IN THE NEWS Business and technology news from the semiconductor and design tool industries.

In the News

Virtual Silicon Technology, Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.) has entered into a multiyear, strategic partnership with Soliton Systems K.K. (Tokyo) to provide marketing, sales, and engineering services to the Japanese market for the company's physical library and semiconductor intellectual property (IP) products.

Virage Logic Corp. (Milpitas, Calif.) has selected Seiko Instruments, Inc. (Tokyo) to be the company's distributor in Japan. Under the terms of the agreement, Seiko Instruments will sell Virage Logic's Custom Touch Memory Compilers and Self-Testable Memory Cores, as well as provide on-going technical support, offer software upgrades and maintenance, and optimize products to meet specific customer requirements.

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (Sunnyvale) and Atmel Corp. (San Jose) have adopted a new packaging standard covering pinout and footprint specifications in high-density BGA flash memory. The new standard, proposed by AMD to JEDEC, applies to AMD's fine-pitch ball grid array package that will hold flash memories ranging in density from 4 to 64 Mbits. The package has a 638 ball grid array with a ball pitch of 0.8 mm. Atmel will apply the standard to its chip-scale ball grid array package for the AT49LVxxx, AT49BVxxx, and AT49SVxxx series of flash memories, which hold from 8 to 64 Mbits. AMD will use the new standard for its 2.7- and 1.8-V products in the Am29LVxxx, Am29DLxxx, and Am29SLxxx series.

CPU Technology, Inc. (Pleasanton, Calif.) has been awarded a contract by the USAF Research Laboratory (Albuquerque, N.M.) to demonstrate the feasibility of its processor development methodology for translating commercial processor designs into radiation-hardened foundry libraries.

Allied Signal Substrate Technology & Interconnects, a business enterprise of Allied Signal Electronic Materials (Los Gatos, Calif.), made an exclusive agreement with Ormet Corp. (Carlsbad, Calif.) to produce fine-line, micro-via, high-density electronic interconnect products.

Cirrus Logic, Inc. (Fremont, Calif.) has selected Mentor Graphics Corp.'s (Wilsonville, Ore.) Xcalibre parasitic extraction flow and Calibre physical verification software for its deep-submicron design environment. Cirrus will deploy Xcalibre and Calibre across the entire company.

Seva Technologies, Inc. (Fremont) has expanded an evaluation service designed to help electronics companies assess new and existing IP. The IP Evaluation Service is aimed at helping designers assess which model is appropriate for a given design project: system simulation, synthesis, design, or inclusion in an end product.

Comit Systems, Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.) has joined the Certified CBA Design Center program. Comit is the newest design center in the program, which enables a limited number of design houses to provide design services and to develop reusable IP blocks using Synopsys 's cell-based array architecture.

UTMC Microelectronic Systems, Inc. (Colorado Springs) has been certified as a design center by American Microsystems, Inc. (Pocatello, Idaho). The UTMC staff was trained on AMI tools, which have been installed and verified at UTMC. Separately, the companies have agreed that UTMC will service AMI's lower-volume Level B requirements, while AMI concentrates on higher-volume commercial and QML business activities.

LTX Corp. (Westwood, Mass.) announced that it has launched a new business unit focused on supporting the Fusion test platform at fabless and semiconductor assembly and test service companies.

Movers and Shakers

Barry Waite is the new president and CEO of Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, Ltd. (Singapore). Tan Bock Seng, who has been president of Chartered since 1993, will move to Singapore Technologies Assembly Test Services, Ltd. (Singapore) as chairman and CEO.

Virage Logic Corp. (Milpitas, Calif.) has appointed Vincent Ratford vice president of sales and marketing and Alok Singh vice president of operations. Both will report directly to Adam Kablanian, president and CEO.

LSI Logic Europe plc (Bracknell, U.K.) has promoted Jean-Luc Droitcourt to the position of marketing director of the Digital TV Strategic Business Unit. Kenroy Francis was promoted to director of the European consumer segment with European-wide responsibility for marketing and field application support across all LSI Logic consumer products.

Integrated Device Technology, Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.) has named Alan F. Krock chief financial officer.

Chuck Robertson, CEO of Veribest, Inc. (Boulder, Colo.), has been selected to serve on the Engineering Advisory Council at Colorado University's Boulder's College of Engineering and Applied Science. Robertson will serve a four-year term starting in October.

Integrated Measurement Systems, Inc.'s Virtual Test Division (Beaverton, Ore.) has appointed David Flaningham director of worldwide sales.

Aisys, Inc. (Santa Clara) has named Harry Alexander vice president of sales.

The board of directors of the Institute for Interconnecting and Packaging Electronic Circuits (Northbrook, Ill.) has named its new chairman. Sheldahl, Inc.'s chief executive officer, James Donaghy , will succeed Hibbing Electronics Corp.'s president, Bonnie Fena. Fena, who took over as board chair in 1996, will continue to serve as a member of the IPC board of directors. Ron Underwood, president and CEO of Circuit Center, Inc. has been named the new IPC chairman-elect. Leo Reynolds, president and CEO of Electronic Systems, Inc., was elected as IPC treasurer and secretary. Ray Giancola , CEO of Westak, Inc., and Peter Bigelow, president of Beaver Brook Circuits, Inc., are new members of the board.

Money Bits

Qlogic Corp. (Costa Mesa, Calif.) reported that revenues for its fourth fiscal quarter ended March 29, rose to $22.7 million, up 19 percent compared with the $19 million reported for the same quarter a year ago. Fourth quarter net income grew 106 percent, to $4.2 million, or $0.46 per share on a diluted basis, compared with $2 million, or $0.32 per share on a diluted basis from a year ago. For fiscal 1998, revenues expanded 18 percent to $81.4 million compared with $68.9 million for the prior fiscal year. Net income for fiscal 1998 grew 129 percent to $13.4 million, or $1.66 per share on a diluted basis, compared with last year's $5.8 million, or $0.96 per share on a diluted basis.

Virtual Silicon Technology, Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.) has accepted over $7 million in new funding from several investors, including two high-technology venture capital firms. Coleading the equity investors were Information Technology Ventures of Menlo Park, Calif., and Walden International Investment Group of San Francisco.

Mentor Graphics Corp. (Wilsonville, Ore.) reported first quarter 1998 revenues of $108 million and a net loss of $7.5 million, or $0.12 per share. As a result of special charges related to subsidiary closures and increased expenses related to patent litigation during the quarter, net income before taxes was negatively affected by $9.8 million, or $0.15 per share. Revenues in the first quarter of 1997 was $101.6 million, with a net loss of $28.1 million, or $0.43 per share. In the first quarter of 1997, the company recognized special charges of $8.6 million primarily related to subsidiary closures and the pay down of long term debt. Those charges negatively affected earnings before taxes by $0.13 per share.

At Submicron Systems Corp. (Allentown, Pa.), net sales for the first quarter of 1998, ended March 31, totaled $9.7 million versus $35.8 million for the first quarter of 1997. The net loss for the quarter was $7.8 million, or $0.42 per share, versus a net loss of $8.5 million, or $0.50 per share, for the comparable prior period in 1997. The company had an operating loss of $6.5 million, compared with $4.7 million in the first quarter of 1997. Bookings were $15.5 million, for a book-to-bill ratio of 1.6, compared with bookings of $19.9 million and a book-to-bill ratio of 1.15 for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31. The backlog at March 31 increased to $26.8 million, from $22.4 million on Dec. 31.

Gatefield Corp. (Fremont, Calif.) reported a net loss of $3.0 million, or $0.07 per share, on revenues of $1.8 million for the quarter ended March 31. For the comparable quarter in 1997, the net loss was $5.6 million, or $0.22 per share, on revenues of $4. 1 million.

Synopsys , Inc. (Mountain View, Calif.) reported revenues of $170.1 million and net income of $25.5 million, resulting in $0.38 per share on a diluted basis in the second quarter of fiscal 1998, ended March 31. In the absence of second quarter nonrecurring charges, primarily related to the company's merger with Viewlogic Systems, Inc., net income was $33.4 million, resulting in $0.50 per share on a diluted basis. For the first six months of fiscal 1998, revenues were $344.3 million and net income of $19.1 million, or $0.28 per diluted share. In the absence of nonrecurring charges, net income for the first six months was $57.1 million, or $0.85 per diluted share. Revenues in the first six months of fiscal 1997 were $310.6 million and net income was $31.2 million, or $0.48 per share on a diluted basis. Excluding second quarter merger and in-process charges for research and development, net income for the first six months of fiscal 1997 was $46.8 million, or $0.72 per diluted share.

The Institute for Interconnecting and Packaging Electronic Circuits (Northbrook, Ill.) released the U.S. printed wiring board industry book-to-bill ratio for March, which was 1.01. Sales billed (shipments) increased 3.2 percent over March 1997, and orders booked showed an increase of 1.4 percent over March 1997. Compared with 1997, 1998 bookings of circuit boards are up 0.7 percent and 1998 shipments are up 10.8 percent year to date.

IMP, Inc. (San Jose) reported its financial results for the fourth fiscal quarter and the 1998 fiscal year, ended March 29. Net revenues for the quarter grew 12 percent to $9 million, compared with $8 million for the same period last year. The operating loss was $869,000, versus a $2.5 million loss for the corresponding period in 1997. Excluding R&D license fees of $612,000 associated with the acquisition of new products, the equivalent operating loss for the quarter was $257,000, a tenfold reduction. The net loss for the quarter was $1.17 million, or $0.04 per share, compared with a loss of $2.7 million, or $0.10 per share, for the same period last year. Net revenues for fiscal 1998 were $40.4 million, versus $64.9 million for fiscal 1997. The company reported a loss of $3.8 million, or $0.13 per share, for the year. That's a reduction of 69 percent compared with the loss of $12.4 million, or $0.44 per share, for the prior year.

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integrated system design  July 1998