Key Technologies: Other Circuitry

Motorola New Low VF Schottky Rectifiers

July 15, 1997, Business Wire has corrected a previous report about Motorola's new Schottky rectifiers in Powermite(R) surface mount packages. Powermite is a registered trademark of Microsemi Corp. Powermite packaged rectifier are more suitable for mobile equipment because they're smaller.

http://www.mot-sps.com/ppd/html/pmite.html
[1997/07/23]

3D Acceleration in Notebook

Apr. 9 1997, Electronic Engineering Times reports that S3 has produced their Virge/MX 3D accelerator in low power form for high end 3D accelerated notebook use.
[1997/04/15]

Motorola Announces "TrueDie" Known Good Die SRAMs

Apr. 1, 1997, PR Newswire reports that Motorola announced "TrueDie" SRAM. These are pretested unpackaged chips. The MCM63P631DW is a 2Mbit, 64K * 32 BurstRAM(TM) costing $16.50 US in quantities of 1,000. Coming soon will be 5Mbit SRAMs.
[1997/04/04]

Motorola's New Low Power, High Speed SRAM

Mar. 25, 1997, PR Newswire reported that Motorola has announced their 66MHz, 2Mbit GreenRAM(TM) which uses 3.3V power supply, 2.5V I/O and draws 100microAmp standby current in "sleep mode". Designed for Level 2 cache applications the burstable MCM63PV631 is organized in 64K words of 32 bits and uses standard JEDEC pinouts and will cost $12.00 each in quantities of 1,000.
[1997/03/31]

Intel Investing in Samsung Memory Factory

Feb. 13, 1997, BusinessWire reported that Intel is investing in Samsung Electronics Co.'s $1.3 billion (US) memory fabrication plant being constructed in Austin, Texas, "Samsung Austin Semiconductor." The factory will begin production in late 1997. Size of Intel's investment was not specified.

Samsung Austin Semiconductor
[1997/02/18]

Samsung Decreases Production of 16Mbit DRAM

Feb. 7, 1997, Electronic Buyers News reports that Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., decreased 16Mbit DRAM production and reorganized following a 60% drop in their share prices. The glut on the market has reduced the spot price to around $7 - $8 (US) where break-even is about $10. Samsung claims that other producers are probably losing money.
[1997/02/09]

Intel Shortage of Flash RAM an Opportunity for Competitors

Intel has recently stated a lead time of "more than 20 weeks for for some of its high-density, low-voltage memory devices." Competitors named in the article include AMD, Fujitsu, Sharp, Micron, Technology, SGS-Thomson Microelectronics Inc., and TI. Some of them don't have comparable products (8Mbit range, in the proper architecture) at this time, but the article implies that many who don't shortly will have them.
[1997/02/09]

Speakers:

Speakers aren't what I normally consider "circuitry" but this item fits best in this area.
[1998/04/18]

NEC Introduces Flat Speakers for Notebooks

Aug. 6, 1997, TechWire reports that NEC has announced flat speakers for use in notebook computers. The speaker use 0.5mm vibration boards instead of cones or domes, allowing 140mm * 123mm speakers to be mounted behind flat panel displays producing very high fidelity and very high volume levels.
[1997/08/12]