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Commentary / Analysis

• Intel's Ivy Bridge delayed says senior executive (Monday Feb. 27, 2012)
  A senior Intel Corp. executive has admitted that its next generation Ivy Bridge microprocessor will be delayed by around eight to 10 weeks to be launched in June.
  
  
• North American Semiconductor Equipment Industry Posts January 2012 Book-to-Bill Ratio of 0.95 (Friday Feb. 24, 2012)
  North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $1.18 billion in orders in January 2012 (three-month average basis) and a book-to-bill ratio of 0.95, according to the January Book-to-Bill Report published today by SEMI.
  
  
• Magma's Madhavan won't join Synopsys (Thursday Feb. 23, 2012)
  Synopsys Inc. said Wednesday (Feb. 22) it closed the $523 million acquisition of long-time rival Magma Design Automation Inc. and revealed that Rajeev Madhavan, Magma's chairman and CEO, would not be joining Synopsys as a result.
  
  
• Will Nvidia have more success with Windows 8 than Android? (Thursday Feb. 23, 2012)
  Nvidia Corp.is likely to have more success with Windows on ARM than it did with Android, according to analysts.
  
  
• Intel confirmed as foundry for second FPGA startup (Tuesday Feb. 21, 2012)
  Tabula Inc. confirmed Tuesday (Feb. 21) that Intel Corp. will manufacture the firm's 22-nm 3PLD products using Intel's 3-D tri-gate transistors.
  
  
• Reports of Counterfeit Parts Quadruple Since 2009, Challenging US Defense Industry and National Security (Friday Feb. 17, 2012)
  Reports of counterfeit parts have soared dramatically in the last two years, presenting huge challenges for electronics manufacturing and especially the military and aerospace industry at a time when the U.S. government is tightening regulations covering fake components, according to information and analysis provider IHS.
  
  
• Tower bids to build 300-mm wafer fab in India (Friday Feb. 17, 2012)
  Tower Semiconductorhas said it has signed a binding memorandum of understanding with an unnamed Indian infrastructure company, to build and operate a 300-mm wafer fab in India.
  
  
• STMicro causes financial analyst concerns (Thursday Feb. 16, 2012)
  French-Italian electronics manufacturer STMicroelectronics N.V. needs to act drastically if it is to halt its alarming profit slide and retreat into the periphery of the semiconductor space, according to financial analysts at Arete Research Services
  
  
• The new battleground for mobile processors (Thursday Feb. 16, 2012)
  According to NPD In-Stat, the Android portion of the low-cost smartphone segment will grow from just 4.7 percent of the total smartphone market in 2011 to 33.6 percent of the total market and 54.2 percent of the Android market in 2015.
  
  
• IC Companies Close 49 Wafer Fabs from 2009-2011 (Thursday Feb. 16, 2012)
  Data recently compiled and released in IC Insights' Global Wafer Capacity 2011-2012 report, shows that 49 semiconductor wafer fabs were closed between 2009-2011. Since mid-2007, the IC industry has been paring down its older capacity (i.e., ≤200mm wafers).
  
  
• PTC and Tech-Clarity Unveil New Research on Developing Software-Intensive Products (Thursday Feb. 16, 2012)
  Study, Developing Software-Intensive Products, showed that the majority of respondents significantly increased the amount of software, the importance of software and the innovation driven by software in their products over the last five years with nearly seventy five percent of the respondents planning to increase these efforts further over the next five years.
  
  
• Imagination technologies to see big royalty uptick (Monday Feb. 13, 2012)
  Exponential mobile computing growth and major upgrades to graphics chips are aligning to give Imagination Technologies’ royalties a huge boost, according to Arete Research Services.
  
  
• Microsoft: Windows 8 on ARM to be 'no-compromise' experience (Friday Feb. 10, 2012)
  Using Windows 8 on ARM (WOA) devices “out of the box” will feel the same as on x86/64 PCs, and both versions will be released at the same time, Microsoft has said.
  
  
• Next-gen video codec hits milestone (Thursday Feb. 09, 2012)
  The standards group hammering out the next generation of the MPEG media codec has forged a committee draft of the High Efficiency Video Coding (HVEC) standard in a regular meeting here this week. The spec also known informally as H.265 is expected to provide efficiency boosts in transmitting video for next generation systems and networks using it.
  
  
• Mobile Communications Revenue to Rise by Double-Digit Margin in 2012 (Thursday Feb. 09, 2012)
  Fueled by spectacular growth in the next-generation 4G wireless technology known as Long Term Evolution (LTE), the overall market for mobile communications equipment is expected to enjoy a strong double-digit expansion this year.
  
  
• Semiconductor Industry Posts Record-Breaking Revenues Despite 2011 Challenges (Wednesday Feb. 08, 2012)
  SIA today announced that worldwide semiconductor sales for 2011 reached a record $299.5 billion, a year-on-year increase of 0.4 percent from the $298.3 billion recorded in 2010.
  
  
• A cloudy future for AMD (Tuesday Feb. 07, 2012)
  On the heels of the company’s financial conference, there is a buzz in the air about AMD and its new management team headed by Rory Read. From the presentation material to the press reports, it would seem that AMD made all the right moves and said all the right things.
  
  
• Silicon Wafer Revenues Up in 2011 (Tuesday Feb. 07, 2012)
  Worldwide silicon wafer revenues improved by two percent in 2011 compared to 2010 according to the SEMI Silicon Manufacturers Group (SMG) in its year-end analysis of the silicon wafer industry. Worldwide silicon wafer area shipments decreased by three percent in 2011 when compared to 2010 area shipments.
  
  
• ARM Mulls Non-Volatile Memory IP acquisition (Monday Feb. 06, 2012)
  ARM CEO Warren East (shown) says the U.K. processor IP vendor would consider acquiring non-volatile memory IP as a way to bolster its physical IP division.
  
  
• TSMC plans 3-D IC assembly launch early in 2013 (Thursday Feb. 02, 2012)
  TSMC plans to announce 3-D IC assembly service as a general offering at the beginning of 2013, according to Maria Marced, president of TSMC Europe.
  
  
• Mali graphics to lead in smart TVs, says ARM's East (Thursday Feb. 02, 2012)
  Mali graphics technology from IP licensor ARM Holdings plc shipped in tens of millions of partners' chips in 2011, and will do even better in 2012, particularly in digital televisions, according to CEO Warren East.
  
  
• ARM tips 'gods and giants' roadmap (Wednesday Feb. 01, 2012)
  Processor and related IP licensor ARM Holdings plc has disclosed the names, but little else, on the roadmap of cores it is working on in 2012 and revealed a gods and giants theme. The roadmap includes high performance processors, a low power microcontroller and graphics cores.
  
  
• LTE Expected to Dominate Wireless Infrastructure Spending by 2013 (Tuesday Jan. 31, 2012)
  The wireless technology known as 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) is expected to claim the lion’s share of wireless infrastructure capital spending next year as mobile carriers definitively migrate to that next-generation standard.
  
  
• Semiconductor Industry Revenue to Endure Slow Growth in 2012 (Tuesday Jan. 31, 2012)
  With global economic prospects remaining uncertain and semiconductor inventory not moving quickly enough to stimulate new production, the worldwide chip market is expected to suffer a slow year in 2012 marked by sluggish growth.
  
  
• North American Companies Held More Than Half of IC Sales in 2011 (Tuesday Jan. 31, 2012)
  Driven by the strong performances of ON, Qualcomm, Skyworks, LSI, and Intel, North American companies gained just over three points of marketshare in 2011 to account for 53% of worldwide IC sales, according to the data in the 2012 edition of The McClean Report
  
  
• Rebuilding America: Proposals emerge to fix 'dysfunctional' R&D tax credit (Monday Jan. 30, 2012)
  As the debate over how to revive U.S. manufacturing heats up, tax and other proposals are emerging to provide incentives for technology companies to boost investment in innovative research that could foster new engines of economic growth.
  
  
• Globalfoundries CEO says company is back on track (Monday Jan. 30, 2012)
  Globalfoundries CEO Ajit Manocha has praised his firm for what he called a “remarkable quarter” in Q411, and promised that the foundry was on track to “keep the momentum going,” after a year plagued with difficulties and setbacks.
  
  
• Who are Imagination's four missing customers? (Friday Jan. 27, 2012)
  As my recent blog asking about the top ten customers of ARM proved popular I thought I would try and repeat the trick with regard to graphics IP licensor Imagination Technologies, which of course is also a competitor to ARM.
  
  
• TSMC returns fire over 28-nm process issues (Thursday Jan. 26, 2012)
  Foundry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. has hit back at analysts who have said it has yield problems with its 28-nm CMOS manufacturing processes.
  
  
• European startup attempts many-core revolution (Tuesday Jan. 24, 2012)
  French startup Kalray is attempting to break through the many-core barrier with a 256-core processor array integrated on a 28-nm CMOS chip.