Finance

Strategic action is urgently needed if the UK is to maintain its position as a global knowledge-based economy in mobile communications over the next decade, according to a report from the DTI Global Watch Mission. The mission, which visited China and Korea, found that there was a difference from the UK in “the scale of funding and research exploitation”, although ...

The conclusion reached by last month’s discussion event on the ‘Future of the UK Electronics Industry’, organised by industry body Intellect, was that: “The UK must focus on retaining the design and specification of future products and systems.” Little wonder, therefore, that electronics activities in the UK are under pressure, when the industry’s representative body, or at least the chairman ...

September chip sales pulled through for Q3, despite evidence of ongoing inventory correction in some segments, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). The quarter’s sales were $55.2bn, an increase of 27.4 per cent from Q3 2003 and up 3.2 per cent sequentially from Q2’s $53.5bn. Worldwide sales for the first nine months of the year reached $157.6bn, an increase of ...

Bristol start-up Phyworks is opening a design office in Swindon with the aim of attracting engineers from along the M4 corridor. The firm plans to recruit an additional ten designers experienced in analogue and mixed signal design. Creating a new design team was easier than attracting staff to Bristol, said Phyworks, hence the Swindon move. Leading the Swindon team will ...

The year 2004 will bring record sales of $214bn for the semiconductor industry, but next year will remain essentially flat. That’s according to the annual forecast from the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), released this week. Sales in 2006 will grow by 6.3 per cent and in 2007 by 15.2 per cent to $259bn. The SIA forecast an 11.8 per cent ...

This year’s second half slowdown will continue into 2005, World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) has reported. The industry group said it expects the world semiconductor market to reach $212.8bn this year, an increase of 28 per cent over 2003’s $166.4bn. But while growth was stronger than expected in the first half, Q3 shipments suggest an earlier than expected deceleration in ...

The failure of the UK’s Beagle 2 Mars Lander can be traced to a lack of Government financial support, according to a report by the Science and Technology Select Committee. The all-party committee said the mission’s failure stemmed from the Government’s unwillingness to commit funding early enough and the failure of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the UK Government to ...

PCB layout software that allows several designers to work simultaneously on one board has been developed by Mentor Graphics. XtremePCB, said John Isaac, director of market development at Mentor, allows “multiple layout designers to work on the same design at the same time, affecting the same database”. Changes made by one designer are immediately reflected on the screens of all ...

National Semiconductor has lowered its revenue expectations for its second business quarter. The new guidance for the quarter calls for revenues to range from $445m to $450m, down about 18 per cent to 19 per cent sequentially. During its Q1 earnings conference call the analogue semiconductor supplier had forecast revenues for Q2 to be down 8 per cent to 10 ...

Shanghai, China’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) reported that its third quarter sales reached $274.9m, up 157 per cent over Q3 2003 and up 24 per cent from Q2. During its earnings call to discuss these results, the foundry also announced it has struck a deal with Texas Instruments to produce 90nm logic wafers. Income from operations increased 16.9 per ...