John East
In-depth with Actel's Savvy CEO

You can feel it from the moment you walk into Actel’s new 157,000 square foot facility in Mountain View, CA. Not because the surroundings are comfortable, conservative, and corporate. They are. The new building has more space, is more usable, and is probably better located than their previous facility, but there’s something else happening here. It’s the people. They have a slightly different feeling than at your typical Silicon Valley technology firm. They seem confident, energetic, and positive. They each have their own personality and style instead of some homogenized corporate mannerism. They like each other. They like working here.

Actel hasn’t blown the lid off the market with triple-digit growth. It hasn’t been on the front cover of every industry publication. It hasn’t engaged in epic product and marketing battles with rival firms, although it does tenaciously defend its turf and aggressively push into new markets… But Actel also hasn’t done some other things. It hasn’t lost money in 52 quarters, even through the toughest times of the semiconductor slump. It hasn’t been acquired by a bigger competitor. It hasn’t suffered massive, morale-destroying layoffs and redeployments. It hasn’t been plagued by Silicon Valley’s legendary high turnover rates, short employee tenures, and the revolving door of technical expertise that smears the lines of distinction between technology companies.

When you talk to the people here, you tend to hear the same story. They understand what their company is about. They believe in the strategy. They know how their products and services are different from those of their competitors, and what kinds of customers are likely to value those differences. They know what direction their technology and strategy are going in the next year, and they aren’t talking about it out of school. They welcome a challenge or debate on the technical merits of flash versus SRAM technologies for FPGA, or the importance of design security. [more]

Lattice Fights Back
Lattice-Fujitsu Partnership Opens New Doors

It is said that adversity strengthens resolve. If this is true, the past couple of years must have filled Lattice Semiconductor with levels of resolve never before seen in the programmable logic industry. Now, Lattice is fighting back. In an exciting announcement this week, Lattice is working to improve its fortune by forging a partnership with semiconductor technology leader Fujitsu Limited for fabrication of next-generation FPGAs.

Lattice, which has always been strong in the PLD/CPLD market, has worked hard to diversify its product line and to break into the larger FPGA market to generate growth beyond what’s available in traditional PLDs. Acceptance of Lattice FPGAs has been slow, however, and recent times have proved difficult with a slow recovery from the downturn amplified by fierce competition, disappointing financial results, and the constant jockeying for position in advanced fabrication lines with their partners Seiko-Epson, UMC, and Chartered Semiconductor. [more]