Siemens acquires COMSA Siemens announced on Dec. 3 that it has acquired COM- SA Computer und Software GmbH, a Munich, Germany- based company that develops software for electrical sys- tems design and wire harness engineering. The COMSA team and technology will join the Mentor business, part of Siemens PLM Software. “Te acquisition of COMSA is part of Siemens’ continued invest- ment in technology for the automotive industry,” said Tony Hemmelgarn, president and CEO of Siemens PLM Software. Bishop and As- sociates estimates that the worldwide revenue for the cable assembly market in 2017 was $155 billion, with approximately 30% of the market from automotive.
RE P OR T I N D U STRY
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Oct. global semiconductor sales up 12.7% YoY; double-digit annual growth projected for 2018
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Verizon, Samsung to roll out 5G phone Verizon and Samsung an- nounced Dec. 3 their plan to bring one of the first commer- cial 5G smartphones to mar- ket in the first half of 2019. Te phone is to be powered by the upcoming flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon Mobile Platform with the Snapdragon X50 5G NR modem and antenna modules with integrated RF transceiver. Verizon launched the world’s first commercial service in Oc- tober when 5G Home went lie in Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, and Sacramento.
4 EVALUATION ENGINEERING JANUARY 2019
The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), represent- ing U.S. leadership in semiconductor manufacturing, design, and research, announced worldwide sales of semiconduc- tors reached $41.8 billion for the month of October 2018, an increase of 12.7% from the October 2017 total of $37.1 bil- lion and 1.0% more than last month’s total of $41.4 billion. Monthly sales numbers are compiled by the World Semicon- ductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization and represent a three-month moving average. Additionally, a newly re- leased WSTS industry forecast was revised upward and now projects annual global market growth of 15.9% in 2018 and 2.6% in 2019. “The global semiconductor industry posted solid year-to-
year growth in October and is on pace for its highest-ever annual sales in 2018, but growth has moderated in recent months,” said John Neuffer, SIA president and CEO. “Al- though strong sales of DRAM products continue to boost overall market growth, sales in all other major product cat- egories also increased year-to-year in October, and all major regional markets posted year-to-year gains. Double-digit an- nual growth is expected in 2018, with more modest growth projected for 2019.” Regionally, year-to-year sales increased in China (23.3%),
the Americas (14.1%), Europe (7.0%), Japan (5.5%), and Asia Pacific/All Other (3.7%). Compared with last month, sales were up in the Americas (2.8%), Asia Pacific/All Other (1.8%), Japan (0.4%), and Europe (0.2%), but down slightly in China (-0.4%).
Revolutionary insulator-like material also conducts electricity Researchers at the Univer- sity of Wisconsin-Madison have created an electricity- transmitting material that can transition to a nonconducting insulating material without altering its atomic structure. A material that can switch to conducting electricity like a metal without moving its atoms could dramatically advance switching speeds of advanced items, said Chang- Beom Eom, professor of mate- rials science and engineering. “Te metal-to-insulator tran- sition is very important for switches and for logic devices with a one or a zero state,” he said. “We have the potential to use this concept to make very fast switches.”
Huawei finance chief’s arrest fuels U.S.-China tensions Meng Wanzhou, chief fi- nancial officer of telecom- munications giant Huawei and daughter of the com- pany’s founder, was arrested by Canadian authorities on Dec. 1. The action was taken at the request of the U.S., which seeks her extra- dition for allegedly violat- ing its sanctions on Iran. News of the arrest surfaced several days after a meet- ing between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping in Ar- gentina, dampening the
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