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Commentary / Analysis

• 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.
  
  
• Ceva Seeks To Exploit Synergies in Portfolio with Nano NPU (Friday Dec. 20, 2024)
  As part of its transition back to a pure-play IP company, Ceva officially launched its NeuPro-Nano earlier this year. The company had already transitioned from a telephone handset DSP IP company before buying aerospace and defense chip designer Intrinsix in 2021.
  
  
• Third day for Arm vs Qualcomm trial (Thursday Dec. 19, 2024)
  Yesterday – the third day of the Arm vs Qualcomm court case in Wilmington, Delaware – saw Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon giving evidence.
  
  
• ARM versus Qualcomm court case opens (Wednesday Dec. 18, 2024)
  The ARM versus Qualcomm court hearing began Monday with opening statements as the licensor-licensee partners argue over Qualcomm’s right to use acquired IP.
  
  
• Powering the NVM and Embedded Chip Security Technologies (Thursday Dec. 12, 2024)
  eMemory’s Michael Ho discusses how the company is addressing the memory and security challenges in high-performance computing applications.
  
  
• CEA-Leti Demonstrates Embedded FeRAM Platform Compatible with 22nm FD-SOI Node (Wednesday Dec. 11, 2024)
  ​​Scalable Platform ‘Opens the Door for Faster, More Energy-Efficient, and Cost-Effective Memory Solutions in Embedded Systems, Such as IoT, Mobile Devices, and Edge Computing’​'​​​
  
  
• SiFive Empowers AI at Scale with RISC-V Innovation (Monday Dec. 09, 2024)
  Artificial intelligence is increasingly transforming industries, and adopting RISC-V as a flexible and scalable architecture plays a significant role in this shift. Ian Ferguson, senior director at SiFive, shared insights about the pivotal moments driving RISC-V adoption for AI, focusing on the value of flexibility, performance and scalability.
  
  
• Global Semiconductor Sales Increase 22.1% Year-to-Year in October; Annual Sales Projected to Increase 19.0% in 2024 (Friday Dec. 06, 2024)
  SIA today announced global semiconductor sales hit $56.9 billion during the month of October 2024, an increase of 22.1% compared to the October 2023 total of $46.6 billion and 2.8% more than the September 2024 total of $55.3 billion.
  
  
• Advanced Processes and Chinese Policies Drive 3Q24 Global Top 10 Foundry Revenue to Record Highs, Says TrendForce (Thursday Dec. 05, 2024)
  In the third quarter, the total revenue of the world’s top 10 wafer foundries increased by 9.1% QoQ—reaching US$34.9 billion. Part of this growth was attributed to the substantial contributions from the high-priced 3 nm process, breaking the record set during the pandemic.
  
  
• IP players prominent in chiplet's 2024 diary (Thursday Dec. 05, 2024)
  While large semiconductor outfits like AMD and Intel were initially prominent in the chiplets world, IP players are now increasingly visible in showcasing the potential of chiplets. That includes established IP players like Arm and Cadence as well as upstarts such as Alphawave Semi.
  
  
• Now Gelsinger is gone, what is Intel's Plan B? (Wednesday Dec. 04, 2024)
  What is Intel going to do next? Do key decisions have to wait while the company finds a CEO to replace Pat Gelsinger, and where will it find a buyer for Intel Foundry if that is what investors are demanding?
  
  
• Intel CEO's Departure Leaves Top U.S. Chipmaker Adrift (Tuesday Dec. 03, 2024)
  The sudden departure of Pat Gelsinger as the CEO of Intel leaves the struggling U.S. chipmaker adrift, according to analysts who spoke to EE Times.
  
  
• Post-Quantum Cryptography: Moving Forward (Tuesday Dec. 03, 2024)
  To discover some of the challenges ahead, EE Times Europe spoke with Shahram Mossayebi, CEO of Crypto Quantique (London), a quantum-driven cybersecurity company addressing the growing challenges of end-to-end IoT security.
  
  
• Optical Transmission Modulation Methods Advance (Monday Nov. 25, 2024)
  EE Times Europe spoke with Tony Chan Carusone, chief technology officer of Alphawave Semi (London, U.K.), to discover the underlying applications driving bandwidth demand and to find out if PAM4 and coherent modulation techniques are ever likely to converge.
  
  
• TSMC drives A16, 3D process technology (Thursday Nov. 21, 2024)
  TSMC is looking to introduce its A16 1.6nm process by the end of 2026 with an IEEE standard for its 3Dblox technology.
  
  
• Arm's power play will backfire (Wednesday Oct. 30, 2024)
  Arm’s attempts to increase licensing fees for companies like Qualcomm have led to a public dispute, highlighting concerns over future smartphone supply chains.
  
  
• Gartner Forecasts Worldwide Semiconductor Revenue to Grow 14% in 2025 (Monday Oct. 28, 2024)
  Global semiconductor revenue is projected to grow 14% in 2025 to total $717 billion, according to the latest forecast from Gartner, Inc. In 2024, the market is forecast to grow 19% and reach $630 billion.
  
  
• Mature Process Capacity to Grow 6% in 2025; Chinese Foundries Lead Expansion (Thursday Oct. 24, 2024)
  The latest investigations by TrendForce reveal that Chinese foundries are set to drive the bulk of mature process capacity growth in 2025, thanks to China’s domestic IC substitution policies.