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Politics : Idea Of The Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Judy who wrote (15802)	12/19/1997 5:44:00 PM
From: Nancy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50167

Judy, news were released yesterday - apparently is expected, and not as worse as feared - therefore we have today's rally in the group. techweb.com

To: Judy who wrote (15802)	12/19/1997 6:18:00 PM
From: Jerry Olson	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 50167

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 Thank you for registering to receive Semiconductor Business News' newly launched daily e-mail news service, which automatically delivers a summary of top industry stories from SBN's Web site (http://www.seminews.com). This free e-mail service delivers news summaries once every 24 hours, five days a week. Most U.S. readers will receive e-mails overnight. In other locations around the world, e-mails will arrive during the day. SBN e-mails are sent in two formats: plain text files and HTML files for readers with HTML-compatible e-mail systems. If your e-mail is full of distracting coding, you are getting the HTML version on a system that should be getting plain text; please notify us and we will switch you. (Click here to send an e-mail to Colleen O'Kane.) We welcome your feedback and suggestions. Rob Lineback e-mail: rlinebac@cmp.com Fax: (972) 661-9873 News is posted several times a day on our Web site at seminews.com. Miss some recent items? Four weeks of daily news can be accessed by date on our Web site or you can search our archives by key word. To cancel this e-mail service, hit "reply" and type the word "unsubscribe" on the first line or the return message, or call Colleen O'Kane at (516) 562-7395. Please leave an exact e-mail address if leaving a message. Semiconductor Business News is published five times a week (except holidays) by CMP Media, Inc., 600 Community Dr., Manhasset, NY 11030. All material is copyright 1997 by CMP Media Inc. and may not be reproduced or retransmitted without per