Hi kmac...the company released a similar statement last year and (it appears) as a result the stock price fluctuations toned down considerably. It's good to see that they are still emphasizing this.
Here is some news about Fujitsu. It has been rumored recently that Fujitsu and LGPT may be working a deal and this story certainly supports that possibility. Note the following quotes:
"Fujitsu's strategy includes engagement with third-party IP vendors that have the technical depth to provide the development support."
"Our basic strategy is that if a processor company has the software and the tool support, then we'd like to introduce such a core for our IP Ware LSIs," he said. "We're open to accepting other third-party cores if they can deliver good tools and design environments. Without that, it's difficult."
Fujitsu licenses ARM, restructures fab operations
By Anthony Cataldo
EE Times
(03/08/99, 3:13 p.m. EDT)
TOKYO — Amid a worsening recession for the Japanese electronics industry, Fujitsu Ltd. has taken a number of steps to reinvent its semiconductor operations. During the past year, the company has shut down facilities and cancelled new construction projects as sales plummeted. At the same time, Fujitsu is trying to position itself as one of Japan's most progressive chip makers by forging technology alliances in process technology and intellectual-property (IP) development.
Most recently, Fujitsu licensed the ARM7TDMI processor, a decision that illustrates its efforts to both control development costs and attract more customers from abroad. The move follows a similar one by Toshiba Corp. to license the core as a way to stimulate business in Europe, where ARM is considered the de facto standard for embedded communications equipment.
In Fujitsu's case, the ARM7 will be used to attract more customers making hard-disk drives and cellular phones that have been enticed by its compact code size and low-power operation. The company also expects Japanese cellular-phone OEMs to design-in the ARM core soon. Fujitsu will port the core to its 0.25-micron ASIC process, and expects first silicon to be ready by June.
"The ARM7 is one of our key cores for our ASIC business," said Ryusuke Hoshikawa, executive vice president of Fujitsu's semiconductor group and chairman of subsidiary Fujitsu Microelectronics Inc. (San Jose, Calif.). "A lot of our customers are requesting it."
Many of those customers are in the United States, a market where Fujitsu would like to increase its sales. Hoshikawa called the Japanese market "saturated," and noted that many Asian-based customers are designing chips in the United States that will ultimately land in products sold in countries outside of the U.S. market. About 85 percent of Fujitsu's semiconductor sales come from Japan, but Hoshikawa said his goal is for international sales to account for 30 percent of overall semiconductor sales in three years.
Getting help from companies like ARM is one way for Fujitsu to draw more customers. As part of its licensing agreement, the company has acquired the full package of supporting deliverables, including ASIC development software, user support tools, peripheral macro functions and software, and all related documentation.
Fujitsu's strategy includes engagement with third-party IP vendors that have the technical depth to provide the development support. Indeed, Hoshikawa said, the cost of developing a first-generation, system-on-a-chip device is 20 times more expensive than subsequent generations.
Hoshikawa said Fujitsu is also willing to consider licensing other CPU architectures, such as MIPS. In addition to ARM, the company currently offers UltraSparc processors and its own FRx RISC devices.
"Our basic strategy is that if a processor company has the software and the tool support, then we'd like to introduce such a core for our IP Ware LSIs," he said. "We're open to accepting other third-party cores if they can deliver good tools and design environments. Without that, it's difficult."
Like most of Japan's large electronics companies, Fujitsu recently revised its financial-performance projections downward for the fiscal year. Total sales are expected to be $43.8 billion instead of the $45 billion projected last October, cutting expected profits by more than half, to $167 million. As part of the financial revision, semiconductor and component sales were projected to be $4.6 billion, down slightly from the $4.8 billion forecast earlier.
In response, Fujitsu has been trying to slash costs wherever it can without losing its technological edge. Last year, it decided o close its fab in Durham, Scotland, and recently announced a cancellation of plans to build a new $1.2 billion front-end fab in Japan's Fukushima Prefecture. The site will instead be used to build a $41.6 million logic-testing facility. Capital spending for fiscal 1999, which begins April 1, is expected to come in at $667 million; that's less than half of what Fujitsu will have spent in fiscal 1998.
Even so, U.S. subsidiary Fujitsu Microelectronics will spend $60 million to add a new logic line at its facility in Gresham, Ore., which now makes DRAMs, a company spokesman said. The move will allow the company to expand leading-edge capacity without building a plant from the ground up. Other logic production will go to its Wakamatsu development facility in Iwate.
The company also still plans to ramp its 0.18-micron logic process this year at its plant in Mie.
|
