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Commentary / Analysis

• Chinese processors power supercomputer (Monday Oct. 31, 2011)
  China has reported the development of a supercomputer based on a domestically developed microprocessor, according to a New York Times report.
  
  
• Global Semiconductor Sales Increase 2.7% in September (Monday Oct. 31, 2011)
  SIA today announced that worldwide sales of semiconductors were $25.8 billion for the month of September, an increase of 2.7 percent from the prior month when sales were $25.1 billion. Overall quarter-over-quarter sales increased 2.1 percent and on a year-to-date basis sales grew 2.2 percent.
  
  
• Cadence CEO laments loss of VC in semis (Thursday Oct. 27, 2011)
  Collaboration and more semiconductor VC investment is what’s needed to continue innovation in the hi-tech space, said Lip-Bu Tan, president and chief executive officer of Cadence Design Systems.
  
  
• UMC sees utilization falling below 70% in Q4 (Thursday Oct. 27, 2011)
  UMC reported double-digit sales declines in the third quarter on both a sequential and annual basis and said it expects capacity utilization to slip to below 70 percent in the fourth quarter, down from more than 90 percent at the beginning of the year.
  
  
• Report: HP readies ARM-based servers (Thursday Oct. 27, 2011)
  Hewlett-Packard Co. plans to sell servers with ARM-based processors made by startup Calxeda Inc., according to a report Wednesday (Oct. 26) by the Bloomberg news service.
  
  
• TSMC's R&D chief sees 10 years of scaling (Wednesday Oct. 26, 2011)
  The path is clear for continued semiconductor scaling using FinFETs for the next decade, down to the 7-nm node, according to Shang-Yi Chiang, senior vice president of R&D at foundry giant TSMC.
  
  
• One on one with lead designer of Cortex-A7 (Wednesday Oct. 26, 2011)
  The key to ARM Holdings plc's "big-little" dual core scheme is the ability to switch as quickly and seamlessly as possible between processing on the Cortex-A15 MPCore and the new Cortex-A7 core, according to Peter Greenhalgh, an ARM engineer who served as the lead designer on the A7.
  
  
• Why Intel is not inside TVs, smartphones (Tuesday Oct. 25, 2011)
  I've got a theory why Intel is struggling to get a foothold in TVs and cellphones—it's a lack of humility or, put less kindly, hubris.
  
  
• Tablet PC Architectures Dominated by ARM and iOS; New Kindle Could Light a Fire Under Android (Tuesday Oct. 25, 2011)
  Shipments of tablet PCs with ARM processors are expected to grow 211% Y/Y in 2011 to 59.9 million units, while tablet PCs with x86 processors (typically used in notebook and netbook PCs) are not expected to experience strong growth until 2013, according to the newly-launched DisplaySearch Tablet Quarterly report.
  
  
• Cadence CEO: Chip execs eye China, India (Monday Oct. 24, 2011)
  Chief executives of companies, including semiconductor companies, are in the process of asking themselves on how best to address the Chinese and Indian markets, as these markets are the ones that are on top of everyone's mind, according to Lip-Bu Tan, president and CEO of EDA vendor Cadence Design Systems Inc.
  
  
• Intel Ivy Bridge CPUs may launch in March (Monday Oct. 24, 2011)
  Intel Corp.’s 22-nm Ivy Bridge CPUs will likely launch in March, one quarter later than originally planned, but well within Intel’s revised timeframe of “Spring 2012.”
  
  
• ARM unleashes 'little dog' on Intel's tail (Friday Oct. 21, 2011)
  While ARM is certainly making a rather big deal over its "big-little" A7/A15 core combo, its partners may not be completely sold on the idea.
  
  
• Altera's CEO sees parallels to '08 downturn (Friday Oct. 21, 2011)
  Altera Corp. Thursday (Oct. 20) reported third quarter sales that came in below analysts' expectations and the company's own revised guidance, with CEO John Daane saying customers are burning through existing inventories in a manner reminiscent of the downturn of 2008.
  
  
• Musical ARM chairs as Drew goes strategic (Thursday Oct. 20, 2011)
  ARM Holdings plc has shuffled its senior executives with the promotion of Ian Drew to the position of executive vice president (EVP) of strategy from his previous position as EVP marketing.
  
  
• ABI Research Teardown: iPhone 4S has New RF Front End, Altered Qualcomm Modem, and a Throttled Apps Processor (Wednesday Oct. 19, 2011)
  The iPhone 4S is built with many of the same components found in prior iPhone designs, but the similarities have caused many companies to incorrectly report cost and component market share.
  
  
• Analyst: Chip market downturn to be brief (Tuesday Oct. 18, 2011)
  A semiconductor industry downturn that began over the summer will be short lived, reaching its bottom in February 2012, according to a market analyst.
  
  
• iPhone 4S Shows Key Design and Component Changes (Monday Oct. 17, 2011)
  While much of the coverage of Apple Inc.’s iPhone 4S announcement focused on the new device’s similarity to the iPhone 4, an IHS analysis of the product illustrates key changes in the product’s feature set and component selection.
  
  
• Report: Samsung ramping Apple's A6 chip (Monday Oct. 17, 2011)
  Samsung is ramping production of the A6 quad-core application processor for Apple because rival foundry TSMC has yet to stabilize its own production of the same chip, according to a Korea Times report that referenced un-named Apple component suppliers as its sources.
  
  
• 45nm and Below Grabs 24% of Wafer Demand in 2011 (Friday Oct. 14, 2011)
  The economic malaise in Europe and the U.S., along with the natural disasters around the world, have put a damper on 2011 semiconductor sales. Heading into the holiday buying season, consumer confidence is low and inventories are higher than preferred. OEMs are, at best, cautious and in most cases, pessimistic about their markets.
  
  
• TSMC's Chang gives bleak outlook for 2012 (Friday Oct. 14, 2011)
  Morris Chang, chairman and CEO of foundry chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd., has given a dismal outlook for the world economy and the chip industry, which is closely coupled to it, according to reports.
  
  
• Costs up at India's R&D centers (Friday Oct. 14, 2011)
  Operational costs are on the rise at global technology companies’ Indian R&D centers as the focus shifts from cost cutting to innovation and value creation, a recent study found.
  
  
• Annual Shipments of ARM Processors Forecast to Equal Twice The World's Population in 2015 (Thursday Oct. 06, 2011)
  Analysis of findings from the recently published Semicast report “Opportunities for ARM in Embedded Processing—2011 Edition” suggest the rapid growth of the ARM architecture is set to continue over the medium term, with annual shipments of ARM-based processors set to match the world’s population this year and forecast to equal twice the world’s population in 2015.
  
  
• IEF: TSMC pushes innovation for recovery (Thursday Oct. 06, 2011)
  Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. is now expecting just 1 percent growth in the global semiconductor market in 2011 but that is stimulating the company to speed up innovation in process technologies.
  
  
• Fab-Lite/Asset-Lite Business Model Gaining Momentum (Wednesday Oct. 05, 2011)
  Arguably, no other trend has so quickly swept through the IC industry and stirred up so much debate about the future of chip making as the spread of the "fab-lite" (or "asset-lite") business model, which is being embraced by a growing number of major integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) worldwide.
  
  
• EDA Consortium Reports Revenue Increase for Q2 2011 (Wednesday Oct. 05, 2011)
  The EDA Consortium (EDAC) Market Statistics Service (MSS) today announced that the Electronic Design Automation (EDA) industry revenue increased 17.6 percent for Q2 2011 to $1438.1 million, compared to $1222.9 million in Q2 2010.
  
  
• Analog to Reach $61.9 Billion by 2015 (Wednesday Oct. 05, 2011)
  The semiconductor market may be experiencing a downturn, but that doesn't have to mean all news is bad news. Analog, within the Computing, Consumer, and Communications markets, will see some strong growth over the next few years, growing 13.8%, 8.6%, and 12.8% in 2011, 2012, and 2013 respectively.
  
  
• Global Semiconductor Sales Increase in August (Monday Oct. 03, 2011)
  SIA today announced that worldwide sales of semiconductors were $25.03 billion for the month of August, a slight increase of 0.7 percent from the prior month when sales were $24.9 billion. On a year-to-date basis sales grew 2.2 percent year-over-year.
  
  
• Gartner Says Worldwide Semiconductor Capital Equipment Spending to Decline 19.2 Percent in 2012 (Friday Sep. 30, 2011)
  Worldwide semiconductor capital equipment spending is expected to total $35.2 billion in 2012, a 19.2 percent decline from projected 2011 spending of $43.5 billion, according to Gartner, Inc. Excess electronics inventory and poor demand as a result of the slowing macro economy are to blame for the declining spending.
  
  
• Mosaid says Google bought patents for $11M (Thursday Sep. 29, 2011)
  Canadian IP licensor Mosaid Technologies Inc. said Wednesday (Sept. 28) that Google Inc. recently bought five patent families from the firm for $11 million.
  
  
• MeeGo gone: Intel drops OS in favor of Tizen (Thursday Sep. 29, 2011)
  Chip giant Intel has decided to drop its MeeGo mobile operating system in favor of the Tizen project announced by two Linux-oriented non-profit groups, the LiMo Foundation and the Linux Foundation.