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AMI Micros deal
European semis market up 2 5 0 % by 1 9 8 5 . . . The market for semiconductor production and test equipment in Europe will increase more than two and a half times during the first half of the 1980 decade, according to a new market report by Frost and Sullivan Inc. Production equipment, accounting for two thirds of the total market, will be called on to handle greater dimensional specifications such as denser geometries, larger wafer sizes and finer lines in the semiconductor devices that they turn out. To prevent 'runout' and wafer warping, cold fabrication processes will be preferred signifying a wider adoption of ion implantation techniques at the expense of 'hot' furnace diffusion. Tighter tolerances will mean an increasing demand for projection printers, E-beam systems and X-ray printers as well as CAD/CAM systems for complex IC geometries. In wafer preparation, a growing demand for Bridgeman-type growers, says the report, will parallel the mounting interest in gallium arsenide as a semiconductor material. In wafer masking, manufacturers are increasingly turning to inline systems to eliminate manual handling of wafers and plasma etching is becoming a standard procedure for removing photoresists. When it comes to assembly equipment, conventional scribing techniques will be superceded by laser dicing and diamond wheel or wire saws. -
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Wafer
Asaembly Equipment
Semiconductor production and test
equipment market in Europe (Source: Frost & Sullivan Inc.)
vol 6 no I january/february 82
This report comes hard on the heels of a detailed survey of the current European electronics market in the Mackintosh Electronics Yearbook 1982. The European market, says the yearbook, was at first sight 7 per cent smaller in 1981 ($88 O00M) than in 1980 ($95 000M). However these figures are distorted by the strong appreciation of the dollar against most European currencies - at 1980 exchange rates, there is a growth of over 8 per cent. Nevertheless, the contraction is real for companies (particularly US and Japanese) which price their goods in dollars. In conclusion, the yearbook agrees with the Frost and Sullivan report and predicts a 1982 market increase of nearly 15 per cent (at constant 1981 exchange rates) accelerating at an average 19 per cent per annum to 1985 as the logic array/semicustom IC market develops.
Plessey/AMI Micros deal AMI Microsystems Ltd and Plessey Semiconductors have jointly announced the conclusion of an agreement under which Plessey will second-source AM I's second-generation single-chip CODECs, produced for the digital telecommunications industry. The subject of this agreement are AMI's $3506 European A-law and S3507 North American U-law CODECs, which are the most advanced devices of their type currently available. Manufactured in the CMOS process, these single-chip pulse code modulation CODECs incorporate filters, onchip, and feature operating and standby power levels of only 60mW and 5mW, respectively. At these levels, the devices offer significantly reduced operating power levels by comparison with any other currently available single- or dual-chip equivalents. The significance of this new agreement, which starts at the mask level, is that both AMI and Plessey will collaborate on future improvements in both design and production. It gives the two companies a strong position in the digital telecomms market - currently valued at 60M devices per annum.
•.. and world speech synthesis by 2000%! Sales of speech synthesis equipment in information processing and consumer business will grow by more than an order of magnitude from $23M in 1981 to $495M in 1985 according to a report by Strategic Inc. That is an average annual growth rate (AAGR), compounded, of 115 per cent. While speech recognition equipment will trail synthesis products, they too will experience growth from $15M in 1981 to $150M in 1985, an AAGR of 82 per cent. The synthesis segment will be based on a large volume of semiconductor chip sales. They represent the lion's share of the market today and five years into the future. By contrast, recognition equipment sales will be dominated by board level products which make up the bulk of this segment's sales today and in 1985. Major driving forces in speech synthesis technology include the improvement of algorithms and low-cost LSI packages, according to Strategic. Good quality speech will be possible on chips costing under $15 (phonemic speech chips can currently be purchased for $7 each in lots of 250 000). Talking games like Speak and Spell, calculators that voice the numbers of input, cars that exhort the driver to fasten his seat belt have all awakened the market to the potential of speech. On the other hand deterrents to market expansion of speech equipment include user acceptance. Will the consumer accept a talking washing machine as easily as a speaking toy? Major applications for speech recognition and synthesis, the report says, include hands-busy, eyes-busy applications where it is necessary to get information from another source. Specific examples include electronic instruments that speak meter readings and which respond to voice commands to change their front panel settings. The report entitled 'Voice input/ output: markets, technologies and applications' costs £560 and is available from IPI, 134 Holland Park A venue, London WI 1 4UE, UK. Tel: 01-221 0998.
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-
Wafer
Asaembly Equipment
Semiconductor production and test
equipment market in Europe (Source: Frost & Sullivan Inc.)
vol 6 no I january/february 82
This report comes hard on the heels of a detailed survey of the current European electronics market in the Mackintosh Electronics Yearbook 1982. The European market, says the yearbook, was at first sight 7 per cent smaller in 1981 ($88 O00M) than in 1980 ($95 000M). However these figures are distorted by the strong appreciation of the dollar against most European currencies - at 1980 exchange rates, there is a growth of over 8 per cent. Nevertheless, the contraction is real for companies (particularly US and Japanese) which price their goods in dollars. In conclusion, the yearbook agrees with the Frost and Sullivan report and predicts a 1982 market increase of nearly 15 per cent (at constant 1981 exchange rates) accelerating at an average 19 per cent per annum to 1985 as the logic array/semicustom IC market develops.
Plessey/AMI Micros deal AMI Microsystems Ltd and Plessey Semiconductors have jointly announced the conclusion of an agreement under which Plessey will second-source AM I's second-generation single-chip CODECs, produced for the digital telecommunications industry. The subject of this agreement are AMI's $3506 European A-law and S3507 North American U-law CODECs, which are the most advanced devices of their type currently available. Manufactured in the CMOS process, these single-chip pulse code modulation CODECs incorporate filters, onchip, and feature operating and standby power levels of only 60mW and 5mW, respectively. At these levels, the devices offer significantly reduced operating power levels by comparison with any other currently available single- or dual-chip equivalents. The significance of this new agreement, which starts at the mask level, is that both AMI and Plessey will collaborate on future improvements in both design and production. It gives the two companies a strong position in the digital telecomms market - currently valued at 60M devices per annum.
•.. and world speech synthesis by 2000%! Sales of speech synthesis equipment in information processing and consumer business will grow by more than an order of magnitude from $23M in 1981 to $495M in 1985 according to a report by Strategic Inc. That is an average annual growth rate (AAGR), compounded, of 115 per cent. While speech recognition equipment will trail synthesis products, they too will experience growth from $15M in 1981 to $150M in 1985, an AAGR of 82 per cent. The synthesis segment will be based on a large volume of semiconductor chip sales. They represent the lion's share of the market today and five years into the future. By contrast, recognition equipment sales will be dominated by board level products which make up the bulk of this segment's sales today and in 1985. Major driving forces in speech synthesis technology include the improvement of algorithms and low-cost LSI packages, according to Strategic. Good quality speech will be possible on chips costing under $15 (phonemic speech chips can currently be purchased for $7 each in lots of 250 000). Talking games like Speak and Spell, calculators that voice the numbers of input, cars that exhort the driver to fasten his seat belt have all awakened the market to the potential of speech. On the other hand deterrents to market expansion of speech equipment include user acceptance. Will the consumer accept a talking washing machine as easily as a speaking toy? Major applications for speech recognition and synthesis, the report says, include hands-busy, eyes-busy applications where it is necessary to get information from another source. Specific examples include electronic instruments that speak meter readings and which respond to voice commands to change their front panel settings. The report entitled 'Voice input/ output: markets, technologies and applications' costs £560 and is available from IPI, 134 Holland Park A venue, London WI 1 4UE, UK. Tel: 01-221 0998.
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