Hi Toots,
here's the info<g>
Headlines from Thursday, Dec. 18, 1997
Click on Headline for full text of story:
Semiconductor equipment book-to-bill slips to 0.99
By J. Robert Lineback
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--For the first time in 1997, North American
suppliers of chip production equipment reported new orders for systems
were slightly lower than revenues from shipments, according to the
November book- to-bill ratio released today by Semiconductor
Equipment and Materials International here.
SEMI said its preliminary book-to-bill for November stands at 0.99
compared to a revised ratio of 1.02 for October. The trade group's
monthly book-to-bill ratio has not been below parity since a recovery
began in capital equipment markets late last year. November's ratio
indicates that for every $100 of equipment shipments, suppliers were
receiving $99 in new orders.
While the ratio slipped to its lowest point this year, SEMI officials said it is
not an indicator of a cooling off of capital spending by semiconductor
companies. In fact, November's $1.887 billion in new orders is a record
high for 1997, said Dick Greene, principal analyst for SEMI.
"This is the ninth straight month shipments and bookings have increased,"
Greene said. "In November, the orders were the highest they have been
for 1997. The reason the ratio is lower is because the shipments grew at a
faster rate than did the orders. This is why it is important to analyze the
numbers behind the numbers.' Even with the current environment of
DRAM pricing pressures and the financial concerns in the Pacific Rim, the
industry continues to grow at a healthy level."
TI buying software tool supplier GO DSP
DALLAS--Texas Instruments here today announced an agreement to
acquire GO DSP Corp., a Toronto-based supplier of software tools for
digital signal processing product designs.
The move is part of TI's efforts to expand its strategic focus in DSP by
offering chip customers more software to complete digital signal processing
solutions. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Privately-held GO DSP specializes in advanced, integrated software tools
for DSP system development. TI said these tools enable developers to
reduce the time it takes to complete products for the market.
IMP expands analog fab capacity in San Jose
SAN JOSE--IMP Inc. today said it will invest $3.5 million in new
equipment for its wafer fabrication facility here to expand the company's
portfolio of advanced analog process technologies.
"In 1998, we plan to introduce power management products which take
advantage of analog processes developed by IMP over the last two
years," said Phil Ferguson, president and CEO of IMP. Early this month,
the San Jose-based company announced plans to enter the power
management market, naming a former manager from Cherry
Semiconductor Corp. to head up the new activity (see Dec. 2 story).
The addition is being made in IMP's existing 18,000-square-foot
cleanroom. The company estimated that the additional equipment will
boost the fab's capacity by up to 25% to 4,000 wafer starts per week.
Panasonic creates digital TV chip for HDTV and standard DTV
Motorola opens Brazil chip center aimed at new growth region
MEMC plans polysilicon venture with Tokuyama, Marubeni
Taiwan's UMC, DuPont to form photomask venture
DuPont Photomasks expects lower results from Korean turmoil
Chip distributor Bell Micro warns of earnings shortfall
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