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Commentary / Analysis

• Is Semiconductor M&A Wave Dissipating? (Wednesday Jan. 25, 2017)
  The unprecedented wave of semiconductor industry consolidation over the past three years may finally be slowing down. Or it it?
  
  
• UMC's 28nm Ramp to Slip This Year (Wednesday Jan. 25, 2017)
  United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC), Taiwan’s second largest foundry, said the ramp of its most advanced node, 28nm, will probably slip during the early portion of 2017 under strong competition.
  
  
• Gartner Says Worldwide Semiconductor Revenue Forecast to Grow 7.2 Percent in 2017 (Monday Jan. 23, 2017)
  Worldwide semiconductor revenue is forecast to total $364.1 billion in 2017, an increase of 7.2 percent from 2016, according to Gartner, Inc. This represents a complete turnaround for the semiconductor industry as the market experienced 1.5 percent growth in 2016.
  
  
• Qualcomm Feels Smartphone Squeeze (Monday Jan. 23, 2017)
  Apple is suing Qualcomm for $1 billion in damages from unfair patent practices. The suit filed January 20 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California was widely reported by Reuters and other sources.
  
  
• TI Reorgs Analog Group (Monday Jan. 23, 2017)
  Texas Instruments laid off a small but undisclosed number of people mainly in Silicon Valley as part of a restructuring of its Analog and Embedded Processing groups. No products will be eliminated in the reorg.
  
  
• Tsinghua to Build $30 Billion Memory Fab in China (Friday Jan. 20, 2017)
  China’s state-controlled chip vendor Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd. announced plans to build a $30 billion memory chip in Nanjing, a city in eastern China.
  
  
• 2015-2016 Deals Dominate Semiconductor M&A Ranking (Friday Jan. 20, 2017)
  More than two dozen acquisition agreements were announced by semiconductor companies worldwide in 2016 with a combined value of $98.5 billion compared to the record-high $103.3 billion in purchases struck in 2015, when over 30 deals were reached.
  
  
• Market for Power Semiconductors in Automotive to Rev Up by $3 Billion by 2022, IHS Markit Says (Friday Jan. 20, 2017)
  The global market for power semiconductors used in cars and light passenger vehicles will grow by more in $3 billion USD in the next six years, according to new analysis released today by IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO), a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions.
  
  
• NRAM's Day Is Finally Here: Report (Thursday Jan. 19, 2017)
  Better late than never might be a good way to sum up NRAM. After years of not quite be ready for wide adoption, a new report from BCC Research is predicting that Nano-Ram (NRAM) is finally in a position to disrupt incumbent DRAM and flash memory with commercialization expected in 2018.
  
  
• Future of Chip Research Group Questioned (Thursday Jan. 19, 2017)
  The future of SUNY Polytechnic Institute’s support of key semiconductor industry R&D in upstate New York has come into question following the resignation and arrest of the university’s CEO last fall and the disintegration of two high-profile projects.
  
  
• Gartner Says Worldwide Semiconductor Revenue Grew 1.5 Percent in 2016 (Wednesday Jan. 18, 2017)
  Worldwide semiconductor revenue totaled $339.7 billion in 2016, a 1.5 percent increase from 2015 revenue of $334.8 billion, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc..
  
  
• Toshiba Mulls Chip Business Spinoff (Wednesday Jan. 18, 2017)
  Toshiba is considering a plan to spin off its chip business and sell a partial stake in the unit to Western Digital, reported Japanese financial daily newspaper Nikkei.
  
  
• No Sign of 450mm on the Horizon (Monday Jan. 16, 2017)
  Momentum behind the push to transition the semiconductor industry to 450mm wafers--which seemed substantial just a few short years ago--now appears all but dead, at least for now.
  
  
• TSMC Expects Flat Year for Foundry (Friday Jan. 13, 2017)
  Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. expects 2017 to be a flat year for the foundry business as momentum in the chip business stalls.
  
  
• Pure-Play Foundry Market Surges 11% in 2016 to Reach $50 Billion! (Friday Jan. 13, 2017)
  The pure-play foundry market is forecast to play an increasingly stronger role in the worldwide IC market during the next five years, according to IC Insights’ new 2017 McClean Report
  
  
• Born Secure: Could ARMv8-M Become the Leading Microcontroller Architecture for the Industrial IoT? (Thursday Jan. 12, 2017)
  In November ARM announced Cortex-M23 and Cortex-M33, the first microcontroller cores based on the ARMv8-M architecture. In a connected world where everyday devices can be compromised to launch distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, these cores offer the IoT something new; Born Secure.
  
  
• Gartner Says Worldwide Semiconductor Capital Spending Is Forecast to Grow 2.9 Percent in 2017 (Thursday Jan. 12, 2017)
  Worldwide semiconductor capital spending is projected to increase 2.9 percent in 2017, to $69.9 billion, according to Gartner, Inc. This is down from 5.1 percent growth in 2016.
  
  
• China Expected to Poach More Taiwan Chip Execs (Thursday Jan. 12, 2017)
  Chinese chipmakers are likely to hire more Taiwanese semiconductor executives as the administration of incoming U.S. President Donald Trump tightens restrictions on China’s acquisitions of U.S. chip companies, according to a veteran analyst in Asia.
  
  
• Google Searches for Better Silicon (Thursday Jan. 12, 2017)
  Moore’s law is not keeping pace with the growing needs of the still-young market for cloud services, a Google manager told executives at the annual Industry Strategy Symposium here. He called for a suite of innovations in processors, memories, interconnects, and packaging.
  
  
• Open Source Reaches Processor Core (Monday Jan. 09, 2017)
  Whether for budgetary, philosophical, or other reasons, an increasing number of embedded systems are being designed using open source elements. For the most part, these elements are software based, although there are some open source board designs in use as well. Now, the microcontroller that empowers a PCB design is available as an open source design.
  
  
• ARM Exec Dizzy for Open-Source Twizy (Monday Jan. 09, 2017)
  With its processor cores installed in practically every automotive chip used in vision SoCs, sensor fusion ICs and secure microcontrollers, ARM, a microprocessor IP giant, has not only witnessed the automotive industry’s evolution, but has become an integral part of the story.
  
  
• Apple joins SoftBank's Vision Fund with $1 billion investment (Thursday Jan. 05, 2017)
  Today, Apple confirmed plans to invest in SoftBank’s massive $100 billion Vision Fund, the international tech fund the telecom giant announced last October.
  
  
• Global Semiconductor Sales Up 7 Percent Year-to-Year (Wednesday Jan. 04, 2017)
  SIA today announced worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $31.0 billion for the month of November 2016, an increase of 7.4 percent compared to the November 2015 total of $28.9 billion and 2.0 percent more than the October 2016 total of 30.4 billion.
  
  
• Wi-Fi Expands with .11ax at CES (Tuesday Jan. 03, 2017)
  As we approach the yearly post-New Year's Eve torture that is CES, one piece of good news is Wi-Fi is about to get better.
  
  
• TSMC Says 10nm on Track, Countering Reports (Wednesday Dec. 28, 2016)
  Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) says that 10nm is on schedule, countering news media reports that the yields of TSMC and Samsung at the industry’s most advanced technology node are lagging expectations.
  
  
• Total Memory Market Forecast to Increase 10% in 2017 (Friday Dec. 23, 2016)
  After increasing by more than 20% in both 2013 and 2014, the memory market fell upon difficult times in 2015. Conditions that would normally be seen as favorable for boosting demand and increasing prices for memory devices such as supplier consolidation, limited capacity expansion, and a growing list of emerging applications did not prop up the market at all in 2015.
  
  
• ESD Alliance Reports EDA Industry Revenue Increase for Q3 2016 (Thursday Dec. 22, 2016)
  The Electronic System Design (ESD) Alliance Market Statistics Service (MSS) today announced that the Electronic Design Automation (EDA) industry revenue increased 7.0 percent for Q3 2016 to $2093.7 million, compared to $1957.5 million in Q3 2015. The four-quarters moving average, which compares the most recent four quarters to the prior four quarters, increased by 3.7 percent.
  
  
• Chips Execs See Maturing Industry (Wednesday Dec. 21, 2016)
  The semiconductor industry appears to be gathering steam as 2016 comes to a close, but many chip company executives appear to be pessimistic about the prospects for the next few years, according to a recent survey by consulting firm KPMG LLP.
  
  
• China Dominates Planned Chip Fabs (Friday Dec. 16, 2016)
  More than 40% of front end semiconductor fabs scheduled to begin operation between 2017 and 2020 are in China, a clear indication that China’s long-stated ambition to build a significant domestic semiconductor industry is taking shape.
  
  
• Number of IC Manufacturers Using 300mm Wafers Less than Half Using 200mm Wafers (Friday Dec. 16, 2016)
  IC Insights has just released its new Global Wafer Capacity 2017-2021—Detailed Analysis and Forecast of the IC Industry’s Wafer Fab Capacity report. Shown below is a brief excerpt from that report.