Oki 2000 Annual Report Download - page 8

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Our decision to concentrate on logic and system LSIs and
non-PC memories, along with a recovery by the semiconductor
market, contributed to a strong surge in revenue and earnings
in this segment. In addition to basing production of logic and
system LSIs around our SPA strategy, we have developed
the timesaving µPLAT® integrated platform for system LSI
devices. The core hardware of the µPLAT® is a central process-
ing unit (CPU) licensed by Advanced RISC Machines Ltd.
(ARM), which is powered by a software and a support platform.
These platforms provide a total system development environ-
ment for delivering responsive customer support and short lead
times.
To further streamline SPA product development, we joined
Pittsburgh Digital Greenhouse, a cooperative with major com-
panies such as Sony Corp. and Cadence Design Systems, Inc.,
and including three Pennsylvania universities and the Common-
wealth of Pennsylvania. The corporate unit will set up an Internet-
based semiconductor intellectual property development
environment in the area.
The SPA process yielded two noteworthy results this
period. The first is the MS87V1021 voice recorder incorporating
a 2-megabit built-in DRAM, a microcontroller, voice recording
and playback functions, and an analog circuit all integrated
onto a single chip that will have numerous applications as a
system LSI. The second product line consists of the ML673000
and the ML67Q3001 microcontrollers for ETC systems used in
road traffic control and featuring dedicated short-range com-
munication control circuits integrated on a single chip with an
ARM CPU core.
For the telecommunications market, we devised the
ML7023 data transmission microcontroller for personal digital
cellular telephones. It supports asynchronous serial, parallel
and AT commands to facilitate high-speed data transmissions.
We made significant progress in refining SOI process tech-
nologies to create 0.35-micron line widths with power con-
sumption significantly lower than that of conventional wafers.
We have already begun to supply customers with samples.
To boost our packaged product operations, we formed
Integrated Electronics and Packaging Technologies, Inc., with
Casio Computer Co., Ltd. This joint venture will develop next-
generation chip-size packaging labelled the Wafer-level Chip
Size Package (WCSP). The goal is to produce low-cost and
ultimately small, die-size packages for mobile information
products that are more compact and functional.
On April 1, 2000, we reorganized under the “in-house com-
pany” system and established the Silicon Solutions Company.
The move will allow us to be more responsive to customer
needs.
In our components divisions, gallium arsenide (GaAs)
chipsets for ultra-compact transmitter/transceiver modules
used in optical transmission systems and optical modules for
trunk system monitoring recorded favorable sales in the optical
fiber network market, particularly in North America, where con-
tinued rapid growth is expected. During the period, we entered
new markets, introducing a 5-volt, single power source analog
integrated circuit (IC) and 2-volt, single power source, low-
power consumption digital IC featuring 16:1 Multiplexer (MUX)/
1:16 Demultiplexer (DEMUX) capabilities for use in 10-gigabit-
per-second optical transmission systems.
Over the next fiscal year, we will be seeking to expand our
share of the optical module market. Furthermore, we will
launch new products in the gigabit ether market, such as sur-
face mounted optical modules and 10-12.5 gigabit-per-second
GaAs chipsets, as growth is projected in the subscriber and
data transmission markets. Accordingly, we anticipate sales to
increase by approximately 80%, to around ¥13 billion.
The ML673000 and ML67Q3001 are single-
chip MCUs for ETC future traffic control
systems, which integrate with ARM.
The MS87V1021 voice recorder incorpo-
rates a 2-megabit DRAM, Micro Controller
Unit (MCU) and analog circuit.
ELECTRONIC DEVICES
SALES OF ELECTRONIC DEVICES
(Billions of yen)
159.1
233.1
149.0 151.4
124.6
0096 97 98 99
159.1
233.1
149.0 151.4
124.6
240
180
120
60
0
The µPLAT® consists of the three basic
‘Silicon’, ‘Soft ware’ and ‘Support’ plat-
forms. The core CPU is an ARM processor.