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Commentary / Analysis

• How Conexant ended up filing for Chapter 11 (Wednesday Mar. 06, 2013)
  Both Broadcom Corp. and Conexant Systems Inc. deployed aggressive acquisition strategies in similar market segments starting in the late 1990’s—each company betting the farm on the burgeoning broadband market. In the end, they achieved spectacularly different results.
  
  
• Fab Equipment Spending: Flat in 2013; Up 24% in 2014 (Wednesday Mar. 06, 2013)
  Fab equipment spending for Front End facilities is expected to be flat in 2013, remaining around US$ 31.7 billion, increasing to $39.3 billion in 2014 - a 24 percent increase.
  
  
• Global Semiconductor Sales Increase in January Year-over-Year (Monday Mar. 04, 2013)
  SIA today announced that worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $24.05 billion for the month of January 2013, an increase of 3.8 percent from January 2012 when sales were $23.16 billion.
  
  
• Freescale eyes ARM server play (Thursday Feb. 28, 2013)
  Freescale Semiconductor Inc. could use its recently announced Cortex-A50 series processor license from ARM to extend its digital networking activity into server computing, CEO Gregg Lowe told EE Times at the Embedded World exhibition here.
  
  
• North American Semiconductor Equipment Industry Posts January 2013 Book-to-Bill Ratio of 1.14 (Friday Feb. 22, 2013)
  North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $1.09 billion in orders worldwide in January 2013 (three-month average basis) and a book-to-bill ratio of 1.14, according to the January Book-to-Bill Report published today by SEMI.
  
  
• LTE, quad-core apps processor wars begin (Thursday Feb. 21, 2013)
  As the Mobile World Congress raises its curtain next week in Barcelona, practically every mobile chip company is rushing to announce new smartphone ICs with the mobile industry’s two new “must-have" features--quad-core and LTE modem.
  
  
• Qualcomm and Samsung Dominate the LTE cellphone Modem Market but Tiny GCT Semiconductor, Renesas Mobile and Nvidia are New Players (Thursday Feb. 21, 2013)
  With 86% of the 47 million FDD-LTE cellphone modems shipped last year, Qualcomm will certainly continue its domination in 2013. Samsung followed with 9% of the shipments, while tiny GCT Semiconductor managed to grab 3% of the market, primarily through LG handsets. Renesas Mobile (mostly in Fujitsu handsets) and Nvidia-Icera each garnered 1% market shares.
  
  
• Baidu taps Marvell for ARM storage server SoC (Thursday Feb. 21, 2013)
  Baidu has become the first big data center to adopt an ARM server. China’s Internet search giant will use a custom storage server powered by the 32-bit Armada XP from Marvell.
  
  
• Five IC Suppliers to Hold One-Third of 300mm Wafer Capacity in 2013 (Wednesday Feb. 20, 2013)
  It is a fact that semiconductor industry capital spending is becoming more concentrated with a greater percentage of spending coming from a shrinking number of companies. As a result, IC industry capacity is also becoming more concentrated and this trend is especially prevalent in 300mm wafer technology.
  
  
• Wireless Leads of Growth for OEM Semiconductor Spending in 2013 (Thursday Feb. 14, 2013)
  Wireless is set to be the leading growth segment for semiconductor spending among original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in 2013, with expenditures rising by a double-digit margin to support the burgeoning markets for smartphones, media tablets and mobile infrastructure gear.
  
  
• 10 IC Product Segments to Exceed Total IC Market Growth in 2013 (Thursday Feb. 14, 2013)
  IC Insights’ 2013 McClean Report identifies and segments the total IC market into 34 major IC product categories. Ten product categories, led by Tablet MPUs and Cellphone Application MPUs, are forecast to exceed the 6% growth rate forecast for the total IC market this year.
  
  
• Yoshida in Japan: Renesas' cuts are GloFo's gain (Thursday Feb. 14, 2013)
  Word of layoffs is depressing and heart-wrenching, especially so when it takes place on the massive scale that hit workers at Renesas Electronics.
  
  
• Gartner Says Worldwide Mobile Phone Sales Declined 1.7 Percent in 2012 (Thursday Feb. 14, 2013)
  Worldwide mobile phone sales to end users totaled 1.75 billion units in 2012, a 1.7 percent decline from 2011 sales, according to Gartner, Inc. Smartphones continued to drive overall mobile phone sales, and the fourth quarter of 2012 saw record smartphone sales of 207.7 million units, up 38.3 percent from the same period last year.
  
  
• Smartphones and Tablets Drive Continued Double-Digit Growth in MEMS Motion Sensor Market (Thursday Feb. 14, 2013)
  Smartphones and media tablets continue to the prime movers of technology industries, with the two mobile platforms spurring a double-digit increase in the market for microelectromechanical system (MEMS) motion sensors this year.
  
  
• Why we need an imaging IP core (Wednesday Feb. 13, 2013)
  Twenty years ago, imaging/vision was a subject matter that only camera manufacturers cared about. Today, imaging has become a decidedly hot topic among a diverse world of system engineers, including those who build automotive electronics, mobile handsets, tablets, PCs, digital TVs and medical devices.
  
  
• Tensilica vs. Ceva in imaging/vision IP core battle (Tuesday Feb. 12, 2013)
  Rapidly evolving imaging and embedded vision algorithms are opening up a new battleground for DSP core IP companies in the high-performance and power-efficient imaging needs of mobile handsets, automotive and video products.
  
  
• Silicon Wafer Revenues Decline in 2012 (Tuesday Feb. 12, 2013)
  Worldwide silicon wafer revenues declined by 12 percent in 2012 compared to 2011 according to the SEMI Silicon Manufacturers Group (SMG) in its year-end analysis of the silicon wafer industry. Worldwide silicon wafer area shipments declined 0.1 percent in 2012 when compared to 2011 area shipments.
  
  
• Mobile and Cloud Computing Spur Tripling of Micro Server Shipments This Year (Monday Feb. 11, 2013)
  Driven by booming demand for new data center services for mobile platforms and cloud computing, shipments of micro servers are expected to more than triple this year, according to an IHS iSuppli Compute Platforms Topical Report from information and analytics provider IHS.
  
  
• Globalfoundries commits to FDSOI process (Monday Feb. 11, 2013)
  Globalfoundries Inc. has set out a timetable to the high volume production of fully-depleted silicon-on-insulator (FDSOI) chips making the mainstream adoption of the process possible.
  
  
• Intel microserver leaves door open for ARM (Monday Feb. 11, 2013)
  Intel’s first microserver processor is less power efficient than its existing Xeon chips, leaving a significant opportunity for alternative SoCs, according to Linley Gwennap, principal of the Linley Group.
  
  
• ARM rates FDSOI process as 'good technology' (Wednesday Feb. 06, 2013)
  Warren East, CEO of processor IP licensor ARM, says the company stands ready to help STMicroelectronics make a success of its fully-depleted silicon-on-insulator (FDSOI) chip manufacturing process, but that it is up to ST to make the process more widely available.
  
  
• Chip market seen contracting again in 2013 (Wednesday Feb. 06, 2013)
  The semiconductor industry will contract by 0.5 percent in 2013, but despite the squeeze and some consolidation the long-term outlook for growth remains strong, said Handel Jones, a veteran market watcher, speaking at the annual Common Platform event here Tuesday (Feb. 5).
  
  
• Big-little is sweet 16 (Wednesday Feb. 06, 2013)
  Processor intellectual property licensor ARM Holdings plc has gained two additional licensees for big-little approach to multiprocessing bringing the total number of partners to 16 and all are trying to use the technology to get design wins in mobile applications.
  
  
• Semiconductors Down 2.7% in '12, May Grow 7.5% in '13 (Wednesday Feb. 06, 2013)
  The world semiconductor market in 2012 was $292 billion – down 2.7% from $300 billion in 2011, according to WSTS. The 2012 decline followed a slight gain of 0.4% in 2011. Fourth quarter 2012 was down 0.3% from third quarter. The first quarter of the 2013 will likely show a decline from 4Q 2012 based on typical seasonal patterns and the revenue guidance of key semiconductor companies.
  
  
• Semiconductor R&D Spending Rises 7% Despite Weak Market (Tuesday Feb. 05, 2013)
  Spending on research and development by semiconductor companies grew 7% in 2012 to a record-high $53.0 billion, even though the semiconductor market declined 1% to $317.6 billion, according to the 2013 edition of IC Insights’ McClean Report.
  
  
• Semiconductor Industry Posts Near-Record Sales Total in 2012 (Monday Feb. 04, 2013)
  SIA today announced that worldwide semiconductor sales for 2012 reached $291.6 billion, the industry’s third-highest yearly total ever but a decrease of 2.7 percent from the record total of $299.5 billion set in 2011.
  
  
• Mature Fabs Still Process 40% of all Silicon (Thursday Jan. 31, 2013)
  Advanced technologies and the latest consumer electronics grab the major headlines but the semiconductor industry depends on mature technologies and legacy equipment. Today, about 40% of all silicon used to produce semiconductors are processed using mature manufacturing technologies.
  
  
• DesignCon: Nvidia's engineering VP wants better design tools (Wednesday Jan. 30, 2013)
  Cultural complacency and "uncomplaining" engineers are stunting EDA tool investment and preventing IC companies from keeping up with quickening design complexity, a senior engineering manager at chip vendor Nvidia Corp. said Tuesday (Jan. 29).
  
  
• Flash Forward at the leading edge? (Tuesday Jan. 29, 2013)
  SanDisk has announced it intends to begin the transition of its flash products to 1Y-nm generation semiconductors in the third quarter of 2013.
  
  
• The Linley Group Releases First Report Exclusively Focused on Wireless Modem Silicon (Monday Jan. 28, 2013)
  The explosion in the use of smartphones is driving significant growth in wireless modem chips and has prompted The Linley Group to issue its first report exclusively focused on these devices.