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Commentary / Analysis

• Value of Semiconductor Industry M&A Deals Slows Dramatically in 2017 (Friday Jan. 19, 2018)
  The historic flood of merger and acquisition agreements that swept through the semiconductor industry in 2015 and 2016 slowed significantly in 2017, but the total value of M&A deals reached in the year was still more than twice the annual average in the first half of this decade.
  
  
• MIPS Is Back, With An Eye on AI (Thursday Jan. 18, 2018)
  MIPS has returned to Santa Clara as an independent company, fresh with VC gold, and — it says — ready to hire.
  
  
• EUV, 7nm Road Maps Detailed (Thursday Jan. 18, 2018)
  Extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) is set to enable 10nm and 7nm process nodes over the next few years, but significant work is still needed on photoresists to enable 5nm chips, according to an analysis released at the Industry Strategy Symposium here.
  
  
• ESD Alliance Reports EDA Industry Revenue Increase For Q3 2017 (Monday Jan. 15, 2018)
  ESD Alliance Market Statistics Service (MSS) today announced that the Electronic Design Automation (EDA) industry revenue increased 8 percent for Q3 2017 to $2262.2 million, compared to $2093.7 million in Q3 2016.
  
  
• Gartner Says Worldwide Semiconductor Revenue Forecast to Grow 7.5 Percent in 2018 (Monday Jan. 15, 2018)
  Worldwide semiconductor revenue is forecast to total $451 billion in 2018, an increase of 7.5 percent from $419 billion in 2017, according to Gartner, Inc. This represents a near doubling of Gartner's previous estimate of 4 percent growth for 2018.
  
  
• Analog IC Market Forecast With Strongest Annual Growth Through 2022 (Friday Jan. 12, 2018)
  Sales of analog ICs are expected to show the strongest growth rate among major integrated circuit market categories during the next five years, according to IC Insights’ new 2018 McClean Report, which becomes available this month.
  
  
• Racyics takes FDSOI down to 0.4V (Thursday Jan. 11, 2018)
  Design services and IP licensing firm Racyics GmbH (Dresden, Germany) has developed foundation IP for Globalfoundries' 22nm FDSOI manufacturing process 22FDX that operates down to 0.4V and is suitable for ultra-low power microcontroller designs.
  
  
• Memory differences remain as ST chooses Globalfoundries for FDSOI (Tuesday Jan. 09, 2018)
  When asked if Globalfoundries could support phase-change memory in FDSOI Alain Mutricy, senior vice president of product marketing told eeNews Europe: "That's not the announcement we are making today."
  
  
• NVM Express Set for Busy 2018 (Tuesday Jan. 09, 2018)
  Following on the heels of a major specification update and its eighth annual plug fest, NVM Express is poised to have a busy year as it continues to develop the base NVMe specification while expanding the NVMe Management Interface (NVMe-MI) specification and one for accessing SSDs on a PCIe bus over fabrics.
  
  
• IFI CLAIMS Announces 2017 Top U.S. Patent Recipients (Tuesday Jan. 09, 2018)
  IFI CLAIMS® Patent Services, a leading global patent database provider and development platform, today released its annual analysis of the U.S. patent landscape for 2017. Highlights are posted on the company’s website in a series of interactive charts and graphics including a roundup of 2017 patent trends and insights.
  
  
• Fabless IC Company Sales Top $100 Billion for First Time Ever (Friday Jan. 05, 2018)
  Two China-based fabless companies made the top 10 ranking last year—HiSilicon, which sells most of its devices as internal transfers to smartphone supplier Huawei, and Unigroup, which includes the IC sales of both Spreadtrum and RDA.
  
  
• Gartner Says Worldwide Semiconductor Revenue Grew 22.2 Percent in 2017; Samsung Takes Over No. 1 Position (Thursday Jan. 04, 2018)
  Worldwide semiconductor revenue totalled $419.7 billion in 2017, a 22.2 percent increase from 2016, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc. Undersupply helped drive 64 percent revenue growth in the memory market, which accounted for 31 percent of total semiconductor revenue in 2017.
  
  
• Global Semiconductor Sales Increase 21.5 Percent Year-to-Year in November (Wednesday Jan. 03, 2018)
  SIA today announced worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $37.7 billion for the month of November 2017, an increase of 21.5 percent compared to the November 2016 total of $31.0 billion and 1.6 percent more than the October 2017 total of $37.1 billion.
  
  
• The Deals and No Deals that shaped 2017 (Thursday Dec. 21, 2017)
  Here is a top ten list of deals, in roughly chronological order that had a major impact in 2017. It's the business year in revew in one easy read.
  
  
• North American Semiconductor Equipment Industry Posts November 2017 Billings (Monday Dec. 18, 2017)
  North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $2.05 billion in billings worldwide in November 2017 (three-month average basis), according to the November Equipment Market Data Subscription (EMDS) Billings Report published today by SEMI.
  
  
• $55.9 Billion Semiconductor Equipment Forecast - New Record with Korea at Top (Tuesday Dec. 12, 2017)
  SEMI projects that worldwide sales of new semiconductor manufacturing equipment will increase 35.6 percent to US$55.9 billion in 2017, marking the first time that the semiconductor equipment market has exceeded the previous market high of US$47.7 billion set in 2000.
  
  
• TSMC Speeds Opening of China Fab (Monday Dec. 11, 2017)
  Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) said it aims to open its second fab in China earlier than originally expected in order to meet strong demand in the world’s fastest growing semiconductor market.
  
  
• Few Surprises as Intel, GloFo Detail Process Technologies (Thursday Dec. 07, 2017)
  Intel detailed plans to use cobalt for some interconnect layers at 10nm, while Globalfoundries offered specifics on how it will utilize extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography for the first time at the 7nm node in dueling process technology presentations at one of the most hotly anticipated sessions at the IEEE International Electron Device Meeting (IEDM) here.
  
  
• Global Semiconductor Sales Increase 21.9 Percent Year-to-Year in October; Industry Forecast Revised Upward (Tuesday Dec. 05, 2017)
  SIA today announced worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $37.1 billion for the month of October 2017, an increase of 21.9 percent from the October 2016 total of $30.4 billion and 3.2 percent more than last month’s total of $36.0 billion.
  
  
• When Less is Moore (Monday Dec. 04, 2017)
  Remember the good old days when blindly following Moore's Law was the blueprint to success in the semiconductor industry? These days, migrating to the next node is much more complicated -- and expensive. Today's chip companies actually have to think.
  
  
• Semiconductor Industry Continues Upward Trend Toward Record Year, IHS Markit Says (Thursday Nov. 30, 2017)
  The semiconductor industry continued its upward trend in the third quarter of 2017, notching 12 percent sequential growth with strength across all application markets, according to IHS Markit. Global revenue totaled $113.9 billion, up from $101.7 billion in the second quarter of 2017.
  
  
• Lattice will migrate products to FDSOI (Wednesday Nov. 29, 2017)
  Programmable logic device vendor Lattice Semiconductor Corp. (Portland, Oregon) is migrating its entire product line to fully-depleted silicon-on-insulator (FDSOI) manufacturing process technology.
  
  
• RISC-V Spins into Drives, AI (Wednesday Nov. 29, 2017)
  Storage giant Western Digital announced that it will standardize on RISC-V processors and has invested in Esperanto Technologies, a startup designing high-end SoCs and cores using the open-source instruction set architecture.
  
  
• North American Semiconductor Equipment Industry Posts October 2017 Billings (Wednesday Nov. 22, 2017)
  North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $2.02 billion in billings worldwide in October 2017 (three-month average basis), according to the October Equipment Market Data Subscription (EMDS) Billings Report published today by SEMI.
  
  
• Analyst Warns on Semiconductor Stock Valuations (Wednesday Nov. 22, 2017)
  The market capitalization of publicly-traded semiconductor companies has risen dramatically over the past three years, driven largely by a frenzy of merger and acquisition activity and the performance of the chip market as a whole, according to International Business Strategies (IBS).
  
  
• Overall GPU shipments increased 9.3% from last quarter, AMD increased 8% Nvidia increased 30% (Tuesday Nov. 21, 2017)
  Year-to-year total GPU shipments decreased -3.3%, desktop graphics increased 2%, notebooks decreased -6%.
  
  
• iPhone X's TrueDepth Module Dissected (Monday Nov. 20, 2017)
  Although experts in the imaging industry are aware of a complex “TrueDepth” module that Apple has devised for its iPhone X, most other details inside the device’s 3D system — chips, components, and all the way down to substrates — remain a deep, dark secret.
  
  
• AI to Spur Uptick in ASIC Design Starts (Monday Nov. 20, 2017)
  Design starts for artificial intelligence (AI) voice-activated device ASICs will be increasing at a compound annual rate approaching 20 percent by 2021, nearly twice the 10.1 percent CAGR of all ASIC design starts between 2016 and 2021, according to a new report by Semico Research.
  
  
• Samsung Forecast to Top Intel as the #1 Semiconductor Supplier in 2017 (Monday Nov. 20, 2017)
  For the first time since 1993, the semiconductor industry is expected to witness a new number 1 supplier. Samsung first charged into the top spot in 2Q17 and displaced Intel, which had held the number 1 ranking since 1993. In 1Q16, Intel’s sales were 40% greater than Samsung’s, but in just over a year’s time, that lead has been erased.
  
  
• Will Samsung's 2017 Semi Capex Deliver Knockout Blow to Competition? (Wednesday Nov. 15, 2017)
  IC Insights’ latest forecast now shows semiconductor industry capital spending climbing 35% this year to $90.8 billion.