Lantronix Hits Factory Floor; Dense Pac’s Name Shift
If there’s any truth to the adage that history repeats itself, we might see consolidation among networking gear component makers by as early as next year.
At least that’s the sentiment among those quoted in a recent Red Herring article, which nicely spells out a trend of explosion and consolidation in technology’s driving forces in the past decade. The thesis: follow the engineers.
In the early 1990s, personal computer processors were the hot ticket until companies such as Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. cornered the market, leaving many of the industry’s edgier engineers to move on to cooler projects, such as graphic chips.
Then, after intense consolidation whittled the 50 some graphic chips startups down to a few, the vanguard techies moved to network processor upstarts,many of which call Orange County home. Now with more than 25 companies working on full-scale network processors or companion chips,and engineers already moving on to other projects,the stage could be set for another industry consolidation.
All the indicators are there: Many upstart chipmakers got started in an economy that is much less friendly than it was to earlier generations of chipmakers. That’s left some short on cash with additional funding harder to come by.
The problem is that “everyone is coming up with these elegant architectures, but the deployment of the equipment that will use these chips is being delayed,” Red Herring quotes Richard Doherty, an analyst at The Envisioneering Group, as saying.
The market shakeout will happen one way or another. Startups either will go out of business or be acquired. So here’s the question: Can companies such as Irvine-base Broadcom Inc. or Newport Beach-based Conexant Systems Inc., which still are trying to digest earlier acquisitions, step in to save some of these companies?
One thing that could appeal to potential suitors is that startups could go for bargain prices compared to their peers that were taken up in last year’s consolidation. We won’t have to wait long to find out. The industry could consolidate by as early as next year, sources in the article say.
Lantronix Links Factory Gear
Irvine’s Lantronix Inc., a maker of servers that easily connect devices to the Internet and help users access real-time data, launched a new server that allows old factory equipment to connect to a corporate network.
The device joins a growing line of Lantronix products that support factory automation standards like those used by Rockwell International Corp. or France’s Schneider Electric SA. The new server is smaller than a deck of playing cards, the company said.
Another new Lantronix server, designed for water treatment plants, refineries, mines and tank farms, supports devices connecting to a network through fiber-optic cabling. The server also can be used in other harsh environments, the company said.
“We believe that the introduction of our new family of device servers specifically designed for factory automation will expand our reach into the automation market,” said Lantronix Chief Executive Fred Thiel.
Dense Pac’s New Face
Joining other OC companies that have changed their names in recent months, Dense-Pac Microsystems Inc. changed its name to DPAC Technologies Corp. The company hopes it reflects the “strategic diversification of the business.”
“As our business has grown and diversified over the last two years, we’ve given considerable thought to a new name that better represents our corporate values and goals, one that signifies a forward-looking approach throughout our organization,” said DPAC Chief Executive Ted Bruce.
The company aimed for its new name to represent its past business in semiconductor packaging while taking into account new businesses the company hopes to move in to.
Earlier this year, DPAC Technologies organized into three operating groups to focus on the markets it conducts business with: The Advanced Packaging Group packs more memory on a mother board; the System Design Group serves as an outsourced designer for memory packaging; and the Value-Added Manufacturing Group acts as a contract manufacturer.
SimpleTech Antes in Flash
Another OC tech company that recently changed its name is making more inroads into the lucrative flash memory market with a new alliance with Hitachi Semiconductor America.
Memory maker SimpleTech Inc.,formerly Simple Technology,took the wraps off a new memory cards that can hold up to 1 gigabyte of data. SimpleTech engineers wanted to design the cards for commercial and industrial customers seeking the highest possible storage capacity in the smallest space.
Santa Ana-based SimpleTech hopes its alliance with Hitachi, announced earlier this summer, will help the company take advantage of the growing market for flash memory, which is used in consumer products such as digital cameras and MP3 players, as well as industrial products.
SimpleTech’s main memory products,dynamic random access memory used in personal computers,has seen falling demand as personal computer sales slow. Memory companies have worked feverishly to sell higher margin products such as flash memory.
