English
Viewpoint: Consolidation is all about timing
Norbert Meyer, VP of Strategic Projects, X-Fab
EETimes Europe (02/18/2009 12:42 PM EST)
It's time to shift the thought paradigm from "What fabs do I have today, and how do I fill them?" to "What fab base do I need five years from now and how do I get there?"
An ad campaign a few years ago posed a clear strategy choice: Whether to be wolf or sheep? Most semiconductor companies face a similar decision today: be active in market consolidation or risk being swallowed. Portfolios of half-empty fabs burning cash reduce strategic options and can threaten an IDM’s existence.
Many consolidation strategies are bound to fail. One example is entering the foundry business when the number of underutilized fabs is growing and overall demand is absent. Succeeding in the foundry business requires far more than simply offering fab capacity. Transferring products to other fabs takes too long to achieve a significant impact, if begun under pressure.
EETimes Europe (02/18/2009 12:42 PM EST)
It's time to shift the thought paradigm from "What fabs do I have today, and how do I fill them?" to "What fab base do I need five years from now and how do I get there?"
An ad campaign a few years ago posed a clear strategy choice: Whether to be wolf or sheep? Most semiconductor companies face a similar decision today: be active in market consolidation or risk being swallowed. Portfolios of half-empty fabs burning cash reduce strategic options and can threaten an IDM’s existence.
Many consolidation strategies are bound to fail. One example is entering the foundry business when the number of underutilized fabs is growing and overall demand is absent. Succeeding in the foundry business requires far more than simply offering fab capacity. Transferring products to other fabs takes too long to achieve a significant impact, if begun under pressure.
|
E-mail This Article | 
|
|
Printer-Friendly Page |
|
||||||
Related News
- Viewpoint: Is semiconductor industry consolidation inevitable?
- Realtek Deploys Cadence Tempus Timing Solution to Deliver Working Silicon on N12 Design
- True Circuits Attends 60th Design Automation Conference, Celebrates 25 Years of Timing Excellence
- Tachyum Closes DDR5 Timing at over 6400MT/s Providing Massive Bandwidth for Prodigy Chip
- AMD and Xilinx Provide Update Regarding Expected Timing of Acquisition Close
Breaking News
- Frontgrade Gaisler Unveils GR716B, a New Standard in Space-Grade Microcontrollers
- Blueshift Memory launches BlueFive processor, accelerating computation by up to 50 times and saving up to 65% energy
- Eliyan Ports Industry's Highest Performing PHY to Samsung Foundry SF4X Process Node, Achieving up to 40 Gbps Bandwidth at Unprecedented Power Levels with UCIe-Compliant Chiplet Interconnect Technology
- CXL Fabless Startup Panmnesia Secures Over $60M in Series A Funding, Aiming to Lead the CXL Switch Silicon Chip and CXL IP
- Cadence Unveils Arm-Based System Chiplet
Most Popular
- Cadence Unveils Arm-Based System Chiplet
- CXL Fabless Startup Panmnesia Secures Over $60M in Series A Funding, Aiming to Lead the CXL Switch Silicon Chip and CXL IP
- Esperanto Technologies and NEC Cooperate on Initiative to Advance Next Generation RISC-V Chips and Software Solutions for HPC
- Eliyan Ports Industry's Highest Performing PHY to Samsung Foundry SF4X Process Node, Achieving up to 40 Gbps Bandwidth at Unprecedented Power Levels with UCIe-Compliant Chiplet Interconnect Technology
- Arteris Selected by GigaDevice for Development in Next-Generation Automotive SoC With Enhanced FuSa Standards