Next week's Semiconductor Business News Excerpts...................
techweb.cmp.com
Panasonic's show stopper
A single-chip digital TV video decoder has been developed by Panasonic
AVC American Labs that will be the key component in the DTV decoder
set-top box that Panasonic is ready to launch at the Winter CES in Vegas in
early January, Junko Yoshida reports in EE Times.
Targeted for full-spec HDTVs as well as for down-converter boxes and
DTV add-in cards for PCs, the silicon is the industry's first single-chip
device that can decode and display ATSC-specified DTV signals in native
video or down-converted formats, Matsushita's U.S. lab claims. The
decoder will cost less than $100 in large volume orders.
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Good year ahead for chips?
Despite all the bad vibes coming from the Far East, market researchers tell
EE Times' Margaret Ryan that the semiconductor industry will do a lot
better in '98 than in the two preceding years. They figure that South Korea's
economic dive will force chip makers there to put fab-expansion plans on
hold, easing overcapacity and stabilizing memory chip prices.
Dataquest's Jim Handy says '98 IC sales will climb 16.7%, up from this
year's 5.6% increase as IC-fab investments fall and DRAM prices rise. He
expects global memory IC sales to grow to $39 billion, up 18% from '97's
disastrous $33 billion. Vladi Catto, TI's economist, agrees. "We have a
recovery in progress," he says, and it's going to benefit chip makers selling to
wireless com, networking, and computer industries. He doesn't see Asia's
problems hurting IC sales. |
