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Commentary / Analysis

• Altera's CEO sees parallels to '08 downturn (Friday Oct. 21, 2011)
  Altera Corp. Thursday (Oct. 20) reported third quarter sales that came in below analysts' expectations and the company's own revised guidance, with CEO John Daane saying customers are burning through existing inventories in a manner reminiscent of the downturn of 2008.
  
  
• Musical ARM chairs as Drew goes strategic (Thursday Oct. 20, 2011)
  ARM Holdings plc has shuffled its senior executives with the promotion of Ian Drew to the position of executive vice president (EVP) of strategy from his previous position as EVP marketing.
  
  
• ABI Research Teardown: iPhone 4S has New RF Front End, Altered Qualcomm Modem, and a Throttled Apps Processor (Wednesday Oct. 19, 2011)
  The iPhone 4S is built with many of the same components found in prior iPhone designs, but the similarities have caused many companies to incorrectly report cost and component market share.
  
  
• Analyst: Chip market downturn to be brief (Tuesday Oct. 18, 2011)
  A semiconductor industry downturn that began over the summer will be short lived, reaching its bottom in February 2012, according to a market analyst.
  
  
• iPhone 4S Shows Key Design and Component Changes (Monday Oct. 17, 2011)
  While much of the coverage of Apple Inc.’s iPhone 4S announcement focused on the new device’s similarity to the iPhone 4, an IHS analysis of the product illustrates key changes in the product’s feature set and component selection.
  
  
• Report: Samsung ramping Apple's A6 chip (Monday Oct. 17, 2011)
  Samsung is ramping production of the A6 quad-core application processor for Apple because rival foundry TSMC has yet to stabilize its own production of the same chip, according to a Korea Times report that referenced un-named Apple component suppliers as its sources.
  
  
• 45nm and Below Grabs 24% of Wafer Demand in 2011 (Friday Oct. 14, 2011)
  The economic malaise in Europe and the U.S., along with the natural disasters around the world, have put a damper on 2011 semiconductor sales. Heading into the holiday buying season, consumer confidence is low and inventories are higher than preferred. OEMs are, at best, cautious and in most cases, pessimistic about their markets.
  
  
• TSMC's Chang gives bleak outlook for 2012 (Friday Oct. 14, 2011)
  Morris Chang, chairman and CEO of foundry chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd., has given a dismal outlook for the world economy and the chip industry, which is closely coupled to it, according to reports.
  
  
• Costs up at India's R&D centers (Friday Oct. 14, 2011)
  Operational costs are on the rise at global technology companies’ Indian R&D centers as the focus shifts from cost cutting to innovation and value creation, a recent study found.
  
  
• Annual Shipments of ARM Processors Forecast to Equal Twice The World's Population in 2015 (Thursday Oct. 06, 2011)
  Analysis of findings from the recently published Semicast report “Opportunities for ARM in Embedded Processing—2011 Edition” suggest the rapid growth of the ARM architecture is set to continue over the medium term, with annual shipments of ARM-based processors set to match the world’s population this year and forecast to equal twice the world’s population in 2015.
  
  
• IEF: TSMC pushes innovation for recovery (Thursday Oct. 06, 2011)
  Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. is now expecting just 1 percent growth in the global semiconductor market in 2011 but that is stimulating the company to speed up innovation in process technologies.
  
  
• Fab-Lite/Asset-Lite Business Model Gaining Momentum (Wednesday Oct. 05, 2011)
  Arguably, no other trend has so quickly swept through the IC industry and stirred up so much debate about the future of chip making as the spread of the "fab-lite" (or "asset-lite") business model, which is being embraced by a growing number of major integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) worldwide.
  
  
• EDA Consortium Reports Revenue Increase for Q2 2011 (Wednesday Oct. 05, 2011)
  The EDA Consortium (EDAC) Market Statistics Service (MSS) today announced that the Electronic Design Automation (EDA) industry revenue increased 17.6 percent for Q2 2011 to $1438.1 million, compared to $1222.9 million in Q2 2010.
  
  
• Analog to Reach $61.9 Billion by 2015 (Wednesday Oct. 05, 2011)
  The semiconductor market may be experiencing a downturn, but that doesn't have to mean all news is bad news. Analog, within the Computing, Consumer, and Communications markets, will see some strong growth over the next few years, growing 13.8%, 8.6%, and 12.8% in 2011, 2012, and 2013 respectively.
  
  
• Global Semiconductor Sales Increase in August (Monday Oct. 03, 2011)
  SIA today announced that worldwide sales of semiconductors were $25.03 billion for the month of August, a slight increase of 0.7 percent from the prior month when sales were $24.9 billion. On a year-to-date basis sales grew 2.2 percent year-over-year.
  
  
• Gartner Says Worldwide Semiconductor Capital Equipment Spending to Decline 19.2 Percent in 2012 (Friday Sep. 30, 2011)
  Worldwide semiconductor capital equipment spending is expected to total $35.2 billion in 2012, a 19.2 percent decline from projected 2011 spending of $43.5 billion, according to Gartner, Inc. Excess electronics inventory and poor demand as a result of the slowing macro economy are to blame for the declining spending.
  
  
• Mosaid says Google bought patents for $11M (Thursday Sep. 29, 2011)
  Canadian IP licensor Mosaid Technologies Inc. said Wednesday (Sept. 28) that Google Inc. recently bought five patent families from the firm for $11 million.
  
  
• MeeGo gone: Intel drops OS in favor of Tizen (Thursday Sep. 29, 2011)
  Chip giant Intel has decided to drop its MeeGo mobile operating system in favor of the Tizen project announced by two Linux-oriented non-profit groups, the LiMo Foundation and the Linux Foundation.
  
  
• Gartner Says Current Semiconductor Inventory at "Worrisome Levels" (Wednesday Sep. 21, 2011)
  Semiconductor days of inventory (DOI) are forecast to plateau in the third quarter of 2011 at worrisome levels given current conditions and the likelihood that consumer and business spending will be weaker than expected, according to Gartner, Inc.
  
  
• GSA Reports All Semiconductor Company Segments Garnered Funding in August 2011 (Wednesday Sep. 21, 2011)
  In August, six semiconductor companies raised $65.3 million, down 20.0% from the $81.6 million raised in July 2011. August’s funding total decreased year-over-year (YoY) at a rate of 17.3%.
  
  
• More advice on navigating patent-law shifts (Thursday Sep. 15, 2011)
  The America Invents Act implements significant changes to the U.S. patent system, so it's prudent to consider how those changes impact intellectual property strategies and practices that have developed over the past few decades.
  
  
• Gartner Says Worldwide Semiconductor Sales Slowing Rapidly; 2011 Revenue to Decline 0.1 Percent (Thursday Sep. 15, 2011)
  Worldwide semiconductor revenue has slowed in 2011, and the market is on pace to have revenue total $299 billion, a decline of 0.1 percent from 2010, according to Gartner, Inc.
  
  
• Navigating the shifts in U.S. patent law (Wednesday Sep. 14, 2011)
  The America Invents Act (House Bill H.R. 1249) was passed by the United States Senate on September 8, 2011 and is expected to be signed by President Obama in short order. This is the most vigorous revision of US patent law since the 1950’s.
  
  
• Report: Intel acquires ESL firm CoFluent (Tuesday Sep. 13, 2011)
  Intel has done a deal to acquire CoFluent Design, the vendor of the CoFluent Studio EDA software that supports system-level design and time-behavioral modeling, according to a Japanese language report.
  
  
• ARM Forecast To Record Highest Growth In The 32/64-bit MCU/eMPU Market But x86 Set To Remain The Leading Challenger (Monday Sep. 12, 2011)
  According to findings from the 2011 edition of Semicast’s study of 32/64-bit Microcontrollers, Embedded Microprocessors & DSPs, ARM became the leading architecture for 32/64-bit MCUs/eMPUs in 2010, ahead of x64/x86 and Power Architecture.
  
  
• ABI Research Sees Fast Transition to 802.11ac, Crossing the 50% Threshold in 2014 (Monday Sep. 12, 2011)
  Following small shipment volumes in 2012 and a significant increase in shipments in 2013, IEEE 802.11ac will emerge as the dominant Wi-Fi protocol by 2014.
  
  
• TSMC says equipment vendors late for 14nm (Wednesday Sep. 07, 2011)
  Time is running out to make critical decisions for how to make 14nm chips expected to hit production in 2015, and capital equipment vendors are falling behind. That was the upshot of a talk by the top R&D executive at TSMC at Semicon Taiwan here.
  
  
• China's fabless turn to Taiwan, says survey (Tuesday Sep. 06, 2011)
  China's fabless chip companies are turning to Taiwan to a greater degree to help them get close to the leading-edge in geometry and compete globally, according to an IC design house and fabless chip company survey conducted by EE Times-China.
  
  
• Semico Forecasting February 2012 as the Bottom; Next Upswing Begins: 2Q12 (Thursday Sep. 01, 2011)
  The IPI has been showing a weak second half for over a year. Given June's poor performance, it stands to reason we're looking at a three quarter downturn: 3Q11, 4Q11, and 1Q12. OEMs will burn off inventory during the second half of 2011 while foundries cut back on capital expenditures.
  
  
• 3D ICs without TSVs? (Thursday Sep. 01, 2011)
  A new approach to assembling 3D ICs may eliminate the need for TSVs.