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      Vol.1 Number 1 ,  Winter 2004       Latest Industry News
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Latest News From Industry

Mentor Graphics Collaborates with Intel on PCB Design Kit for Next-Generation Chipset

WILSONVILLE, Ore., February 3, 2004 - Mentor Graphics Corporation (Nasdaq: MENT), the market and technology leader in printed circuit board (PCB) design solutions, today announced it has worked to provide Intel Corporation with drop-in core layout (DCL) kits for use with the Mentor Graphics® Expedition^TM PCB design flow for Intel's next-generation chipset, codenamed Grantsdale.  The DCL kit, available through Intel, will provide an Intel reference motherboard design, integrating the CPU, chipset and other motherboard components for use with the Expedition PCB design flow, enabling personal computer motherboard OEMs and ODMs to shorten their design times.  The DCL kit for Expedition will be available this year following the introduction of the new chipset by Intel.

As microprocessor speeds continue to increase, it is becoming more complex to meet interconnect timing and signal integrity constraints while placing and routing the critical components, while also minimizing the number of layers and overall size of the PCB. Intel is addressing this challenge by providing a reference motherboard design in Mentor's Expedition design solution to its customers. 

"Our customers rely on Expedition to help them meet their performance and time-to-market goals.  Working with Intel on this project we believe will greatly help our customers to efficiently integrate component technology from Intel while also taking advantage of the productivity and performance gains enabled by Expedition," said Henry Potts, vice president and general manager, systems design division, Mentor Graphics.

"The work Mentor Graphics has invested in these DCL efforts should allow its customers to take advantage of the product launch collateral Intel makes available to our developers, such as this DCL," said Mary Madison, director of platform applications engineering in Intel's Desktop Platforms Group.

 Samsung and  Toshiba  Announce New Joint Venture For Optical Disk Drives

The new joint venture, Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology Corporation, will start operation on April 1, 2004. The company will integrate product and business planning, product development, procurement and sales and marketing of ODDs, including CD-ROM and DVD-ROM drives. Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology Corporation will be headquartered in Japan with a wholly owned subsidiary in Korea.The joint venture with its headquarters in Japan will be owned 51 percent by Toshiba Corp. and 49 percent by Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., the two firms said in a statement.
Increasing competition in the optical disc drive market is behind the plan. The new joint venture will construct a competitive business structure that promotes optimized use of management resources and leadership in the global market More

Strong Finish for Motorola Last Quarter  

SCHAUMBURG, Ill. – January 20, 2004 – Motorola, the nation's largest wireless communications equipment company, did its bit to support growing optimism in the technology sector yesterday by reporting stronger-than-expected earnings and sales in the last quarter of 2003Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) reported sales of $8.0 billion in the fourth quarter of 2003 and net earnings of $489 million, or $.20 per share, presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). This represents an increase in sales of 4 percent from $7.7 billion in the year-ago quarter, up 17 percent sequentially from the third quarter. Motorola reported GAAP net earnings in the year-ago quarter of $174 million, or $.08 per share.Motorola Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Ed Zander said, “Both sales and earnings exceeded the guidance given by the company at the start of the quarter. Just as important, these results provide further evidence that top-line growth has returned and that further improvement in profitability can be achieved. Motorola is a company with great potential, and I’m absolutely delighted to have joined it at this important next stage of its evolution as a high technology leader.”  More

Bell Labs technology would give consumers greater control over their privacy when using mobile devices

New location privacy approach outlined at Mobile Data Management 2004 conference

Intel And Leading European Retailers - Carrefour, METRO Group And Tesco - Help Improve Supply Chain Visibility

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Jan. 12, 2004 - Working together to further improve supply chain efficiencies and customer loyalty, Carrefour, Intel Corporation, METRO Group and Tesco have formed a European working group to accelerate the adoption of Electronic Product Code (EPC) technology. The technology will help improve inventory control, which will lead to reduced operating costs and increased margins.

The supply chain is becoming increasingly global and complex with products passing through distribution centers, warehouses, and store sales floors. Companies are looking to navigate these complexities, address business process issues and choose the right technologies to better manage inventory and lower operating costs. Members of the group are actively piloting EPC, the next generation bar code, and radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies in their supply chains.

The working group, called the EPC Retail Users Group of Europe, will complement the efforts of current standards bodies, such as EPC Global, by providing a forum for European retailers to identify and share best methods for implementing EPC-based technologies, such as RFID readers, and business processes. The group will develop documents and white papers on successful implementations, technologies and usage models and share them with the retail industry in Europe. More

Microsoft's Top 10 New Year's Resolutions for IT Organizations

Redmond, Wash., Jan. 13, 2004 -- By this time each January, some people have already strayed from too-ambitious New Year's resolutions, and perhaps even moved personal goals like daily gym workouts to the "maybe next year" category. On the business side, however, there's still plenty of opportunity to turn good intentions into effective action.

Roche  Will Establish  New R&D Centre in China

January, 2004- Roche to expand global R&D activities by establishing a centre in Shanghai, China's biotech hub Roche will be the first global healthcare company to establish an R&D centre at Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park in Shanghai, China. The centre will be wholly owned and operated by Roche and will support the Roche Group’s worldwide R&D activities and its strategic business development efforts in the Chinese market. The Shanghai site will be an important addition to the Group’s R&D facilities in the United States, Japan and Europe.

‘China is a country with excellent resources and internationally trained biomedical scientists. The creation of our fifth research site in the Roche Pharmaceuticals Division represents a key strategic decision that will allow us to continue to enhance our capabilities in medicinal chemistry on a global level’, said Jonathan Knowles, President of Roche Group Research. ‘Looking to the long term, our aim is for the group in Shanghai to discover and optimise new molecules – active ingredients of potential new drugs – which address important unmet medical needs and can be marketed worldwide, including China.’ More

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