GSA Membership News

As printed in the June 2008 issue of GSA Forum

Advanced Analogic Technologies (NASDAQ: AATI) announced the AAT1153, a 1.2MHz constant frequency, current mode step-down converter capable of delivering up to 2A of output current.

Akros Silicon announced the industry's first powered device (PD) controller, implementing the 2-event physical layer classification functionality of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.3at standard (Draft 2.0).

Alchip Technologies licensed the ARM926EJ-S™ processor, fabric intellectual property (IP) and ARM physical IP to advance system-on-chip (SOC) design solutions to its customers worldwide.

Altera's (NASDAQ: ALTR) new zero-power MAX® IIZ complex programmable logic device (CPLD) received Portable Design's 2008 Editor's Choice Award in the programmable logic category and Electronic Products China's Product of the Year Award.

Analog Devices (NYSE: ADI) expanded its power management offerings with the industry's most accurate low-voltage monitoring and sequencing ICs. Leveraging ADI's precision analog design techniques, the new ADM1184 and ADM1186 quad voltagemonitor and sequencer ICs are twice as precise as competing devices, offering best-in-class accuracy (<±0.8%).

Aspex's Q family of multi-channel highdefinition (HD) video transcoding chips deliver flexible, studio-quality transcoding at consumer price points, supporting advanced codecs, such as H.264 and VC-1, at resolutions up to 1080p60. Q chips are suitable for integration into a wide range of consumer equipment such as advanced set-top boxes, home gateways, digital media adapters, digital video recorders (DVRs), HD DVD/Blu-ray recorders, HD camcorders and high-end TVs.

Azul Systems announced a comprehensive program targeting business-to-consumer (B2C) customers that helps accelerate their Web portal applications performance by 5X while reducing the traditional server footprint by 5X.

Broadcom (NASDAQ: BRCM) demonstrated Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI) host bus adapter (HBA) functionality on its 10-gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) controller at the Storage Networking World Conference.

Two of Cirrus Logic's (NASDAQ: CRUS) high-precision analog ICs were selected from hundreds of nominees and named as award finalists in the top analog IC categories from two respected semiconductor publications: EDN magazine and EE Times.

Cyan Holdings Plc (AIM: CYAN) launched the eCOG1XE01A6, an entry-level subset of Cyan's eCOG1X microcontroller (MCU) family. The eCOG1XE01A6 offers 64Kbyte Flash memory and retains the most commonly used peripheral blocks of the eCOG1X family.

Cypress Semiconductor (NYSE: CY) and HI-TECH Software released version 9.61 of the HI-TECH C® PRO compiler for the Programmable System-on-Chip™ (PSoC®) mixedsignal array family. The new compiler is compatible with both PSoC Designer™ and PSoC Express™ development tools from Cypress.

DS2 was named a finalist of Red Herring 100 Europe, an award given each year to the top 100 private technology companies based in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Elonics released its E4000 CMOS radio frequency (RF) silicon tuner, the first product to incorporate its proprietary DigitalTune™ technology.

Freescale Semiconductor has developed an Internet protocol camera reference design, based on the i.MX27 multimedia applications processor, to address the growing video surveillance market, as Internet protocol network cameras transition from analog to digital.

GCT Semiconductor announced the world's first highly integrated single-chip solution, GDM7215, supporting mobile Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) (IEEE 802.16e WAVE 2) and Wi-Fi (802.11b/g).

Gennum (TSX: GND) introduced the industry's first re-timed repeater solution that integrates a clock and data recovery (CDR). The low-power, four-channel GN1406 device supports PCI Express (PCIe) 2.0 and Infiniband, and combines the Gennum ClearEdge™ CDR and high-gain equalization technologies.

Hifn (NASDAQ: HIFN) announced a partnership with Cofio Software to create advanced virtual tape library (VTL) solutions for small and medium enterprise customers.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) unveiled a new initiative to bring even more features and functions to mobile devices as they continue to rival the PC as the primary tool for Web-based business, education, communication, entertainment and more. IBM's India research program will entail a number of efforts to bring simple, easy-to-use services to the millions of people in the world who have bypassed using the PC as their primary method of accessing technology, and are instead using their mobile phone to access the Web, conduct financial transactions, entertain themselves, shop and more.

INCIDE S.A. introduced NCD2000, the newest device in a family of programmable capacitor ICs designed for capacitance trimming on RF systems. With non-volatile programmability, the NCD2000 addresses virtually any frequency control and oscillation circuit that requires tuning and trimming, using variable capacitors down to a few femtofarads of resolution.

Infineon Technologies AG (NYSE: IFX) became the first semiconductor maker to pledge its full support for a European Commission automotive safety initiative when it signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU).

Inphi's INSSTE32882-GS04 double data rate (DDR3) registered clock driver is the industry's only solution that has passed validation, qualification and manufacturing readiness testing compliant to industry-standard qualification requirements as defined by the Joint Electron Devices Engineering Committee (JEDEC) standard JESD47.

Integrated Device Technology's (NASDAQ: IDTI) PCIe switching products have been selected by NEC for use in its NX7700i integrated enterprise servers (5080H-64, 5040H- 32 and 5020M-16).

Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) and Telefónica agreed to expand the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and broadband Internet access for consumers and businesses in Latin America.

Millinet has chosen Intellon's (NASDAQ: ITLN) INT5500 and INT6300 ICs to enable inhome distribution of KT's (formerly Korea Telecom) MegaTV-branded Internet protocol television (IPTV) services over phone lines in homes throughout South Korea.

International Rectifier (NYSE: IRF) introduced the IR3502 XPhase® control IC for Intel's VR11.0 and VR11.1 processors. The IR3502 provides overall system control and interfaces with any number of International Rectifier's XPhase® phase ICs, each driving and monitoring a single phase.

Intersil (NASDAQ: ISIL) released the ISL78100, a high-power integrated light-emitting diode (LED) driver designed for display backlighting and body electronics applications. The ISL78100 is designed specifically to withstand harsh automotive environments.

Jacket Micro Devices announced that laminate-based RF system-in-package (SiP) products made with its patented multi-layer organic (MLO) process have passed JEDEC reliability qualification testing. The MLO substrates and the modules assembled are lead (Pb) free and Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS)-compliant. LSI (NYSE: LSI) signed a definitive agreement to acquire the hard disk drive (HDD) semiconductor business of Infineon Technologies AG.

MagnaChip Semiconductor began shipping its MC511DB, a 1.3-megapixel, 1/4-inch CMOS image sensor SOC, for use in toys.

Mellanox Technologies (NASDAQ: MLNX) expanded the Mellanox Cluster Center with Vulcan, a high-performance compute environment, based on Mellanox's industryleading ConnectX™ interconnect adapters and Quad-Core AMD Opteron™ processors. The Mellanox Cluster Center provides customers, partners and independent software vendors with the ability to qualify, benchmark and optimize high-performance enterprise and storage applications.

Metalink (NASDAQ: MTLK) announced that independent interoperability tests conducted by octoScope placed the company's WLANPlus™ as the industry's highest performing 802.11n chipset.

MetaRAM launched DDR2 MetaSDRAM™, a new memory technology that significantly increases server and workstation performance, while dramatically decreasing the cost of highperformance systems.

Micronas (SWX: MASN) introduced the first member of the HAL 28xy sensor family, the HAL 2810. It is the first linear Hall effect sensor to include a programmable MCU and a local interconnect network (LIN) bus 2.0 interface.

Microsemi (NASDAQ: MSCC) released a new 500W power transistor for TACAN avionics transmitters. The TAN500 provides 500W of output power at 960MHz to 1215MHz with 10 microseconds, 10% pulsing from a maximum input power of 70W.

Mobius Microsystems released the first product to utilize the company's patented CMOS Harmonic Oscillator™ (CHO™) technology. The MM8511 device is designed to fulfill the industry's need to address system-level electromagnetic interference (EMI) issues with a single, highly accurate frequency source.

Tower Semiconductor ramped-up production of N-trig's A-trig and D-trig, the newest digitizer chipset to be integrated in original equipment manufacturers' (OEM) computer systems.

NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) became a founding member of Stanford University's new pervasive parallelism lab (PPL). The PPL will develop new techniques, tools and training materials to allow software engineers to harness the parallelism of the multiple processors that are already available in virtually every new computer.

NXP Semiconductors and Siemens Mobility will collaborate to develop NXP's new automotive telematics on-board unit platform (ATOP) into a “single-chip, on-board unit” system based on global positioning system (GPS) and Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). Once it is ready for the market, it is intended for use in private vehicles.

Octasic launched a voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) digital signal processing (DSP) channel on Technology Marketing's (TMC) TMCnet. The VoIP DSP channel promotes DSP silicon devices and software solutions, as companies, such as Octasic, have become increasingly important for the converged carrier, enterprise and end-point communication equipment markets.

OmniVision Technologies (NASDAQ: OVTI) and Mobilygen announced the availability of a ready-to-build secure digital (SD) Internet protocol camera reference design for lightsensitive applications in the security and surveillance markets.

Optichron demonstrated initial compliance with the provisional new Third-Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) specifications for multi-carrier GSM base stations by using their current generation of proprietary digital nonlinear signal processing components.

Phyworks announced a fully 10GBASE LRM-compliant serial retiming receiver with electronic dispersion compensation (EDC). Manufactured on a CMOS process, this secondgeneration EDC chip offers a more powerful equalizer, is smaller in size and is easier to integrate with other devices.

PLX Technology (NASDAQ: PLXT) announced its next-generation family of PCIe switches targeting Gen 2 connectivity in highperformance control plane applications, building on the company's industry-first Gen 1 chip family. The new PLX® ExpressLane™ PCIe Gen 2 control plane switch family includes three chips, which represent key configurations specified by leading telecommunications and networking designers.

PMC-Sierra (NASDAQ: PMCS) and Hitachi Global Storage Technologies successfully achieved interoperability between PMC-Sierra's end-to-end 6Gbs Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) chipsets and Hitachi's 6Gbs SAS prototype HDDs. PMC-Sierra's 6Gbs SAS chipsets include the Tachyon® SPC 8x6G SAS protocol controller, the SRC 8x6G redundant arrays of inexpensive disks (RAID)-on-chip controller and maxSAS™ SXP 36/24x6GSec expander switches.

Powerchip Semiconductor (TSEC: 5346) held ceremonies for its fourth and fifth 12-inch fabs – P4 and P5. The construction of these two 12-inch fabs in the Hsinchu Science Park will entail a total investment of NT$250 billion, creating 3,600 job opportunities.

Sky Link and Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) signed an agreement to commercially launch BREW® wireless data services in 31 regions of the Russian Federation, as well as in countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Eastern Europe.

QuickLogic's (NASDAQ: QUIK) A r c t i c L i n k ™ solution platform was named a winner of Portable Design's 2008 Editor's Choice Award.

Redpine Signals and Applied Micro Circuits successfully integrated Redpine's Lite-Fi™ 802.11n silicon solution on AMCC's PowerPC® 405EXr evaluation platform.

RF Micro Devices (NASDAQ: RFMD) introduced the ML2726 industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) band transceiver. The ML2726 is a low-power, low-intermediate frequency (IF) frequency shift key (FSK) transceiver designed for operation in the license-free 2.4GHz ISM band.

Semtech (NASDAQ: SMTC) qualified its power discrete family listed under performance specification sheet /420K. This is the highest level of quality under MIL-PRF-19500 and qualifies the parts for use in military and commercial space applications.

Skyworks Solutions (NASDAQ: SWKS) announced key design wins and production ramps for its growing line of power amplifiers (PAs), synthesizers, switches and silicon voltagecontrolled oscillators (VCOs). These products uniquely enhance the performance of analog solutions that are available on the market today.

Solid State Devices introduced three new JEDEC-registered silicon rectifiers, the 1N7066, 1N7067 and 1N7068. These hyperfast recovery rectifiers (trr = 30ns) exhibit an average forward current of 10A, a surge current of 300A max and a range of 50V to 150V.

STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM) increased the on-chip Flash capacity of its STR91xFA ARM966E-S-based MCU family by introducing 1.1Mbyte and 2.1Mbyte variants, delivering higher memory density than any other ARM9- or ARM7-TDMI-based standard MCU currently available.

Thomson (PAR: TMS; NYSE: TMS) contributed to the launch of Eurosport's leading pan-European sports TV channel in HD. A large Thomson Grass Valley™ K2™ storage area network (SAN) based around multiple K2 media server systems will support the operation.

Toshiba (TSE: 6502) started sample shipping the SpursEngine™ SE1000, a high-performance stream processor integrating four synergistic processing element (SPE) cores derived from the Cell Broadband Engine™ (Cell B.E.).

TriQuint Semiconductor (NASDAQ: TQNT) began shipping production GaAs monolithic microwave ICs to Lockheed Martin Radar Systems for the manufacture of EQ-36 counterfire target acquisition radars being developed for the U.S. Army. TriQuint devices are used as chipset components in the new phased-array radar designed to identify, track and help neutralize threats posed by mortars, artillery and missiles under rapidly changing battlefield conditions.

Vimicro International (NASDAQ: VIMC) shipped more than five million VC0336 Web camera embedded processors, the most advanced Web camera processor in the market for high-end notebook PCs.

Vitesse Semiconductor's (OTC: VTSS.PK) chipset for SFP+ applications, the VSC7878 10Gbps linear TIA and VSC7987 10Gbps limiting post amplifier, has entered into full production.

ViXS Systems and China Digital TV announced an ultra-secure, PC-based digital TV capture solution and conditional access PCI card co-developed by the two companies. This product will be the first PC capture card with enhanced security available in the Chinese market.

Wolfson Microelectronics (LSE: WLF) won a coveted 2008 Editor's Choice Award from Portable Design magazine for its WM8350 integrated audio and power management solution.

Xilinx (NASDAQ: XLNX) introduced the Virtex®-5 SX240T device to its award-winning 65nm Virtex-5 SXT field-programmable gate array (FPGA) platform optimized for highperformance DSP. With up to 528GMACs of multiply-and-accumulate performance and over 190GFLOPS of single-precision, floating-point DSP performance, the new device offers developers of broadcast video, medical imaging, wireless communication, defense and highperformance computing applications the world's highest performing reconfigurable DSP solution.

XMOS Semiconductor announced its first family of programmable chips. The XS1-G product family comprises three devices offering a choice of one, two or four of the company's XCore™ event-driven, multi-threaded processor tiles and are priced at $1 to $10 in volume.

ZeroG Wireless is collaborating with Microchip Technology to co-develop Wi-Fi solutions for users of Microchip's Programmable Intelligent Computer® (PIC®) MCUs. ZeroG's Wi-Fi chips are architected to meet the needs of embedded system designers, enabling simple and cost-effective design-in of Wi-Fi connectivity with a wide variety of processors.

Zilker Labs introduced the industry's most adaptive direct current-direct current (DC-DC) power controllers for maximizing efficiency in power-constrained applications. The ZL2006 and ZL2004 are the next generation of the company's innovative digital-DC technology products.