D&R Headline News (April 2013)

Headlines for Tuesday Apr. 30, 2013

Top Story

Sonics and ARM Enter Patent License Agreement and Broaden Technology Cooperation

Sonics today announced that ARM has licensed Sonics patent portfolio currently consisting of 138 properties for use in ARM products and specifications. Sonics patent portfolio, several of which are fundamental to the development and implementation of on-chip interconnect products used in SoCs, are powering many of today’s cutting edge connected devices.

• Athena Expands Extensive FFT/DFT Processor Line
• IPextreme Welcomes Ridgetop Group, Inc. to Constellations
• SILICONGATE TSMC Symposium in Moscow on 23th April 2013 Wrap-up
• Audio Semiconductor Market Achieves Loud and Clear Gains in Cellphones
• Recovery in 2013 Semiconductor Capex

Headlines for Monday Apr. 29, 2013

Top Story

Top MEMS Foundries: TSMC passes specialty MEMS players in Yole's annual ranking

In 2012, TSMC’s MEMS foundry business enjoyed ~80% growth, achieved ~$42 million in sales and moved up to third place in Yole Développement’s annual MEMS foundry sector rankings. The Taiwanese foundry’s MEMS business is now the largest of any open foundry, putting it shoulder-to-shoulder with pure-play specialty MEMS foundries like TELEDYNEDALSA (~$39 million).

• MCU Market on Migration Path to 32-bit and ARM-based Devices
• Synopsys Announces Virtualizer Development Kit (VDK) for Freescale's Qorivva MCU Family
• Cadence and GLOBALFOUNDRIES Collaborate to Improve DFM Signoff for 20- and 14-Nanometer Nodes
• French consortium announces development of a clockless smartcard chip
• Infineon and GLOBALFOUNDRIES Announce Joint Development and Production Collaboration for 40nm Embedded Flash Process Technology

Headlines for Friday Apr. 26, 2013

Top Story

SMIC rides on China fabless growth

Five consecutive quarters of revenue growth posted by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) through the first quarter of 2013 paint a picture of a new SMIC, with solid operations carefully managed by CEO T.Y. Chiu. It also tells a story of the rapid growth of China fabless companies over the recent years and how SMIC is finally profiting from that trend.

• DOLPHIN INTEGRATION announces the best noise and linearity performances on the market of its circuit for space application
• Altera Announces First Quarter Results

Headlines for Thursday Apr. 25, 2013

Top Story

CEVA Introduces World's First Software-Based Super-Resolution Technology for Low Energy Mobile Applications

CEVA today introduced the world’s first software-based Super-Resolution (SR) Technology for embedded applications, bringing PC system-equivalent imaging performance to low power mobile devices. For example, in a 28nm process, the CEVA-MM3101 processor is able to take four 5MPixel images and fuse them into a single high-resolution 20MPixel image in a fraction of a second, while consuming less than 30mW.

• Synopsys Unveils Embedded Vision Development System
• Digital Core Design Announces New Release of its 8051
• Xilinx Announces Fiscal 2013 Results; Q4 Sales Increase 4% Sequentially
• NASA Selects Ridgetop Group to Develop an Innovative Modular SiGe 130 nm Cell Library
• Cadence Reports First Quarter 2013 Financial Results and Completes Acquisition of Tensilica

Headlines for Wednesday Apr. 24, 2013

• SMIC Reports 2013 First Quarter Results
• IPextreme and Stars of IP to Party Together at DAC 2013

Headlines for Tuesday Apr. 23, 2013

Top Story

Chips&Media Announces New Generation HEVC Video Decoder

Chips&Media today introduced the industry’s first hardware HEVC decoder IP core supporting up to Ultra HD resolution. HEVC is claimed to be the most successful video standard in history, reaching 50 percent improvement in bit compression rate compared to the existing H.264/AVC standard while preserving video quality.

• AMD will go embedded with ARM
• AMD Targets High-Growth, Embedded Markets with New AMD Embedded G-Series System-on-Chip
• ARM Releases Free Industry Standard Development Tools For Its Embedded Linux Community
• DMP 3D Graphics IP Core "SMAPH-S" is selected by Renesas Electronics
• HDL Design House Introduces JESD204B PCS IP Core
• S3 Group Announces Latest Release to its RF and Mixed Signal IP Product Guide
• ARM Holdings PLC Reports Results For The First Quarter 2013

Headlines for Monday Apr. 22, 2013

Top Story

Altera Announces Availability of Cyclone V SoC Development Kit

Altera today announced the availability of its Cyclone® V SoC Development Kit. Developed in collaboration with ARM, this kit features the recently announced ARM® Development Studio 5 (DS-5™) Altera® Edition Toolkit software, an FPGA-adaptive debugging software that enables designers to view the processor and FPGA portions of the device simultaneously.

• Worldwide Semiconductor Manufacturing Equipment Spending Declined 16 Percent in 2012, According to Final Results by Gartner
• Space Codesign Establishes Presence in Eastern Asia through a Sales Representation Agreement with Avant Technology
• Mentor Graphics Accelerates SoC and Embedded System Delivery with a Native Embedded Software Environment for Pre- and Post-Silicon Development, Embedding QEMU, SystemC and Emulation
• Mobile SoCs still lacking good software model

Headlines for Friday Apr. 19, 2013

Top Story

Will ASICs be replaced in comms gear?

Nick McKeown, an engineering professor at Stanford University, expects a new breed of merchant networking processors to replace ASICs in routers and switches over the next decade.

• Lattice Semiconductor Reports First Quarter 2013 Results
• Rambus Reports First Quarter Financial Results
• North American Semiconductor Equipment Industry Posts March 2013 Book-to-Bill Ratio of 1.14
• Netronome Secures $19 Million in Series E Financing

Headlines for Thursday Apr. 18, 2013

Top Story

Arasan Chip Systems Announces the Industry's First SD 4.1 Total IP Solution

Arasan announced today the availability of the industry's first SD 4.1 Total IP Solution for engineering and product development of SD 4.1 devices with the UHS-II physical layer interface.

• Dolphin Integration - Semester Growth Rate of 14% Sales Turnover
• TSMC Reports First Quarter EPS of NT$1.53
• CEVA Introduces AMF - Android Multimedia Framework for Energy Efficient Multi-Core Systems
• VP8 support comes to Imagination's popular PowerVR VXE multi-standard video encoder IP
• Cheap smartphone boom bodes ill for Intel
• ARM's low end undercut by Andes core
• Vivante Gets Top Score in YOUi Labs GPU Quality Calibration Suite for Rendering Accuracy

Headlines for Wednesday Apr. 17, 2013

Top Story

ARM and Arteris Extend Partnership to Deliver Additional Interconnect Options to SoC Designers

Arteris access to ARM® Cortex®-A15 and ARM Cortex-A7 microprocessor cores to enhance the success and diversity of ARM technology in mobility and consumer SoCs

• Elliptic Technologies Launches Hardware Enforced End-to-End Protection for Premium Content Sharing with its tVault DTCP+ Compliant Solutions
• New Ultra-Efficient Processor Core for Low Power Applications
• ARM Introduces New License Model For Big.Little Technology to Enable Wider Adoption
• Leadcore Technology License CEVA DSP Technologies for Mobile Devices

Headlines for Tuesday Apr. 16, 2013

Top Story

S3 Group is First to Market with 28nm Power Management IP Products

S3 Group today announced an industry first, the availability of silicon proven Power Management IP on 28nm process technology. S3 Group is now sampling 28nm DCDC and Power on Reset IP cores.

• Arasan Global Support Program Emphasizes Fastest Possible Problem Resolution
• Accellera Announces Standard for Tracking Soft Intellectual Property Usage through the Semiconductor Design and Development Process
• Systemcom Ltd. and JVD, Inc. Form Working Relationship
• Could Intel's new CEO be blast from past?
• Evatronix Enhances Its MIPI SLIMbus Device IP with New Customization Options
• Leadcore Adopts Hantro Video IP
• HDL Design House appoints Airics as representative for the Nordic region
• Rockchip Leverages Arteris FlexNoC Interconnect IP for Next Generation SoCs
• ComplexIQ Partners with Tensilica for Multimedia over Coax (MoCA) Network Interface
• Altera and TSMC Collaborate on 55 nm EmbFlash Process
• IP Workshop at DAC: "Driving Quality to the Desktop of the DAC Engineer"
• TI introduces new Tiva C Series ARM Cortex-M4 microcontrollers (MCUs) for connected applications
• LSI Introduces Axxia 4500 Family of ARM Technology-based Communication Processors to Accelerate Enterprise and Datacenter Networks
• Flexras Technologies Enhances Wasga Compiler Partitioning Tool, Adds Support for Virtex-7 FPGA-based FPGA Platforms

Headlines for Monday Apr. 15, 2013

Top Story

Altera Expands OTN Solution Capabilities with Acquisition of TPACK

Altera today announced it has agreed to acquire TPACK, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Applied Micro Circuits Corporation. TPACK delivers complete FPGA-based OTN products targeting packet and optical networking equipment suppliers.

• Altera and AppliedMicro will Cooperate on Joint Solutions for High Growth Data Center Market
• Dolphin Integration introduces first successful complete IP offering for Power Metering applications
• Kilopass Continues to Grows Despite Legal Setbacks
• What Imagination must do next
• 5 questions with TSMC founder Morris Chang
• LG Adopts In-Design Physical Verification with IC Compiler and IC Validator after Multiple Successful Tapeouts

Headlines for Friday Apr. 12, 2013

• TSMC starts FinFETs in 2013, tries EUV at 10 nm
• Microsemi Achieves NIST Certification on EnforcIT Cryptography IP Cores for FPGA and ASIC Designs

Headlines for Thursday Apr. 11, 2013

Top Story

Sidense Wins: United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Affirms District Court Decisions

In its one-word opinion, the Federal Circuit “AFFIRMED” Sidense’s summary judgment of non-infringement on Kilopass’ patent claims, as well as the dismissal of all of Kilopass’ remaining claims against Sidense.

• BlinkSight and imec announce world's first single-chip indoor GPS solution
• Lattice Introduces Image Sensor Extender Reference Design
• Multimode "Thin" Baseband Chip Market Grew 892% in 2012

Headlines for Wednesday Apr. 10, 2013

Top Story

New SuperSpeed USB Developments Increase Speed and Power Delivery

Recent SuperSpeed USB updates include a new specification development effort underway to double the data through-put performance of existing SuperSpeed USB to 10 Gbps and the now publicly available USB Power Delivery specification.

• Fourth-Quarter Reprieve Brings Little Relief to Semiconductor Makers in 2012 - but Spurs 2013 Rebound
• Altera Demonstrates Industry's First QPI 1.1 FPGA Home Agent for Enhanced Server Capabilities
• TSMC March 2013 Sales Report
• IAR Embedded Workbench certified for functional safety development
• Analog Bits Surpasses 300 Customers Continuing their growth as the leading provider of mixed-signal IP
• UMC Reports Sales for March 2013

Headlines for Tuesday Apr. 09, 2013

Top Story

Fujitsu Semiconductor ASIC Design for 2G/3G/4G Baseband Processor in Volume Production with Synopsys 28-nm MIPI M-PHY

Synopsys today announced that Fujitsu Semiconductor Limited is successfully shipping a 2G/3G/4G baseband processor using Synopsys' DesignWare DigRFv4 M-PHY and DigRF 3G PHY IP.

• ARM Announces POP IP for Cortex-A50 Series Processors on TSMC 28nm HPM and 16nm FinFET Processes
• Imperas Delivers ARM Cortex-A7 MPCore High-Performance Processor Model with Integrated Software Development Environment
• SEMI Reports 2012 Global Semiconductor Materials Sales of $47.1 Billion
• GUC Monthly Sales Report - March 2013
• Inomize Becomes Newest Tensilica Design Center in Israel

Headlines for Monday Apr. 08, 2013

Top Story

Altera Demonstrates Industry's First 32-Gbps Transceiver with Leading-Edge 20 nm Device

Altera today announced the company achieved another significant milestone in transceiver technology by demonstrating the industry’s first programmable device with 32-Gbps transceiver capabilities. The demonstration uses a 20 nm device based on TSMC’s 20SoC process technology.

• Cadence and TSMC Strengthen Collaboration on Design Infrastructure for 16nm FinFET Process Technology
• Xilinx and its Ecosystem Showcase All Programmable and Smarter Vision Systems at NAB 2013
• Xilinx Enables OEMs to Develop Smarter Broadcast Solutions With Availability of its Real-Time Video Engine 2.1
• Barco Silex FPGA design speeds transactions in award-winning Atos Worldline Hardware Security Module (HSM)
• intoPIX Launches New Ultra Compact JPEG2000 FPGA IP-cores at NAB2013
• Tata Elxsi unveils H.264 Ultra Low Latency Codecs with 13 ms end to end latency
• Brite's USB 2.0 OTG PHY Implementation Using SMIC 0.11um Process Receives USB-IF Certification
• Altera Showcases 4K Video Processing and Multichannel Video-over-IP at 2013 NAB Show
• Tata Elxsi unveils HEVC Ultra HD (4K) Decoder for Smartphones, Tablets, Set Top Boxes, Gaming consoles and other CE devices
• Open-Silicon Extends its TSMC VCA Partnership to Include Israel
• Mentor Graphics Announces the First IP to System, UPF-based Low-power Verification Solution

Headlines for Friday Apr. 05, 2013

• ARM and Cadence Partner to Implement Industry's First Cortex-A57 64-bit Processor on TSMC 16nm FinFET Process

Headlines for Thursday Apr. 04, 2013

Top Story

TSMC expected to begin 20-nm line early

Foundry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (Hsinchu, Taiwan) is reportedly going to start installing equipment for 20-nm CMOS production at its Fab 14 on April 20, two months earlier than previously planned.

• JEDEC Publishes Test Standard For Universal Flash Storage (UFS)
• More Than One Fourth of Industry Wafer Capacity Dedicated to <40nm Process Geometries
• Cryptography Research and StarChip sign patent license agreement for DPA countermeasures
• Cisco Announces Intent to Acquire Ubiquisys
• Yoshida in China: Imagination dumps MIPS sales team
• Spreadtrum Announces Commercial Launch of Dual-Core Smartphone Chipsets for TD-SCDMA and EDGE

Headlines for Wednesday Apr. 03, 2013

Top Story

Worldwide Semiconductor Revenue Declined 2.6 Percent in 2012, According to Final Results by Gartner

Total worldwide semiconductor revenue reached $299.9 billion in 2012, down 2.6 percent from 2011, according to Gartner, Inc. With the overall semiconductor market decline, the number of vendors that declined among the top 25 outnumbered those that grew.

• Xilinx Vivado Design Suite Accelerates Time to Integration and System-Level Design to Stay a Generation Ahead
• China fabless: Actions Semi targets 'non-Apple market'
• Hybrid Memory Cube Consortium Heralds 2013 as Turning Point for High-Performance Memory ICs, Gains Rapid Consensus for Final Specification and Decision to Renew Consortium
• Accellera Systems Initiative Launches Working Group to Standardize Interoperability of Multiple Language Verification Environments and Components

Headlines for Tuesday Apr. 02, 2013

Top Story

ARM and TSMC Tape-Out First ARM Cortex-A57 Processor on TSMC's 16nm FinFET Technology

ARM and TSMC today announced the first tape-out of an ARM® Cortex™-A57 processor on FinFET process technology. The Cortex-A57 processor is ARM’s highest performing processor.

• GLOBALFOUNDRIES Demonstrates 3D TSV Capabilities on 20nm Technology
• DI2CMS, I2C Master - Slave Bus Interface from Digital Core Design
• Altis Semiconductor Introduces the Next Generation of Embedded CBRAM Technology
• Yoshida in China: What's Calxeda doing here?
• Would the real Apple A5 please stand up?
• Global Semiconductor Sales Remain Ahead of 2012 Pace in February
• Ittiam unveils a full HD low latency streaming solution with a glass-to-glass latency of less than 70ms
• Imagination Technologies announces Caustic ray-tracing hardware certification on Lenovo workstations

Headlines for Monday Apr. 01, 2013

Top Story

Sidense 1T-OTP NVM Qualified for 150 Degrees C Automotive High-Reliability Requirements on TSMC's BCD Process

Sidense announced today that the Company’s 1T-OTP macros for TSMC’s 180nm BCD 1.8/5V/HV and G 1.8/5V processes have met all of TSMC’s IP9000 Assessment program requirements.

• EDA Consortium Reports Revenue Increase for Q4 2012
• Sankalp Semiconductor Appoints Samir Patel as CEO
• Lenovo to design own chips