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Commentary / Analysis

• Synopsys Adds AI-Driven Tools, Acquires PUF Security Firm (Monday Mar. 25, 2024)
  Synopsys added to the excitement of events in Silicon Valley this week with the announcement of new AI-driven EDA tools, and the acquisition of SRAM PUF security IP firm Intrinsic ID.
  
  
• Arm Highlights Future of the Software-Defined Vehicle (Monday Mar. 25, 2024)
  The roar of the engine once defined the automotive industry. Today, a new symphony is emerging, orchestrated by lines of code and powered by cutting-edge processors.
  
  
• 300mm Fab Equipment Spending Forecast to Reach Record $137 Billion in 2027, SEMI Reports (Wednesday Mar. 20, 2024)
  Global 300mm fab equipment spending for front-end facilities is forecast to reach a record US$137 billion in 2027 after topping US$100 billion for the first time by 2025
  
  
• After TSMC fab in Japan, advanced packaging facility is next (Monday Mar. 18, 2024)
  Japan’s efforts to reboot its chip industry are likely to get another boost: an advanced packaging facility set up by TSMC. That seems a logical expansion to TSMC’s $7 billion front-end chip manufacturing fab built in Kumamoto on Japan’s southern island Kyushu.
  
  
• Former Moortec executives create chip monitor startup (Thursday Mar. 14, 2024)
  Stephen Crosher and other former executives with Moortec Semiconductor Ltd. have founded Monic Semiconductor Ltd. (Plymouth, England).
  
  
• HBM3 Initially Exclusively Supplied by SK Hynix, Samsung Rallies Fast After AMD Validation, Says TrendForce (Wednesday Mar. 13, 2024)
  TrendForce highlights the current landscape of the HBM market, which as of early 2024, is primarily focused on HBM3. NVIDIA’s upcoming B100 or H200 models will incorporate advanced HBM3e, signaling the next step in memory technology.
  
  
• We'll Need Many More Fabs to Meet $1 Trillion by 2030 Goal (Wednesday Mar. 13, 2024)
  We’ve heard a lot in the last year about how the semiconductor industry could become a $1 trillion market by 2030 in the U.S. with its current growth trajectory. But it’s not as simple as that, as we don’t have the fab capacity.
  
  
• Global Top 10 Foundries Q4 Revenue Up 7.9%, Annual Total Hits US$111.54 Billion in 2023, Says TrendForce (Tuesday Mar. 12, 2024)
  The latest TrendForce report reveals a notable 7.9% jump in 4Q23 revenue for the world’s top ten semiconductor foundries, reaching $30.49 billion.
  
  
• Re-imagining Imagination Technologies (Monday Mar. 11, 2024)
  Imagination has had its share of challenges over the years, but key to its rebirth is a new management team and a new RISC-V CPU business.
  
  
• BrainChip Adds Edge Box to Chip and IP Offerings (Wednesday Mar. 06, 2024)
  BrainChip has become the latest edge AI chip maker to make its chips available in an “edge box” appliance, via Indian ODM VVDN.
  
  
• Imsys develops RISC-V core, looks to AI in space (Wednesday Mar. 06, 2024)
  Imsys in Sweden has developed a RISC-V processor core and is part of a project to develop an AI accelerator in space.
  
  
• Agile Analog's Christelle Faucon: "Diversity and Equality Are Critical" (Monday Mar. 04, 2024)
  Agile Analog’s Christelle Faucon discussed the role of the semiconductor industry in reshaping the future of our world.
  
  
• Interview: Mahesh Tirupattur, executive VP of Analog Bits - "Be Passionate, Fail Fast and Recover Quick" (Monday Mar. 04, 2024)
  In this episode of Silicon Grapevine, Mahesh Tirupattur, executive VP of Analog Bits, describes how he went from graduating in high voltage and power engineering, working on the Viking microprocessor at Sun Microsystems, and then his transition to Analog Bits.
  
  
• European Union Seeks Chip Sovereignty Using RISC-V (Friday Mar. 01, 2024)
  The European Union invests heavily in initiatives to achieve chip independence using the RISC-V open-source architecture. This effort is led by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, which has been a pioneer in the development of RISC-V technology.
  
  
• Partners Applaud Intel Foundry's Wider Ecosystem Approach (Friday Mar. 01, 2024)
  Last week, Intel hosted an event to launch Intel Foundry as a separate legal entity focused on delivering chips for the AI era, with the ability to serve both Intel products and external customers, including competitors.
  
  
• Largest CHIPS Act Awards Seen Coming for U.S. Companies (Monday Feb. 26, 2024)
  U.S. chipmakers Intel and Micron are likely to win the largest share of the $52 billion in CHIPS Act awards this year, analysts told EE Times.
  
  
• Arm Updates CSS Designs for Hyperscalers' Custom Chips (Thursday Feb. 22, 2024)
  Arm recently upgraded its Arm Neoverse Compute Subsystem (CSS) designs with new CPU cores, aimed at companies building their own custom chips for the data center.
  
  
• Intel Foundry Services Head Sees Advanced Packaging as "On Ramp" to Growth (Thursday Feb. 22, 2024)
  Intel Foundry Services (IFS) General Manager Stuart Pann has benefitted from unexpected demand for advanced packaging services from customers like Cisco, he told EE Times in an exclusive interview.
  
  
• What does Renesas' acquisition of PCB toolmaker Altium mean? (Monday Feb. 19, 2024)
  Renesas, the semiconductor industry’s serial acquirer, has announced to snap PCB design toolmaker Altium nearly a month after announcing the purchase of gallium nitride (GaN) design house Transphorm.
  
  
• New Report Suggests India Can Expand Role in Global Semiconductor Value Chains with the Right Policies (Thursday Feb. 15, 2024)
  SIA and IESA today welcomed the release of a report evaluating India’s existing semiconductor ecosystem and policy frameworks and offering recommendations to facilitate longer-term strategic development of complementary semiconductor ecosystems in the U.S. and India.
  
  
• Blumind Harnesses Analog for Ultra Low Power Intelligence (Thursday Feb. 15, 2024)
  Canadian startup Blumind recently developed an analog computing architecture for ultra-low power AI acceleration of sensor data, Blumind CEO Roger Levinson told EE Times. The company hopes to enable widespread intelligence in Internet of Things (IoT) devices.
  
  
• Arm shares jump 50% on AI, China boosts to results (Friday Feb. 09, 2024)
  
  
  
• Worldwide Silicon Wafer Shipments and Revenue Fall in 2023, SEMI Reports (Wednesday Feb. 07, 2024)
  Worldwide silicon wafer shipments in 2023 decreased 14.3% to 12,602 million square inches while wafer revenue contracted 10.9% to $12.3 billion over the same period, the SEMI Silicon Manufacturers Group (SMG) reported in its year-end analysis of the silicon wafer industry.
  
  
• Global Semiconductor Sales Decrease 8.2% in 2023; Market Rebounds Late in Year (Monday Feb. 05, 2024)
  Worldwide industry sales totaled $526.8 billion in 2023; market grew during second half of year and sales are projected to increase by 13.1% in 2024
  
  
• Tenstorrent Engineers Talk Open-Sourced Bare-Metal Stack (Friday Feb. 02, 2024)
  Tenstorrent, the Jim Keller–led AI chip and IP startup, is making available and open-sourcing its bare-metal software stack, which allows access to the hardware at the lowest level, Tenstorrent senior fellow Jasmina Vasiljevic told EE Times.
  
  
• Navigating the RISC-V Revolution in Europe (Wednesday Jan. 31, 2024)
  RISC-V International expects the market for RISC-V IP and software to reach $1.07 billion by 2025.
  
  
• CEO Interview: Charlie Janac of Arteris -- "Pick a Viable Path, Don't Give Up" (Friday Jan. 26, 2024)
  Arteris CEO Charlie Janac gives EE Times a glimpse of his 40 years in the EE industry. He reflects on the time Jim Solomon asked him to become the acting CFO of SDA and how that triggered a long career through its transition to Cadence.
  
  
• China ten years behind and staying there (Thursday Jan. 25, 2024)
  China is ten years behind the leading edge and will stay that way, says Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger.
  
  
• Frontgrade Gaisler and RISC-V's Space Journey (Thursday Jan. 25, 2024)
  The last time we spoke with Sandi Habinc, General Manager, and Jan Andersson, Director of Engineering at Frontgrade Gaisler, we were discussing the TRISAT-R CubeSat and Gaisler’s use of RISC-V’s open standard instruction set architecture within its space deployment. What Has Happened Since?
  
  
• Chiplet Makers Expect to Disrupt Incumbents (Tuesday Jan. 16, 2024)
  Executives at chip startups Tenstorrent and Alphawave foresee a day when their firms’ sales of chiplets and IP erodes the business of incumbent chip vendors like Qualcomm.