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Commentary / Analysis

• China's IC Market Growth Continues to Outpace Its IC Manufacturing (Monday Jan. 28, 2013)
  China’s IC market is forecast to continue growing at a strong rate through 2017—faster than the growth rate of the worldwide IC market—according to IC Insights’ latest forecast contained in the pages of The 2013 McClean Report.
  
  
• Intel says no LTE-processor integration until 2014 (Monday Jan. 28, 2013)
  Intel is making progress with its development of LTE modems since but does not expect to have an integrated LTE modem and application processor until 2014, according to CEO Paul Otellini.
  
  
• Qualcomm preps ARM server SoCs--and they want to hire you (Monday Jan. 28, 2013)
  Add Qualcomm to the list of ARM server SoC designers. The smartphone chip designer is advertising at least three software engineering jobs that clearly state its intentions.
  
  
• Intel's 450-mm wafer spend starts in 2013 (Friday Jan. 25, 2013)
  Leading chip company Intel Corp. is planning to spend $2-billion preparing for transition to 450-mm diameter wafers in 2013.
  
  
• Wafer Demand Increased 3.8% in 2012 (Thursday Jan. 24, 2013)
  Semico recently released our Quarterly Wafer Demand Summary and Data, and as usual, there is good news and bad news. The good news is, manufacturing yields on 28nm have improved so for the time being, capacity is no longer a constraint in the supply chain.
  
  
• Samsung Surpassed Apple as the Top Global Semiconductor Customer in 2012, According to Gartner (Thursday Jan. 24, 2013)
  Samsung Electronics and Apple both dominated semiconductor demand in 2012, although Samsung overtook Apple as the top worldwide semiconductor customer, according to Gartner, Inc.
  
  
• India fab decision likely this quarter (Wednesday Jan. 23, 2013)
  A decision on the long-pending proposal to set up a domestic wafer fab in India is likely to be made by the end of March, semiconductor industry executives said
  
  
• Tablet and Cellphone Processors Give MPUs Needed Boost (Tuesday Jan. 22, 2013)
  Total microprocessor sales to rise 12% in 2013 with slight improvement in PC demand and continued strong growth in mobile SoC processors.
  
  
• Apple Helps Propel MEMS Microphone Market Grows by Nearly Fivefold from 2009 to 2012 (Tuesday Jan. 22, 2013)
  Apple Inc.'s tremendously influential iPhone helped spark the market for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) microphones to new heights, causing MEMS microphone shipments to nearly quintuple in just three short years.
  
  
• Chip Inventory at Semiconductor Suppliers Reaches Worrisome High (Tuesday Jan. 22, 2013)
  Semiconductor revenue is projected to decline in the first quarter this year after chip inventory held by semiconductor suppliers reached record high levels near the end of 2012, according to an IHS iSuppli Semiconductor Inventory Insider market brief from information and analytics provider IHS.
  
  
• Are ARM's big-little days numbered? (Monday Jan. 21, 2013)
  In the early days of digital electronics a good architectural idea could be implemented and the advantage it granted could be expected to apply for all foreseeable manufacturing generations. But now the complexity and pace of change of chip manufacturing is such that ideas and techniques sometimes struggle to last without significant re-invention.
  
  
• ST plans for Dresden FDSOI production (Monday Jan. 21, 2013)
  STMicroelectronics is in discussions with Globalfoundries Inc. on a transfer of fully depleted silicon on insulator (FDSOI) manufacturing process technology for volume production in 2013, according to a senior executive at ST.
  
  
• Xilinx buoyed by strong new products sales (Monday Jan. 21, 2013)
  Programmable logic vendor Xilinx Inc. forecast a sequential sales increase for the current quarter after reporting fiscal third quarter that exceed analysts' expectations.
  
  
• PLX Tech stands alone (Monday Jan. 21, 2013)
  PLX Technology, a provider of PCI Express switches and bridges, spent most of last year preparing to be acquired by Integrated Device Technology Inc. (IDT).
  
  
• Facebook covets core-heavy ARM SoCs (Monday Jan. 21, 2013)
  At the same event where Facebook managers opened the door for ARM server SoCs in the data center, they also made it clear that today’s chips fall short of what they seek, In addition, NAND flash vendors need to refocus their plans to fill exploding storage needs in the data center, they said.
  
  
• Chasing elusive LTE design wins (Thursday Jan. 17, 2013)
  A number of reputable chip companies, including ST-Ericsson, Renesas Mobile, NVidia, Marvell, have been developing LTE baseband chips for more than a year. So far, there is little to show for it.
  
  
• Intel Targets Fast-Growing, Low-End Smartphone Market with New Atom Processor Platform (Wednesday Jan. 16, 2013)
  Intel Corp.’s introduction of a new Atom processor platform designed to target the fast-growing market for low-end smartphones in emerging economies represents a shrewd strategy that could allow the company to expand its currently minimal market share in the industry, according to the IHS iSuppli/Screen Digest Mobile & Wireless Service at IHS
  
  
• Analog Market to Grow 9.5% in 2013 (Wednesday Jan. 16, 2013)
  Semico Research recently published a detailed forecast and analysis of the analog . The analog market totaled $40 billion revenue in 2012 and is expected to experience a 9.5% dollar and a 6.4% unit growth for 2013.
  
  
• Samsung Jumps to #3 in 2012 Foundry Ranking, Has Sights Set on #2 Spot in 2013 (Tuesday Jan. 15, 2013)
  In 2012, Samsung almost doubled its foundry sales and surpassed UMC to become the third-largest IC foundry in the world. Moreover, IC Insights believes that the company will challenge GlobalFoundries for the number two spot in the ranking in 2013.
  
  
• ARM friends Facebook at summit (Tuesday Jan. 15, 2013)
  Expect ARM and Facebook to become data center friends at the Open Compute Project’s summit here Wednesday (Jan. 16).
  
  
• Whose GPU in Exynos Octa? (Tuesday Jan. 15, 2013)
  The share prices of rival U.K. processor intellectual property licensors Imagination Technologies Group plc and ARM Holdings plc have been bouncing up and down on the London Stock Exchange over the last couple of days.
  
  
• Semiconductor Leaders See Massive Industry Transformation (Tuesday Jan. 15, 2013)
  The semiconductor industry is undergoing massive transformation as the rise in mobile computing, changes to the fabless-foundry model, uncertainties in technical innovation, and global macroeconomic trends become the dominant forces in 2013 and beyond, according to industry leaders speaking at the SEMI Industry Strategy Symposium (ISS).
  
  
• The Linley Group Says Mobile Semiconductor Market Topped $30 Billion in 2012 (Monday Jan. 14, 2013)
  Although overall semiconductor industry growth was nearly flat in 2012, sales of mobile semiconductors reached $31 billion in 2012 according to The Linley Group, an increase of 18 percent over the previous year.
  
  
• Renesas big-little LTE processor wins praise (Monday Jan. 14, 2013)
  Renesas Mobile, the mobile chip division of Renesas Electronic Corp., has developed an application processor with on-chip LTE modem that an analyst said could provide competition to market-leader Qualcomm.
  
  
• Are ARM's core days numbered? (Monday Jan. 14, 2013)
  Time was when a great many companies had their own processor architectures. It was a pinnacle of electronic and semiconductor achievement and many digital engineers wanted to have a crack at designing one and feeling the glow of watching software execute on an electronic machine of their own devising.
  
  
• Five intellectual property trends to watch in 2013 (Friday Jan. 11, 2013)
  Intellectual property and patents became headline news in 2012 as lawsuits, sales and competitive gamesmanship resulted in an increasing number of firms actively employing intellectual assets as viable tools for building their businesses.
  
  
• Globalfoundries behind 'Project Azalea'? (Thursday Jan. 10, 2013)
  What's this? Was Globalfoundries behind "Project Azalea," codename for a huge chip foundry, all along? Or has that shoe yet to fall with another announcement in the near future that would boost the technology momentum of New York State?
  
  
• ARM CEO on giant smartphones; IoT (Thursday Jan. 10, 2013)
  ARM CEO Warren East sat down with EE Times during the Consumer Electronics Show this week to discuss the radically changing landscape for TVs, the slowly unfolding "Internet of Things" and whether the world's largest processor IP vendor should offer RF IP modules to get IoT off the ground.
  
  
• Fabless IC Company Sales "Shine" While IDM IC Sales "Slump" in 2012 (Wednesday Jan. 09, 2013)
  Contrary to some opinions, the fabless/foundry business model shows no signs of "collapsing". The report shows that the fabless IC suppliers grew by 6% in 2012, 10 points better than the 4% decline registered by the IDMs and eight points better than the 2% decline shown by the total IC market last year.
  
  
• EDA Consortium Reports Revenue Increase for Q3 2012 (Monday Jan. 07, 2013)
  The EDA Consortium (EDAC) Market Statistics Service (MSS) today announced that the Electronic Design Automation (EDA) industry revenue increased 4.9 percent for Q3 2012 to $1619.9 million, compared to $1543.9 million in Q3 2011.