Data market to see real growth of 5.5% Real annual growth of 5.5 per cent has been predicted' for the data acquisition market in Europe. Sales in 1980 worth $412M will grow to $533M by 1985 say market analysts Frost and Sullivan. Memory storage is an area singled out for technological advance. Presently, almost all data acquisition systems use tape devices with accesstimes in seconds. Solid-state memory will improve speeds by up to an order of magnitude. This would lead to the possibility of intelligent real-time data analysis. Software development also represents a major area of market growth,
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TotalMarket:$410M
1980 data acquisition market in Europe by manufacturer
Personal computer at under£50 from Sinclair Sinclair has dropped the price of it's basic ZX81 personal computer by nearly 30 per cent to £50. Timex are already selling the same machine in the US at that price. The move has been made in anticipation of a competitor to the ZX81 from West London company, Binatone. The rival machine is said to have colour graphics and sound - neither of which is on the Sinclair - and a price of £50.
Hard disc deal between Rodime and Comart A deal worth over £¼M a year has been agreed between two UKOEM companies. Rodime will supply their
vol 6 no 8 october 1982
according to Frost and Sullivan. The software content for intelligent data acquisition systems will be "/5 per cent of product costs by 1990. Government-funded data acquisition applications now accounting for nearly 2/3 of the enduser marketplace are expected to decline to just over 50 per cent by 1985. Federal Republic of Germany has the biggest market in Europe with 41 per cent of the total. The UK is second at 23 per cent followed by France (21 per cent) the Benelux countries (six per cent) and the rest of the European Economic Community (10 per cent). These proportions are unlikely to change during the time period studied by Frost and Sullivan. Data acquisition components are used in systems that convert (analogue) electrical measurements into digital information. By product type the market is made up of converters (43 per cent), amplifiers (32 per cent) and interface, multiplex and memory components (25 per cent). Frost and Sullivan says that the biggest problem to be overcome in the field is the lack of digital output transducers. The 225-page study called 'Data acquisition components in Europe' is available from Frost and Sullivan Ltd, 104-112 Marylebone Lane, London W1M 5FU, UK. Tel: 01-486 8377. Re200 5¼-in Winchester disc drive to Comart for their Communicator series of microcomputers. 'We see this as a significant step forward not only for Comart and Rodime but also for the British microcomputer industry' says Comart's managing director, David Broad. 'We have wanted to increase the British component content of the Communicator for some time.' By November all Communicators supplied with 5¼-in hard discs should incorporate Rodime drives.
Euro gate-array centre from Motorola Motorola has established a European gate array centre in Munich, Federal Republic of Germany, with CAD and engineering support facilities.
IBM to hit 'problems' over hi-tech module IBM may run into trouble with technological deadends according to US market analysts Strategic. An analogy is drawn with the Anglo/French Conc o r d e - putting technical advance before economics - for the thermal conduction module. IBM has stated that the TCM packaging technology enables them to dissipate the heat generated by its densely packed fast ECL chips. They have also stated that, because of its efficiency, this technology will be the mainstay of its packaging for mainframes for the next 5 - 7 years. This is a very expensive approach, needing special tooling for manufacturing, testing and maintenance. Although the packaging is elegant, it 'pushes the state of the art beyond economic limits'. Put simply, say Strategic, 'there are cheaper ways to solve the problem.' Operating systems used by IBM are described as 'dinosaurs' by Strategic, as they prevent the introduction of new architectures. The report, called 'IBM - the key issues' is available from IPI, 134 Holland Park A venue, London WI 1 4UE, UK. Tel: 01-221 0998. Telex: 22861)
US giants in gate-array deal An alternate sourcing agreement for CMOS and bipolar gate arrays has been announced between National Semiconductor and Motorola. The agreement covers ECL, TTL and CMOS gate arrays in a market estimated by the companies to pass $1000M by 1985. The subjects of the deal include the 6000 series CMOS gate array family which will be designated HCA by Motorola and SCX by Nat Semi. Samples of the SCX6324 array are currently available from National Semiconductor and will be available from Motorola in the first quarter of 1983. Sampling of other arrays will be announced during 1983.
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