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Commentary / Analysis

• Will Imagination Deals Deliver MIPS to China? (Monday Sep. 25, 2017)
  The sales of imagination was widely anticipated after the firm put itself up for sale in June, two months after its largest customer, Apple, said it would phase out use of Imagination technology in products that include the iPhone. But the deals announced Friday (Sept. 22), in which Imagination sold itself to Canyon Bridge Capital Partners and MIPS to Tallwood Venure Capital, left market watchers with several questions.
  
  
• iPhone 8 Still Packs Qualcomm, NXP (Monday Sep. 25, 2017)
  
  
  
• Imagination, MIPS to be sold to China-, California-connected VCs (Monday Sep. 25, 2017)
  Processor intellectual property licensor Imagination Technologies Group plc (Kings Langley, England) has agreed to sell off its MIPS processor business to Tallwood Venture Capital (Palo Alto, Calif.) and then to sell the remainder of itself to Canyon Bridge Capital Partners LLC (Palo, Alto, Calif.), a venture capital firm that is managing funds provided by China.
  
  
• North American Semiconductor Equipment Industry Posts August 2017 Billings (Friday Sep. 22, 2017)
  North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $2.18 billion in billings worldwide in August 2017 (three-month average basis), according to the August Equipment Market Data Subscription (EMDS) Billings Report published today by SEMI.
  
  
• Globalfoundries Reportedly Asks EU to Probe TSMC (Friday Sep. 22, 2017)
  Globalfoundries has asked European regulators to investigate rival chip foundry TSMC, accusing its larger competitor of unfair competition, according to a report by the Reuters news service.
  
  
• Leading-Edge Paves the Way For Pure-Play Foundry Growth (Wednesday Sep. 20, 2017)
  In 2017, the 7% increase in the total pure-play foundry market is forecast to be almost entirely due to an 18% jump in <40nm feature size device sales.
  
  
• The U.S., China and the Chip Industry (Wednesday Sep. 20, 2017)
  Beijing cried foul over Trump's decision to block the acquisition of Lattice Semiconductor. It should be prepared for more of the same.
  
  
• iPhone X chip shows problems of Imagination (Monday Sep. 18, 2017)
  The launch of the latest Apple iPhones has raised some interesting questions on the IP used in the chips.
  
  
• China condemns protectionism after Lattice deal blocked (Friday Sep. 15, 2017)
  China's Ministry of Commerce has said that national security reviews of foreign investment should not be used for protectionism, according to Xinhuanet, a subisidiary of the official press agency of the People's Republic of China.
  
  
• Chip Consolidation Nearly Over, Analyst Says (Friday Sep. 15, 2017)
  After about three years and hundreds of billions of dollars in mergers and acquisitions, the consolidation of the global semiconductor industry is pretty much finished, according to Bill Wiseman, a senior partner with management consultancy McKinsey.
  
  
• Configurable VLIW core boosts energy efficiency for long battery life (Thursday Sep. 14, 2017)
  Researchers at Cambridge Consultants in the UK have developed a flexible VLIW core for highly power efficient systems that can be 'always on' for years from a small battery.
  
  
• TSMC Updates its Silicon Menu (Thursday Sep. 14, 2017)
  TSMC reported progress in 7nm and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography and bolstered a planar process that competes with fully depleted silicon-on-insulator at an annual event here. It also gave updates on its work in packaging and platforms for key market segments.
  
  
• Fab Equipment Spending Breaking Industry Records (Wednesday Sep. 13, 2017)
  2017 fab equipment spending (new and refurbished) is expected to increase by 37 percent, reaching a new annual spending record of about US$55 billion. The SEMI World Fab Forecast also forecasts that in 2018, fab equipment spending will increase even more, another 5 percent, for another record high of about $58 billion.
  
  
• SEMI Reports Second Quarter 2017 Worldwide Semiconductor Equipment Figures; Record Quarterly Billings of $14.1 Billion (Tuesday Sep. 12, 2017)
  SEMI, the global industry association representing the electronics manufacturing supply chain, today reported that worldwide semiconductor manufacturing equipment billings reached US$14.1 billion for the second quarter of 2017.
  
  
• Semiconductor Industry Records Best Second Quarter in Three Years, IHS Markit Says (Monday Sep. 11, 2017)
  Despite a slightly down first quarter, the semiconductor industry achieved near record growth in the second quarter of 2017, posting a 6.1 percent growth from the previous quarter, according to IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO), a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions.
  
  
• TSMC responds to antitrust investigation reports (Thursday Sep. 07, 2017)
  The world's leading foundry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has responded to allegations that it is facing antitrust investigations by both European and US antitrust authorities.
  
  
• EU Regulators Again Halt Qualcomm-NXP Investigation (Thursday Sep. 07, 2017)
  European Union regulators have for a second time put the brakes on their investigation into the proposed $38 billion acquisition of NXP Semiconductors by Qualcomm.
  
  
• Apple vs Qualcomm: Who Extorted Whom? (Thursday Sep. 07, 2017)
  A dispute that has now escalated into an epic legal battle between technology juggernauts, Apple and Qualcomm, is complex and multi-layered, its facets all loosely connected and geographically sprawling.
  
  
• With Acquisition in Doubt, Lattice Appeals to Trump (Wednesday Sep. 06, 2017)
  After a lengthy review, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has informed Lattice Semiconductor Corp. that it will recommend that U.S. President Donald Trump block the proposed $1.3 billion acquisition of Lattice by private equity firm with ties to the Chinese central government.
  
  
• Global Semiconductor Sales Increase 24 Percent Year-to-Year in July (Wednesday Sep. 06, 2017)
  SIA today announced worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $33.6 billion for the month of July 2017, an increase of 24.0 percent compared to the July 2016 total of $27.1 billion and 3.1 percent more than the June 2017 total of $32.6 billion.
  
  
• President Trump to rule on Lattice's China deal (Tuesday Sep. 05, 2017)
  FPGA vendor Lattice Semiconductor Corp. (Portland, Ore.) has said that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”) has indicated that it will recommend that the President of the United States suspend or prohibit the proposed takeover of Lattice by a wholly-owned subsidiary of Canyon Bridge, a private equity fund with China-based investors.
  
  
• Ex-Baidu Scientist Blazes AI Shortcut (Friday Sep. 01, 2017)
  Ren Wu, formerly a distinguished scientist at Baidu, has pulled a new AI chip company out of his sleeve, called NovuMind, based in Santa Clara, Calif.
  
  
• Hot Chips Spotlights Chip Stacks (Friday Sep. 01, 2017)
  A U.S. research effort aims to nurture an ecosystem for designing semiconductors from plug-and-play chiplets. It arrives at a time when rivals such as Intel and Xilinx are using proprietary packaging techniques to differentiate competing FPGAs.
  
  
• Most of 2017 Capital Spending Will Go to Foundry and Flash Memory (Friday Sep. 01, 2017)
  Following a substantial increase in semiconductor capital expenditures during the first half of this year, IC Insights raised its annual semiconductor capex forecast to a record high of $80.9 billion for 2017, a 20% increase from $67.3 billion in 2016. Previously, 2017 semiconductor capex was expected to grow 12% in 2017 to $75.6 billion.
  
  
• Samsung to Invest $7 Billion in China Fab (Wednesday Aug. 30, 2017)
  Samsung will invest $7 billion over a three-year period to ramp up a Chinese fab to expand production of NAND flash memory that’s in strong demand for smartphones and other mobile devices.
  
  
• Chief of Qualcomm's Licensing Business to Step Down (Tuesday Aug. 29, 2017)
  Derek Aberle, president of Qualcomm Inc. and longtime leader of its technology licensing business, will resign at the end of 2017 after 17 years with the fabless chip firm, Qualcomm said.
  
  
• Movidius Beefs up HW Acceleration in AI Chip (Tuesday Aug. 29, 2017)
  Announcements about so-called deep learning processors are becoming almost as frequent nowadays as tweets from the White House. As the technology industry's appetite for neural networks grows, so does the demand for powerful, but very low-power inference engines adaptable to a variety of embedded systems.
  
  
• North American Semiconductor Equipment Industry Posts July 2017 Billings (Thursday Aug. 24, 2017)
  North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $2.27 billion in billings worldwide in July 2017 (three-month average basis), according to the July Equipment Market Data Subscription (EMDS) Billings Report published today by SEMI.
  
  
• Semiconductor Industry Capital Spending Forecast to Jump 20% in 2017 (Wednesday Aug. 23, 2017)
  IC Insights has revised its outlook for semiconductor industry capital spending. IC Insights’ latest forecast is for semiconductor industry capital spending to climb 20% this year.
  
  
• Worldwide Semiconductor Market growth is expected to be up 17 percent in 2017 after 1.1 percent growth in 2016. (Tuesday Aug. 22, 2017)
  The Worldwide semiconductor market was up 1.1% in 2016 to US$338.9 billion, an alltime high. The year 2017 was forecasted on last year to be strong with 11.5% growth to US$378 billion.