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Commentary / Analysis

• AMD Licenses x86 To China (Monday Apr. 25, 2016)
  AMD has licensed x86 technology to China. Under a deal with Tianjin Haiguang Advanced Technology Investment Co (THATIC), AMD will set up a joint venture company to make x86-based processors for servers made and sold in China.
  
  
• Intel Reorg Shows Clouds Ahead (Wednesday Apr. 20, 2016)
  The world’s largest semiconductor company will both focus and diversify in an effort to reinvent itself. It’s an expensive proposition in a down year as Intel Corp. predicted a steeper decline than previously thought for the PC market that once defined it.
  
  
• Intel Cuts 12,000, 11% of Staff (Wednesday Apr. 20, 2016)
  Good night to the PC as an icon and driver of the semiconductor industry. Intel Corp., its head cheerleader and advocate officially cut it loose today announcing a cut of 12,000 employees, 11% of its staff amid a sequential decline in quarterly revenues and profits.
  
  
• 14 IC Product Categories to Exceed Total IC Market Growth in 2016 (Tuesday Apr. 19, 2016)
  Fourteen product categories—topped by Cellphone Application Processors and Signal Conversion (analog) devices—are expected to exceed the 2% growth rate forecast for the total IC market this year.
  
  
• Number of 300mm IC Wafer Fabs Expected to Reach 100 in 2016 (Tuesday Apr. 19, 2016)
  In 2008, 300mm wafers took over as the industry’s primary wafer size in terms of total surface area used. Furthermore, the number of 300mm wafer fabrication facilities in operation continues to grow and is expected to reach 100 this year.
  
  
• FD-SOI Expands, But Is It Disruptive? (Monday Apr. 18, 2016)
  The ecosystem for fully-depleted silicon on insulator (FD-SOI) process technology has tipped from a too-late technology to a viable alternative to FinFETs for the Internet of Things (IoT) and automotive markets. To many, the presence of officials from major companies at an industry event signaled a coalescence around the technology.
  
  
• State of On-Shoring: Problem of China (Monday Apr. 18, 2016)
  When we discuss on shoring, the elephant in the room is always the People's Republic of China (PRC). China's economy is slowing fast enough to raise the issue of its future direction.
  
  
• Intel Reportedly Readies Mass Layoff (Monday Apr. 18, 2016)
  Intel Corp. is preparing to announce significant layoffs that could impact thousands of jobs, according to a report Friday (April 15) by the Portland Oregonian newspaper.
  
  
• Open Source: Licensing Pitfalls May Outweigh Benefits (Monday Apr. 18, 2016)
  The use of open-source software in product development can produce substantial savings, an intellectual property attorney told attendees at the Embedded Systems Conference in Boston last week, but beware of pitfalls.
  
  
• Data Centers Hit the Accelerator (Friday Apr. 15, 2016)
  Kushagra Vaid wants a new kind of computer server, one more suitable for large-scale data centers and machine learning. The general manager of engineering of Microsoft’s cloud computing division is not alone.
  
  
• TSMC Expects to Rise from Industry Falloff in 2H (Thursday Apr. 14, 2016)
  Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world’s largest foundry, expects that it will emerge from an industry slowdown sometime during the second half of this year.
  
  
• Gartner Says Worldwide Semiconductor Revenue Expected to Decline 0.6 Percent in 2016 (Wednesday Apr. 13, 2016)
  Worldwide semiconductor revenue is forecast to total $333 billion in 2016, a decrease of 0.6 percent from 2015, according to Gartner, Inc. This is following a decline of 2.3 percent in 2015 due to weakened demand for key electronic equipment, elevated inventory levels and the continuing impact of the strong dollar in some regions.
  
  
• Mystery Buyer for IDT? (Wednesday Apr. 13, 2016)
  Another day, another offer for a U.S. chip firm from a group of Chinese investors. Except that this one is a bit of a head scratcher.
  
  
• Worldwide Semiconductor Foundry Market Grew 4.4 Percent in 2015, According to Final Results by Gartner (Wednesday Apr. 13, 2016)
  Breaking a three-year double-digit-growth streak, the worldwide semiconductor foundry market grew 4.4 percent in 2015 to achieve $48.8 billion in revenue, according to final results by Gartner, Inc.
  
  
• Sayonara, Japan Semiconductor Inc. (Wednesday Apr. 13, 2016)
  The Japanese semiconductor industry’s downfall – by way of a slow death over the past quarter century — is undeniable and well documented.
  
  
• NXP Unit Reportedly Attracts Chinese Suitors (Monday Apr. 11, 2016)
  Chinese firms are among those showing interest in NXP Semiconductors NV’s standard products business, according to a report by the Bloomberg news service.
  
  
• IBM Neurocomputer Detailed (Monday Apr. 11, 2016)
  IBM unveiled details about the state of development and its future plans for TrueNorth—its neuromorphic mixed-signal chips based on the human brain. Its chip architecture, array of evaluation boards, reference systems and software ecosystem were described by their architect at ISPD
  
  
• China Facing Long-Term Memory Gap (Monday Apr. 11, 2016)
  China, Inc.’s rush to build its own memory business is real. But just how — and how soon — remains a complete mystery, several knowledgeable semiconductor industry sources based in Japan told EE Times.
  
  
• Google Preps for IBM, ARM Shift (Thursday Apr. 07, 2016)
  Google is preparing for the possibility it may shift its massive data centers from Intel x86 to IBM Power servers. It also is preparing for the possibility it may shift to ARM servers, but it’s not quite as far along on that path.
  
  
• Freescale Takeover Makes NXP Largest Automotive Chip Vendor (Thursday Apr. 07, 2016)
  According to the latest analysis by market watcher Semicast Research, NXP was the leading vendor of semiconductors to the OE automotive sector in 2015. Infineon passed Renesas Electronics to become the second largest vendor, with STMicroelectronics and Texas Instruments completing the top five. Semicast estimates that revenues for OE automotive semiconductors totaled USD 28.2 billion in 2015.
  
  
• Intel Mobile Chief's Hard Monday (Tuesday Apr. 05, 2016)
  Silicon Valley can be a tough place to wake up on a Monday morning. Case in point, the big news on the start of this week was a Bloomberg report that Aicha Evans, manager of Intel’s wireless group, had left the company.
  
  
• Intel Plans A Future of CMOS (Tuesday Apr. 05, 2016)
  Intel's future processors at 10-nanometer and beyond will continue to use CMOS for cores, but the cores will be surrounded by novel circuit architectures using new materials that may extend Moore's Law indefinitely.
  
  
• China's Interest in FD-SOI: Is It for Real? (Tuesday Apr. 05, 2016)
  Reporters find it easier to write about Donald Trump, Apple and FinFET. When it comes to FD-SOI, not so much.
  
  
• Worldwide Semiconductor Revenue Declined 2.3 Percent in 2015, According to Final Results by Gartner (Tuesday Apr. 05, 2016)
  Worldwide semiconductor revenue totaled $334.8 billion in 2015, a 2.3 percent decline from 2014, according to final results by Gartner, Inc. The combined revenue of the top 25 semiconductor vendors fell by 0.5 percent during 2015. This was a better performance than the rest of the market, however, which saw a 6.9 percent revenue decline. The top 25 vendors accounted for 73.5 percent of the market, down slightly from 74 percent in 2014.
  
  
• U.S. Companies Continue to Capture Bulk of IDM and Fabless IC Sales (Tuesday Apr. 05, 2016)
  U.S. companies held a 54% share of the total worldwide IC market in 2015, which includes sales from IDMs and fabless IC companies. The total does not include foundry sales.
  
  
• Global Semiconductor Sales Dip Slightly in February (Monday Apr. 04, 2016)
  SIA today announced worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $26.0 billion for the month of February 2016, a decrease of 3.2 percent compared to the previous month’s total of $26.9 billion and 6.2 percent lower than the February 2015 total of $27.7 billion.
  
  
• Global Semiconductor Market Slumps in 2015, IHS Says (Monday Apr. 04, 2016)
  Global semiconductor revenues fell by 2 percent in 2015. Sequential quarterly growth was weak throughout every quarter of 2015, especially in the first quarter when the market declined 8.9 percent over the previous quarter -- the deepest sequential quarterly decline since the semiconductor market collapsed in the fourth quarter of 2008 and first quarter of 2009.
  
  
• Last ASIC Vendor Standing in Japan (Monday Apr. 04, 2016)
  Managing a 13-month old pre-IPO fabless company — saddled with 2,700 employees and seven disparate business units — isn’t a challenge for the faint of heart. The task gets almost impossible when the company is under government pressure to keep all its employees on the job.
  
  
• iPhone SE is Three iPhone Generations Rolled into One, IHS Teardown Reveals (Monday Apr. 04, 2016)
  A preliminary estimate by IHS Inc. (NYSE: IHS) and its Teardown and Cost Benchmarking Service shows that the iPhone SE smartphone costs about $160 to build.
  
  
• FinFET's Father Forecasts Future (Friday Apr. 01, 2016)
  Don’t worry about the end of Moore’s law, there are plenty of good ideas on the semiconductor road map, according to Chenming Hu, a university researcher credited as being the father of the FinFET.