IN THE NEWS

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

In the News

TRW Inc. (Redondo Beach, Calif.) has signed an agreement with a consortium of U.S. semiconductor manufacturers to begin joint development of a laser-based light source that will allow chip makers to continue increasing the speed of advanced microcircuits for the next 10 to 15 years. TRW signed the agreement with the Extreme Ultraviolet Limited Liability Co. (EUV LLC), which is led by Intel Corp., Advanced Micro Devices Inc., and Motorola Corp. It calls for the development, integration, and testing of a light source that will permit future chip lithography equipment to project and print IC features of less than 0.1 µm, a factor-of-two improvement over the most advanced optical lithography techniques. Powered by TRW solid-state laser technology, the new source will emit extreme ultraviolet light. TRW and the EUV LLC will develop the light source in cooperation with three Department of Energy national laboratories that are currently working together as the Virtual National Laboratory (VNL)­ Lawrence Livermore, Sandia, and Lawrence Berkeley . TRW is scheduled to deliver the first EUV LLC laser in January 1999. A demonstration of the integrated light source prototype is expected to occur during December 1999. Wafer stepper manufacturers are expected to begin integrating the light source in test configurations by the end of 2000.

Altera Corp., Nokia Corp., and Nortel Semiconductors have been elected to the Steering Working Group (SWG) of the Virtual Socket Interface Alliance (VSIA; Los Gatos, Calif.), a broad-based coalition dedicated to establishing interface standards for the intellectual property used in the design of system-chips. The selection of Altera (programmable logic), Nokia (telecommunications systems), and Nortel (telecommunications systems and networking), broadens the governing body's international representation and adds new industry perspectives.

An aggressive new plan from Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI; Mountain View, Calif.), calls for increased international cooperation on issues important to all suppliers of products and services to the global semiconductor and flat-panel display (FPD) industries. The plan was developed by SEMI's multinational board of directors at its annual long-range planning meeting, which was held outside of Tokyo. The plan calls for establishing regional advisory groups in every part of the world where semiconductors and FPDs are produced, ensuring global participation in shaping and meeting program goals.

With the IC book-to-bill ratio dropping in September and the semiconductor equipment and U.S. electronic equipment ratios plunging below 1 in September and July, respectively, a downturn may loom.

Avanti Corp. and Technology Modeling Associates Inc. (TMA; Sunnyvale, Calif.) signed a definitive merger agreement. Gerald C. Hsu will remain as chairman, president, and CEO of Avanti. Roy E. Jewell, president and CEO of TMA, will become the vice president of Avanti's TCAD Business Unit. Avanti will issue shares of its common stock in exchange for all outstanding TMA equity. The total value of the deal is about $150 million. The proposed merger is structured as a tax-free reorganization and will be accounted for as a pooling of interests. It is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 1997, subject to regulatory and stockholder approval, the availability of pooling-of-interests accounting treatment, and other customary closing conditions. Earlier, TMA completed its acquisition of Precim Corp. of Portland, Ore., a software developer for full-chip optical proximity correction (OPC) geometries. The deal for 387,000 shares of TMA common stock makes TMA the only source of software for complete OPC at both the cell and full-chip levels.

The International Verilog Conference (IVC) and VHDL International User Forum (VIUF) will convene as IVC/VIUF Monday through Thursday, March 16 to 19, 1998, at the Santa Clara Convention Center (Santa Clara, Calif.). IVC/VIUF is a forum for new and current users of hardware description languages to share ideas. Michael Baird, president of Williamette HDL (Beaverton, Ore.), has been appointed chairman.

Movers and Shakers

VLSI Technology Inc. (San Jose) appointed Victor Lee to the position of vice president, corporate controller. He reports to Bala Iyer , vice president and CFO. Richard Thompson has been named vice president and chief information officer (CIO), also reporting to Iyer.

Frequency Technology Inc. (San Jose) appointed Alain Labat to its board of directors. Labat brings extensive management experience in electronic design automation to the board. Currently the executive vice president of Animation Science Corp., he was senior vice president of worldwide sales and marketing at Synopsys Corp.

Hector Ruiz , president of Motorola Corp.'s Semiconductor Products Sector, announced two appointments that continue the organization's global, customer-focused restructuring. Barry Waite will serve as senior vice president and general manager for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, and Joe Yiu , vice president, becomes general manager of the Asia-Pacific region. Waite will be based in Geneva, joining Steve Hanson , senior vice president and general manager of the Semiconductor Components Group. Yiu will be located in Hong Kong, where Motorola's Consumer Systems Group is based, under the leadership of Carlos Genardini , senior vice president and general manager.

Donald P. Beadle and Michael J. Callahan have joined the board of directors of QuickLogic Corp. (Sunnyvale, Calif.). Beadle has 34 years executive sales and marketing experience with National Semiconductor. Callahan has 19 years executive experience at Waferscale Integration Inc., where he is the chairman, president, and CEO, and at Motorola, and Monolithic Memories.

Synopsys Inc. (Mountain View, Calif.) has promoted Larry Yamada to vice president of marketing of the Epic Technology Group (formerly Epic Design Technology Inc.). He now reports to Gary Larsen , senior vice president and co-general manager.

Money bits

Pericom Semiconductor Corp. (San Jose) has filed a registration statement for the initial public offering of up to $36 million of its common stock. The company intends to use the net proceeds from the offering for general corporate purposes, including working capital, and to acquire capital equipment.

Vivid Semiconductor Inc. (Chandler, Ariz.), a mixed-signal and analog semiconductor company, has raised $22 million in private equity financing. The money will be used to fund Vivid's growth and continued technological advances. The lead investor in this round of financing was Behrman Capital. *

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integrated system design  November 1997