Zilog has reported results for its 2007 fiscal year third quarter ended.

Zilog has reported results for its 2007 fiscal year third quarter ended 30th December 2006. Sales for the quarter were US $20.7 million, an 18% increase over sales of $17.6 million for the comparable period a year ago and a decrease from sales of $21.2 million for the immediately preceding quarter. The increase in sales from a year ago reflects continued growth in new product sales including embedded Flash MCU and universal remote control solutions.

Embedded Flash sales were $3.6 million for the quarter, an increase of 89% from the comparable quarter a year ago, reflecting growth in the health and fitness and digital communications markets.

Additionally, net sales of universal remote control solutions including the Crimzon family of solutions increased 38% as compared with the third fiscal quarter a year ago, reflecting growth in the home entertainment and consumer gaming markets.

‘We were pleased that we exceeded the high-end of our previous sales guidance range this quarter, in a period that is seasonally challenging for us due to our high concentration of consumer market products’.

‘We continue to experience strong demand for our new embedded Flash and universal remote control solutions’, stated Perry Grace, Zilog’s Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

‘Additionally, after an extensive recruiting search we were excited to announce the addition of Darin Billerbeck to the management team as the new Chief Executive Officer and as a member of the Board of Directors’.

‘Darin’s extensive industry experience including that at Intel where he most recently managed a flash business, will allow us to continue to refine our market focus and strategy’, added Grace.

GAAP gross margin for the quarter was 47% of sales as compared with 46% of sales in the preceding quarter and 45% of sales for the comparable period a year ago.

The company reported adjusted EBITDA of positive $0.3 million in the quarter as compared with positive $0.2 million in the preceding quarter and negative $1.8 million in the third fiscal quarter a year ago.

GAAP net loss for the quarter was $1.6 million or 10 cents per share as compared with a GAAP net loss of $2.3 million or 14 cents per share in the previous quarter and a GAAP net loss of $3.1 million or 19 cents per share in the third fiscal quarter a year ago.

The net loss for the quarter includes special charges of $0.1 million, noncash charges for amortisation of intangibles of $0.3 million and FAS 123R stock-based compensation charges of $0.4 million.

On a non-GAAP basis (excluding special charges, amortisation of intangible assets and charges for stock-based compensation expense) the company reported a net loss for the third fiscal quarter of $0.8 million or 5 cents per share as compared with a non-GAAP net loss of $0.7 million or 4 cents per share in the previous quarter and a loss of $2.2 million or 13 cents per share for the third fiscal quarter a year ago.

Sales for the nine months ended 30th December 2006 were $62.9 million, an increase of 7% as compared with $58.7 million for the comparative nine month period a year ago.

GAAP net loss for the nine months ended 30th December 2006 was $5.4 million or 33 cents per share as compared with a GAAP net loss of $14.0 million or 86 cents per share for the nine months ended 31st December 2005.

The company shipped approximately 900 development tool kits for the quarter, bringing total tool kits shipped since the introduction of its integrated embedded Flash MCUs to over 39,000.

Additionally, the company added another 116 new embedded Flash silicon customers in the quarter, taking the cumulative increase in customers to more than 2900 since introduction.

Atmel Corp has announced unaudited selected financial results for the fourth quarter.

Atmel Corp has announced unaudited selected financial results for the fourth quarter and year ended 31st December 2006. All revenues exclude those provided by the Company’s Grenoble subsidiary which was sold in July 2006. Revenues, excluding Grenoble, for the fourth quarter of 2006 totalled US $408.9 million, a sequential decrease of 5% compared with the $429.4 million reported in the third quarter of 2006, and a 4% increase compared with the $394.3 million reported in the fourth quarter of 2005.

Revenues, excluding Grenoble, for the year totalled $1.67 billion, representing a 7% increase over the $1.56 billion reported in 2005.

The company’s cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments totalled $466.7 million at 31st December 2006.

‘The fourth quarter was challenging as customers adjusted their ordering activity late in the quarter to balance their inventory levels’, stated Steven Laub, Atmel’s President and Chief Executive Officer.

‘The restructuring and cost-savings initiatives announced in December will help us successfully manage through the general market weakness that is expected to continue into the first quarter of 2007′.

‘Looking at the coming year and beyond, we are confident that our industry leading technology and new strategy will position Atmel for continued growth’.

‘Atmel’s balance sheet remains strong’.

‘Cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments were $466.7 million at year-end, an increase of $128.1 million over the $338.6 million at 31st December 2005′, said Robert Avery, Atmel’s Vice President Finance and Chief Financial Officer.

‘Additionally, our cash position, net of debt, grew by $347.1 million as we redeemed all outstanding convertible debt and generated cash from operations and from the sale of our Grenoble subsidiary’.

The company expects that for the first quarter of 2007 revenues will likely decline approximately 4-8% on a sequential basis as customers continue to work through current inventory levels.

NXP Semiconductors and Advanced Semiconductor Engineering are forming a joint venture in Suzhou, China focused on semiconductor testing and packaging.

NXP Semiconductors and Advanced Semiconductor Engineering have signed a memorandum of understanding to form a joint venture (JV) in Suzhou, China focused on semiconductor testing and packaging. It is planned that NXP will hold a 40% share and ASE will hold the remaining 60%. Terms of the agreement are subject to final negotiations between NXP and ASE and the receipt of necessary approvals from regulatory authorities.

No financial details will be disclosed.

The JV will serve the international and domestic Chinese markets, focusing on testing and packaging of a wide range of semiconductors in areas such as mobile communications, consumer electronics and automotive products.

As the new company will be located at NXP’s existing manufacturing site in Suzhou, China, the parties expect that the JV will be able to quickly and efficiently serve customers and meet the required fast time to market requirements necessary to compete in the high tech arena.

The JV is expected to begin operations in Q2 2007.

NXP will contribute its existing testing and packaging operation in Suzhou as its initial investment into the JV.

This JV does not affect the other testing and packaging sites for NXP in Asia and Europe.

‘We’re pleased to be able to strengthen our relationship with ASE through the formation of this JV and appreciate the willingness of governments to help in this regard’, said Ajit Manocha, Chief Manufacturing Officer, NXP Semiconductors.

‘The JV combines the expertise of both companies to provide high-quality, competitive products to address the needs of electronics manufacturers around the world’.

‘NXP has been a leader in semiconductors for more than 50 years, bringing a unique blend of innovative processes, manufacturing capabilities and advanced product development to the industry’, said Dr Tien Wu, Chief Operating Officer, ASE.

‘ASE is the world’s largest independent provider of IC packaging and testing services’.

Telephonics Corp subsidiary TLSI has appointed Actron as its new distributor for Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Telephonics Corp subsidiary TLSI has appointed Actron as its new distributor for Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Actron, with headquarters in Parsdorf (Munich), Germany has been representing top tier electronic component suppliers since 1977. ‘We look forward to the local support that will be provided to our customers by the experienced technical sales and applications team at Actron’, said Marshall Lacoff, Sr VP/General Manager of TLSI.

‘We envision growth in the Germany/Austria/Switzerland market for our application specific standard products (ASSPs), particularly in digital multimedia and networking applications with our line of high-performance, low cost VCXOs and logic translator ICs’, he continued.

Microcontrollers are designed for inverter control systems in products such as air conditioners, refrigerators and washing machines.

NEC Electronics has released six new microcontrollers (MCUs) for inverter control systems, designed for advanced motor control applications in products such as air conditioners, refrigerators and washing machines. The new devices feature high performance with advanced control functions for more precise motor control, as well as integration of formerly discrete components to help lower costs. The new offering includes four 100-pin V850E/IG3 MCUs and two 80-pin V850E/IF3 MCUs.

Compared with the company’s previous generation of inverter control MCUs, the devices feature a four-fold increase in resolution of the A/D convertor that detects motor rotation (4096 discrete values, 12bit) and an approximately six-fold increase in gain ratio - to 13 steps - of the operational amplifier (op amp) that adjusts the level of motor status signals.

The comparator that protects a system from motor faults can detect overvoltages, and also measure undervoltage with respect to a reference level.

Components that normally would have to be connected externally - including a voltage-generating regulator IC, a reset IC to initialise the microcontroller when it is powered on and a low-voltage indicator (LVI) circuit to detect low voltage - are integrated on chip.

With their enhanced performance and high integration, these new devices allow designers to achieve more precise inverter control, at lower costs and with fewer parts.

With the addition of these new devices, NEC Electronics now offers a comprehensive lineup of 214 all-Flash microcontrollers, ranging from compact and economical 8bit devices to high-performance 32bit models.

Combined sales of NEC Electronics’ 8bit 78K0 MCUs (including mask ROM devices) and 16bit 78K0R MCUs are expected to reach Y100 billion in fiscal year 2009.

Sales of NEC Electronics’ 32bit V850 microcontrollers are expected to reach the Y100 billion mark in fiscal year 2008.

Inverter control is widely used in the motors of large household appliances such as air conditioners, washing machines and refrigerators.

Manufacturers of these products are under intense pressure to cut costs even as they deliver more sophisticated appliances, creating a need for components that can enable more precise motor control at lower development costs.

These latest offerings from NEC Electronics are designed to do just that, and will reduce the development burden on appliance manufacturers and benefit consumers by enabling more sophisticated, eco-friendly products.

NEC Electronics’ 32bit V850/Ix3 microcontrollers use Superflash technology licensed from Silicon Storage Technology.

Samples of the V850E/IG3 are available now.

Pricing varies according to device specifications.

For example, NEC Electronics’ V850E/IG3 device with 256Kbyte Flash memory is priced at $10 for 1000-lot quantities.

Luminary Micro has closed 2006 with four industry media awards for its Stellaris family of microcontrollers - the world’s first silicon implementation of the ARM Cortex-M3 processor core.

Luminary Micro has closed 2006 with four industry media awards for its Stellaris family of microcontrollers - the world’s first silicon implementation of the ARM Cortex-M3 processor core. The awards are: Electronic Design, Technology of the Year; EDN, Hot 100 Products; EETimes/eeProductCenter, Q1 2006 Ultimate Product and finalist for 2006 Ultimate Product of the Year; and Embedded Computing Design, Editors’ Choice Award. Chief Marketing Officer Jean Anne Booth summed up the company’s early success.

‘Embedded systems developers simply prefer the ARM architecture’, said Booth.

‘ARM processors are currently shipping at a rate of greater than 2.5 billion processors per year, and the ARM ecosystem of silicon, tools, software, hardware, systems, and support is the largest in the world’.

‘The Stellaris family of MCUs provides the architectural compatibility that designers want, coupled with the price and performance that embedded applications need’.

‘We knew from the beginning that Stellaris would bring more bang for the buck to embedded applications, and we’re honoured that industry media and our peers have recognised us with the first of what we hope to be many awards’.

Anchor Bay today has secured $10 million in funding to support its continued expansion in the semiconductor space.

Anchor Bay today has secured $10 million in funding to support its continued expansion in the semiconductor space. New investor Atlantic Quantum led the funding round, joining existing investors Storm Ventures and Venrock Associates, who also participated in the round, demonstrating their continued support of Anchor Bay. Anchor Bay’s chips are used in all devices in the video signal chain, including source and display components.

Anchor Bay’s chip and system products ensure the highest-performance video quality on all high-resolution displays, regardless of the quality of the original content.

‘We are extremely pleased to have Atlantic Quantum lead this round of funding’.

‘The company has strict investment criteria and backs only semiconductor companies that have leading-edge technology, so it is gratifying to receive its support, along with Storm Ventures and Venrock Associates’, said Craig Soderquist, CEO at Anchor Bay.

‘This new financing allows us to meet our working capital needs as we expand our business, leveraging off of the numerous design wins our next-generation video processing chips have had with consumer-product manufacturers’.

‘With the surge in demand for high-quality, high-definition video, this is an exciting time to be a leader in technological innovation’.

Atlantic Quantum invests exclusively in the semiconductor and micro devices industries, with a focus on promising IC design and fabless semiconductor companies that can leverage their portfolio companies, enabling them to achieve design and foundry efficiencies.

‘We are very pleased to have led this round of funding for Anchor Bay’, said Henry Choo, COO and Vice President of Investments for Atlantic Quantum.

‘We see potential for dramatic growth in the video processing semiconductor space, and we have been fortunate enough to find a company that is leading the charge’.

Motorola and Texas Instruments are expanding their strategic relationship to include 3G, WiMAX and OMAP technologies in the design and development of new, experience-optimised mobile devices.

Motorola and Texas Instruments are expanding their strategic relationship to include 3G, WiMAX and OMAP technologies in the design and development of new, experience-optimised mobile devices. The expanded relationship covers current, emerging and next-generation wireless standards and leverages intellectual property from both Motorola and TI. As part of the expansion, Motorola is developing 3G handsets based on a TI customised 3G solution that will include high-performance, power-efficient processors from TI’s OMAP 3 architecture, as well as advanced, unique 3G and 3.5G building blocks from both Motorola and TI.

New handsets using this solution are expected to be available to consumers as early as 2008.

Additionally, TI is supporting Motorola’s mobile WiMAX initiative, including development of a customised Motorola WiMAX solution, and providing digital design elements, high-performance analogue components, RF solutions, and manufacturing process and fabrication expertise.

The solution will focus on core 802.16e mobile WiMAX functionality supporting voice, video and data for low-power mobile applications.

The solution will be manufactured in 65nm and is expected to be ready to support production of new mobile devices that Motorola plans to launch during 2008.

‘Motorola is working aggressively to design and deliver the world’s most comprehensive portfolio of mobile devices that unite market-leading ‘must have’ design with fully optimised and unmatched ‘must do’ experiences’, said Ron Garriques, Executive Vice President of Motorola and president of Motorola’s Mobile Devices business.

‘TI is a highly valued supplier, and I am excited about the opportunities that we are pursuing together’.

‘Both of our companies are proven pioneers of innovation’.

‘Through our close collaboration on chipset technology, Motorola has developed mobile devices that are not only feature rich and affordable but also aspirational’.

‘Today’s announcement significantly expands what Motorola will be bringing to market in the future’.

To meet the growing need for affordable multimedia-rich capabilities in handsets, Motorola has also selected solutions from TI’s OMAP 2 and OMAP 3 product portfolio and OMAP-VoxT family, including the OMAPV1035 GSM/GPRS/Edge single-chip solution from the ‘eCosto’ platform and the OMAPV1030 GSM/GPRS/Edge chipset.

Motorola plans to use the OMAPV1035 solution, which leverages TI’s innovative DRPT technology, in new low-cost multimedia mobile devices expected to be in the market in 2008.

Motorola also plans to use the OMAPV1030 chipset in new mid-range multimedia mobile devices expected to be in the market later this year.

‘Motorola is a market leader committed to delivering innovative handsets that address the growing wireless landscape’, said Rich Templeton, President and CEO of TI.

‘TI is delighted to expand its strong relationship with Motorola as we work closely with them to deliver the products and solutions they need’.

‘From 2.5G to 3G to the next generation of wireless standards such as WiMAX, Motorola’s diverse market requirements fit well with the depth and strength of TI’s proven product portfolio’.

Japanese researchers selected eASIC’s Nextreme family of 90nm structured ASIC devices for a unique system in package product.

Fukuoka Intelligent Cluster Laboratory for Emerging and Enabling Technology of SoC (FLEETS) selected eASIC’s Nextreme family of 90nm structured ASIC devices for its unique system in package (SiP) product. eASIC delivered to FLEETS on time the Nextreme product in both bare dice and packaged devices modes. FLEETS and eASIC have joined forces and combined their breakthrough technologies to enable rapid implementation of SIP system using a structured ASIC fabric, delivering flexibility and affordability for mass usage.

FLEETS choose eASIC’s Nextreme family due to its high performance, low power and ease-of-design features in addition to the advantages of no NRE and low unit cost.

The product being developed by FLEETS’ is of great significance, as SiP technology is challenging system-on-chip implementations as a high-level design strategy for selected wireless applications due to lengthening design cycles and other deep submicron issues.

The FLEETS team successfully resolved the SiP related manufacturing and design-tool issues and presented it as a viable solution on a configurable fabric.

The power of SiP is in the ability to bring together various IC, packaging and test technologies to create highly integrated products with optimised cost, size and performance.

‘FLEETS always looks for innovative technology and products that can provide a cost-effective and timely solution to cope with existing design challenges’, said Masato Tsuru, Science and Technology Co-Ordinator of FLEETS.

‘By using the fast turnaround Nextreme devices together with our SiP technologies, we were able to significantly speed up the product development cycle, achieving our target performance and moreover, saving the NRE cost’.

‘These benefits allowed us to get to market with a functioning board, on schedule and on budget’.

‘The powerful combination of ASIC product features with FPGA design flexibility, while eliminating NRE cost, makes Nextreme a perfect solution for Fukuoka Intelligent Cluster Laboratory’, said Salah Werfelli, eASIC Vice President of Customer Operations.

‘By removing the cost and time barriers of design entry, we allowed Fukuoka Intelligent Cluster Laboratory to take advantage of our innovative technology in order to develop their breakthrough SiP solution that can serve a wide range of users’.

‘Both companies aim to answer the customers’ critical needs and strive to allow for affordable semiconductor devices in order to further promote innovation and industry growth’.

‘We are pleased and honoured to help our customers gain leading positions in their market space and thereafter share the success’.

Zoran Corp President and CEO, Dr Levy Gerzberg, has been elected to serve a three-year term on the Board of Industry Leaders of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) beginning this January.

Zoran Corp President and CEO, Dr Levy Gerzberg, has been elected to serve a three-year term on the Board of Industry Leaders of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) beginning this January. CEA’s Board of Industry Leaders represents the organisation’s 2100 member companies. The group meets three times annually to review the state of the industry and determine CEA strategic goals to assist the industry and members.

The first meeting of 2007 was held during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where major manufacturers roll out the newest consumer electronics products.

‘I am pleased to be able to represent the semiconductor perspective and to assist the CEA in forming goals focused on improving both the products and the growth of the consumer electronics industry’, said Dr Gerzberg.

‘Zoran’s technology is the backbone to much of the Consumer Digital Ecosystem’.

‘We are working within our industry to give consumers what they want: affordable, easy-to-use connected consumer devices for their home, office and while travelling’.