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Commentary / Analysis

• Interview with Xiphera CEO - Adapting to Market Changes (Wednesday Feb. 26, 2025)
  The security IP industry is undergoing major changes, driven by ongoing consolidation. In this evolving market, Xiphera - an independent European security IP vendor with an extensive portfolio - remains a Finnish company committed to delivering optimised solutions for the full spectrum of customers’ security needs.
  
  
• Semiconductor Industry Faces a Seismic Shift (Wednesday Feb. 26, 2025)
  Intel’s potential sale and split, Arm’s own chip, supply chain geopolitics, and Europe’s ambitions
  
  
• Intel in advanced talks to sell Altera to Silverlake (Thursday Feb. 20, 2025)
  Intel is reported by Bloomberg to be at an advanced stage in exclusive negotiations to sell a majority stake in its FPGA unit Altera to private equity fund Silverlake Partners.
  
  
• TSMC Will Not Take Over Intel Operations, Observers Say (Monday Feb. 17, 2025)
  TSMC will not take over the chipmaking operations of struggling U.S. rival Intel, according to industry analysts.
  
  
• ARM signs Meta as first chip product customer, says report (Monday Feb. 17, 2025)
  ARM has signed Meta Platforms Inc., formerly Facebook, as its first customer for a chip product as it transitions from being only a licensor of chip IP, according to the Financial Times.
  
  
• Worldwide Silicon Wafer Shipments and Revenue Start Recovery in Late 2024, SEMI Reports (Thursday Feb. 13, 2025)
  In the second half of 2024, worldwide silicon wafer demand started to recover from the industry downcycle seen in 2023, the SEMI Silicon Manufacturers Group (SMG) reported in its year-end analysis of the silicon wafer industry.
  
  
• Could Thomas Caulfield lead Intel or a merged Intel-GloFo? (Wednesday Feb. 12, 2025)
  Speculation has started to circulate that Thomas Caulfield, CEO of Globalfoundries Inc., could be set to replace Pat Gelsinger as permanent CEO of struggling chip giant Intel.
  
  
• Semiconductor Giants Navigate AI Boom & Trade War (Wednesday Feb. 12, 2025)
  The semiconductor industry, a critical engine of the global economy, is currently undergoing a complex transformation, driven by the explosive boom of artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing. However, the industry also faces macroeconomic uncertainties and evolving geopolitical swifts.
  
  
• OpenAI to tape-out on TSMC 3nm this year (Wednesday Feb. 12, 2025)
  
  
  
• Onsemi's Treo Taps Weebit ReRAM (Monday Feb. 10, 2025)
  Weebit Nano’s latest licensing agreement is a significant one for the ReRAM maker, which will see its ReRAM integrated into onsemi’s Treo Analog and Mixed Signal Platform to provide it with embedded NVM.
  
  
• Gelsinger Invests In British AI Chip Startup Fractile (Monday Feb. 10, 2025)
  Former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger revealed he has invested in British AI chip startup Fractile.
  
  
• Qualcomm says Arm has withdrawn license breach notice (Monday Feb. 10, 2025)
  Qualcomm (QCOM.O), opens new tab Chief Executive Officer Cristiano Amon said on Wednesday that Arm Holdings (O9Ty.F), opens new tab has withdrawn a threat to terminate Qualcomm's license agreement with the chip technology provider.
  
  
• SoftBank in talks to buy server chip firm Ampere (Monday Feb. 10, 2025)
  SoftBank Group, the parent company of IP licensor Arm, is in discussions about acquiring Ampere Computing LLC, a vendor of server chips based on the Arm architecture, according to Bloomberg.
  
  
• Gartner Says Worldwide Semiconductor Revenue Grew 18% in 2024 (Monday Feb. 10, 2025)
  Worldwide semiconductor revenue in 2024 totaled $626 billion, an increase of 18.1% from 2023, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc. Revenue is projected to total $705 billion in 2025.
  
  
• Why UCIe is Key to Connectivity for Next-Gen AI Chiplets (Thursday Feb. 06, 2025)
  Deploying AI at scale presents enormous challenges, with workloads demanding massive compute power and high-speed communication bandwidth.
  
  
• CHERI Protects Memory at the Hardware Level (Thursday Feb. 06, 2025)
  Jamie Broome, chief product officer for automotive business and product management at Codasip, explained the role and importance of the CHERI Alliance and described Codasip’s new L730 processor focused on security and customization.
  
  
• Intel Halts Products, Slows Roadmap in Years-Long Turnaround (Monday Feb. 03, 2025)
  Intel has scrapped product launches and slowed its process technology roadmap as it embarks on a path toward a rebound that will take years, according to analysts surveyed by EE Times.
  
  
• ARM boost in $100bn Stargate data centre project (Thursday Jan. 23, 2025)
  ARM and its owner Softbank are a key partners in a datacentre infrastructure programme called Stargate.
  
  
• ST-GloFo fab plan shelved (Wednesday Jan. 22, 2025)
  The ST-Globalfoundries plan to build a joint FD-SOI 12 inch fab at Crolles is, reportedly, on hold.
  
  
• Electronic System Design Industry Posts $5.1 Billion in Revenue in Q3 2024, ESD Alliance Reports (Monday Jan. 20, 2025)
  Electronic System Design (ESD) industry revenue increased 8.8% to $5,114.5 million in the third quarter of 2024 from the $4,702.4 million registered in the third quarter of 2023, the ESD Alliance, a SEMI Technology Community, announced today in its latest Electronic Design Market Data (EDMD) report.
  
  
• RISC-V in AI and HPC Part 2: Per Aspera Ad Astra? (Tuesday Jan. 14, 2025)
  While there are hundreds of companies that adopt Arm technology, not many of them develop their own custom cores. Something similar will likely happen in the case of RISC-V: companies that need a very specific core and control of their firmware and software stack will be more inclined to design a core from scratch.
  
  
• Imagination pulls out of RISC-V CPUs (Friday Jan. 10, 2025)
  Imagination Technology in the UK has shut down its development of RISC-V processor cores to focus on its GPU and AI products.
  
  
• RISC-V in AI and HPC Part 1: Per Aspera Ad Astra? (Wednesday Jan. 08, 2025)
  In this first article of a three-part series, we had a chance to talk with analysts and developers of various RISC-V processors, including those who design general-purpose CPU IP cores and application-specific accelerator IPs, about RISC-V’s prospects in AI and HPC market segments as they are seen today.
  
  
• Eighteen New Semiconductor Fabs to Start Construction in 2025, SEMI Reports (Wednesday Jan. 08, 2025)
  The semiconductor industry is expected to start 18 new fab construction projects in 2025*, according to SEMI’s latest quarterly World Fab Forecast report. The new projects include three 200mm and fifteen 300mm facilities, the majority of which are expected to begin operations from 2026 to 2027.
  
  
• Arm vs. RISC-V in 2025: Which Architecture Will Lead the Way? (Monday Jan. 06, 2025)
  Could the fifth generation of reduced instruction set computing (RISC) dethrone the long-established advanced RISC machine (Arm) and x86 architectures? While the discussion about Arm versus RISC-V is hotly debated, the benefits of this open standard cannot be overlooked. How soon could it achieve market dominance?
  
  
• Is Imagination Technologies for sale again? (Monday Jan. 06, 2025)
  Graphics chip designer Imagination Technologies is up for grabs again. A Bloomberg report claims that Canyon Bridge Capital Partners, the private equity firm with ties to Chinese state investors, has hired Lazard Inc. to seek a buyer for the Hertfordshire, U.K.-based chip designer.
  
  
• CXL Update Emphasizes Security (Monday Jan. 06, 2025)
  The latest point release to the Compute Express Link specification aims to optimize monitoring and management and enhance functionality for operating systems and applications—all while extending security.
  
  
• Softbank Izanagi AI processor expected next year (Thursday Jan. 02, 2025)
  Softbank is out to challenge Nvidia in chips to train and run AI software programmes in a project called Izanagi which could see investment of $100 billion.
  
  
• Arm loses out in Qualcomm court case, wants a re-trial (Sunday Dec. 22, 2024)
  A jury in Wilmington, Delaware, has found that Qualcomm’s latest AI-PC processors – based on the ARM instruction set – are properly licensed, say Reuters and Bloomberg reports.
  
  
• Jury is out in the Arm vs Qualcomm trial (Friday Dec. 20, 2024)
  The jury is out on the fourth day of the Arm vs Qualcomm lawsuit with the attorneys for both sides completing their closing arguments yesterday.