STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM, Euronext: STM, BIT: STM) is an electronics and semiconductor manufacturer headquartered in in Geneva, Switzerland. The company has deep Italian and French roots and the bulk of its work force is employed in these two countries.
While STMicroelectronics corporate headquarters and the headquarters for Europe and emerging markets, are based in Geneva, the holding company, STMicroelectronics N.V. is registered in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
The company’s US headquarters are in Carrollton, Texas. Headquarters for the Asia-Pacific region are based in Singapore and Japanese operations are headquartered in Tokyo. The company headquarters for the Greater China region are in Shanghai.
Company structure
ST consists of five product groups. Each group is composed of several divisions or business units. Each division is responsible for the design, industrialization, manufacturing and marketing for its own product portfolio. Operations are assisted by a central R&D organisation and the local sales offices.
- Mobile Multimedia Communication: Consumer, multimedia, wireless and wireline products. Digital consumer application specific standard products (ASSPs) such as coders and decoders MPEG-2 and MPEG-4. Wireless ASICs.Smartcards. Electronic Passports.
- Memory Product Group: stand-alone memory chips (EEPROM, Flash memories (nand & nor), serial flash memories and smartcards). Non-volatile memory including NOR and NAND Flash memory now with Numonyx
- Automotive Product Group: Analog and digital chips for the automotive market. Products include car entertainment and digital radio broadcasting integrated circuits; and microcontrollers for automotive, power trains, safety and other application specific products.
- Micro, Power and Analog Group: Analog and power circuits and microcontrollers. Microcontrollers: ST6, ST7, µPSD, ST9, ST10, STR7, STR9, STM32. Discrete semiconductor products
- Computer Peripheral Group: Chips for computer peripherals (hard disk drive controllers, printers, etc).Computer peripheral ASICs (such as hard disk drives and printers
- Front End Technology and Manufacturing: research and development. The company has 16 research and development units and 39 design and application centers.[citation needed]
STMicroelectronics has been involved in developing MEMS since 2001. This research and development was initially done at the company's Castelletto site but since its closure in June 2006, MEMS activities have moved to the Agrate main fab.[citation needed]
Following an earlier failure, STMicroelectronics has stayed out of the volatile markets for DRAM and PC microprocessors. In 1994, it attempted to launch compatible Intel 80486 microprocessors in partnership with American company Cyrix. One model only was completed, the 1995 Cyrix M1 microprocessor, which was intended to compete with Intel's Pentium family.[citation needed]
It did achieve some success, however, in the PC-compatible x86 embedded systems market with its STPC SoC line, culminating in the 486-class STPC Atlas, which reached end-of-life in 2008.