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Tekmos Talks                                      seasons-greetings-header.jpg
A Newsletter for the Semiconductor Industry                             December 2013 
In This Issue
From the Desk of the President
Tekmos Talks Meet the Staff
Tekmos Year In Review
Join Our Mailing List!
Quick Links

Applications for Tekmos Products:
  • Automotive
  • Industrial
  • Military
  • Medical
  • Telecommunications  
The following are standard generic microcontroller devices available from Tekmos.
If you need a similar product not listed, contact Tekmos:  

 

Intel replacements by Tekmos 

TK80C51

TK80C188EB 

TK80C186EB 

TK80C186EC - samples soon! 

TK80C188EC - samples soon!

 

NXP replacements by Tekmos

TK87C751

TK83C751

TK89C668

 

Freescale replacements by Tekmos

TK68HC11A1

TK68HC11D0

TK68HC11E1

TK68HC11K1

TK68HC711B16 and B32

TK68HC711D3

TK68HC711E9

TK68HC711E20

TK68HC05 series

TK68HC705B series

TK68HC811E2 - samples soon!

TK68020 - samples soon!

 

Intel, NXP and Freescale are registered trademarks by these respective companies.
   


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Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to all of our customers, distributors and loyal followers of Tekmos. We would like to take this opportunity to extend our gratitude to everyone for making 2013 a successful year.

Our newsletter this month will do a year in review, share some insight from the "Desk of the President" and introduce a member of Tekmos' staff. As always we will share Tekmos' "news highlights" of company activities and sales, including the launch of new Tekmos products.

Tekmos High Temperature ASIC and High Temperature Micros 175/250C for Extreme Environments...still the hottest in the world!
From the Desk of the President
LReed
Lynn Reed, President

Business is Great    

 

2013 is almost over, and we have had a good year.  At a minimum, our sales have doubled this year, and we have a good chance to triple sales for next year.

 

Double and triple digit growths are worthy, but they bring with them new challenges to address that we here at Tekmos enjoy taking on.  You can handle a little growth by working more efficiently and by just working a little harder. Tripling our growth means addressing the bigger picture.

 

Tekmos' solution is to change the definition of some jobs, and to delegate into a new level of management. The process of identifying our growth opportunities means concentrating on our products, services, customers, channels and geographic areas that generate the largest proportion of revenue and profits.

  

An evaluation of the overall performance of Tekmos

is ongoing and involves measuring and benchmarking profitability, rate of revenue growth and our reputation with our customers. This year we successfully entered new markets, created new products that appeal to that new customer base and as always, Tekmos provides an outstanding level of customer service. We will continue on that path for 2014.

 

 

We are going to make a cautious bet on growth.  We will grow, and be a leader in our semiconductor market as we have already demonstrated with our high temperature ASICs and Microprocessors for extreme environments.

 

  

 

 For more information on inventory or orders, please contact Bob Abrams, Vice President of Sales & Development or call 512-34981 
Tekmos Talks Meet the Staff
 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 Rick Holman, Engineer

 

How long have you been at Tekmos?

I have been working at Tekmos off and on since 1998.  I occasionally like to explore new opportunities, but I keep coming back to Tekmos for the challenges of the design work here.

What are your responsibilities here at Tekmos?

My responsibilities are in all aspects of digital design of ASIC devices.  This includes writing specifications, simulation, static timing analysis, emulation with FPGAs, writing test benches, hardware test and validation.  As a member of a small group of engineers, I get to work on a lot of different tasks. 

 

What are your favorite tasks or projects to work on here at Tekmos? 

My favorite task would probably be FPGA emulation.  I can make quick changes to the designs for fast in-system checkout before going to fabrication.

 

What Project are you working on now?

Currently I am upgrading an x86 device with new peripheral components for a medical device manufacturer.

   

 

Can you offer any suggestions to Tekmos clients to make their experience more efficient and successful?

Although we simulate our designs before fabrication, it is not always possible to ascertain how a component is going to be used in system. Validation of the RTL design in the clients system using FPGAs makes for a smoother transition to a working ASIC device. 

Please tell us about your work and educational background.

I have worked in many different areas of electronic engineering including flight control systems, communications, computer imaging and graphics.

   

 

 

 I graduated from the University of Texas, Arlington with a BSEE, with some graduate work at the USC. 

 

 
Tekmos Year In Review
new year resolutions

 

Back to the Future

 

Now that 2013 is almost over, it is time to review our New Year's Resolutions that were so bravely released last January.

 

Product Development and Sales:

·         We will bring out the user programmable versions of our 68XX family.  We have the ROM and ROMless versions, and now we will add flash.  This will include the 68HC05B and C, and the 68HC11D, E, and K families.

      We created the parts and are working on sampling and production.

 

·         We will expand our high temperature offerings by incorporating ceramic packaging.

      We are offering our TK68HC811E2 in a ceramic 48 pin DIP.

 

·         We will work on improving NVM performance at 175C.

      We have developed the hardware and software to do a lot of interesting testing on the

 

·         We will expand our Japanese sales.

 We have booked 3 ASICs in Japan, and we will continue to push our Japanese sales program.

 

Manufacturing

        
                  We will develop an alternative for the PLCC 52 package.

   We have a 52 pin adapter card in development.   We are also doing 132 and 256 pin   adapters which are further along than the 52 pin Adapter.

 

·         We will add a wafer probe capability.

We have a probe machine and working on the bandwidth to bring it on line.

 

·         We will add a lead scan capability.

We obtained a lead scanner

 

·         We will add a high temperature test capability.

We are now testing parts at 150C and working to the next step of testing them at 175C.

 

Quality

 

·         We will complete the AEC-Q100 product qualification studies on our 68XX families. We have done this for our 0.35u processor and working to complete it for the 0.6u processors as well.

 

·         We will study oxide integrity at 175C.

This is in progress.

 

·         We will set-up an ongoing reliability monitor.

We have put the reliability monitor in most of our 68XX microcontrollers.  We haven't got the parts into the oven yet.  We have also determined how to use the monitor to measure metal migration.  This is an improvement because our initial effort did not work.

 

 

 

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Thank you for reading Tekmos Talks and for another great year. For further information about any Tekmos products, contact  Bob Abrams, Vice President of Sales & Business Development, call (512) 342-9871 or email Sales for more information on our most recent "tape outs", our high temperature ASIC, or our other quality products.

We appreciate our customers very much and thank you for putting your trust in Tekmos. Tekmos is meeting innovation every day for tomorrow's global challenges.

 

Sincerely,

 

Lynn Reed, President
 
4120 Commercial Center Drive, Suite 400
Austin, TX 78744
Phone: (512) 342-9871
Fax: (512) 342-9873