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WILSONVILLE, OR – Mentor Graphics announced record fourth quarter revenue of $221.3 million, up 3% from the prior fourth quarter. Bookings were up more than 5% from Q4 2004.

"We were pleased to see continued growth in bookings in the fourth quarter of 2005, especially considering the tough comparison to last year's fourth quarter growth of more than 35%," Walden C. Rhines, chairman and CEO, said in a press release. "Renewals showed strong growth, with contract values up nearly 30% over prior contract levels. Mentor's book-to-bill ratio was positive for the year, and the fourth quarter was the highest quarterly book-to-bill ratio since 1996."

Three of the four major product categories set quarterly and annual bookings records. Compared to Q4 2004, bookings grew 50% in Integrated Systems Design, 15% in IC Design to Silicon and 20% in New and Emerging.

Mentor's Questa verification platform, launched in May, was installed in over 1,000 seats installed by the fourth quarter. TestKompress bookings more than doubled during the year, while automotive products grew 40%. Strength in FPGA-related products like synthesis and I/O Designer helped increase bookings in the Integrated Systems Design category.

Calibre resolution enhancement technology continued to expand with annual bookings growth of 25%. Calibre DFM bookings grew 1000% over 2004 thanks to two new product launches.

Mentor's automotive solution was adopted at Shanghai Motors. The resulting orders were the largest Mentor has ever received from China.

North America and Europe both saw bookings up 20% over Q4 last year. Japan was weaker with bookings down 35%, while the Pacific Rim bookings dropped 5% over the year ago levels.

FRAMINGHAM, MA — The fourth quarter of 2005 saw new records for mobile phone shipments, largely driven by vendors stocking the channels in time for the holiday season. According to IDC, worldwide mobile phone shipments rose 19.3% year over year and increased sequentially 16.8%, good for reach a quarterly record of 245.2 million units.

An analyst with the firm said the quarter portends solid growth into 2006.

ST. GALLEN, SWITZERLAND – Companies exporting electronics to Switzerland should be advised of a new regulation for chemicals called the ChemRRV. According to a senior engineer at the EMPA Technology and Society Laboratory, ChemRRV bans the same substances outlawed in the RoHS directive.

SAN JOSE -- Sanmina-SCI Corp. last night reported first-quarter revenue rose 3.5% to $2.86 billion sequentially but fell 12% year-on-year.

For the quarter ended Dec. 31, the GAAP net income was up 300% to $21.2 million sequentially but fell 13% from a year ago. The company received a one-time income tax adjustment of $64 million.

SINGAPORE -- Tiny in size but strategically vital, Singapore is eyeing big gains in electronics manufacturing even as its competitors in Southeast Asia grow by the month.

In a report released this week Sinagpore's Electronics Development Board agency set a target of $5 billion in new manufacturing investments for 2006 and is looking to double manufacturing output to $185 billion by 2018.

In 2005, the EBD said, the nation attracted about $5.2 billion worth of new fixed-asset investment commitments for manufacturing, up 2.4% over 2004. Electronics accounted for over half of these new commitments, and are expected to make up half of the 16,700 new manufacturing jobs expected.

Major investments included semiconductor wafer fabs and assembly and testing including a Micron plant expansion, a new $50-million wafer-level packaging plant by Schott Electronics, and a massive $1.2 billion, two-year commitment from STMicroelectronics.

CAMBRIDGE, U.K. -- Sales of RFID tags and related products will hit $2.71 billion this year, and rise to $12.35 billon by 2010, says research firm IDTechEx.

The firm says 600 million tags were sold in 2005, and 1.3 billion tags will be sold this year. Of that, the majority will be used for a range of diverse markets from baggage and passports to contactless payment cards and drugs. About 500 million RFID smart labels will be used for pallet and case level tagging.

In the short term large “closed loop” markets requiring high value RFID will remain very profitable and companies will seek to position themselves as the leader in hardware and integration in different vertical market segments, IDTechEx said.

Many markets are being created, such as real-time location systems using active RFID. Growth in passive RFID will be driven by the tagging of high volume items - notably consumer goods, drugs and postal packages, IDTechEx said.

The firm also predicts more use of different frequencies and increased interest in high frequency (13.56 MHz) tags and systems.

TORONTO -- Celestica today reported fourth-quarter revenue of $2.08 billion, down 11% from last year. The GAAP loss for the December quarter narrowed to $28 million, from $810 million a year ago.

ST. LOUIS -- LaBarge Inc. has been awarded a contract worth more than $18 million by L-3 Communications to produce subassemblies for an airline checked-baggage screening system. The agreement is in addition to a contract L-3 awarded LaBarge last spring, and expands the company's involvement in the program to the production of higher-level electronic assemblies.

ATLANTA, GA —UP Media Group has developed a Year of the Designer Website (yearofthedesigner.com) as part of its yearlong celebration of the PCB design profession. The site gives designers a forum for sharing “war stories,” swapping ideas, discussing issues and staying informed about upcoming Year of Designer events.

UPMG officially designated 2006 to be the Year of the Designer. UPMG president Pete Waddell explained: “For over 20 years, a large part of our focus has been on PCB designers. Many people think that designers are under-appreciated and under-recognized. Whether that is true or not, we recognize that design is the foundation on which all electronics products are built. We also believe that the PCB designers of the world should receive the credit they deserve.”

The Year of the Designer Website focuses on a variety of designer interests, including:
· “Designer Spotlight” to help give designers the recognition they deserve
·           “Design Firm Focus” to detail your neighborhood service bureaus
·           “My In Box” to spotlight designs that designers are working on
·           “Deep Thoughts” to explain what designers like about designing boards and more
·            “Favorite Design Tool” to let designers discuss their favorite tools
·           “The Rant” to tackle issues plaguing designers at the moment
·            “Designer’s Library” to prove life exists outside of design
·           “The Listening Room” to highlight the tunes that fill designers’ headphones.

The site’s content will be updated often and will grow—based in part on the amount of content that PCB designers themselves contribute.

“The site is live, but we need your help to keep the content fresh,” said Waddell. “I know many designers have strong opinions, and we want to hear them. Tell us about your favorite EDA tool or the design you’re working on, or simply ‘rant’ about a pet peeve.”

Send comments and site content to Printed Circuit Design & Manufacture editor Andy Shaughnessy: ashaughnessy@upmediagroup.com).

All PCB designers are invited to attend the Year of the Designer Reception at PCB Design Conference West (pcbwest.com) on March 29 in Santa Clara, CA.

Companies interested in becoming a Year of the Designer sponsor should contact Kamden Robb: krobb@upmediagroup.com.

MYRTLE BEACH, SC -- AVX Corp. reported third quarter net sales of $349.1 million, up 7.1% sequentially and 15.5% over last year. For the period ended Dec. 31, net income was $24.4 million, up 220% versus a year ago.

Income from operations improved sequentially $30.5 million for the quarter, up 376% year-over-year.

United Kingdom --Bob Willis was given the “Process Development Award” from Soldertec Global/Tin Technology, in recognition of his achievements assisting industry in the preparation for Pb-free legislation.

Known for his training courses, lectures and practical advice, he writes technical articles, is a regular contributor to magazines (including Circuits Assembly) and has assisted in producing many soldering books.

Willis has coordinated Pb-free hands-on working areas at international exhibitions, including Productronica, the Hannover Fair and Nepcon. He has organized training workshops for research groups such as: ITTF, SINTEF, NPL and IVF.

Willis also coordinates the SMART Group activity for the EU project LEADOUT, currently Europe’s largest funded research project.

Endicott, NY – Endicott Interconnect Technologies has entered into a joint development and manufacturing agreement for high performance power modules with a major research lab. The agreement calls for technology transfer of development know how, including the fabrication process and manufacturing parameters from the research firm to EI. EI is supplying prototypes for the power module qualification.

The technology was developed to address the performance limitations that current packaging and interconnection approaches impose upon high performance power semiconductor devices. The product relies on flexible substrates and a direct die attach to connect to power electronic devices. This method eliminates wire bonds, while attaining a small footprint, thin profile and high reliability.