January 2011

I’m normally not a big fan of 3D with the gimmicky movie effects, clunky glasses, and the inevitable headache and eyestrain that comes with it. But Nintendo seems to have circumvented many of these issues with their upcoming Nintendo 3DS handheld.

At CES the N3DS was a big hit with its ability to switch between 3D and 2D, the lack of glasses, and how easy it is on the eyes (and I don’t mean the way it looks).

Admittedly, I am a bit of a fan when it comes to Nintendo. I grew up with the Nintendo Entertainment System and The Legend of Zelda. My first handheld was a Game Boy, and there is a NDS Lite sitting in my desk drawer right now.

Sony will be competing with Nintendo again this year, as they release two new handhelds. Their first handheld is the Next Generation Portable (NGP), due out by the end of 2011, though a release date hasn’t been given. Once again, Sony’s handheld will focus on power, mimicking the PSP. The NGP will be a tablet with a 5” 960x544 OLED screen. It will have a touch pad, two cameras, Wi-Fi, 3G, GPS, motion sensors, etc. It will run an ARM Cortex A9 CPU and is supposed to be as powerful as a PlayStation.

The second handheld Sony will be releasing is the PlayStation Phone (also called the Xperia Play) through Sony Ericsson. This console / phone combo will have a 4” 854x480 LCD touch screen, camera, Wi-Fi, and run on an Android platform with a 1GHz processor.

On January 18, 2011 CEITEC S.A., a semiconductor manufacturer in Porto Alegre, Brazil, announced the successful completion of a 12 month field trial of an RFID chip that can be implanted in cattle for positive identification. This application is important for Brazil. Beef is one of Brazil’s largest exports. The RFID chip will allow beef to continue to be shipped to Europe and Japan in the event of a mad cow disease scare in South America; because the origin and movements of cattle can be tracked, from ranch to market, providing proof that the beef is not from a suspect herd or area. The rest of the world should take notice. This is a Brazilian semiconductor, designed and fabricated in Brazil. What do you think about when you think of Brazil: inflation, F1 racing drivers, soccer, something else? Think again! Brazil is a major market. It is a country of more than 200 million people, the fifth largest country in the world. It has a stable, democratic government, and inflation has been brought under control. It is one of the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India China), identified as developing countries with high growth rates and the potential to become among the world’s dominant economies in the future. Although Brazil’s GDP growth dropped in 2009, along with the rest of the world, its GDP has been growing at rates exceeding 5% annually. CEITEC S.A. is a startup IC company partially funded by the Brazilian government.

On the heels of the Qualcomm/Atheros acquisition, on January 10th, 2011, SMSC and Conexant Systems, Inc. announced the signing of an agreement under which SMSC will purchase Conexant in a stock and cash transaction valued at approximately $284 million.

Conexant’s imaging, audio, embedded modem and video products will be combined with SMSC's connectivity solutions targeting the computing, consumer, industrial and automotive markets. Christine King, President & Chief Executive Officer of SMSC expects the combined companies will lead to significant operating efficiencies and help position SMSC to increase earnings growth, increase R&D productivity and drive profitability and shareholder value.