News
KOKOMO, IN– Foresite will offer a two-day workshop series in Boston, Minneapolis, San Jose and Seattle this fall. The Understanding Process Residues & their Effects on Product Performance and Achieving Reliable Lead Free Performance workshops will provide information for electronics manufacturers transitioning to Pb-free assembly who are concerned with product cleanliness and long term reliability.
Topics include: ways to achieve the lowest optimum Pb-free soldering temperatures, controlling oxidation and the difference between cleanliness and contamination. Industry veteran (and Circuits Assembly columnist) Terry Munson will lead the classes.
The workshop dates are:
Boston – Sept. 21-22
Minneapolis – Sept. 27-28
San Jose – Nov. 2-3
Seattle – Nov .8-9
For more info and to register, visit www.residues.com.
PALO ALTO, CA -- Agilent Technologies has agreed to divest its Semiconductor Products segment to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Silver Lake Partners for $2.66 billion. The company also plans to spin off its SOC and Memory Test businesses as soon as practical in 2006.
Agilent will return the cash proceeds of the divestitures to its owners through a $4 billion share repurchase program to commence immediately. The company also intends to call its $1.15 billion convertible debenture, which potentially will reduce its outstanding shares by 36 million.
FRANKFURT -- Datapoints across the PC industry suggest that global PC demand is tracking significantly better than expected, largely due to stronger notebook demand. Accordingly, Deutsche Bank is raising its PC unit estimate to 15% from 10% for 2005 and to 10% in 2006 (from 8%).
DB expects PC unit growth to re-accelerate to 13% Y/Y in 2007 in conjunction with the debut of Vista (Microsoft's new operating system) and the beginning of a new replacement cycle.
As a result of higher PC unit estimates, DB’s overall IT Hardware assumptions are also slightly higher for 2005 and 2006 at 6% and 5%, respectively (vs. 5% and 4%).
