Defense Dept. to Intel: stay

Electronic News, Feb 3, 1997 by Sarah Cohen

New Entrants

While the world of military prime contractors is being sharply consolidated, the mil component base is also seeing some new entrants. DSCC's Mr. Hill said that the following companies have recently been certified to QML-38535: Signal Processing Technology, Actel and Xilinx. SGS-Thomson Microelectronics, Matra, AlliedSignal and Omnirel are currently pursuing transitional certification for QML. Space Electronics, Inc. (SEI) is being audited for MIL-STD-883 compliance in preparation for QML. And Rochester Electronics, Integrated Device Technology (IDT) and Logic Devices, Inc. (LDI) have asked for further details for QML certification from DSCC.

Mr. Hill believes that while some of the newcomers to the military IC marketplace are hoping to fill voids being left by the departure of Intel and others, some of the newcomers are also hoping to target niche markets that seem to be growing, markets such as field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and radiation-hardened (rad-hard) ICs.

There are a number of other suggested reasons for this year's influx of newcomers and product line expansions into the military IC arena. David Strobel, president of SEI (a company seeking QML certification for rad hard ICs), said that for those companies pursuing the military market, QML certification "standardizes flows within a factory and simplifies the production process by reducing product leadtimes."

Unlike the previous military specification Qualified Products List (QPL), replaced in August, 1993, by the less-stringent QML specification, QML certifies a process rather than an individual device. Mr. Strobel continued, "All of our products can be processed the same way each time, rather than having to set up a new process to meet every individual customer requirements, and that leads to a cost reduction."

Howard Bogrow, military marketing manager at Xilinx, pointed out that in May, 1993, the military permitted offshore assembly and testing of certified ICs, and two years later, permitted overseas fabrication. Previously, devices needed to be assembled, tested and fabbed in the U.S. These relaxed requirements are other factors that reduce costs for IC manufacturers and open the doors to newcomers to the market.

Mr. Bogrow continued, "We think that electronic content of defense is increasing, and we think there's a lot more interest in programmable logic because it can be reprogrammed." Intel and Philips' recent decision to pull out of the QML market did not portend bad tidings for military ICs in Mr. Bogrow's estimation. With Xilinx pushing FPGA usage in place of ASICs, Mr. Bogrow quipped, "It would mean more to us if an ASIC QML supplier were pulling out."

Microprocessor Domain

Though some of the newcomers to the military IC market reportedly believe they might be able to fill the void left by Philips, a relatively small player in the defense arena, none have announced major plans to develop what was and will continue to be Intel's domain for another year or more, microprocessors.