IN THE NEWS

Business and technology news from the semiconductor and design tool industries.

In the News

Texas Instruments (Dallas, TX) has released a forecast predicting the worldwide semiconductor market will make a moderate recovery of about ten percent growth in 1997, over a decline of nine percent in 1996. TI attributes the turnaround in the world semiconductor market to differentiated product areas such as digital signal processors and mixed-signal/analog chips. These differentiated semiconductors are expected to be among the fastest growing areas of the market in 1997, outpacing the overall market by two to three times.

Intel Corp. (Santa Clara, CA) announced that it has filed suit against Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) of Sunnyvale, CA, and Cyrix Corp. (Richardson, TX,) in U.S. District Court in Delaware for infringement of Intel's "MMX" trademark. Intel has said that MMX is their media enhancement technology. The suit alleges that AMD and Cyrix have designed and begun implementing strategies to improperly leverage Intel's investment in the MMX trademark, which could result in confusion in the minds of consumers as they make buying decisions. The suit seeks preliminary and permanent injunctive relief along with unspecified damages and fees. In response, Thomas McCoy, general counsel for AMD said that Intel's claim of trademark rights to MMX, an acronym for "multimedia extensions," is the issue in the litigation. "We believe the term MMX belongs to the public domain, and we expect to prevail when the matter goes to trial," said McCoy. On April 2, AMD plans to announce its new, sixth-generation Microsoft Windows-compatible microprocessor that will compete with Intel's Pentium Pro and forthcoming Pentium II microprocessors.

Movers and Shakers

Edwin Law has joined Comit Systems Inc. (Sunnyvale, CA) as their new president.

Lam Research Corp. named Mercedes Johnson vice president and CFO.

Synopsys Inc. (Mountain View, CA) appointed Gary Larsen to vice president of marketing for the newly formed Physical Tools Group, formerly EPIC Design Technology Inc.

Market segments are showing continued strength. However, the SIA's global billings report (the replacement for the Book-to-Bill ratio) shows IC sales decreased about three percent from December of 1996 to January of 1997.

COMPASS Design Automation Inc. (San Jose, CA) appointed Paul M. McLellan their new president.

Sony Semiconductor Co. of America (San Jose, CA), a division of Sony Electronics Inc. named John Radanovich national sales manager for standard product sales.

Money Bits

Silicon Valley Research (San Jose, CA) announced it is negotiating a private placement of up to $4 million in units composed of shares of its Common Stock and warrants to purchase Common Stock. The prospective investors include major existing shareholders, two of which are members of the company's board of directors. The units, which are not registered, are proposed to be sold at a discount to the current market price for the company's Common Stock. If the offering is fully subscribed on the present terms, the company would issue four million shares of Common Stock as well as warrants for an equal number of shares of the company's Common Stock. The shares of Common Stock issued on the Closing would represent approximately 33 percent of the company's Common Stock outstanding. SVR intends to use the proceeds for working capital.

Atmel Corp. (San Jose, CA) announced that revenues for the quarter ending March 31, 1997 are expected to be lower, by as much as ten percent, than the $281.1 million in revenues reported for the Q4 of 1996. As a result, the company expects profits to be impacted during the Q1 of 1997. The company attributed the Q1 outlook to the recent strengthening of the dollar, pricing pressure in its non-volatile business, and delays in the qualification of the new Flash products. These statements about estimated results are preliminary and based on partial information and management assumptions.

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integrated system design  May 1997