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Partnership

Fairchild Semiconductor (www.fairchildsemi.com) and Zilker Labs (www.zilkerlabs.com) have entered into an agreement to manufacture and sell digital power products, including point-of-load power devices, targeted at the server, networking, graphics, and high-end desktop applications. Zilker Labs’ digital-dc ICs are highly-integrated, high-performance digital power solutions designed to be universal building blocks that can be easily combined and adapted to address a wide variety of complex power system requirements. The partnership will allow increased product support and supply continuity for OEMs and power supply manufacturers using digital power control products.

Wireless ICs outperform overall chip market

According to iSuppli, the global wireless semiconductor market generated $29.5 billion in revenue in 2007, up 7.6% from $27.4 billion in 2006. These figures consist of revenue from sales of application-specific semiconductors — excluding memory — for wireless applications, including mobile handsets, wireless infrastructure equipment, wireless LANs and connectivity products.

In contrast, the global market for all kinds of semiconductors grew by only 3.3% during the same period. Worldwide mobile handset shipments amounted to 1.15 billion units in 2007, rising by 16.1% from 990 million in 2006. This helped keep the wireless semiconductor market on a high-growth track in 2007, with six of the top 10 suppliers achieving double-digit increases in revenue for the year.