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Commentary / Analysis

• Comment: Inside Apple's A4 processor (Wednesday Feb. 10, 2010)
  Apple Inc. has not said very much about its A4 processor. But it could represent a battleground for Imagination's PowerVR graphics versus the Mali graphics from local rival ARM.
  
  
• New CEO Sandeep Vij forms 'Team MIPS' (Monday Feb. 08, 2010)
  Signing Sandeep Vij as its new CEO may turn out to be just what MIPS Technologies needed, as the world's number two processor IP company struggles to steal the spotlight back from ARM -- both in media attention and the industry's mindshare.
  
  
• GlobalFoundries wants 30% of foundry market, says report (Thursday Feb. 04, 2010)
  GlobalFoundries Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.) the foundry chip maker backed by Abu Dhabi, has said it wants to take 30 percent of the foundry market within three years, according to a Bloomberg report that cited the CEO of its lead investor as its source.
  
  
• Panel: Outsourcing is 'cruel' but necessary (Thursday Feb. 04, 2010)
  During a panel discussion at the DesignCon 2010 conference here, the topic revolved around the evolution of the IC outsourcing model--and its implications.
  
  
• Design team execs left Apple to form startup (Thursday Feb. 04, 2010)
  Amid the excitement over the A4 microprocessor designed in-house at Apple Inc. and used to power the iPad, it has emerged that a number of the internal design team have already left to form a startup.
  
  
• ARM lays out roadmap with three more cores (Tuesday Feb. 02, 2010)
  ARM Holdings plans to launch three processor cores during 2010. The cores, codenamed Eagle, Heron and Merlin, all have lead licensing customers and deliveries of intellectual property will start either in 2010 or early in 2011 depending on the core, said ARM CEO Warren East.
  
  
• EDA pundits confront market projections for 2010 (Monday Feb. 01, 2010)
  2010 has just started, and there is no better time to generate estimates and predictions for this year's EDA market. Three EDA industry experts have agreed to share their projections with EE Times.
  
  
• Analyst rails against the fab-lite (Thursday Jan. 28, 2010)
  The fabless chip vendors and pursuers of fab-lite manufacturing strategies are about to get a shock, according to Malcolm Penn, principal analyst with Future Horizons (Sevenoaks, England). Some companies could under-perform, others could be driven out of business in a market that should be booming for them; and all because they have lost control of manufacturing.
  
  
• ARM-based Processors Will Overtake x86 in Ultra-mobile Devices in 2013 (Friday Jan. 22, 2010)
  While an estimated 90% of Ultra-mobile Devices (UMDs) shipped in 2009 were based on an x86 processor architecture, the introduction of ARM-based systems introduces greater choice and differentiation for system vendors.
  
  
• Analysis: Don't bet on Intel buying major FPGA vendor (Friday Jan. 15, 2010)
  Intel Corp. is highly unlikely to purchase either of the two major FPGA vendors despite the desire to enter embedded space due to valuation concerns and other roadblocks, including the likelihood such a move would damage current operations at the world's biggest semiconductor company.
  
  
• Xilinx to go with TSMC at 28-nm, says analyst (Friday Jan. 15, 2010)
  Market-leading programmable logic vendor Xilinx is set to use TSMC for foundry services at the 28-nm node, according to one analyst.
  
  
• ARM raises royalty rate with Cortex (Thursday Jan. 14, 2010)
  Processor intellectual property licensor ARM Holdings plc (Cambridge, England) is extracting a higher royalty rate for cores from its Cortex processor range than for older ARM processor cores, according to Tim Score, chief financial officer.
  
  
• Analyst: Intel may acquire FPGA vendor (Wednesday Jan. 13, 2010)
  Intel Corp. may look to acquire an FPGA supplier such as Xilinx Inc. or Altera Corp. in 2010 in an effort to expand its presence in the embedded market as well as SoCs, according to a Wall Street analyst.
  
  
• SIA Reports November Chip Sales (Monday Jan. 04, 2010)
  Worldwide sales of semiconductors rose to $22.6 billion in November, a 3.7 percent increase from October when sales were $21.8 billion, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) reported today.
  
  
• The ARM Cortex-M3 and the convergence of the MCU market (Monday Jan. 04, 2010)
  If ARM's achievements in smart phones (>80 percent market share are anything to go by, the Cortex-M3 may spark a rapid consolidation of the microcontroller market, dramatically reducing the number of competing architectures on offer.
  
  
• Analysis: To-do-list for the next MIPS CEO (Wednesday Dec. 30, 2009)
  As John Bourgoin, leader of MIPS Technologies for more than a decade as president and CEO, retires on this Thursday (Dec. 31st), his successor will find plenty on his plate. The new chief's to-do list includes: defending its turf against ARM; further proliferating its cores in new markets; and re-energizing the company as a new offensive player in the IP processor market.
  
  
• Gartner Says Worldwide Semiconductor Revenue Declined $29 Billion in 2009 (Monday Dec. 21, 2009)
  The semiconductor industry will post a revenue decline for just the sixth time in the last 25 years, with worldwide revenue totaling $226 billion in 2009, an 11.4 percent decline from 2008, according to preliminary estimates by Gartner, Inc.
  
  
• Counterpoint:With MIPS still growing, battle isn't over (Tuesday Dec. 15, 2009)
  A recent EE Times article indicated that today's embedded processor wars are being waged by two main players—Intel and ARM. Yet the title of that article, "ARM wants every MIPS socket," indicates—and rightly so—that there is another important player in the mix.
  
  
• Interview: ARM wants every MIPS socket (Friday Dec. 11, 2009)
  As recently as five years ago, ARM's competitors included a host of IP processor companies such as MIPS, ARC and Tensilica. Now, like it or not, the field of serious processor competition has dramatically narrowed to, well, ARM vs. Intel Corp.
  
  
• Analyst: FPGA firms to outgrow semi industry by 2X (Wednesday Dec. 09, 2009)
  Xilinx and Altera, which together control more than 85 percent of the programmable logic market, are poised to grow twice as fast as the broader semiconductor industry going forward, a Wall Street analyst said
  
  
• Panelists look at IP quality versus design productivity (Wednesday Dec. 09, 2009)
  fundamental problem in the industry is to analyze and implement the tradeoffs between improving IP quality and losing design productivity. During a panel discussion at the IP-ESC 2009 Conference last week in Grenoble, France, IP buyers and sellers confronted experiences and issues.
  
  
• Analysis: strategic versus ROI-driven VC (Monday Dec. 07, 2009)
  We knew this was going to be a tough year for many startups. Venture capitalists needed to eke their money out. It is natural they would be withholding it from some because of the uncertainty that the global economic crisis had brought and the delay it introduced into the growth of various markets.
  
  
• Is design and reuse an impossible dream, ask panelists (Friday Dec. 04, 2009)
  A panel session at the IP-ESC 2009 Conference this week in Grenoble, France, examined IP design and reuse from a business and technology perspective and urged IP and SoC providers to reach compromises.
  
  
• IP providers, SoC told to go for compromises (Friday Dec. 04, 2009)
  According to the participants in the panel session at the IP-ESC 2009 Conference, the global economic depression has made SoC designers aware of the fact that, by outsourcing critical IP, they could not only cut design time but also improve time-to-market.
  
  
• Panelists question fabless model viability (Friday Dec. 04, 2009)
  Is fabless still fabulous? In a panel session at the IP-ESC 2009 Conference this week in Grenoble, France, panelists discussed the evolution of semiconductor business models and confronted views on whether the fabless model is dead or alive and kicking.
  
  
• ARM exec gives hints for IP business model optimization (Tuesday Dec. 01, 2009)
  In a keynote at the IP-ESC 2009 Conference this week in Grenoble, France, Eric Schorn, vice president of marketing, processor division ARM Ltd, compiled a How-To list of basic steps to optimize IP business models and better deliver value to the customer.
  
  
• Gartner Says Worldwide Semiconductor Revenue in 2010 to Rebound to 2008 Levels (Monday Nov. 16, 2009)
  Worldwide semiconductor revenue is on pace to total $226 billion in 2009, an 11.4 percent decline from 2008 revenue of $255 billion, according to the latest outlook by Gartner, Inc. This forecast is better than the third quarter projections when Gartner forecast semiconductor revenue to decline 17 percent in 2009.
  
  
• Comment: oops NXP did it again (Thursday Nov. 12, 2009)
  NXP BV continues to trade on its technology and the latest decision to license its Mifare technology to STMicroelectronics is as intriguing as any of the recent business moves that have gone before.
  
  
• Chip inventory levels remain low, says VLSI (Thursday Nov. 12, 2009)
  Chip inventory levels remain low by historical standards, despite reports by some chip makers of higher inventories that have risen for much of the year, according to market research firm VLSI Research.
  
  
• Commentary: What's next for troubled SMIC? (Wednesday Nov. 11, 2009)
  In just one day alone, China's SMIC suffered three major setbacks. On Tuesday (Nov. 10), it lost a big patent suit, its chief executive, and, in some respects, its independence.