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Commentary / Analysis

• Qualcomm bought Sandbridge, says analyst (Thursday Nov. 04, 2010)
  Qualcomm has bought 4G modem chip company Sandbridge Technologies Inc., according to Will Strauss, president and principal analyst with Forward Concepts (Tempe, Ariz.). The price paid is rumored to be about $55 million, Strauss said.
  
  
• MIPS CEO: "Companies need to have a soul" (Monday Nov. 01, 2010)
  In a sharp contrast to a year ago, the Wall Street loves MIPS. Share holders love them. Even the media seems to be in love. But MIPS CEO believes that’s not enough: “Companies need to have a soul.”
  
  
• Analysis: Why Renesas is creating mobile IC spinoff (Monday Nov. 01, 2010)
  Renesas Electronics Corp. is spinning out its mobile semiconductor into a wholly owned subsidiary because of the markets for microcontrollers and modem chips are worlds apart, and because executives want to improve the chances of its power amplifiers being designed into reference designs from other baseband suppliers, according to executives and market analysts.
  
  
• Five good, five bad signs for IC market (Thursday Oct. 28, 2010)
  We are in the fourth quarter and the outlook is cloudy for the rest of 2010 and heading into 2011. Here are some good and bad signs for the electronics industry.
  
  
• Don't blame Obama for fabless America (Thursday Oct. 28, 2010)
  Lately it’s become popular for the media to deride the Obama administration for creating a business climate of uncertainty that is causing American manufacturers to hold up on investing more productive capability in the United States.
  
  
• Semiconductor Revenue to Post Only Modest Gains Next Year (Wednesday Oct. 27, 2010)
  Although the semiconductor industry in 2011 will not repeat the blowout performance anticipated for this year, growth will continue because of the ongoing recovery in the global economy and electronics market, according to the semiconductor market research firm iSuppli Corp.
  
  
• Microprocessor Trends Beyond 2010: Follow the Money (Wednesday Oct. 27, 2010)
  The MPU market is projected to grow 13.6% in 2011, reaching $45.7 billion in revenue. Semico expects to see continued sustained growth into 2011. The MPU market affects a variety of different end-use segments, and to understand this above-average growth, Semico has examined the technological trends driving the market today.
  
  
• Analysts fret over FPGA lead times (Thursday Oct. 21, 2010)
  ad times for parts at the two firms that dominant the programmable logic market are shortening after being exaggerated by high demand for months. Analysts see the trend as a sign of slowing demand, though they appear divided on how severe the impact might be.
  
  
• Report: Altera to get TSMC's 28-nm in Q4 (Tuesday Oct. 19, 2010)
  TSMC is set to put its 28-nm CMOS process into production this year in response to orders for programmable logic chips from Altera Corp., according to a Taiwan Economic News report.
  
  
• Report: Intel to announce new fab (Tuesday Oct. 19, 2010)
  Reports are surfacing that Intel Corp. will announce a new fab on Tuesday (Oct. 19). The new fab will be located in Oregon, according to The Oregonian.
  
  
• IBM sees 28% growth in ICs (Tuesday Oct. 19, 2010)
  IBM Corp. posted mixed results amid growth in its IC business. For IBM, total revenues for the third quarter of 2010 of $24.3 billion increased 3 percent from the third quarter of 2009.
  
  
• Analysts sees 'PLD inflection point' (Tuesday Oct. 19, 2010)
  Programmable logic vendors such as Altera Corp. and Xilinx Inc. should be more resilient in the face of cyclical downturns and inventory corrections with the semiconductor industry entering a "PLD inflection point" with programmable logic appearing to gain favor versus traditional custom ASIC solutions, according to a Wall Street analyst.
  
  
• Why Microsoft Windows 8 will run on ARM (Thursday Oct. 14, 2010)
  I know the bits on Windows 7 haven't even cooled yet, and here I am speculating on the next big thing already. But the fact is there hasn't been a version of Windows with anything truly hot in it for years and ARM support could be the juice Redmond badly needs.
  
  
• Analysis: Inside Broadcom's bid for Beceem (Thursday Oct. 14, 2010)
  Beceem Communications has a solid team and solid financials, but not exactly the right product to get Broadcom Corp. into mainstream LTE markets quickly.
  
  
• PMC-Sierra reportedly in talks to buy Wintegra (Wednesday Oct. 13, 2010)
  Communication and storage chip maker PMC-Sierra Inc. is in talks to acquire Israel-based network processor vendor Wintegra Inc. for $250 million, according to Israeli news media reports.
  
  
• EDA Consortium Reports Revenue Increase for Q2 2010 (Tuesday Oct. 12, 2010)
  The EDA Consortium (EDAC) Market Statistics Service (MSS) today announced that the Electronic Design Automation (EDA) industry revenue for Q2 2010 was $1222.9 million, an 8.7 percent increase compared to $1125.5 million in Q2 2009.
  
  
• SMIC CEO: China foundry vendor back on track (Monday Oct. 11, 2010)
  After a tumultuous period, Chinese foundry provider Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) is back on track, according to the company’s top executive.
  
  
• First look inside iPhone 4 reveals high reuse (Wednesday Oct. 06, 2010)
  You could call the new Apple iPhone 4 an iPad Nano because it uses at least seven chips from the popular Apple tablet, according to analysts from UBM TechInsights that have done a teardown of the new smartphone. STMicroelectronics won a coveted design win for its MEMS gyro in the handset.
  
  
• Semiconductor Intellectual Property Market Consolidating, Not Weakening (Wednesday Oct. 06, 2010)
  The SIP market is undergoing a round of consolidation with the number of companies shrinking approximately 50% by 2010 compared to 2000. However, this is not a sign of a weakening market, but rather of the market sorting itself out with strong contenders consolidating their positions. Semico projects this market to continue to grow, exhibiting a CAGR of 12.6% from 2010 - 2015.
  
  
• Microsemi CEO would kill some Actel products (Tuesday Oct. 05, 2010)
  In making a $430 million cash tender offer to acquire programmable logic supplier Actel Corp., analog and mixed-signal chip vendor Microsemi Corp. is seeking to broaden its product offerings to appeal to core customers in the aerospace, defense and industrial markets, according to company executives. But the company is likely to kill some Actel product lines, they said.
  
  
• Why the Microsemi-Actel deal makes complete sense (Tuesday Oct. 05, 2010)
  Lack of “synergy” in the just-announced $430 million MicroSemi-Actel merger? Please. This deal exudes synergy, and it will turn out to be one of the savviest of 2010.
  
  
• iSuppli Trims 2010 Semiconductor Forecast Amid Softening Demand, Rising Stockpiles (Thursday Sep. 30, 2010)
  With consumer demand slowing and inventories rising, the market research firm iSuppli Corp. is trimming its 2010 semiconductor revenue forecast to 32 percent, down from its previous outlook of 35.1 percent.
  
  
• Analyst: TSMC faces slowdown (Wednesday Sep. 29, 2010)
  Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC) is seeing a slowdown amid a lull in the IC market.
  
  
• Oracle to acquire chip companies, analysts say AMD, ARM, Nvidia could be targets (Monday Sep. 27, 2010)
  Larry Ellison, CEO of software giant Oracle, wants to be more like Steve Jobs, according to reports from Oracle’s annual meeting in San Francisco yesterday. And to do that Ellison said the company will acquire chip design companies as it builds its IP portfolio and takes a greater stake in end-product technology.
  
  
• Nvidia: ARM smartphones will bury x86 PCs (Friday Sep. 24, 2010)
  ARM will triumph over Intel as smartphones and tablets disrupt the x86 PC industry, said Jen-Hsun Huang, chief executive of Nvidia, speaking at the company's annual conference.
  
  
• Core Silicon Semiconductor Market Set for Record Growth in 2010 (Thursday Sep. 23, 2010)
  Annual revenue for core silicon, the largest segment in the semiconductor industry, is set for unprecedented growth in 2010, wiping out the decline of the last year, according to market research firm iSuppli Corp.
  
  
• Light Peak panned by OEM, report (Thursday Sep. 23, 2010)
  Intel's first implementation of Light Peak will not be broadly adopted by PC makers, but it opens a door to future optical interconnects. That's the view of an engineer in one top-tier PC company and an analyst report published separately today.
  
  
• Analyst: Chip market correction "imminent" (Wednesday Sep. 22, 2010)
  The business climate for the semiconductor industry is deteriorating, and leading indicators point to an imminent correction in the semiconductor market according to an analyst.
  
  
• Is IC market going up or down? (Wednesday Sep. 22, 2010)
  There are mixed signals in the IC market. Recently, many market research houses have raised their respective IC growth forecasts for 2010. Some believe that the IC market will grow by a staggering 30 percent or more this year.
  
  
• Analyst: iPhone to sole source Qualcomm chip (Wednesday Sep. 22, 2010)
  Qualcomm Inc. could displace cell-phone chipsets from Intel/Infineon in all iPhones from Apple Inc. by next year, according to an analyst.