D&R Headline News (January 2014)

Headlines for Friday Jan. 31, 2014

• Android Slips But Continues To Dominate the Tablet Market in Q4 2013 with 62 Percent Share of Global Tablet Shipments
• CoinTerra begins shipment of the TerraMiner IV - the world's fastest Bitcoin miner
• Silicon Image Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2013 Earnings

Headlines for Thursday Jan. 30, 2014

Top Story

Lenovo to Acquire Motorola Mobility from Google

Lenovo and Google today have entered into a definitive agreement under which Lenovo plans to acquire the Motorola Mobility smartphone business. With a strong PC business and a fast-growing smartphone business, this agreement will significantly strengthen Lenovo’s position in the smartphone market.

• CircuitSutra launches synthesizable model of ARM AMBA AXI to cut development time of chips for mobile devices
• myMPW+ : a complementary offer targeting ST65 nm process
• Arasan Chip Systems Announces MIPI D-PHY Module for Prototype Development
• The Uncertain Future Of Fabless Semis
• CEVA, Inc. Announces Fourth Quarter and 2013 Financial Results
• Cadence Reports Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2013 Financial Results
• Olympus adopts DMP's Hybrid Graphics IP core for OLYMPUS OM-D E-M1
• ARM Ecosystem Collaborates to Deliver Initial Server Platform Standard
• UltraSoC further strengthens Board with appointment of CSR Co-Founder Graham Pink

Headlines for Wednesday Jan. 29, 2014

Top Story

Cadence DDR4 PHY IP Achieves 2667 Mbps Performance - Fastest in the Industry

• CEVA Utilizes Synopsys' Design Compiler Graphical to Achieve Higher Frequency and Smaller Area for its DSP Cores
• Crocus licenses MLU technology to ARM
• Is Google-Samsung Licensing a Big Event?
• Fujitsu Semiconductor and Synopsys Deliver an Optimized and Predictable Customized SoC (ASIC) Design Flow
• Lattice Semiconductor and Helion Demonstrate New FPGA-Based Camera Design Solutions at SPIE Photonics West 2014
• FDSOI Gains Design Wins Amid Fab Partner Mystery
• AMD to Accelerate the ARM Server Ecosystem with the First ARM-based CPU and Development Platform from a Server Processor Vendor
• Precision AFE Current to Voltage Converter Now Available for Analog ASIC Integration
• HDSX - High Definition Sound Expansion Now Licensable on Tensilica HiFi DSP Cores from Cadence

Headlines for Tuesday Jan. 28, 2014

Top Story

Synopsys Announces Immediate Availability of Multiprotocol DesignWare Enterprise 12G PHY IP

Synopsys today announced the availability of its multiprotocol DesignWare® Enterprise 12G PHY IP to reduce power consumption and increase performance in a broad range of high-end networking and computing applications.

• Sonics Introduces Second Generation Asynchronous Bridge IP For Complex, Multi-Domain Soc Designs
• The Trojan Horse of MIPS
• Microsemi Builds Upon its FPGA Leadership in Defense and Aerospace with New Release and Certification of Core1553BRT and Core1553BRM IPs
• Fastest-Running 8051 Microcontroller IP Core Now Available from CAST
• Sonics Partners With Chipware
• Rambus Reports Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2013 Financial Results
• Top 13 Foundries Account for 91% of Total Foundry Sales in 2013
• Qualcomm Acquires Palm, IPAQ and Bitfone Patent Portfolio from HP

Headlines for Monday Jan. 27, 2014

Top Story

SMIC Unveils 28nm Readiness and MPW Milestone

SMIC announced today that its 28nm technology has been process frozen and the company has successfully entered Multi Project Wafer (MPW) stage to support customer's requirements on both 28nm PolySiON (PS) and 28nm high-k dielectrics metal gate (HKMG) processes.

• Mobile PCs and Smartphones Will Be Top Revenue Opportunities for IC Suppliers in Emerging High-Speed Wireless Device Market
• Is Nokia's 2007 Decline a Lesson for Samsung Today?
• ARM: Appointment of New Chairman
• Altera Streamlines the Evaluation of High-Speed Serial Transceivers In FPGAs and SoCs with Its Latest Verification Tool

Headlines for Friday Jan. 24, 2014

Top Story

ASMedia Technologies Demonstrates Industry's First SuperSpeed USB 10 Gbps (USB 3.1) PHY at USB-IF Annual Members Meeting

ASMedia Technologies, a fabless semiconductor company that develops and markets high-speed IO solutions, demonstrated SuperSpeed USB 10 Gbps (USB 3.1) data transfer on its hardware development platform at the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) annual members meeting in Honolulu.

• Lenovo Plans to Acquire IBM’s x86 Server Business
• Altera Announces Fourth Quarter Results
• Foxconn plans to take over IC design house Socle
• Rival Chipset Makers Likely to Enter LTE Modem Space Now Controlled by Qualcomm
• Apple and Samsung Lord Over Field Once Again as Top OEMs in Semiconductor Spending for 2013
• North American Semiconductor Equipment Industry Posts December 2013 Book-to-Bill Ratio of 1.02

Headlines for Thursday Jan. 23, 2014

Top Story

Samsung Retains Position as the Top Global Semiconductor Customer in 2013, According to Gartner

Samsung Electronics and Apple remained the top semiconductor buyers in 2013, increasing their combined semiconductor demand by 17 per cent, according to Gartner, Inc. Samsung Electronics and Apple together consumed $53.7 billion of semiconductors in 2013, an increase of $7.7 billion from 2012.

• Altera JESD204B Solutions Simplify Integration of Leading-edge Data Converters in FPGA-based Systems
• PLDA Announces Distribution Agreement with Leading Chinese Distributor, Huafan Tech Co., LTD
• IC Foundry Business Continues Impressive Growth
• Cadence Design Systems and Berkeley Design Automation Settle Lawsuit
• Uniquify to Demonstrate World's Fastest DDR Memory Subsystem IP at DesignCon

Headlines for Wednesday Jan. 22, 2014

Top Story

First CAN FD Bus Controller IP Core for ASICs & FPGAs Available Now from CAST

CAST is now shipping what it believes is the first available CAN Bus Controller soft IP core that supports the recent CAN Flexible Data specification. Sourced from Fraunhofer IPMS, the revised product adds FD support to the CAN 2.0 controller core CAST has carried for several years.

• Dual-interface Financial IC Card Chip Based on SMIC's eEEPROM Platform Gains CC EAL4+ Certification
• Intel vs. TSMC: An Update
• Xilinx Announces 2014 Fiscal Q3 Results; 28nm Sales Reach $100 Million

Headlines for Tuesday Jan. 21, 2014

Top Story

Samsung's 28nm HKMG Inside Apple's A7

The A7 is fabricated with Samsung’s 28nm low-power, gate-first, high-k metal gate (HKMG) process technology. The process features nine layers of copper metallization with low-k dielectrics, plus an additional top aluminum metal layer. This blog will focus on the front end of line (FEOL) transistor structure used in the A7, with comparison to advanced technologies used by both Apple and other vendors. The A7 gate-first transistor structure is based on the Common Platform Technology, which is an alliance of IBM, Samsung, and GlobalFoundries.

• Xilinx Tapes-out First Virtex UltraScale All Programmable Device as Part of Industry's Only High-End 20nm Family
• TSMC Tweaks 16nm FinFET to Match Intel
• Silicon360 Acquires IDT ADC & DAC Products from IDT/NXP

Headlines for Monday Jan. 20, 2014

Top Story

Intel used ARM chips in wearables demos at CES

Intel's wearables demo at the Consumers Electronics Show generated a lot of buzz, but it turns out that not all devices had "Intel Inside". The Santa Clara, Calif., semiconductor giant used ARM-based chips for some of the demos, the company confirmed, though it declined to specify which wearables used such chips. PCMag first reported the news.

• Dolphin Integration announces groundbreaking regulators for multi-mode optimization of consumption
• Creonic Selected for German Silicon Valley Accelerator

Headlines for Friday Jan. 17, 2014

Top Story

Intel does ARM: Citi 'identifies' another possible customer

Marvell is cited as a likely chip customer for Intel. If the analysis pans out, it would be Intel's third ARM customer.

• Why ARM has the upper hand over Intel: analysts
• Xylon announces new version of the Bayer Sensor Decoder IP core
• Silicon Turnkey Solutions Completes Asset Acquisition of Bay Area EMS (BAEMS)
• MPEG LA Announces License Terms for High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC/H.265)

Headlines for Thursday Jan. 16, 2014

Top Story

Which IP Is Better?

Just because the specs look better doesn’t mean one piece of IP will actually work better than another. Several strategies have emerged for picking the right IP - hopefully.

• Carmel Ventures and Ericsson Invest in Adapteva
• Arteris Announces FlexNoC Composition Features, Improving Design Flows and Cutting Design Time in Half
• Hot trends at CES 2014 reflect Imagination’s technology vision
• INSIDE Secure achieves new level of security for enterprise applications in smartphones
• Exar Acquires Stretch Incorporated
• Apple's Custom Graphics Chip Coming Soon?
• TSMC Reports Fourth Quarter EPS of NT$1.73
• Arira Design Announces Availability of its Hybrid Memory Cube Evaluation & Development Board

Headlines for Wednesday Jan. 15, 2014

Top Story

Semtech's PCI Express 3.0 PHY IP Platform is Fully Compliant and Included on PCI-SIG Integrators List

Semtech today announced its PCI Express® (PCIe®) 3.0 PHY IP, part of the Snowbush® IP platform, successfully completed the rigorous testing of the PCI-SIG® and is now on the PCIe 3.0 Integrators List.

• Xilinx Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoCs Enable Wuhan Maxsine's EP3E Servo Drive
• oViCs Introduces 4Kp120 HEVC/H.265 Decoder
• IFI Announces Top Recipients of U.S. Patents in 2013
• TSMC preps Apple's next finger-print sensor, says report
• EDA Consortium Reports Revenue Increase for Q3 2013
• Microprocessor Sales Growth Will Strengthen Slightly in 2014
• Is Apple Building Its Own Wireless Chips?
• Server Market Faces Disruption in 2014

Headlines for Tuesday Jan. 14, 2014

Top Story

PLDA's XpressRICH3-AXI PCI Express 3.0 IP with AMBA AXI Support Passes PCI-SIG PCIe 3.0 Compliance Testing

PLDA today announced that its XpressRICH3-AXI™ PCI Express® (PCIe®) 3.0 solution with AMBA AXI support, passed all Gold and Interoperability tests performed by the PCI-SIG® committee during its most recent workshop in December 2013.

• SuVolta Raises $10.6 Million in Corporate and Venture Funding
• Cadence C-to-Silicon Compiler Helps Renesas Realize Quick HEVC IP Development
• Recore Systems appoints Dirk Logie as CEO
• eASIC and EnSilica Announce 16-bit and 32-bit Soft Processors for eASIC Nextreme Devices
• ARM and UMC Extend 28nm IP Partnership to Target Cost-Effective Mobile and Consumer Applications

Headlines for Monday Jan. 13, 2014

• CES Mobile Wrap: DSP, GPU, CPU Redefined
• Cadence Incisive 13.2 Platform Sets New Standard for SoC Verification Performance and Productivity
• Memoir Systems Joins TSMC Soft IP Alliance
• Sundance launches SMT166 dual-FPGA development platform; powers EU's FP7 FlexTiles 3D SoC project

Headlines for Friday Jan. 10, 2014

Top Story

Avery Design and BaySand Team to Deliver IP Solutions for TeneX Configurable SoC

Avery Design Systems and BaySand today announced a cooperative effort to deliver comprehensive IP solutions for BaySand’s breakthrough TeneX configurable System on Chip (SoC) solution based on Metal Configurable Standard Cell (MCSC) technology. The cooperation that spans PCI Express, USB, DDR, and SATA, will allow SOC designers to benefit from a high-performance configurable platform, deploying robust verification models to achieve shorter time-to-market and lower cost.

• Gartner Says Worldwide PC Shipments Declined 6.9 Percent in Fourth Quarter of 2013
• SEMI Reports Shift in Semiconductor Capacity and Equipment Spending Trends
• TSMC December 2013 Revenue Report
• MediaTek's Global Ambition Opens Door to CEVA

Headlines for Thursday Jan. 09, 2014

Top Story

Digital Core Design Introduces DSMART IP Core for smart card reader apps

Digital Core Design introduced its latest solution, the DSMART. Based on ISO 7816-3/EMV4.2 requirements, it implements the hardware support for both T0 character oriented protocol and T1 block oriented protocol. Ipso facto, the Core is an answer to growing demand for solutions supporting the IC chip systems, visible in the previous months.

• Chips Are Down for VCs, Wall Street
• Samsung, TSMC, and Micron Top List of IC Industry Capacity Leaders
• UMC Reports Sales for December 2013

Headlines for Wednesday Jan. 08, 2014

Top Story

Sonics Licenses On-Chip Network Technology To MediaTek

Sonics today announced that it has licensed its on-chip interconnect technology to MediaTek Inc. MediaTek will use Sonics' technology in a forthcoming new line of systems-on-chip (SoC).

• INSIDE Secure First to Market with Secure Element IP Solution
• HP's WebOS: a second chance in LG's Smart TV?
• Another Sidense Win against Kilopass in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
• DisplayPort Adds DockPort Extension to Royalty-Free VESA Standard
• Silicon Image First to Introduce 4K Ultra HD 60GHz Wireless Adapter Solution
• Micron Drops Phase-Change Memory - for Now
• Atmel Introduces New SAM G Family of ARM Cortex-M4-based Ultra-low Power MCUs In Small Form Factors for Smart, Connected Devices
• Entropic Completes Integration of Cryptography Research CryptoFirewall Security Cores

Headlines for Tuesday Jan. 07, 2014

Top Story

Vivante GC7000 GPU IP Core with Geometry and Tessellation Shaders Brings 4K Ultra HD Gaming to Any Screen

Vivante today announced the release of its next generation GC7000 series graphics IP cores based on Vega technology enhanced with next generation geometry and tessellation shaders. The advances will bring breakthrough performance, quality, and photo-realistic 4K rendering to any mobile or TV screen, boosting the 3D experience in games, apps, and GPU accelerated web browsers.

• M31 Presented 2013 Emerging IP Provider Award by TSMC
• Gartner Says Worldwide Traditional PC, Tablet, Ultramobile and Mobile Phone Shipments On Pace to Grow 7.6 Percent in 2014
• Andes Wins Over Large Publicly Traded Company as Newcomer to Japanese Market
• CEVA Releases Architecture Enhancements for the CEVA-TeakLite-4 DSP Aimed at Further Improving Power Efficiency and Performance
• Silicon Image Enables First Televisions Featuring MHL 3.0 Connectivity in Samsung's Ultra High Definition (UHD) TVs
• The 8051 MCU: ARM's nemesis on the Internet of Things?
• GLOBALFOUNDRIES Announces New Chief Executive to Lead Next Phase of Growth
• Imagination's Ensigma IP provides global broadcast TV demodulation in new Qualcomm Snapdragon 802 processor
• UMC Surpasses 15 Million Shipments for Customer 55nm SDDI Chips
• GEO Expands Product Line with Compact Geometric Image Processing Solutions for Automotive Ultra-Wide Angle Camera and Head-Up Display Applications
• Sequans Powers New Kurio 7x 4G LTE Tablet by Techno Source and KD Interactive
• Groundbreaking Architecture from STMicroelectronics Leads Industry Transition to 64-bit Computing for the Digital Home

Headlines for Monday Jan. 06, 2014

Top Story

Imagination's new generation PowerVR Series6XT architecture delivers up to 50% higher performance and advanced power management

Imagination Technologies unveils the next generation of its highly successful PowerVR Rogue graphics processing (GPU) architecture that drives performance to new levels while reducing power consumption even further through advanced PowerGearing mechanisms. The new PowerVR Series6XT Rogue architecture builds on the groundbreaking Series6 architecture that consumes the lowest memory bandwidth in the industry while delivering the best performance per mm2 and per mW.

• NVIDIA Unveils Tegra K1, a 192-Core Super Chip That Brings DNA of World's Fastest GPU to Mobile
• Imagination drives highly-advanced PowerVR Series6 architecture into all key entry-level mobile and consumer segments
• GlobalFoundries' NY chip plant to get up to $10B boost
• 3 of top 20 semiconductor companies adopt Arrow Devices' USB3 Validator
• Cadence Licenses Fraunhofer AAC Codecs to Further Expand Tensilica HiFi Audio/Voice Software Library
• Actions Semiconductor Licenses CEVA-TeakLite-4 Audio DSP and CEVA-Bluetooth IP
• Quantenna Powers World's Fastest 802.11ac Dual-Band Wave 2 ASUS RT-AC87U Router
• KALRAY to showcase low power, live Ultra HD (4K) HEVC encoder at CES 2014 in collaboration with DivX
• Blu Wireless Partners with Cadence to Offer a Complete Set of IP for WiGig and 4G Backhaul Markets
• GUC Monthly Sales Report - December 2013
• Ittiam's power-efficient VP9 and H.265 decoders optimized for ARM Mali and ARM Cortex-A processors showcased by ARM, Samsung System LSI and other partners at CES 2014
• Taiwan TITC Licenses Compression IP to Panasonic System LSI
• Rambus Signs Comprehensive Agreement with Samsung Electronics
• Global Semiconductor Sales Continue to Climb in November
• Samsung Electronics and Cryptography Research Extend Technology Relationship to Improve Device Security

Headlines for Friday Jan. 03, 2014

• InterDigital and Blu Wireless Advance Millimeter Wave Technology for Backhaul Between Small-Cell Base Stations
• Silicon Image to Showcase Portfolio of 4K Ultra HD Digital Connectivity Solutions at 2014 International CES
• Semiconductor Sales Recover in 2013
• GEO Introduces Single Chip Solution for Ultra-Wide Angle Cameras

Headlines for Thursday Jan. 02, 2014

• HP lays off 5,000 more employees
• Creonic Joins DVB Project
• Sital's Mil-Std-1553 IP core for FPGA still orbiting the moon on board NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter