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Commentary / Analysis

• AI Becomes the New Moore's Law (Monday Jul. 16, 2018)
  Moore’s Law is dead, long live AI. That’s the semiconductor industry’s new rallying cry, sounded at a daylong symposium sponsored by Applied Materials at Semicon West.
  
  
• EDA Takes to the Cloud (Sort of) (Monday Jul. 09, 2018)
  The trend of EDA suppliers offering tools through the cloud was readily apparent at this year's Design Automation Conference (DAC), with the likes of Cadence, Mentor and others unveiling cloud-based offerings.
  
  
• Baidu Accelerator Rises in AI (Monday Jul. 09, 2018)
  China’s Baidu followed in Google’s footsteps this week, announcing it has developed its own deep learning accelerator. The move adds yet another significant player to a long list in AI hardware, but details of the chip and when it will be used remain unclear.
  
  
• Hardware: Golden Age or Golden Ager? (Monday Jul. 09, 2018)
  A Googler declares: "It's Golden age for hardware guys." I say, "Really?" We all sense radical changes afoot. I asked young engineers/researchers what they see as bottlenecks to innovation.
  
  
• Global Semiconductor Sales in May Increase 21 Percent Year-to-Year (Monday Jul. 02, 2018)
  SIA today announced worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $38.7 billion for the month of May 2018, an increase of 21.0 percent compared to the May 2017 total of $32.0 billion.
  
  
• Siemens-Mentor: How's It Working Out? (Monday Jul. 02, 2018)
  Siemens closed the acquisition of Mentor Graphics in March 2017. How’s that working out for the electronics industry?
  
  
• EDA Startup Rises From Ashes of ATopTech (Monday Jul. 02, 2018)
  A startup, formed from the auctioned assets of ATopTech, showed up at the Design Automation Conference (DAC) here this week open for business and with two well-respected EDA veterans newly added to its leadership team.
  
  
• China's Semi Capex Forecast to be Larger than Europe and Japan Combined in 2018 (Wednesday Jun. 27, 2018)
  China-headquartered companies will spend $11.0 billion in semiconductor industry capex in 2018, which would represent 10.6% of the expected worldwide outlays of $103.5 billion.
  
  
• Where Do FPGAs Stand in Auto IC Race? (Wednesday Jun. 27, 2018)
  While AI processors and AI-ready SoCs are getting all the attention from the investment community because they are deemed critical to emerging highly automated vehicles, what about FPGAs? Where do they stand in the AI silicon race?
  
  
• 9 of the Top 12 Smartphone Suppliers Headquartered in China (Monday Jun. 25, 2018)
  9 of the top 12 smartphone suppliers were headquartered in China. Two South Korean companies (Samsung and LG) and one U.S. supplier (Apple) were the other three leaders.
  
  
• SoftBank confirms sell-off of ARM China stake (Thursday Jun. 21, 2018)
  SoftBank Group Corp., the owner of leading IP licensor ARM Ltd., has confirmed that it has agreed to sell a majority stake in ARM's Chinese trading subsidiary to financial investors and certain ARM ecosystem partners.
  
  
• North American Semiconductor Equipment Industry Posts May 2018 Billings (Wednesday Jun. 20, 2018)
  North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $2.70 billion in billings worldwide in May 2018 (three-month average basis), according to the May Equipment Market Data Subscription (EMDS) Billings Report published today by SEMI.
  
  
• Broadcom lays off 1,100; may lay off more (Monday Jun. 18, 2018)
  The current lay-off follows Broadcom’s $5.5 billion acquisition of Brocade in November.
  
  
• Costs Dog PCIe Speed Gains (Thursday Jun. 14, 2018)
  Engineers are coming to grips with how much they are willing to pay for the new speeds PCI Express 4.0 and 5.0 will deliver — and who will get the money.
  
  
• Arm Ready to Sacrifice Profits for Long-Term IoT Growth (Thursday Jun. 14, 2018)
  Arm is better positioned as a privately held company to take a strategic approach for long-term growth as it addresses the IoT market, according to Rajeev Misra, CEO of SoftBank’s $100B Vision Fund and a director of the SoftBank Group.
  
  
• Industrial Internet and Connected Vehicles Drive IoT Sales Through 20211 (Thursday Jun. 14, 2018)
  IC Insights recently released its Update to its 2018 IC Market Drivers Report. The Update includes IC Insights’ latest outlooks on the smartphone, automotive, PC/tablet and Internet of Things (IoT) markets.
  
  
• Semiconductor Equipment Record Spending Streak To Continue Through 2019 (Tuesday Jun. 12, 2018)
  The semiconductor industry is nearing a third consecutive year of record equipment spending with projected growth of 14 percent (YOY) in 2018 and 9 percent in 2019, a mark that would extend the streak to a historic fourth consecutive growth year, according to the latest update of the World Fab Forecast report published by SEMI.
  
  
• Wally Rhines: Deep Learning Will Drive Next Wave of Chip Growth (Friday Jun. 08, 2018)
  Count Wally Rhines, semiconductor industry veteran and long-time CEO of Mentor Graphics, among the many who believe that deep-learning hardware will drive the next wave of growth for the semiconductor industry.
  
  
• AI Comes to ASICs in Data Centers (Thursday Jun. 07, 2018)
  Three years ago, when AI chip startup Nervana ventured into the uncharted territory of designing custom AI accelerators, the company’s move was less perilous than it might have been, thanks to an ASIC expert that Nervana — now owned by Intel — sought for help.
  
  
• Arm Sells Stake in China JV as EU Warns of Unfair Practice (Thursday Jun. 07, 2018)
  SoftBank Group, owner of microprocessor IP firm Arm, announced this week that the British firm will sell its majority 51% stake to Chinese investors and ecosystem partners for $775.2 million to form a joint venture for Arm’s business in China.
  
  
• Global Semiconductor Sales Increase 20 Percent Year-to-Year in April; Double-Digit Annual Growth Projected for 2018 (Wednesday Jun. 06, 2018)
  SIA today announced worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $37.6 billion for the month of April 2018, an increase of 20.2 percent from the April 2017 total of $31.3 billion and 1.4 percent more than last month’s total of $37.1 billion.
  
  
• Globalfoundries to add another NVM to FDSOI (Wednesday Jun. 06, 2018)
  Globalfoundries Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.) is researching the addition of a second non-volatile memory technology option, and potentially more, to its offering on 22nm FDSOI.
  
  
• Automotive IC Market on Pace for Third Consecutive Record Growth Year (Monday Jun. 04, 2018)
  Consumer demand and government mandates for electronic systems that improve vehicle performance, that add comfort and convenience, and that warn, detect, and take corrective measures to keep drivers safe and alert are being added to new cars each year.
  
  
• Arm Targets Laptop Performance (Monday Jun. 04, 2018)
  Arm announced a new mobile CPU core that it said can deliver performance within 10% of Intel’s latest Skylake chips. Analysts praised the architecture’s leap forward but said that they doubt Arm will take a significant share of today’s x86-based notebooks.
  
  
• Worldwide Semiconductor Equipment Billings in First Quarter 2018 Reach Record $17.0 Billion, SEMI Reports (Monday Jun. 04, 2018)
  SEMI today reported that worldwide semiconductor manufacturing equipment billings reached a historic quarterly high of US$17.0 billion for the first quarter of 2018, surging 59 percent in March to end the quarter with an all-time monthly high of $7.8 billion.
  
  
• Irwin Jacobs on Qualcomm and Moore (Monday Jun. 04, 2018)
  Qualcomm founder Irwin Jacobs shared his views on the outlook of the company he founded and the state of the semiconductor industry.
  
  
• TrendForce Reports Top 10 Semiconductor Foundries Worldwide for 1H18, TSMC Ranks First with an Estimated Market Share of 56.1% (Thursday May. 31, 2018)
  TrendForce forecasts lower revenue growth for global foundries in 1H18 than in 1H17, with the total revenue reaching about US$29.06 billion, a year-on-year growth of 7.7%. As for the ranking of foundries by revenue, TSMC, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, and UMC are expected to take first, second, and third place respectively.
  
  
• Chip Industry Maps Heterogeneous Integration (Thursday May. 24, 2018)
  In 25 years, after Facebook, Google, and Amazon have marched toward global domination by designing their own chips, what will the semiconductor industry look like?
  
  
• North American Semiconductor Equipment Industry Posts April 2018 Billings (Thursday May. 24, 2018)
  North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $2.69 billion in billings worldwide in April 2018 (three-month average basis), according to the April Equipment Market Data Subscription (EMDS) Billings Report published today by SEMI.
  
  
• Samsung Plans 3nm Gate-All-Around FETs in 2021 (Wednesday May. 23, 2018)
  Samsung Electronics laid out plans to bring to mass production in 2021 the architectural successor to FinFETS, gate-all-around (GAA) transistors, at the 3nm node.