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Commentary / Analysis

• No fab for Qualcomm but firm mulls business evolution (Friday Apr. 20, 2012)
  The problems acknowledged by Qualcomm Inc. in getting enough 28-nm chips out of its foundry partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. are not about to prompt the company to build or acquire its own fab, according to Steve Mollenkopf, chief operating officer of the fabless chip company.
  
  
• Analyst: Linear Tech's outlook signals IC recovery (Thursday Apr. 19, 2012)
  Wall Street analysts were lukewarm on Linear Technology Corp.'s stock following a quarterly report Tuesday (April 17) that came in in-line to slightly better than expectations. But one analyst said the company's better than expected guidance for the current quarter indicates that the semiconductor industry has begun to recover from its latest downturn.
  
  
• Qualcomm engages other foundries amid 28-nm capacity shortage (Thursday Apr. 19, 2012)
  Fabless chip vendor Qualcomm Inc. acknowledged Wednesday (April 18) that it was turning to other foundry suppliers amid a shortage of 28-nm capacity at its longtime foundry partner, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC).
  
  
• Intel says 25% of shipments will be on 22-nm in Q2 (Wednesday Apr. 18, 2012)
  Intel's 22-nm manufacturing process technology with FinFET transistors will be responsible for 25 percent of Intel's IC shipments in the second quarter of 2012, according to Stacy Smith, Intel chief financial officer, speaking on a conference call to discuss the company's first quarter financial results
  
  
• Buying MIPS would bring AMD nothing much, say analysts (Wednesday Apr. 18, 2012)
  A rumor doing the rounds on a couple of tech sites claims Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) might have set its sights on buying MIPS Technologies Inc.
  
  
• TSMC's Chang: 'The worst is behind us' on 28-nm (Wednesday Apr. 18, 2012)
  Morris Chang, chairman and CEO of TSMC, acknowledged Tuesday (April 17) that the foundry giant has experienced issues at the 28-nm node, but said the problems were related to capacity, not yield.
  
  
• TSMC to offer only one process at 20-nm (Wednesday Apr. 18, 2012)
  TSMC will offer only one process at the 20-nm node, a change from the multiple processes that the foundry giant has offered customers for the past several nodes, a TSMC executive said Tuesday (April 17).
  
  
• Google to bundle MIPS support with Android (Wednesday Apr. 18, 2012)
  Google is expected to boost its support in Android for cores from MIPS Technologies, giving the company a badly needed boost in the hot smartphone and tablet sector.
  
  
• GSA Reports A Decerase in March Semiconductor Funding Activity (Wednesday Apr. 18, 2012)
  In March 2012, venture investment dollars received by semiconductor companies (i.e., fabless companies, integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) and semiconductor suppliers) was $28.9 million; a 81.9% decrease month-over-month (MoM) and a 84.9% decrease year-over-year (YoY).
  
  
• Nvidia calls for move to 450mm wafers (Friday Apr. 13, 2012)
  A top Nvidia engineer is calling for a move to 450mm wafers as one part of the solution to the growing complexity, cost and time-to-market challenges in chip design.
  
  
• Would the Chinese buy MIPS? (Friday Apr. 13, 2012)
  The report that processor and related IP licensor MIPS Technologies Inc. is seeking a buyer, if true and taken through to a final conclusion, would be a case of a one-time industry leader looking like a dinosaur after the meteor struck. And the meteor that struck the planet is the rise of mobile computing.
  
  
• Report: MIPS up for sale (Friday Apr. 13, 2012)
  MIPS Technologies Inc., a pioneer of the reduced instruction set computing (RISC) style of architecture, is looking for a buyer according to a Bloomberg report that referenced unnamed sources.
  
  
• UBM TechInsights takes first look inside Intel's latest Ivy Bridge processor (Thursday Apr. 12, 2012)
  UBM TechInsights announces the first investigation into Intel’s 22nm process technology through their latest Ivy Bridge processors. The Ivy Bridge family of processors is the first by Intel to incorporate their game-changing 3D Tri-Gate technology.
  
  
• Pure-Play Semiconductor Foundry Market Set for 12 Percent Growth in 2012 (Thursday Apr. 12, 2012)
  Increasing electronics content in popular tablet and smartphone devices like the iPad and iPhone and in Ultrabook PCs will drive accelerated growth for the global semiconductor foundry business this year, according to an IHS iSuppli Semiconductor Manufacturing and Supply Market Tracker report from information and analytics provider IHS
  
  
• Gartner Says India Semiconductor Spending to Reach $9.2 Billion in 2012, a 20 Percent Increase from 2011 (Tuesday Apr. 10, 2012)
  India semiconductor revenue is projected to total $9.2 billion in 2012, a 20 percent increase from 2011, according to Gartner, Inc. India is the fastest growing market in terms of semiconductor consumption for 2012.
  
  
• EDA Consortium Reports Revenue Increase of over 12 Percent for Q4 2011 (Monday Apr. 09, 2012)
  The EDA Consortium (EDAC) Market Statistics Service (MSS) today announced that the Electronic Design Automation (EDA) industry revenue increased 12.8 percent for Q4 2011 to $1700.1 million, compared to $1507.7 million in Q4 2010. Sequential EDA revenue for Q4 2011 increased 10.1 percent compared to Q3 2011, while the four-quarters moving average, which compares the most recent four quarters to the prior four quarters, increased by 16 percent.
  
  
• STMicroelectronics Leverages Apple Design Wins to Increase Consumer and Mobile MEMS Leadership (Friday Apr. 06, 2012)
  Fueled by booming sales to Apple Inc., particularly its exclusive design wins in the iPhone, iPad and iPod lines, STMicroelectronics in 2011 padded its leadership position in the global market for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) in consumer and mobile devices
  
  
• Extreme Results in Top 25 2011 Semiconductor Sales Ranking! (Friday Apr. 06, 2012)
  Although only 2% growth was registered in the worldwide semiconductor market in 2011, several companies posted results that were far different.
  
  
• Mindspeed to cut jobs in wake of Picochip buy (Thursday Apr. 05, 2012)
  Mindspeed Technologies Inc. will cut an unspecified number of jobs as part of a restructuring in the wake of its acquisition of PicoChip Ltd. earlier this year, according to a regulatory filing made Wednesday (April 4).
  
  
• Global Semiconductor (Silicon) Intellectual Property (IP) Market Worth $5.7 Billion by 2017 (Wednesday Apr. 04, 2012)
  According to MarketsandMarkets, the global Semiconductor IP market by revenue is estimated to grow from $2.5 billion in 2012 to $5.70 billion in 2017 at a CAGR of 14.47%.
  
  
• Elpida, the mega-merger, and what comes next (Wednesday Apr. 04, 2012)
  With Elpida's petition to re-organize February 27, we are reminded of the harsh reality that the fantastic rumor of Japanese government bailout doesn't come free, nor quick enough to cure a decade of decline. But it's probably safe to assume some sort of consolidation will happen. So the question we ask is, how does the rumored mega-merger affect the electronics industry at large?
  
  
• Gartner Says Semiconductor Foundry Market Grew 5.1 Percent in 2011 to Reach $29.8 Billion (Friday Mar. 30, 2012)
  The worldwide semiconductor foundry market totaled $29.8 billion in 2011, a 5.1 percent increase from 2010, according to Gartner, Inc. Analysts said the semiconductor supply chain experienced some impact from the Japanese disasters and Thailand flooding. However, without the steep depreciation of U.S. currency, analysts said that foundry growth in 2011 would have been just 0.7 percent.
  
  
• Indian design firms eye chip IP model (Thursday Mar. 29, 2012)
  While Indian tech firms continue to focus on design services, at least two companies are seeking to generate and license chip IP.
  
  
• Panel ponders many-core ICs tripping 'the singularity' (Thursday Mar. 29, 2012)
  Will the rapidly increasing processing power being enabled by many-core processors cause the advent of machines with super-human intelligence, an event sometimes referred to as the singularity?
  
  
• Market for Mobile Processors Is Projected to Reach 1.9 Billion Units Annually by 2016 (Wednesday Mar. 28, 2012)
  New NPD In-Stat research reports that the growth of mobile processors in 2011 exceeded 43% and is forecast to grow at a 22% CAGR through 2016.
  
  
• Intel's Semiconductor Market Share Surges to More Than 10-Year High in 2011 (Monday Mar. 26, 2012)
  
  
  
• Embedded Graphics: Imagination Technologies Supplies More GPU IP than all Others Combined According to Latest Report from Jon Peddie Research (Friday Mar. 23, 2012)
  JPR announced estimated mobile devices graphics chip shipments for 2011. Mobile devices include smartphones, tablets, cameras, vehicles, and game consoles.
  
  
• After Hitting 11-Year High in Q4, Semiconductor Inventories Set to Decline Slightly in Q1 (Wednesday Mar. 21, 2012)
  Despite rising by a worrisome 3.4 percent and hitting an 11-year high in the fourth quarter of 2012, average semiconductor days of inventory (DOI) held by chip suppliers are expected to decline by 0.5 percent in the first quarter, providing some hope that market conditions are improving.
  
  
• ASIC Design Starts: New Growth Ahead (Tuesday Mar. 20, 2012)
  The ASIC Design Start landscape has changed since 2006 to accommodate increasing design costs, rising design complexity and lengthening design cycle times, especially in the System-on-a-Chip (SoC) market. These changes are having an impact on the ASIC Design Start market as the broader semiconductor market has mostly recovered from the financial meltdown that occurred in the 3rd quarter of 2008 and into the first part of 2009.
  
  
• GSA Provides Financial Overview of the Largest Semiconductor Companies (Monday Mar. 19, 2012)
  GSA today provided an overview of the financial performance of semiconductor companies that generated more than $500 million in sales in calendar fourth quarter 2011.