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Commentary / Analysis

• North American Semiconductor Equipment Industry Posts November 2019 Billings (Friday Dec. 20, 2019)
  North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $2.12billion in billings worldwide in November 2019 (three-month average basis), according to the November Equipment Market Data Subscription( EMDS) Billings Report published today by SEMI.
  
  
• A Renaissance in the Emulation Business Is Nigh (Tuesday Dec. 17, 2019)
  It is reasonable to predict that hardware-assisted verification revenue will break through $600 million by the end of 2019.
  
  
• Global Fab Equipment Spending Rebounds in Second Half of 2019 with Stronger 2020 Projected, SEMI Reports (Tuesday Dec. 17, 2019)
  Projected 2019 global fab equipment spending has been revised upward to US$56.6 billion on the strength of surging memory investments in the latter part of the year after a weak first half, SEMI reported today in its World Fab Forecast.
  
  
• Revenue Ranking of Global Top 10 IC Design Companies Shows U.S. Companies Having Divergent Performances in 3Q19, Says TrendForce (Friday Dec. 13, 2019)
  The newest analysis from TrendForce shows that several U.S.-based IC design companies experienced continually expanding losses in 3Q19 revenue because of the ongoing China-U.S. trade war and because Huawei had yet to be removed from the Entity List. Of the U.S.-based companies, Qualcomm demonstrated the greatest revenue loss with a 22% decline.
  
  
• Global Semiconductor Equipment Sales Forecast - 2020 Rebound, 2021 Record High (Thursday Dec. 12, 2019)
  Global semiconductor manufacturing equipment sales will drop 10.5 percent to $57.6 billion in 2019 from last year’s historic peak of $64.4 billion but stage a 2020 recovery and set a new high in 2021
  
  
• Third Quarter 2019 Worldwide Semiconductor Equipment Billings Jump 12 Percent, SEMI Reports (Wednesday Dec. 04, 2019)
  Worldwide semiconductor equipment manufacturers posted third-quarter 2019 billings of US$14.9 billion, a quarter-over-quarter increase of 12 percent but down 6 percent from the third quarter of 2018, SEMI, the global industry association representing the electronics manufacturing and design supply chain, reported today.
  
  
• Global Semiconductor Sales Increase 2.9 Percent Month-to-Month in October; Annual Sales Projected to Decrease 12.8 Percent in 2019 (Wednesday Dec. 04, 2019)
  The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) today announced worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $36.6 billion for the month of October 2019, an increase of 2.9 percent from the previous month’s total of $35.6 billion, but down 13.1 percent compared to the October 2018 total of $42.1 billion.
  
  
• Semico Forecasts Strong Growth for RISC-V (Thursday Nov. 28, 2019)
  Forecasting the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for RISC-V CPU cores, Semico estimates that segments including the computer, consumer, communication, transportation and industrial markets will see a 146.2 percent CAGR on average between 2018 and 2025.
  
  
• North American Semiconductor Equipment Industry Posts October 2019 Billings (Wednesday Nov. 20, 2019)
  North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $2.11 billion in billings worldwide in October 2019 (three-month average basis), according to the October Equipment Market Data Subscription (EMDS) Billings Report published today by SEMI.
  
  
• Intel to Reclaim Number One Semiconductor Supplier Ranking in 2019 (Monday Nov. 18, 2019)
  In total, the top-15 semiconductor companies’ sales are forecast to drop by 15% in 2019 compared to 2018, two points lower than the expected total worldwide semiconductor industry decline of 13%.
  
  
• Silicon Wafer Area Shipments Fall for Fourth Consecutive Quarter (Tuesday Nov. 12, 2019)
  Marking the fourth consecutive quarterly decline, worldwide silicon wafer area shipments totaled 2,932 million square inches in the third quarter of 2019, down 1.7 percent from the 2,983 million square inches shipped in the second quarter of the year and 9.9 percent lower than shipments during the same period in 2018
  
  
• Top 5 Share of Semiconductor Industry Capex to Set New Record in 2019 (Wednesday Nov. 06, 2019)
  The share of semiconductor industry capital spending held by the top five companies (i.e., Samsung, Intel, TSMC, SK Hynix, and Micron) is forecast to reach an all-time high of 68% this year, surpassing the previous record high of 67% recorded in 2013 and 2018
  
  
• Global Semiconductor Sales Increase 3.4 Percent Month-to-Month in September (Monday Nov. 04, 2019)
  SIA today announced worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $106.7 billion during the third quarter of 2019, an increase of 8.2 percent over the previous quarter and 14.6 percent less than the third quarter of 2018.
  
  
• China IC 'Big Fund' Phase II Aims Self-Sufficiency (Thursday Oct. 31, 2019)
  China’s “Big Fund” is rolling out its second phase of funding through a just-incorporated company called the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund Phase II Co., Ltd. (National Big Fund Phase II).
  
  
• AI Takes Over Linley Fall Processor Conference (Thursday Oct. 31, 2019)
  Intel, SiFive, Marvell, Mellanox, and Achronix all announced important developments at the Linley Processor Conference. Most of the innovations were either about artificial intelligence processors or about supporting AI workloads in data centers.
  
  
• China GDP and PMI Contraction A Risk Factor For Global Economy (Thursday Oct. 31, 2019)
  Given that the global economy increased by a healthy 3.0% in 2018, it is difficult to comprehend that an economy growing 6% could be considered a risk factor for worldwide GDP growth this year. However, that is the case with China and it’s slowing economic growth.
  
  
• How to Choose Between AI Accelerators (Thursday Oct. 31, 2019)
  Last week I spoke with Alexis Crowell, Intel’s senior director of AI product marketing, on this topic. Intel offers various AI accelerator products with completely different architectures (including, but not limited to, Movidius, Mobileye, Nervana, Loihi, not to mention all the CPU products). Crowell was happy to highlight some of the less obvious criteria that should be considered when choosing an AI accelerator.
  
  
• 'The AI Inference Processor is Dead' (Tuesday Oct. 29, 2019)
  What is the reality of the AI chip market today? In recent years, this market was over-hyped to the point where many of us became sceptical.
  
  
• Arm to Deliver CHERI-based Prototype to Tackle Security Threats (Tuesday Oct. 29, 2019)
  A UK government program to tackle the inherent security flaws in most of today’s computing infrastructure is funding Arm to the tune of $46 million (UK £36 million) to develop a prototype board using CHERI, a DARPA supported RISC processor ISA update that uses capability-based tokens for fine-grained memory protection and scalable software compartmentalization.
  
  
• Xilinx Envisions its Future Without Huawei (Monday Oct. 28, 2019)
  Xilinx Inc. is planning a future that does not include Huawei Technologies, CEO Victor Peng told analysts yesterday.
  
  
• North American Semiconductor Equipment Industry Posts September 2019 Billings (Monday Oct. 28, 2019)
  The billings figure is 2.4 percent lower than the final August 2019 level of $2.00 billion, and is 6.0 percent lower than the September 2018 billings level of $2.08 billion.
  
  
• Samsung wants to rally more fabless customers (Monday Oct. 21, 2019)
  Samsung Electronics has held its first Samsung Advanced Foundry Ecosystem (SAFE) Forum 2019 in the United States, sharing the latest technology trends and showing its will to strengthen customer cooperation within the foundry ecosystem.
  
  
• Wafer Capacity by Feature Size Shows Rapid Growth at <10nm (Thursday Oct. 17, 2019)
  At the very leading edge, <10nm processes are now in volume production and are forecast to represent 5% of worldwide capacity in 2019. The share of <10nm capacity is forecast to jump to 25% and become the largest capacity segment by 2023
  
  
• Arm Responds to RISC-V, and More (Monday Oct. 14, 2019)
  The big news at Arm Techcon this year is that Arm is opening up its instruction set to customers’ customized instructions for Cortex M cores.
  
  
• 2019 Microprocessor Slump Snaps Nine Years of Record Sales (Friday Oct. 11, 2019)
  MPU market being pulled down by weakness in smartphones and servers, as well as the fallout from the U.S. China trade war. A modest rebound is expected in 2020, followed by new all-time high sales in 2021.
  
  
• Global Semiconductor Sales Down 15.9 Percent Year-to-Year in August (Tuesday Oct. 01, 2019)
  SIA today announced worldwide sales of semiconductors were $34.2 billion in August 2019, a decrease of 15.9 percent from the August 2018 total of $40.7 billion but 2.5 percent more than the July 2019 total of $33.4 billion.
  
  
• Total Wafer Shipments to Drop 6 Percent in 2019, Resume Growth in 2020, Set New High in 2022, SEMI Reports (Monday Sep. 30, 2019)
  Total wafer shipments in 2019 are expected to decline 6 percent from last year’s historic high, with growth resuming in 2020 and shipments reaching a new high in 2022.
  
  
• Huawei & Arm Meet Behind Closed Doors (Monday Sep. 30, 2019)
  Executives from Arm, Arm China and HiSilicon (Huawei’s chip division) met behind closed doors on Wednesday morning (Sept. 25th) at the Intercontinental Hotel in Shenzhen, and when they emerged they stood for a group photo that said more about the US-China trade war than anything the three companies had actually said in four months.
  
  
• TSMC's Leading-Edge Fab Investments Set Stage for Sale Surge in 2H19 (Thursday Sep. 26, 2019)
  Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s heavy investments in advanced wafer-fab technology are set to pay off significantly for the world’s largest silicon foundry as it continues the production ramp of 7nm ICs in the second half of this year
  
  
• CEO Leaves Wave, Putting MIPS' Future in Doubt (Wednesday Sep. 25, 2019)
  Wave Computing, an AI startup based in Campbell, Calif., quietly swapped out its company chief in early September without a public announcement. Wave’s website now shows that Art Swift, who became Wave’s CEO last May, is already gone. It lists Sanjai Kohli as the new CEO.