News Briefs

Agilent Technologies (Palo Alto, CA) has announced that the Iometrix test lab (San Francisco, CA) has used Agilent's N2X multiservice infrastructure tester to verify the performance of Cisco networking equipment. In the tests, which were based on the Metro Ethernet Forum's MEF 1 spec, Iometrix was able to verify the functionality and performance of both Ethernet-Line (point-to-point) and Ethernet-LAN (multipoint-to-multipoint) services delivered by the Cisco products.

The N2X can create unique traffic types for more than 32,000 streams and can measure the results in real time. Iometrix used the tester to test data-plane transparency, control-plane transparency, VLAN transparency, protection and restoration, performance, and quality of service. The network testbed consisted of Cisco multiservice provisioning platforms and various models of Cisco routers.

Using the N2X, Iometrix was able to "build scenarios for key features of Ethernet services such as multiplexing at the UNI, all-to-one VLAN bundling, bandwidth profiling, and Layer 2 control protocol transparency, while validating functionality and performance with ease," according to Bob Mandeville, president of Iometrix. www.agilent.com.

The University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL; Durham, NH) is seeking members for a new consortium that will test industry implementations of the Serial ATA (SATA) data storage technology. The consortium, which will act as an extension of its members' private research and development organizations, will troubleshoot conformance to industry standards and interoperability between devices from different manufacturers. The UNH-IOL is planning several open industry group plugfests for 2004.

Consortium members must agree to provide a platform representing their equipment at the lab for at least 18 months. The annual membership fee will be $14,000, but a discounted "founding member" fee of $10,000 is being offered for a limited time.

The nonprofit UNH-IOL offers interoperability and conformance-based testing through 19 technology consortiums, including Fibre Channel, Gigabit Ethernet, and Power over Ethernet. In a prepared statement, Stephen Schaeffer, manager of the SATA research effort, said, "SATA is the new kid on the block of data storage. Now is the time, while the technology is young, to identify pitfalls in implementations and interoperability and to hammer out any kinks in the standard so that the market can move forward quickly and smoothly—to the benefit of everyone concerned. www.iol.unh.edu.

Through a vote of approval from Credence and NPTest stockholders, Credence Systems (Milpitas, CA) completed its acquisition of NPTest in late May. Over 91% of Credence's shares present and voting at the Credence stockholders' meeting voted in favor of the acquisition, and over 99% of NPTest's shares present and voting at the NPTest stockholders' meeting voted in favor of the acquisition.

Formerly known as Schlumberger Semiconductor Solutions, NPTest was formed and spun off from its parent company in 2002. As a result of the acquisition, the NPTest ticker symbol has been removed from its Nasdaq listing. Credence has acquired all of the outstanding common stock of NPTest in a combined stock and cash transaction. www.credence.com.

The IEEE reports that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with SEMI on a standards collaboration—the first such agreement reached by the two organizations. IEEE and SEMI will now support each other's nanotechnology and MEMS standards.

"Our goal is to move the entire field forward by starting work on standards early in the development cycle so as to nurture commercialization, reduce costs and boost productivity," commented Bettina Weiss, SEMI's director of international standards and MEMS, in a prepared statement. "Standards developed by SEMI will address such areas as materials, tools and interfaces, while IEEE standards will deal with test methods, materials, devices, interoperability, and other topics.

Judith Gorman, managing director of the IEEE Standards Association, said, "Possible areas of focus include organic, molecular, carbon nanotube, and silicon nanofiber-based devices. We see this memorandum as the start of a long-term collaboration, one that links the complementary expertise of our organizations to benefit our members and industry as a whole."

The two groups will appoint liaisons, define a regular exchange of information, and schedule periodic joint meetings. The memorandum also provides for the organizations to present updates at each other's committee meetings and to disseminate standards information on nanotechnology and MEMS. IEEE already has one nanotechnology standards effort underway and expects to publish a measurement standard for carbon nanotubes in 2005. www.ieee.org; www.semi.org.

Inspection. Vision-systems manufacturer Coreco (Montreal, QC, Canada) has announced that its Q1 2004 revenues reached $5,321,920, a 7% growth over the previous quarter and a 22% growth over the same quarter of 2003. Gross margin amounted to 60.7%, which was in line with the company's goal of maintaining gross profit at approximately 60% of sales. www.coreco.com.

Semiconductors. In-Stat/MDR (Scottsdale, AZ) reports that the ASIC market is doing well and will continue to prosper. The high-tech market-research firm has found that product differentiation is responsible for this market's health, and while design starts in customer-specific, cell-based designs will flatten out and decline somewhat, revenues will continue to grow, from $6.78 billion in 2003 to $10.76 billion by 2008. www.instat.com.