Atmel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
|
| Type | Public (NASDAQ: ATML |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1984 |
| Headquarters | San Jose, California, USA |
| Industry | Semiconductors |
| Products | Microcontrollers Flash memory |
| Revenue | ▼$1.57 billion USD (2008)[1] |
| Net income | ▼-$27.2 million USD (2008) |
| Employees | 6,000 |
| Website | www.atmel.com |
Atmel Corporation (NASDAQ: ATML) is a manufacturer of semiconductors, founded in 1984. Its focus is on system-level solutions built around flash microcontrollers. Its products include microcontrollers (including 8051 derivatives and AT91SAM and AT91CAP ARM-based micros), and its own Atmel AVR and AVR32 architectures, radio frequency (RF) devices, EEPROM and Flash memory devices (including DataFlash-based memory), and a number of application-specific products. Atmel supplies its devices as standard products, ASICs, or ASSPs depending on the requirements of its customers. In some cases it is able to offer system on chip solutions.
Atmel serves a range of application segments including consumer, communications, computer networking, industrial, medical, automotive, aerospace and military. It is an industry leader in secure systems, notably for the smart card market.
The President and CEO of Atmel is Steven Laub.
Atmel owns two semiconductor facilities:
- Fab5 in Colorado Springs (USA)
- Fab6 in Heilbronn (Germany) (Sold)
- Fab7 in Rousset (France)
- Fab9 in North Tyneside (England) (Sold)
Among its chief competitors are STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments, Freescale, Analog Devices and Microchip Technology.
Contents |
[edit] History
Atmel introduced the first 8-bit Flash microcontroller in 1993, based on the 8051 core.[2]
Atmel announced the sale of its North Tyneside, (England) facility (Fab9) on October 08 2007. The manufacturing equipment was sold to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd. (TSMC) and the property and associated land to Highbridge Business Park Limited. The closure led to the loss of 600 jobs when production ceased in early 2008.
On 2 October 2008, Atmel CEO Steven Laub announced[3] an unsolicited offer from Microchip Technology and ON Semiconductor valued at $5 per share. The offer was rejected and they eventually gave up their takeover attempt.[4]
[edit] Controversy
The former chairman and CEO, George Perlegos, was terminated after an eight-month investigation into theft by Atmel's travel manager. The Board of Directors accused him and his brother Gust (an executive vice president of the company) of spending 235 000 USD of the company's money on airplane tickets for themselves and their immediate families. [5] However, the Delaware Court of Chancery expressed its "discomfort with the thoroughness and fairness of the investigation and with the decisions."
In August 2006, Perlegos called a meeting to replace five of the existing board of directors, which the Board of Directors attempted to cancel. In March 2007, the Delaware Court of Chancery ruled that the shareholder meeting must proceed. This action was completed before Perlegos was dismissed as a board member, but after he was removed as president. The action resulted in a special shareholder vote. The meeting was held on May 18. According to the certified vote count, one of the directors proposed by Perlegos garnered just under 30% of the votes, short of the 50% needed. [6]
[edit] See also
- AT91SAM
- AT91CAP
- Atmel AVR family of eight bit microcontrollers
- AVR32 family of 32 bit microcontrollers
- Arduino
- ATmega88
[edit] References
- ^ http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Atmel-Reports-Fourth-Quarter-prnews-14254628.html?.v=28
- ^ Atmel's Self-Programming Flash Microcontrollers White Paper
- ^ letter to customers and business partners, Atmel, 2 October 2008, accessed 6 October 2008
- ^ [1]
- ^ Letter from Steve Laub to Atmel shareholders, dated April 11, 2007
- ^ Atmel Investor Relations
[edit] External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Atmel Microcontrollers (category) |
