tekHPoynt

T
he once most largest Semiconductor Company in the Philippines for over 30 years, INTEL Philippines Inc., is now closing down its Assembly and Test Operations.

There are about 6000 employees will be affected in the closure around the world and 2000 of them are employees from General Trias in Cavite, Philippines. There’s no clear timeline indicated in the closure, but definitely the company will stop it’s operations before the year ends.

The US-based chipmaker is operating in the Philippines for 35 years. The manufacturing facility was first built in Makati City in 1974, then transferred in Cavite. Intel is also reportedly shutting down due to weakened demand brought about by the current global economic downturn.

Economic crisis is not in the Philippines alone. Other countries even in America and even Obama’s proclamation as the new President isn’t in exemption.

Intel Corporation is the world’s largest semiconductor company and the inventor of the x86 series of microprocessors, the processors found in most personal computers.

Latest news in Singapore, however, Amkor Technology Singapore Pte, is also shutting down its operations by the end of this year because of very low production loading and its facility is not anymore contributing financial revenue to the whole company.

[ Read more... ]

A
pple on Monday(June 08, 2009) is expected to unveil a next-generation iPhone and possibly provide a glimpse at long-absent chief executive Steve Jobs as it kicks off a software developers conference in San Francisco.

The northern California maker of iPods, iPhones, and Macintosh computers has remained tight-lipped as usual about what announcements it has in store, but speculation and rumour are rampant.

"My gut tells me we are going to see a next-generation iPhone and Snow Leopard be the two stars of the announcements," Gartner analyst Van Baker said, referring to Apple's smartphone and a new Mac operating system.

"Steve may do a cameo, maybe, because there is strong evidence from multiple sources he is getting back to good health," he said.

However, "it wouldn't surprise me if he didn't show up; he doesn't want to upstage Phil (Schiller)," Baker added.

Schiller is a senior vice president of worldwide product marketing at Apple and is filling in for Jobs at the keynote presentation opening the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC).

Schiller went on stage in place of Jobs at a Macworld conference in San Francisco in January after Apple's renowned 54-year-old chief went on a leave of absence for health reasons.

Apple has been notoriously secretive about Jobs's health since he underwent an operation in 2004 for pancreatic cancer but has been adamant that he is returning to the company's helm this month.

"Steve Jobs is coming back, but he is not coming back for long," said analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group in Silicon Valley.

While claiming no inside information, Enderle said he believed Jobs would soon step aside and hand the reins over to executives who have shown they can capably run the company in his absence.

Apple's keynote on Monday is to be tailored to an audience of software developers interested in crafting programs to work with the iPhone or Macintosh operating systems.

Talk that Apple might delay the release of Snow Leopard has heightened speculation that Jobs might make a keynote appearance to divert attention from the setback.

[ Read more... ]

S
emiconductor technologies are so essential to advances in energy efficiency gains that the U.S. economy could expand by more than 70 percent through 2030 and still use 11 percent less electricity than it did in 2008, according to a major new study by the nonprofit and independent American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE).

Titled Semiconductor Technologies: The Potential to Revolutionize U.S. Energy Productivity, the new ACEEE report concludes that semiconductors already are the leading factor behind energy efficiency gains. The report states: “Compared to the technologies available in 1976, we estimate that the entire family of semiconductor-enabled technologies generated a net savings of about 775 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity in the year 2006 alone … Had we expanded the size and scope of the U.S. economy based on 1976 technologies, it appears that the U.S. would be using about 20 percent more electricity than actually consumed in 2006. Stated differently, had we continued to rely on 1976 technologies to support the U.S. economy today, we might have had to build another 184 large electric power plants to satisfy the demand for goods and services.”

In addition to eliminating the need for 184 additional power plants, the estimated 775 billion kWh savings in 2006 attributed to semiconductor-enabled technologies also can be expressed as: $69 billion dollars in business and consumer savings (or $613 per U.S. household); enough power to keep 64.5 million U.S. households going year round; and the prevention of 479 million megatons of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent emissions prevented – a 20 percent cut in electric utility industry emissions linked to climate change.

Read the full article from American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy website.

[ Read more... ]

I
ntel Corp. was fined a record $1.45 billion by the European Union on Wednesday for using strong-arm sales tactics in the computer chip market — a penalty that could turn up the pressure on U.S. regulators to go after the company, too.

The fine against the world's biggest chip maker represents a huge victory for Intel's Silicon Valley rival, Advanced Micro Devices Inc., or AMD, the No. 2 supplier of microprocessors to PC makers.


AMD has sued Intel and lobbied regulators around the world for the past five years, complaining that Intel was penalizing PC makers in the U.S. and abroad for doing business with AMD.

Although the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is also investigating, AMD seems to have found its most sympathetic ear in Europe.

EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said Intel has harmed millions of European consumers by "deliberately acting to keep competitors out of the market."

"Intel did not compete fairly, frustrating innovation and reducing consumer welfare in the process," she said.

The commission told Intel to immediately stop some sales practices in Europe, though it wouldn't say what those were. Intel said it was "mystified" about what it was supposed to change but would comply while it appeals the fine.

The Santa Clara, Calif., company also defended its sales practices — which include rebates to big Intel customers — as legitimate.

"This is really just a matter of competition at work, which is something I think we all want to see, versus something nefarious," Intel CEO Paul Otellini said in a conference call with reporters.

AMD Chief Executive Dirk Meyer said the decision was "an important step toward establishing a truly competitive market."

"We are looking forward to the move from a world in which Intel ruled, to one which is ruled by customers," Meyer said in a statement.

The biggest previous fine levied by the European Union for anticompetitive behavior was $1.3 billion, brought against Microsoft Corp. last year.

Whether Intel could face punishment in the U.S. remains to be seen. But the EU's fine against Intel could push the issue to the forefront for the Obama administration.

"If there was ever a time not to appear to be a large firm behaving badly, this would be it, as the financial collapse has the U.S. and EU competing for which government is the most proactively protecting consumer rights," warned Rob Enderle, a technology industry analyst. "This judgment makes Intel the ball in what is likely an international game of one-upmanship."

The Obama administration signaled this week that antitrust enforcement would be pursued more vigorously than in the Bush administration, whose Justice Department filed only three anti-monopoly cases, all involving mergers. Yet the Justice Department has been silent on whether it is investigating Intel.

The Federal Trade Commission investigation of Intel could result in the agency asking a court to order Intel to alter its practices. A spokeswoman for the FTC declined to comment.

Stephen Kinsella, a lawyer specializing on European antitrust law, cautioned that Europe is known for its aggressive antitrust enforcement and that a case brought against Intel in the U.S. or elsewhere might be milder.

The EU fine is "hugely significant because it's Intel, and the amounts at stake are enormous," he said. But "it is known that the commission takes a very hard line on this type of behavior."

The Intel-vs.-AMD fight exposes an ugly part of the business for microprocessors, which essentially are the brains of personal computers.

Unlike other parts of the PC industry that have lots of competitors, microprocessors come from only two sources. Intel has about 80 percent of the market, and AMD — headquartered a few miles away in Sunnyvale — has the rest. That means a victory for one is a defeat for the other.

The process of getting a chip into a computer and onto the shelves has two main steps, and AMD has cried foul about Intel's behavior at both stages.

First, a computer maker has to agree to buy the chips. In that stage, AMD has alleged, Intel has illegally used its dominant position by offering huge rebates to PC makers that promise to buy lots of Intel's chips. AMD argues that the discounts can effectively make some chip orders free, and that it would have to lose money on sales in order to keep up.

The case before the European Commission alleges that Intel illegally undermined AMD with computer makers Acer, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo and NEC.

In AMD's U.S. lawsuit against Intel, set to go to trial next year in Delaware, executives from Gateway complained that Intel's threats of retaliation for working with AMD beat them "into guacamole." The lawsuit also quotes Toshiba officials saying Intel's financial incentives amounted to "cocaine."

Second, chip makers help persuade stores to carry PCs with their processors inside, and pay the retailers to help promote the machines. In the case before the EU, regulators said Intel paid Germany's biggest electronics retailer to stock only Intel-based computers at its MediaMarkt superstores — even in Dresden, where many AMD chips are made.

Kinsella, the specialist on European antitrust law, said "loyalty rebate" programs are common, but become a problem when dominant companies use them. In a similar European case, tire maker Michelin was fined in 2001 over its rebate program in France.

Kinsella said the accusation that Intel paid companies specifically not to use AMD's products would set this case apart from others.

"If that's true," he said, "that would be pretty far out there in terms of examples of abuse."

Investors were expecting the Intel fine and seemed unfazed. Intel stock lost 8 cents to close at $15.13. AMD was up 3 cents at $4.38.

___

AP Business Writers Aoife White in Brussels and Christopher S. Rugaber in Washington contributed to this report.

[ Read more... ]

S
ince the inaguration of Barack Obama as President of the United States of America, the vision of implementing the SmartGrid is one of the hot topic for discussion.

Hi-Tech companies in semiconductor sector started to venture on this new opportunity - The GreenTech Market. New designs and patents for control automation, sensors, wireless and computing applications emerged to prepare for the increasing green-tech market.

So, what is SmartGrid all about? A smart grid delivers electricity from suppliers to consumers using digital technology to save energy, reduce cost and increase reliability. Such a modernized electricity network is being promoted by many governments as a way of addressing energy independence or global warming issues.

Experts predict that this is the starting point of Green-Tech Market and expected to create millions of jobs in the next few years. It is said that more stock investors are moving away from Blue Chip and started to buy stocks on Green Chip companies.

Moving on, there are few good articles about SmartGrid Infrastructure and here are the related articles recommended by TekhPoynt.Com to its readers.

S
emiconductor sector is badly affected by this economic downturn. Most semiconductor companies are cutting expenditure, slimming down their workforce and unfortunately some of them are closing down. In Decemeber 2008, StatsChipac, based in Singapore, announced 1,600 staff. The move is part of a restructuring plan to cope with a downturn in the semiconductor industry.

United Test & Assembly Center(UTAC) on the other hand implemented pay cut to its workforce thru four-working day a week at the beginning of first quarter of 2009.


Amkor Technology, a one of the leading semiconductor subcontractor for fabless and multi-national companies re-trenched thousands of its staff worldwide including senior executives and managers. ASE also experienced the same delimma and did not escaped from cost cutting programs.

INTEL shutdowned its main facilities in the Philippines leaving only a small group for Product Development Team and Manufacturing site for its Chipset Division. Texas Instruments laid-off few hendreds of its staff in Baguio City.

Another hit in the semiconductor industry is the closure of Intel-Micron NVM/Flash wafer fab in Singapore. It was very unfortunate for the company as its just started-up in 2008. Chartered Manufacturing, one of the leading wafer fab in Singapore also cut its workforce.

Recently, a small fabless company based from Sweden, SiCon Semicondutor, announced to shutdown its operations in Asia, covering Singapore, Korea, China, Japan and Design Center in India.

According to Semi.Org, investment levels are the lowest in over a decade. Spending on fab construction projects in 2009 is expected to be under $2 billion— the lowest level since 1999. Spending on equipping Front End facilities (fabs, pilots, R&D) is expected to decline by 55% to under $12 billion in 2009, which is the lowest level since 1994. For 300 mm fabs alone, spending will decline by about 58% to below the $10B— the lowest spending level over the past six years.

Everyone is hopeful that this current gloomy economy will start a new opportunities to other sectors and expected that the economy will start to rebound by the end of 4Q of 2009.

[ Read more... ]

E
lectronic wastes, "e-waste", "e-scrap", or "Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment" ("WEEE") is a loose description of surplus, obsolete, broken or discarded electrical or electronic devices. The phrase may refer to the component which is dumped or disposed or discarded rather than recycled, including residue from reuse and recycling operations. Because loads of surplus electronics are frequently commingled (good, recyclable, and non-recyclable), several public policy advocates apply the term "e-waste" broadly to all surplus electronics.

The processing of e-waste in developing countries causes serious health and pollution problems due to lack of containment, as do unprotected landfilling (due to leaching) and incineration. The Basel Convention and regulation by the European Union and individual U.S. states aim reduce these problems.

Circuit boards contain considerable quantities of lead-tin solders and are even more likely to leach into groundwater or become air pollution if managed in an incinerator. Indeed, a policy of "diversion from landfill" has been the driver for legislation in many states requiring higher and higher volumes of e-waste to be collected and processed separate from the solid waste stream.

Today the e-waste recycling business is in all areas of the developed world a big and rapidly consolidating business. Unfortunately, increased regulation of e-waste and concern over the environmental harm which can result from toxic e-waste has raised disposal costs. This has had the unforeseen effect of providing brokers and others calling themselves recyclers with an incentive to export the e-waste to developing countries.

Due to lower environmental and labor standards, cheap labor, and the relatively high value of recovered raw materials in China, Malaysia, India, Kenya, and various African countries, electronic waste is being sent to these countries for processing –in most cases illegally. Because the United States has not ratified the Basel Convention or the Basel Ban Amendment, and has no domestic laws forbidding the export of toxic waste, BAN estimates that about 80% of the e-waste directed to recycling in the US does not get recycled there at all but is put on container ships and sent to countries such as China.

A couple of Government Regulations is being implemented worlwide to address this emerging environment issues around the globe. All of these regulations are related to wastes management.

[ Read more... ]

O
n my last article I haved mention about innovations of WI-FI technology where G2 Microsystems able to enable the Intel's MyWiFI technology. This time, this is more interesting as it's my honor to share this interesting article I have digged from the bussinessweek.com. It talks about on opportunities for hi-tech innovative companies that could benefit to Obama's Green Stimulus Plan. Here's it is:



by: Celeste LeCompte
Environmental innovations require smart technology, and therein lie opportunities for companies that can collect and sort the data

The Obama Administration's $825 billion economic recovery package, nicknamed the "Green New Deal," is packed with references to doubling renewable energy generation, funding public transportation and energy-efficiency projects, and investing in clean water and environmental restoration. But it's not just a present for the clean-tech crowd—the tech world is getting some goodies, too.

Although the $6 billion broadband allocation seems puny to some, the bill pledges funding for computerizing the health-care system, modernizing education delivery (including technology), and, yes, the green-hued "smart grid." And many of the same items that have the clean-tech crowd champing at the bit to see the bill passed offer hidden opportunities for tech firms, too. Today's environmental innovations, from greener highway design to safer water delivery, depend heavily on data, data, and more data, positioning tech firms to seize a substantial piece of one of the hottest markets going.

The smart grid is a huge opportunity that plenty of tech firms are already excited about. Smart meters have a long value chain, and Obama's proposed $32 million investment into a smarter grid would have a ripple effect throughout the tech world, reaching everyone from large smart meter makers such as General Electric (GE) to startups like Silver Springs Networks, as well as semiconductor manufacturers and data-management software companies. But the opportunity doesn't end there.

What "Smart" Means
Think of the smart grid as layering "metadata" into the electrical lines. Instead of just electrons, a smart grid transmits information about pricing, where energy was produced, where it was consumed, what it cost, and more. The same approach is being applied to other infrastructure systems as well.

For example, the bill earmarks $31 billion for transportation "modernization." Congestion pricing, one possible application, would require the transportation equivalent of the smart grid. Instead of tracking electrons, however, the system would keep tabs on cars. That could require a host of high-tech tools, from traffic sensors and wireless networks to billing software and new protocols to anonymize and encrypt data. Water, which is slated to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in stimulus funding, offers similar opportunities, as well.
The smart grid, the smart highway, and the smart water pipeline need lots of data, and most of that data is going to be collected in remote locations—say, wind farms and water reservoirs in Kansas—or from many distributed users. Pulling that data in is going to require large networks of sensors, most of which will be based on some form of low-power wireless technology. While the big players, such as Broadcom (BRCM) and Atheros (ATHR), will likely corner the market on wireless consumer devices, there are a number of startups—including G2 Microsystems, Gainspan, and ZeroG Wireless—that could be big winners in the remote sensor market.

A Data Deluge
All the data collected by such sensor networks—whether it's information about electrons, cars, water, or a manufacturing supply chain (eligible for funding as part of a $100 million research earmark in the stimulus package)—isn't useful unless it's sorted, interpreted, and put to good use. That's great news for companies that provide the software, servers, and data centers that host and store that information. While physical infrastructure plays a smaller role in the Green New Deal than it did in FDR's original New Deal, digital infrastructure is going to play a much more profound role in the Obama plan.

Companies such as IBM have been quick to spot many of these opportunities in the new, "smart" economy. The IT giant recently launched its Smarter Planet campaign, with an eye toward bringing IT innovations to the energy, transportation, water, and retail sectors of the economy. But the company isn't going it alone. Drew Clark, director of strategy for the IBM Venture Capital Group, says Big Blue has been cultivating relationships with key startups in the space. "While we're really great at the overall architecture and conceptual view and building it, there are many pieces of this…that we'll want to plug in to," he says.

In the current economic climate, strategic relationships between big tech and clean-tech startups may become more common. It's not because the big players are getting greener, though. These days, their best markets are.

[ Read more... ]

O
ne of the cost effective and low-risk business model or type of business nowadays is providing services to "fabless" and OEM technology companies. Cost of manufacturing and operations is continuously accelerating which semiconductor companies cannot afford to expand anymore. Cost of unnecessary manpower resources is also adding-up to the burden.

Apparently, the pain was in greater height after the break-out of worldwide financial crisis in the last quarter of 2008. Thus, consultancy services based companies are in great position to fill-in the gap and sustain the needs of OEM companies.


Recently, there is one test services has been established by group of engineers and sales experts in Singapore who saw this opportunity in the midst of gloomy economy. The company is called as SiChip Technologies. Here's the website: http://www.sichiptech.com/. On the other hand, there are few companies who share the same business model in terms of services to small and start-up fabless companies:
Accent (http://www.accent.it/) - Based in Italy.
Tessolve (http://www.tessolve.com/) - Based in India.

[ Read more... ]