Sponsors

Founded in 1875 by Jules-Louis Audemars and Edward-Auguste Piguet in the Swiss village of Le Brassus, Audemars Piguet is the oldest Manufacture of Haute Horlogerie never to have left the hands of the founding families. Today, its range encompasses complex mechanical watches, Haute Joaillerie creations as well as a line of jewellery. At each stage in its history, the Manufacture has daringly adopted avant-garde techniques in order to place them in the service of traditional craftsmanship. This approach has earned it an unparalleled number of world firsts in the field of Haute Horlogerie.

Weber Shandwick is a Communications Partner of the European Tech Tour, supporting both the European level organization and the various country tours.  Weber Shandwick, a unit of The Interpublic Group of Companies (NYSE: IPG), is one of the world's leading public relations agencies, with offices in major media, business and government capitals around the world. Weber Shandwick is a leader in marketing public relations, public affairs and corporate communications counseling, and also provides services in advocacy advertising, market research and visual communications.

IMEC's yearly premier meeting, ARRM, will take place on October 22-24, 2006. This year's ARRM will focus on the R&D challenges industry has to tackle to develop and manufacture future smart devices and systems in a cost-efficient way. ARRM06 will feature no less than 14 sessions and 2 thematic forums. Keynote speakers from industry and IMEC will present their views on the future of scaling and associated cost per function. Technology needs from systems perspective will be highlighted, including the impact on design and vice versa.

ARRM06 will also feature the International Wireless Sensor Network Forum that will highlight the challenges and trends of enabling technologies for the realization of intelligent sensor networks both from a sensor platform and network infrastructure perspective.

IMEC is a world-leading independent research center in nanoelectronics and nanotechnology. Its research focuses on the next generations of chips and systems, and on the enabling technologies for ambient intelligence. IMEC’s research bridges the gap between fundamental research at universities and technology development in industry. Its unique balance of processing and system know-how, intellectual property portfolio, state-of-the-art infrastructure and its strong network of companies, universities and research institutes worldwide position IMEC as a key partner for shaping technologies for future systems. As an expansion of its wireless autonomous microsystems research, IMEC has created a legal entity in the Netherlands. Stichting IMEC Nederland runs activities at the Holst Centre, an independent R&D institute that develops generic technologies and technology platforms for autonomous wireless transducer solutions and systems-in-foil.

Capital-E provides early stage capital for enabling electronics. The venture capitalist cultivates a special competence in co-founding technology ventures from lab to business. The fund seeks to enhance value by adding sustainable intellectual property to already performing firms. Through an entrenched relationship with imec, the largest independent research center in micro- and nano-electronics in Europe, ventures can directly rely on the support of over 1300 scientists with industrial focus. From idea validation up to complex products using semiconductors in one way or another. Capital-E has access through Imec to over 500 industrial partners worldwide such as Philips, Infineon, STMicroelectronics, Intel, Matsushita/Panasonic, Texas Instruments, Samsung and TSMC to speed-up the process of market-ready products or services.

IBM develops, manufactures and markets state-of-the-art semiconductor and interconnect technologies, products and services including industry-leading Power Architecture microprocessors. IBM semiconductors are a major contributor to the company's position as the world's largest information technology company. Its chip products and solutions power IBM eServer and TotalStorage systems as well as many of the world's best-known electronics brands. IBM semiconductor innovations include dual-core microprocessors, copper wiring, silicon-on-insulator and silicon germanium transistors, strained silicon, and eFUSE, a technology that enables computer chips to automatically respond to changing conditions. More information is available at: http://www.ibm.com/chips.

Intel Capital, Intel's venture capital organization, makes equity investments in innovative technology start-ups and companies worldwide. Intel Capital invests in a broad range of companies offering hardware, software and services targeting enterprise, home, mobility, health, consumer Internet and semiconductor manufacturing. Since 1991, Intel Capital has invested more than US$4 billion in more than 1,000 companies spanning more than 30 countries. During this time, about 160 portfolio companies have been acquired and another 150 have gone public on exchanges around the world. In 2005, Intel Capital invested about US$265 million in about 140 deals with approximately 60 percent of funds invested outside the United States. For more information on Intel Capital and its differentiated advantages, visit www.intelcapital.com.

Jefferies Broadview, a division of Jefferies & Company, Inc., is one of the largest investment banking teams dedicated to the IT, communications, healthcare technology and digital media industries. With a 30-year track record of serving many of the world's most dynamic and innovative technology companies, our experienced team of 90 bankers operate in the U.S., Europe and Asia. As Jefferies' technology investment banking group, we provide a full range of investment banking services including debt and equity underwriting, private placements, M&A and restructuring advisory. We offer creative, idea-driven solutions that leverage our deep industry expertise and long-standing relationships to assist growing and mid-sized companies achieve their business objectives.

Synopsys is the leading provider of electronic design automation (EDA) software and services used to design complex integrated circuits (ICs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and systems-on-chips (SoCs) for the global semiconductor and electronics industries. Synopsys solutions include pre-designed and pre-verified blocks of intellectual property (IP) that can be easily inserted into design flows, as well as technology to address yield and manufacturing issues early in the design process. Compute power, multi-media, graphics and communications features are converging in consumer products, putting additional pressure on engineers to create designs that are especially sensitive to cost, power consumption and size. Synopsys gives its customers a competitive edge in bringing the best products to market quickly while reducing costs and schedule risk. From high-level synthesis to silicon, Synopsys provides solutions to the most difficult challenges that confront engineers who are pushing electronic design to the limit. Synopsys technology can be found in virtually every chip in the world.

EuroAsia semiconductor magazine is the number one source of information specific to the European and Asian microelectronics industry, EuroAsia semiconductor has established itself as essential reading for the industry over the last three decades and now provides a technological, educational and business bridge between these two regions. Register to receive the magazine free of charge on our web site.

Red Herring is a media company whose mission is to cover innovation, technology, financing and entrepreneurial activity. Its staff of award-winning journalists tell readers what's first, what matters and most importantly, why.