our vp of engineering stormed in first thing this morning. "The engineering staff are up in arms", he told me, "they're completely pissed off that their access to the IEEE's scientific and technical articles has been shut down."'

In the 1950s, Tsugio Makimoto, was sent by his employer, Hitachi, to pursue graduate research at Stanford University in California.

Watching the BP fiasco I can't but wonder: Do these BP guys get out enough?

There was once a very successful company in the computer industry which wanted to diversify into the communications industry.

One of the insidious effects of the private equity industry has been to warp the values of good managers. Suddenly, these guys scent an opportunity to get rich beyond their dreams.

PRS For Music, which used to be called The Performing Rights Society, has been monitoring music use to collect royalties since the early 1990s. Part of its brief is to monitor karaoke usage. According to PRS For Music the most popular songs sung, over the years,  by UK karaoke enthusiasts are:

Investigations into Intel-related shenanigans have thrown up some brilliant emails - as we found at the EC anti-trust investigation. Now the New York Attorney-General's investigation into Dell-Intel irregularities have revealed some even better ones according to the New York Times.

'Sir,

Dr H Motz, in his article 'Britain Can Lead In Communications' states that microwaves were first used in radar'.

So starts a letter written 50 years ago this year, published in Electronics Weekly's edition of September 21^st 1960.

'Oh dear', Ed confides to his diary, 'I seem to have incurred a bill of £200,000 for banking services which the CFO is refusing to pay as unauthorised by the board.'

When Bob Noyce, Gordon Moore and Andy Grove left Fairchild to found Intel in June 1968, it is commonly assumed they ripped the heart out of the IC industry's greatest company which thereupon entered a period of decline. That's not the way Fairchild's new CEO, Les Hogan, brought in from Motorola Semiconductors, saw things.

There was once a direct descendant from a married couple who sailed on the Mayflower who was a genius and co-inventor of one of the most important scientific achievements of the 20^th century for which he won the Nobel Prize.

How long can Intel hold onto its crown as the world's largest semiconductor company? 

When TI said it was going to turn over a 300mm Texas fab to making analogue ICs, the decision was hailed as a masterly move to bring down the cost of producing analogue chips.

Thanks to VLSI Research for this one - the top ten suppliers of manufacturing equipment to the semiconductor industry.

Why do people buy Bordeaux en primeur?  I see the en primeur piece for 2009 Lafite is £4000 a case whereas you can buy bottles of 1990 - mature, ready-to-drink-now Lafite - for £300 a bottle.

'Organic semiconductors promise to be one of the biggest growth areas in electronics during the next few years. This is the conclusion of a report by the US Department of Commerce.'

So starts a story, 50 years ago this year, in Electronics Weekly's edition of September 21^st 1960.

'The VCs are on at me again about sacking the marketing VP', writes Ed in his diary, 'they're always on at me about sacking the marketing VP. They don't understand our technology, our products or our markets but they think they understand about marketing - everyone thinks they understand about marketing.'

NXP's sale of its wireless business to ST appears to be the deal of the decade. In 2008, ST was making about half a billion dollars a quarter in wireless IC sales.

When Jack Gifford, the irrepressible founder of Maxim, who sadly died last year, was to be fired from Intersil, where he headed up the company's biggest revenue and profit division, the Chairman of Intersil, Fred Adler, went about things in a way which would give compliance-conscious modern HR departments an absolute fit.

Thirty years ago this year, a chip company set out to increase its sales.

An interesting thought comes from that wise old owl Will Strauss, CEO of  Arizona wireless analysts Forward Concepts: Will Intel buy Icera?

National self-perceptions die hard. Ever since the mid-1980s, the Japanese have seen themselves as kings of consumer electronics. Has last week's success of the iPad in Japan changed that perception?

Thanks to IC Insights for this one. With the NAND and DRAM markets running crazy there have been some shae-ups in the ranks of the Top Ten while Samsung goes marching on narrowing the gap between itself and Intel. Here they are: The top ten  IC companies in Q1 2010:

On Friday, Her Majesty the Queen will launch 'Dreadnought', the Royal Navy's first nuclear powered submarine. The launch will take place at Vickers-Armstrong's  Barrow-in-Furness shipyard'

So, 50 years ago this year, a story started in Electronics Weekly's edition of October 19^th 1960.