Atmel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Atmel Corporation | |
 |
|
| Type | Public (NASDAQ: ATML} |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1984 |
| Headquarters | San Jose, California, USA |
| Industry | Semiconductors |
| Products | Microcontrollers Flash memory |
| Employees | ~8,000 |
| Website | www.atmel.com |
Atmel Corporation (NASDAQ: ATML) is a manufacturer of semiconductors, founded in 1984 by George Perlegos. Its focus is on system-level solutions built around flash microcontrollers. Its products include microcontrollers (including 8051 derivatives and AT91SAM 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.[citation needed]
The President and CEO of Atmel is Steve Laub. Laub recently took control of the company in a questionable manner, and the legality of this take over is currently being decided by a Delaware court.
Atmel is under investigation for accounting irregularities and the back-dating of stock options. It is close to being de-listed on the NASDAQ Exchange. Atmel has a probationary listing at the moment which may expire in February 2007.
At the moment Atmel is also trying to improve its profit picture by slashing 1,300 employees and selling its factories in England and Germany. The total number of employees is approximately 8,000. It is headquartered in San Jose, California.
Atmel owns four semiconductor facilities:
- Fab5 in Colorado Springs (USA)
- Fab6 in Heilbronn (Germany) (For Sale)
- Fab7 in Rousset (France)
- Fab9 in North Tyneside (England) (For Sale)
Among its chief competitors are STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments, Freescale, Analog Devices and Microchip Technology.
