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Commentary / Analysis

• UBM TechInsights takes first look inside Intel's latest Ivy Bridge processor (Thursday Apr. 12, 2012)
  UBM TechInsights announces the first investigation into Intel’s 22nm process technology through their latest Ivy Bridge processors. The Ivy Bridge family of processors is the first by Intel to incorporate their game-changing 3D Tri-Gate technology.
  
  
• Pure-Play Semiconductor Foundry Market Set for 12 Percent Growth in 2012 (Thursday Apr. 12, 2012)
  Increasing electronics content in popular tablet and smartphone devices like the iPad and iPhone and in Ultrabook PCs will drive accelerated growth for the global semiconductor foundry business this year, according to an IHS iSuppli Semiconductor Manufacturing and Supply Market Tracker report from information and analytics provider IHS
  
  
• Gartner Says India Semiconductor Spending to Reach $9.2 Billion in 2012, a 20 Percent Increase from 2011 (Tuesday Apr. 10, 2012)
  India semiconductor revenue is projected to total $9.2 billion in 2012, a 20 percent increase from 2011, according to Gartner, Inc. India is the fastest growing market in terms of semiconductor consumption for 2012.
  
  
• EDA Consortium Reports Revenue Increase of over 12 Percent for Q4 2011 (Monday Apr. 09, 2012)
  The EDA Consortium (EDAC) Market Statistics Service (MSS) today announced that the Electronic Design Automation (EDA) industry revenue increased 12.8 percent for Q4 2011 to $1700.1 million, compared to $1507.7 million in Q4 2010. Sequential EDA revenue for Q4 2011 increased 10.1 percent compared to Q3 2011, while the four-quarters moving average, which compares the most recent four quarters to the prior four quarters, increased by 16 percent.
  
  
• STMicroelectronics Leverages Apple Design Wins to Increase Consumer and Mobile MEMS Leadership (Friday Apr. 06, 2012)
  Fueled by booming sales to Apple Inc., particularly its exclusive design wins in the iPhone, iPad and iPod lines, STMicroelectronics in 2011 padded its leadership position in the global market for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) in consumer and mobile devices
  
  
• Extreme Results in Top 25 2011 Semiconductor Sales Ranking! (Friday Apr. 06, 2012)
  Although only 2% growth was registered in the worldwide semiconductor market in 2011, several companies posted results that were far different.
  
  
• Mindspeed to cut jobs in wake of Picochip buy (Thursday Apr. 05, 2012)
  Mindspeed Technologies Inc. will cut an unspecified number of jobs as part of a restructuring in the wake of its acquisition of PicoChip Ltd. earlier this year, according to a regulatory filing made Wednesday (April 4).
  
  
• Global Semiconductor (Silicon) Intellectual Property (IP) Market Worth $5.7 Billion by 2017 (Wednesday Apr. 04, 2012)
  According to MarketsandMarkets, the global Semiconductor IP market by revenue is estimated to grow from $2.5 billion in 2012 to $5.70 billion in 2017 at a CAGR of 14.47%.
  
  
• Elpida, the mega-merger, and what comes next (Wednesday Apr. 04, 2012)
  With Elpida's petition to re-organize February 27, we are reminded of the harsh reality that the fantastic rumor of Japanese government bailout doesn't come free, nor quick enough to cure a decade of decline. But it's probably safe to assume some sort of consolidation will happen. So the question we ask is, how does the rumored mega-merger affect the electronics industry at large?
  
  
• Gartner Says Semiconductor Foundry Market Grew 5.1 Percent in 2011 to Reach $29.8 Billion (Friday Mar. 30, 2012)
  The worldwide semiconductor foundry market totaled $29.8 billion in 2011, a 5.1 percent increase from 2010, according to Gartner, Inc. Analysts said the semiconductor supply chain experienced some impact from the Japanese disasters and Thailand flooding. However, without the steep depreciation of U.S. currency, analysts said that foundry growth in 2011 would have been just 0.7 percent.
  
  
• Indian design firms eye chip IP model (Thursday Mar. 29, 2012)
  While Indian tech firms continue to focus on design services, at least two companies are seeking to generate and license chip IP.
  
  
• Panel ponders many-core ICs tripping 'the singularity' (Thursday Mar. 29, 2012)
  Will the rapidly increasing processing power being enabled by many-core processors cause the advent of machines with super-human intelligence, an event sometimes referred to as the singularity?
  
  
• Market for Mobile Processors Is Projected to Reach 1.9 Billion Units Annually by 2016 (Wednesday Mar. 28, 2012)
  New NPD In-Stat research reports that the growth of mobile processors in 2011 exceeded 43% and is forecast to grow at a 22% CAGR through 2016.
  
  
• Intel's Semiconductor Market Share Surges to More Than 10-Year High in 2011 (Monday Mar. 26, 2012)
  
  
  
• Embedded Graphics: Imagination Technologies Supplies More GPU IP than all Others Combined According to Latest Report from Jon Peddie Research (Friday Mar. 23, 2012)
  JPR announced estimated mobile devices graphics chip shipments for 2011. Mobile devices include smartphones, tablets, cameras, vehicles, and game consoles.
  
  
• After Hitting 11-Year High in Q4, Semiconductor Inventories Set to Decline Slightly in Q1 (Wednesday Mar. 21, 2012)
  Despite rising by a worrisome 3.4 percent and hitting an 11-year high in the fourth quarter of 2012, average semiconductor days of inventory (DOI) held by chip suppliers are expected to decline by 0.5 percent in the first quarter, providing some hope that market conditions are improving.
  
  
• ASIC Design Starts: New Growth Ahead (Tuesday Mar. 20, 2012)
  The ASIC Design Start landscape has changed since 2006 to accommodate increasing design costs, rising design complexity and lengthening design cycle times, especially in the System-on-a-Chip (SoC) market. These changes are having an impact on the ASIC Design Start market as the broader semiconductor market has mostly recovered from the financial meltdown that occurred in the 3rd quarter of 2008 and into the first part of 2009.
  
  
• GSA Provides Financial Overview of the Largest Semiconductor Companies (Monday Mar. 19, 2012)
  GSA today provided an overview of the financial performance of semiconductor companies that generated more than $500 million in sales in calendar fourth quarter 2011.
  
  
• Why ST will likely sell ST-Ericsson to China (Thursday Mar. 15, 2012)
  Europe's largest chip company STMicroelectronics NV should persuade Ericsson AB that they sell off their mobile chip joint venture ST-Ericsson, but probably to some aspiring Chinese company.
  
  
• Report: ST-Ericsson re-org is prep for sale (Thursday Mar. 15, 2012)
  Didier Lamouche, the CEO appointed in December at fabless mobile chip joint venture ST-Ericsson, is set to announce a re-organization before the end of the month, which will ready the company for sale, according to a Reuters report that quoted unnamed sources.
  
  
• Gartner Says Worldwide Semiconductor Spending to Reach $316 Billion in 2012, a 4 Percent Increase from 2011 (Thursday Mar. 15, 2012)
  Worldwide semiconductor revenue is projected to total $316 billion in 2012, a 4 percent increase from 2011, according to Gartner, Inc. This outlook is up from Gartner's previous forecast in the fourth quarter of 2011 for 2.2 percent growth.
  
  
• GSA Reports A 237.1% Increase in February Semiconductor Funding Activity (Thursday Mar. 15, 2012)
  In February 2012, venture investment dollars received by semiconductor companies (i.e., fabless companies, integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) and semiconductor suppliers) was $159.8 million; a 237.1% increase month-over-month (MoM) and a 218.3% increase year-over-year (YoY.)
  
  
• Cadence TSMC, ARM call for more collaboration (Wednesday Mar. 14, 2012)
  Electronics companies need to step up their collaboration to deal with growing complexity of the technology, said executives from Cadence, TSMC and ARM at an annual Cadence user event here.
  
  
• Who wins when Cortex-M adds RTOS? (Wednesday Mar. 07, 2012)
  Richard Barry of FreeRTOS.org examines who the winners and losers will be in ARM's decision to add an RTOS to its Cortex-M hardware abstraction layer, through the release of CMSIS 3 (Cortex Microcontroller Software Interface Standard 3).
  
  
• ASIC Design Starts: Communications Dominate but Smart Grid and Transportation Growing Faster (Wednesday Mar. 07, 2012)
  The ASIC design start landscape has seen dramatic changes as end market demand rose and fell due to the financial meltdown in 2008, recovery in 2009 and 2010 and more uncertainty due to natural disasters and financial market fluctuations in 2011.
  
  
• U.S. Presidential Election Years Influence Semiconductor Market (Wednesday Mar. 07, 2012)
  Historically, U.S. presidential election years have been very good for the semiconductor market as many elected officials attempt to pass (mostly short-term) legislation to boost the economy in order to look good in the eyes of voters and stand a better chance of getting re-elected.
  
  
• Report: Fewer design starts are yielding higher value (Wednesday Mar. 07, 2012)
  The number of new ASIC design starts is declining, but the revenue per design is rising, according to market research firm Gartner.
  
  
• Intel unimpressed with AMD's SeaMicro buy (Wednesday Mar. 07, 2012)
  Intel Corp. declined the opportunity to acquire microserver startup SeaMicro Inc. prior to the announcement last week that Intel's chief competitor in the microprocessor market, Advanced Micro Devices Inc., would acquire SeaMicro for $334 million, according to Diane Bryant, Intel vice president and general manager of the company's Datacenter and Connected Systems Group.
  
  
• How do you count cores? Or should you? (Tuesday Mar. 06, 2012)
  As we enter 2012, we know that many new processor introductions are on the horizon. Intel will be introducing its new platforms for PCs and servers, ARM will be formally announcing a 64-bit architecture, and many of the ARM partners will be introducing new processors based on the various Cortex cores and core combinations.
  
  
• Global Semiconductor Sales Decline 2.7 Percent in January with Sales Poised for Future Growth (Tuesday Mar. 06, 2012)
  SIA today announced that worldwide semiconductor sales were $23.1 billion in January 2012, a 2.7 percent decrease from the month prior when sales were $23.8 billion. All monthly sales numbers represent a 3-month moving average.