D&R Headline News (January 2015)

Headlines for Friday Jan. 30, 2015

• Smartphone Apps Processor Revenue Jumped 16 Percent in Q3 2014
• Rambus' ReRAM Has Many Customers
• Chinese Walls and Back Doors
• Rambus Cryptography Research Division Enters Agreement with Microsemi to Resell Advanced Security Technologies to Penetrate Opportunities in Government and Military Markets

Headlines for Thursday Jan. 29, 2015

Top Story

Athena and Intrinsic-ID Team to Deliver the Dragon-QT Security Processor Offering Flexible, Scalable Security for Hardware Root of Trust Applications

Athena and Intrinsic-ID BV today announced they are teaming to introduce the Dragon-QT™, a new class of cryptography microprocessor IP cores that deliver strong and scalable security based on a hardware root of trust. Dragon-QT is designed to prevent data theft across an extensive array of applications and devices - from IoT to government, and from tiny wearables to smart meters, medical devices, and traffic lights.

• Videantis becomes member of German Automotive Cluster
• Synopsys' New DesignWare Medium Density NVM IP Family Reduces Die Cost by Up to 25 Percent
• UMC Boosts Capex to Capture More 28nm Orders
• Wi-Fi Alliance Radiates Outward
• Silicon Vision Announces Bluetooth Low Energy Radio IP SIG Certification and Listing
• Aldec launches ALINT-PRO-CDC delivering comprehensive CDC Verification Strategies for SoC and FPGA Designs

Headlines for Wednesday Jan. 28, 2015

Top Story

CAST Introduces Secure GZIP/Deflate Data Compression IP Cores from Sandgate Technologies

CAST is making secure, efficient, hardware-based data compression easier for designers to build into systems by adding data compression cores sourced from new partner Sandgate Technologies to its line of processors, peripherals, and other semiconductor IP.

• Espressif Systems Internet of Things WiFi Chips Employ Cadence Tensilica Xtensa Low-Power Processor for Control and DSP
• Are TSMC, UMC Affected By Taiwan’s Water Shortages?
• M31 Receives "Customers' Choice Award" from TSMC OIP Forum 2014

Headlines for Tuesday Jan. 27, 2015

Top Story

Lattice Semiconductor to Acquire Silicon Image for Approximately $600 Million

Lattice and Silicon Image today announced that they have signed a definitive agreement, pursuant to which Lattice will acquire Silicon Image in an all-cash tender offer of $7.30 per share, representing an equity value of approximately $600 million (or approximately $450 million on an enterprise value basis) and a 34.6% premium to the average closing price over the last 90 trading days and a 23.7% premium to the closing price on January 26th.

• Memory Suppliers Account For More Than 60% of 300mm Wafer Capacity
• Spansion and Macronix Reach Settlement Agreement
• Sonics Closes 2014 With Strong Business Momentum
• Rambus Reports Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2014 Financial Results

Headlines for Monday Jan. 26, 2015

Top Story

Imagination Sees Life Beyond Games

Imagination Technologies continues to diversify its bets beyond mobile games running on its graphics cores. The company showed a broad set of demos featuring its PowerVR GPU and other cores at the International CES.

• Samsung reportedly nabs 75% of Apple's next-gen 'A9' SoC orders
• Valydate Announces Powerful Design Analysis and Verification Technology
• Why Did Google Shut Glass Beta Project?
• Everspin Increases Series B Funding to $29M With Strategic Investments From GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Western Digital Capital
• Express Logic Extends X-Ware Platform Support
• Novachips Acquires HLNAND Flash Memory Technology
• Make the difference with Dolphin Integration's libraries at 55 nm uLP/uLPeF

Headlines for Friday Jan. 23, 2015

Top Story

Chips&Media had 6 licensees of HEVC Codec IP - WAVE420 in 2014

Chips&Media Inc., a leading video codec IP provider, announced today that its HEVC codec hardware IP, WAVE420™ has been licensed to 6 worldwide major SoC makers since its first shipment in the first half of 2014.

• Tezzaron to Incorporate Rambus ReRAM Memory Technology
• City Semiconductor Announces Leading-Edge 12-bit 2.5-GSPS SAR ADC IP in 40nm
• Rambus Appoints Tom Fisher to Its Board of Directors
• Molex and Credo to Demonstrate 50 Gbps NRZ live serial traffic at DesignCon 2015

Headlines for Thursday Jan. 22, 2015

Top Story

Synopsys' Silicon-Proven DesignWare HDMI IP Receives HDMI 2.0 Certification

Synopsys, Inc. (Nasdaq: SNPS), a global leader providing software, IP and services used to accelerate innovation in chips and electronic systems, today announced that its DesignWare® HDMI 2.0 Transmitter (TX) and Receiver (RX) Controller and PHY IP have been certified by an HDMI authorized testing center. Synopsys' HDMI 2.0 IP with Elliptic Technologies' HDCP embedded security module also achieved HDCP 2.2 certification, enabling the highest content protection over the HDMI 2.0 interface for ultra-high definition multimedia system-on-chips (SoCs).

• Safety Support Opens up Automotive, Health and Industrial Markets for ARM Cortex-R5 Processor
• Sibridge Technologies announces Hardware Diagnostics Tool & Testbench IP
• Xilinx Announces Q3 Fiscal 2015 Results; EPS $0.62
• Uniquify to Exhibit at DesignCon, Presenting Fastest DDR4 Memory IP

Headlines for Wednesday Jan. 21, 2015

Top Story

CAST 8051 IP Line Expands with IAR Systems Tool Support and New Tiny 8-bit MCU

Designers of embedded control systems, Internet of Things (IoT) sensor modules, and other systems requiring small, low-power, low-cost, easy-to-program microcontrollers have new options in the 8051 IP core line from intellectual property provider CAST, Inc.

• Synopsys Expands Memory Verification IP Portfolio with UFS, UniPro and eMMC to Accelerate Verification Closure for Mobile Designs
• Samsung and Apple Continue to Lead as Top Global Semiconductor Customers in 2014, According to Gartner
• IC Market CAGR Rebounds But Growth Remains Below 30-Year Average
• Rambus Unveils On-chip Noise Monitor to Improve Quality and Reduce Time-to-Market of Complex SoCs
• Credo Conducts First Public Demonstrations of 28G and 56G NRZ SerDes Technology
• IoT will fire up the Next Generation of Engineers say ARM and UCL
• Cypress Licenses 40-Nanometer Embedded Flash IP to UMC, Enabling Next-Generation MCUs, IoT and Wearables Applications
• Chelsio Expands Terminator 5 ASIC Product Line
• Embedded Virtual Prototype Kits Offer Unified HW-SW Debug and Analysis
• Mentor Graphics Wins Summary Judgment, Court Dismisses Three Synopsys Patents

Headlines for Tuesday Jan. 20, 2015

Top Story

Semtech Announces Silicon Proven 25G Ethernet Snowbush IP Compliant with IEEE 802.3bj, CEI-25G, CEI-28G, and the Emerging IEEE 802.3bm and CAUI-4 Standards

Semtech today announced silicon proven results for its Snowbush® IP analog macro operating at 25Gb/s and beyond. The new IP Platform provides lane breakouts in 2x25G (for 50Gb/s), 4x25G (for 100Gb/s) and 8x25G (for 200Gb/s) form factors.

• UMC and Cadence Collaborate to Deliver 28nm Design Reference Flow for ARM Cortex-A7 MPCore-based SoC
• NVM Express, Inc. Elects HGST, Micron, Microsoft, Samsung, SanDisk and Seagate to Board for 2015
• Telesoft Technologies Selects Achronix Speedster22i FPGAs for Dual 100GbE MPAC6200
• Horizon 2020 Funding Granted to FANCI Project For Multi-Modal Human-Machine Technologies
• Sunplus to Dispose STB Chip Business
• Truechip announces first customer shipment of PCI Express Gen3 Comprehensive Verification IP (CVIP)
• Lattice Semiconductor Announces the Industry’s Most Affordable I/O Expansion and Bridging Starter Kit

Headlines for Monday Jan. 19, 2015

Top Story

IoT Attracts a Smart Skeptic

As a McKinsey analyst, Christopher Thomas is paid to think out of the box. So in this time that is by all accounts the peak of the hype cycle for the Internet of Things, it's no surprise the co-leader of the firm's Asia semiconductor practice is something of an IoT skeptic.

• DMP Adopts Cadence Palladium XP Platform to Accelerate High Performance Graphic IP Core Development
• Dolphin Integration reveals its unique Regulator offering for IoT markets at 55 nm
• Ambiq Micro's Apollo microcontrollers redefine 'low power' with up to 10x reduction in energy consumption
• China's Shifting Sands Spell Trouble for Qualcomm, Broadcom
• Analysts Turn Negative on Outlook for TSMC
• Vitesse Broadens Signal Integrity Portfolio For High Speed Data Transmission

Headlines for Friday Jan. 16, 2015

Top Story

EDA Consortium Reports Revenue Increase for Q3 2014

The (EDAC) Market Statistics Service (MSS) today announced that the Electronic Design Automation (EDA) industry revenue increased 5.7 percent for Q3 2014 to $1828.1 million, compared to $1729.3 million in Q3 2013. Sequential EDA revenue for Q3 2014 increased 4.0 percent compared to Q2 2014, while the four-quarters moving average, which compares the most recent four quarters to the prior four quarters, increased by 5.6 percent. 

• FeFET to Extend Moore's Law
• Semtech Acquires Assets of EnVerv
• Apple Watch Spurs Rapid Growth of Market for Wireless Charging in Wearable Technology in 2015
• TSMC's 20nm, 28nm Technology Accounts for 50% of Sales

Headlines for Thursday Jan. 15, 2015

Top Story

Xilinx Delivers the Industry's First 4M Logic Cell Device, Offering >50M Equivalent ASIC Gates and 4X More Capacity than Competitive Alternatives

With a capacity of 50 million equivalent ASIC gates and the industry's highest I/O count, the Virtex UltraScale VU440 FPGA leverages the UltraScale architecture's ASIC-like clocking, next-generation routing, and logic block enhancements to deliver best in class utilization, making it ideal for ASIC prototyping and large scale emulation.

• Rockchip Achieves First-Pass Silicon Success with Synopsys DesignWare IP Portfolio
• Weltrend Adopts AndesCore N801 For Booming Brushless DC Motor Control Market
• TSMC Reports Fourth Quarter EPS of NT$3.08
• China to Write $10B Check for Chips
• Smart Grid - Power metering: Dolphin Integration achieves range 1/5,000 with class 0.1 on silicon
• Silicon Line Announces the World's First 10 Gbps Transceiver for USB 3.0 and USB 3.1 Active Optical Cables

Headlines for Wednesday Jan. 14, 2015

Top Story

Mobiveil, Inc. and M31 Technology Announce A Compliant PCI Express PHY and Controller Solution

Mobiveil together with M31 Technology jointly announced completion of a compliant PCI Express® (PCIe®) 2.0 IP solution for designers building system on chip solutions (SOC) for the fast growing mobile and consumer markets in Asia.

• Byte Paradigm announces 'Yugo Systems' solutions dedicated to FPGA Debug
• TVS adds web interface to its asureSIGN verification tool for real-time requirements management sign-off status
• Xilinx SDAccel Development Environment for OpenCL, C, and C++, Achieves Khronos Conformance
• eInfochips and Toshiba Unveil Development Kits to Accelerate Development of Google Project Ara Modular Smartphones
• Allwinner Accused of Breaking Linux License Rules
• Mentor Graphics Acquires Flexras Technologies
• Gartner Says Worldwide Semiconductor Sales Expected to Reach $358 Billion in 2015, a 5.4 Percent Increase From 2014

Headlines for Tuesday Jan. 13, 2015

Top Story

PLDA and M31 Technology Combine PCIe 3.0 Controller and PHY IP for a Complete, Reliable ASIC Design Solution

The combined solution -- PLDA’s PCIe 3.0 controller in Gen2 XpressRICH3 with M31 Technology’s PHY IP – received certification from PCI-SIG which was validated on PLDA Kintex-7-based platform XpressK7 and M31 Technology’s daughter card. The complete solution is optimized for storage applications.

• Toshiba Selects Sonics for New ApP Lite TZ2000 Series
• Gartner Says Worldwide Semiconductor Capital Spending to Increase 0.8 Percent in 2015
• DRAM Capacity Rises from Slump; Sector Faces New Challenges

Headlines for Monday Jan. 12, 2015

Top Story

IoT Needs More Than Moore

The Internet of Things requires specialty processes, pioneered by smartphone chips, to create optimal IoT silicon, says a TSMC executive.

• Latest Tensilica Processors Deliver Up to 75% Memory Power and Area Savings
• Imagination's HelloSoft Integrated Communications Technology Achieves RCS Certification
• Silicon Image explores sale
• Broadcom CEO: Life After LTE, 5G Cellular Exit
• UMC First Foundry in Taiwan to Receive ISO 15408-EAL6 Certification
• Connected and smarter products at CES 2015 show how market has transformed, says Imagination
• MagnaChip Offers Automotive Qualified 0.18um Semiconductor Manufacturing Process Technology
• ISSI to License Spansion HyperFlash Memory and HyperBus Interface

Headlines for Friday Jan. 09, 2015

Top Story

Barco Silex wins Technology & Engineering Emmy Award for Standardization and Productization of JPEG2000 Interoperability

Barco Silex announces that it has received a Technology & Engineering Emmy® Award yesterday from The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. The award is in recognition of the work of Barco Silex within the framework of the Video Services Forum (VSF) on the advancement of interoperability for JPEG2000 systems.

• intoPIX Receives Technology and Engineering Emmy® Award for its work on JPEG 2000
• Luxoft Becomes Strategic Technology Partner of Imagination Technologies
• CES Reveals IoT Not Ready for 'iPhone Moment'
• ARM Holdings plc Announces Appointment of Chris Kennedy as Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
• IoT Feels Unintended Consequences
• Epistar to Buy 94% of TSMC SSL from TSMC and Subsidiary
• TSMC December 2014 Revenue Report
• China Charts New Course in Targeting Worldwide IC Industry - Fabless!
• Altera Demonstrates FPGA-Based Solutions at CAR-ELE JAPAN International Automotive Electronics Technology Expo
• UMC Reports Sales for December 2014

Headlines for Thursday Jan. 08, 2015

Top Story

Arasan announces Total IP Solution for MIPI SoundWire

Arasan brings expertise in serial audio and over one hundred design wins with MIPI® SLIMbusSM to the MIPI SoundWire specification.

• IEEE to Adopt the HDBaseT Standard for Ultra-High-Definition Digital Connectivity
• Truechip announces first customer shipment of ARM AMBA 4 ACE Comprehensive Verification IP (CVIP)

Headlines for Wednesday Jan. 07, 2015

• Atmel Unleashes Highest-Performing ARM Cortex-M7 based MCUs with Superior Memory Architecture and Connectivity for Automotive, IoT and Industrial Markets
• HARMAN Clari-Fi Music Restoration Technology Now Available on Cadence Tensilica HiFi Audio/Voice DSP Family

Headlines for Tuesday Jan. 06, 2015

Top Story

Cadence Announces Fourth Generation Tensilica HiFi DSP Architecture

Cadence today announced the Cadence® Tensilica® HiFi 4 audio/voice DSP IP core for SoC designs, which offers the industry’s highest performance licensable digital signal processing (DSP) core for 32-bit audio/voice processing.

• Imagination announces PowerVR imaging framework for Android
• Microsemi Steps Up Its Cyber Security Leadership in FPGAs: SmartFusion2 SoC FPGAs and IGLOO2 FPGAs Enhanced with Physically Unclonable Function Technology
• Telechips Partners with Sansa Security to Enable Digital Rights Management (DRM) for New Hexa-Based TCC896x Chipset
• Gartner Says Worldwide Semiconductor Revenue Grew 7.9 Percent in 2014
• OmniVision Announces Availability of Optimized Algorithm Library for ARM Mali GPU Technology
• Growing DLNA VidiPath Ecosystem to be Showcased at CES
• GUC Monthly Sales Report - December 2014
• GUC and Credo Collaborate to Enable 16-nm FinFET+ Chip Development
• Atmel Expands Ultra-low Power SAM G ARM Cortex M4 MCU Portfolio for Wearables and Sensor Hub Management
• eInfochips to Provide Design Services and Engineering Solutions for Embedded Computing Products Based on Qualcomm Snapdragon Processors

Headlines for Monday Jan. 05, 2015

Top Story

French Telecom Firm Follows ARM Server Route

Iliad SA, a French provider of telecommunications services, is planning to launch a cloud software hosting service in January 2015 that will use ARM servers based on Marvell chips. The service will come from Iliad's Online.net subsidiary, which has been offering preview demonstrations of its C1 server at labs.online.net.

• The 5th Generation Intel Core Family of Processors Arrive to Transform Computing Experiences, 'Cherry Trail' Shipping
• NVIDIA Launches Tegra X1 Mobile Super Chip
• Global Semiconductor Sales Through November Outpace 2013 Sales
• Creonic Unveils 100 Gbit/s IEEE 802.3bj Reed-Solomon FEC IP Cores
• Silicon Image Re-Launches SiBEAM, Inc. Subsidiary to Drive Market Development of Millimeter-Wave Products, Technologies and Solutions
• Audi Selects Altera SoC FPGA for Production Vehicles with "Piloted Driving" Capability
• MEMSensing Launches the World's Smallest Commercial 3-Axis Accelerometer MSA330 with SMIC
• Actions to Debut First 64-bit Chipset at the 2015 International CES
• Shanghai InfoTM Microelectronics Licenses CEVA-TeakLite-4 Audio/Voice DSP
• MagnaCom Delivers World's First Demonstration of QAM-16384 Equivalent over Wireless Networks at CES 2015
• Calxeda Rides Again Courtesy of Taiwan
• Pitfalls in Internet of Things for 2015 & Beyond
• Peraso Demonstrates World's First WiGig USB 3.0 Adaptor at CES 2015
• HomePlug Alliance Enhances Whole-Home Networking with HomePlug AV2 MIMO Product Certification
• Mobile Internet Strategy Fuels Xiaomi's IoT Ambitions
• ViXS Video SoC Is the First to Support 12-Bit High Dynamic Range Technology
• Dolphin Integration offers a webinar on "optimization of Power-Performance-Area from RTL-to-GDSII/Fab"

Headlines for Friday Jan. 02, 2015

Top Story

European server project promotes ARM on FDSOI

A collaborative European microserver project has teamed processor IP licensor ARM and chipmaker STMicroelectronics up with a number of academic and commercial computer and software specialists to try and make technical progress in microservers.