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Technology Stocks : Applied Materials No-Politics Thread (AMAT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kirk © who wrote (6639)	8/4/2003 4:58:52 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25522

Fab-automation tool market to grow 15% Semiconductor Business News 08/04/2003, 2:00 PM ET NEW TRIPOLI, Pa. -- The factory automation tool market, which dropped 8 percent in 2002, will recover and jump 15 percent in 2003, according to The Information Network, a market research company. Lack of fab investments are expected to force an upgrade cycle even in the absence of robust economic activity. This will equate to 15 percent growth for fab-automation tools in 2003 and 26 percent growth in 2004, said Robert N. Castellano, president of The Information Network. The market for carrier transport systems, which includes interbay and intrabay equipment and WIP storage, had Daifuku with a 28 percent share in 2002, ahead of Brooks Automation and Asyst Technologies. "The carrier transport is extremely volatile," notes Castellano. "That market dropped 50 percent in 1998 and increased only 6 percent in 1999, significantly less than the equipment and IC markets. Growth in 2000 was 80 percent. In 2002, the market dropped 8 percent while the entire front-end equipment market dropped 26 percent." The robotic sector, which saw sales dip 38 percent in 2001 and another 8 percent in 2002, will increase 13 percent in 2003. Brooks Automation led the market in 2002 with a 54 percent share followed by Genmark with a 14 percent share.

To: Kirk © who wrote (6639)	8/4/2003 6:52:47 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 25522

Check this out...... Korean firms launch coin-size MP3 player By CNETAsia Staff Special to CNET News.com August 4, 2003, 2:32 PM PT Two Korean firms have unveiled a featherweight MP3 player that is so small it could easily be mistaken for a coin. Jointly developed by local gadget makers Station Z and EraTech, Emp-Z measures 42 millimeters in diameter and 10 millimeters in thickness, The Korea Herald reported. The companies claim the new device, which weighs 15 grams and comes with 128MB of non-expandable memory, is the smallest and lightest MP3 player in the world. Excluding the built-in rechargeable batteries, the Emp-Z is half the weight of the lightest models available in the market today, the companies said. To miniaturize the device, Station Z and EraTech did away with functions such as voice recording and combined the earphone and USB (universal serial bus) slots into one, the report said. Using a USB adapter, users can now transfer songs from their computers to the Emp-Z through a standard headphone jack. The two firms said the new portable music player will cost around $120 and mass production is scheduled for later this month.

To: Kirk © who wrote (6639)	8/5/2003 1:54:22 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25522

It adds up...... China foundry CSMC obtains $67 million in funds By Mark LaPedus Semiconductor Business News 08/05/2003, 12:45 PM ET WUXI, China -- Silicon foundry provider CSMC Technologies Corp. of China today (Aug 5) announced it has received $67 million in its first round of funding. The funding was led by 3i, Crown Crystal Investments Ltd., and China Resources Logic, CSMC's largest shareholder. IFC, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group and a private equity fund managed by Templeton Asset Management Ltd., also participated in the funding. Proceeds will be used to expand CSMC's foundry services. While most major silicon foundry providers are currently building new 200- and 300-mm fabs, CSMC is bucking the trend, by expanding its existing 6-inch, 0.5-micron plant. The Wuxi-based company is not looking to build an 8-inch fab--at least for now. Instead, it plans to build another 6-inch fab, which will be capable of making "trailing-edge" 0.35-micron chips ( see Nov. 15 story ). CSMC has come a long way in a short time. The company was originally known as China Huajing Electronics Group Corp., which was a state-run IC enterprise formed in the 1980s. In 1998, CSMC and China Huajing formed a joint foundry venture, dubbed CSMC-HJ Semiconductor Co. Ltd. At that time, the company shifted its focus from standard chip products, to the foundry business. The timing is ripe for an investment in CSMC, said Peter Chen, CSMC's chairman and CEO. "This investment is a significant endorsement of CSMC's business model and international strategy, and comes at a time when we are seeing signs that the industry is set for significant recovery," he said in a statement. At the same time, China's IC market is exploding. China's semiconductor market has grown about 30 percent in recent times, from $2.4 billion in 1995 to $15 billion in 2002, making it the world's third largest semiconductor market, behind the U.S. and Japan. Despite this strong growth, it is estimated that current domestic supply can only meet less than 20 percent the demand in China. According to Gartner Inc., the China IC market is expected to continue growing at a rate of about 20 percent per year, reaching to $31 billion in 2006.