News briefs

Dalsa and Coreco have announced that they have entered into an agreement under which Dalsa will acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of Coreco. The total consideration paid by Dalsa for Coreco is approximately $72 million. The transaction, which is expected to close in late April, will combine Dalsa's image sensor chips and digital cameras with Coreco's vision software and image processors, such as the Anaconda.

Savvas Chamberlain, CEO of Dalsa, commented, "I am particularly excited about the opportunity for the 'new Dalsa' to take a leadership role in the convergence of technologies that is rapidly occurring in our industry."

"This agreement fulfills Coreco's long-stated strategy of gaining access to sensor technology and furthering our capabilities for smart cameras," added Keith Reuben, president & CEO of Coreco. Reuben will join Dalsa as president of "Dalsa Coreco," reporting to Savvas Chamberlain.

The $6500 Anaconda, compliant with PCI-X, employs a PowerPC and FPGA to support real-time image acquisition and analysis. www.dalsa.com ; www.coreco.com.

Credence Systems has announced that Silicon Image has purchased a Sapphire test system, which the maker of multi-gigabit-per-second semiconductor devices for the transmission and storage of rich digital media will use for engineering development and characterization. Silicon Image will apply the Sapphire to a range of high-performance devices, such as HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) and DVI (Digital Visual Interface) transmitters/receivers and Serial-ATA host controllers.

"Testing high-speed, mixed-signal ICs is no easy feat," said Robert Bagheri, executive VP of operations at Silicon Image. "Sapphire's concurrent testing capability of both analog and digital signals provides Silicon Image with the most cost-effective test for robust, high-bandwidth applications. Additionally, the system's flexibility allows us to standardize on a range of test solutions for development and characterization, to reduce cost while improving test coverage."

"Silicon Image is recognized as an industry leader in high-speed semiconductor solutions for consumer-electronics, PC/display, and storage applications," said Dave Ranhoff, president and CEO of Credence Systems. "Their decision reflects the performance, functionality, scalability and ease-of-use of the system. Being the only ATE vendor to offer a complete design-to-test solution makes us a natural choice for companies such as Silicon Image that are looking for true cost-of-test advantages." www.siliconimage.com.

LogicVision, a provider of yield-learning products for integrated circuits and systems, and Open-Silicon, a fabless ASIC company that offers an alternative to traditional chip design and supply-chain models, have announced the adoption of LogicVision's embedded memory-test and repair-analysis technology as part of the standard tool flow in Open-Silicon ASIC designs.

"Through our OpenMODEL, we seek to bring the best of all design methodologies to the table," said Satya Gupta, VP of engineering for Open-Silicon. "LogicVision's solutions will ensure that our customers reap benefits in both cost savings and time to market." www.open-silicon.com.

Amherst Systems has opened its ScopeApplications.com Web site to the public. The site aims to ensure that compliance testing uses a standard procedure, not just tests to a standard, by supporting test procedures that operate on all popular real-time oscilloscopes. The site allows engineers to obtain applications at no cost that will work on a wide variety of instruments and to share their tests and test suites with the Web community.

The community has both members and sponsors. Members are able to download applications and participate in discussions with other members with similar interests. They can also become developers of test scripts to share on the site. Sponsors are companies that want to drive adoption of the site, its values, and mission. Ultimately, the intent of the community is to increase the consistency of standards test algorithms so users get similar test results for a given part. www.scopeapplications.com.

Version 4 of the M1 timing and jitter analysis software from Amherst Systems lets you use your PC to analyze jitter in serial data streams, and it can get data directly from any DSO. With version 4, you can decompose jitter into random and deterministic components with 5% uncertainty. The Automeasure feature lets you quickly make measurements from your scope. A new user interface provides easier access to the package's advanced analysis function than did previous versions. M1 version 4 also lets you write scripts to automate your measurements.

M1 version 4 is available in Advanced, Basic, Reader, and NewComer versions. A perpetual hardware license for the Advanced version (with scope data acquisition) sells for $6495. The Basic version uses the new user interface but otherwise is the same as version 3. A perpetual license for the Basic version costs $2695. A new Reader version is the same as the Advanced version but lacks the data-acquisition capabilities. Thus, you must capture the data and import it into M1. The free NewComer version lets you perform some jitter analysis.

Amherst Systems, Amherst, MA. www.thejittersolution.com .

Omron has announced its F500 vision sensor, which features a 1-Mpixel digital camera. It stores up to 200 images in compact flash that can then be transmitted in batches to permanent storage. Two separate processors, one for judgment and one for communication, allow the system to transmit images and be accessed from remote sites without slowing its operating inspection rates. The F500 supports operations in IT networks, enabling ready access to data and images. Measurement images are stored for future use in checking measurement accuracy for quality control, for ongoing analysis of operations, and for attachment to reports. The F500 targets inspection needs in packaging and electronics product lines where precise appearance, positioning, and measurement data storage are important.

Price: $15,000. Omron Electronics, Schaumburg, IL. www.omron.com/oei.

ESTECH, May 1–4, Chicago, IL. The annual technical meeting of the Institute of Environmental Sciences and Technology (IEST). www.iest.org/estech/estech.htm .

NEPCON East/Electro, May 3–5, Boston, MA. Electronics manufacturing and components. Sponsored by Reed Exhibition Cos. www.nepconeast.com.

The Vision Show West, May 17–19, San Jose, CA. Machine-vision components, systems, and solutions. Sponsored by Automated Imaging Association. www.machinevisiononline.org.

To learn about other conferences, courses, and calls for papers, visit www.tmworld.com/events.