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Commentary / Analysis

• PLX Tech stands alone (Monday Jan. 21, 2013)
  PLX Technology, a provider of PCI Express switches and bridges, spent most of last year preparing to be acquired by Integrated Device Technology Inc. (IDT).
  
  
• Facebook covets core-heavy ARM SoCs (Monday Jan. 21, 2013)
  At the same event where Facebook managers opened the door for ARM server SoCs in the data center, they also made it clear that today’s chips fall short of what they seek, In addition, NAND flash vendors need to refocus their plans to fill exploding storage needs in the data center, they said.
  
  
• Chasing elusive LTE design wins (Thursday Jan. 17, 2013)
  A number of reputable chip companies, including ST-Ericsson, Renesas Mobile, NVidia, Marvell, have been developing LTE baseband chips for more than a year. So far, there is little to show for it.
  
  
• Intel Targets Fast-Growing, Low-End Smartphone Market with New Atom Processor Platform (Wednesday Jan. 16, 2013)
  Intel Corp.’s introduction of a new Atom processor platform designed to target the fast-growing market for low-end smartphones in emerging economies represents a shrewd strategy that could allow the company to expand its currently minimal market share in the industry, according to the IHS iSuppli/Screen Digest Mobile & Wireless Service at IHS
  
  
• Analog Market to Grow 9.5% in 2013 (Wednesday Jan. 16, 2013)
  Semico Research recently published a detailed forecast and analysis of the analog . The analog market totaled $40 billion revenue in 2012 and is expected to experience a 9.5% dollar and a 6.4% unit growth for 2013.
  
  
• Samsung Jumps to #3 in 2012 Foundry Ranking, Has Sights Set on #2 Spot in 2013 (Tuesday Jan. 15, 2013)
  In 2012, Samsung almost doubled its foundry sales and surpassed UMC to become the third-largest IC foundry in the world. Moreover, IC Insights believes that the company will challenge GlobalFoundries for the number two spot in the ranking in 2013.
  
  
• ARM friends Facebook at summit (Tuesday Jan. 15, 2013)
  Expect ARM and Facebook to become data center friends at the Open Compute Project’s summit here Wednesday (Jan. 16).
  
  
• Whose GPU in Exynos Octa? (Tuesday Jan. 15, 2013)
  The share prices of rival U.K. processor intellectual property licensors Imagination Technologies Group plc and ARM Holdings plc have been bouncing up and down on the London Stock Exchange over the last couple of days.
  
  
• Semiconductor Leaders See Massive Industry Transformation (Tuesday Jan. 15, 2013)
  The semiconductor industry is undergoing massive transformation as the rise in mobile computing, changes to the fabless-foundry model, uncertainties in technical innovation, and global macroeconomic trends become the dominant forces in 2013 and beyond, according to industry leaders speaking at the SEMI Industry Strategy Symposium (ISS).
  
  
• The Linley Group Says Mobile Semiconductor Market Topped $30 Billion in 2012 (Monday Jan. 14, 2013)
  Although overall semiconductor industry growth was nearly flat in 2012, sales of mobile semiconductors reached $31 billion in 2012 according to The Linley Group, an increase of 18 percent over the previous year.
  
  
• Renesas big-little LTE processor wins praise (Monday Jan. 14, 2013)
  Renesas Mobile, the mobile chip division of Renesas Electronic Corp., has developed an application processor with on-chip LTE modem that an analyst said could provide competition to market-leader Qualcomm.
  
  
• Are ARM's core days numbered? (Monday Jan. 14, 2013)
  Time was when a great many companies had their own processor architectures. It was a pinnacle of electronic and semiconductor achievement and many digital engineers wanted to have a crack at designing one and feeling the glow of watching software execute on an electronic machine of their own devising.
  
  
• Five intellectual property trends to watch in 2013 (Friday Jan. 11, 2013)
  Intellectual property and patents became headline news in 2012 as lawsuits, sales and competitive gamesmanship resulted in an increasing number of firms actively employing intellectual assets as viable tools for building their businesses.
  
  
• Globalfoundries behind 'Project Azalea'? (Thursday Jan. 10, 2013)
  What's this? Was Globalfoundries behind "Project Azalea," codename for a huge chip foundry, all along? Or has that shoe yet to fall with another announcement in the near future that would boost the technology momentum of New York State?
  
  
• ARM CEO on giant smartphones; IoT (Thursday Jan. 10, 2013)
  ARM CEO Warren East sat down with EE Times during the Consumer Electronics Show this week to discuss the radically changing landscape for TVs, the slowly unfolding "Internet of Things" and whether the world's largest processor IP vendor should offer RF IP modules to get IoT off the ground.
  
  
• Fabless IC Company Sales "Shine" While IDM IC Sales "Slump" in 2012 (Wednesday Jan. 09, 2013)
  Contrary to some opinions, the fabless/foundry business model shows no signs of "collapsing". The report shows that the fabless IC suppliers grew by 6% in 2012, 10 points better than the 4% decline registered by the IDMs and eight points better than the 2% decline shown by the total IC market last year.
  
  
• EDA Consortium Reports Revenue Increase for Q3 2012 (Monday Jan. 07, 2013)
  The EDA Consortium (EDAC) Market Statistics Service (MSS) today announced that the Electronic Design Automation (EDA) industry revenue increased 4.9 percent for Q3 2012 to $1619.9 million, compared to $1543.9 million in Q3 2011.
  
  
• Fabless companies out-performed IDMs in 2012 (Monday Jan. 07, 2013)
  Fabless semiconductor companies as a group outperformed chip makers with their own fabs again in 2012, according to the latest numbers from the upcoming McClean Report 2013.
  
  
• Global Semiconductor Sales Post Best Month of 2012 in November (Friday Jan. 04, 2013)
  SIA today announced that worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $25.73 billion for the month of November 2012, the largest monthly total of 2012 and a 2 percent increase from the prior month when sales were $25.22 billion.
  
  
• IPad 3 called 'unbalanced' as Apple, TSMC rumors fly (Thursday Jan. 03, 2013)
  The Apple iPad 3 is an unbalanced design with an underpowered graphics processor for its high-end display, according to an analysis released Wednesday (Jan. 2) by technology watcher David Kanter.
  
  
• IDC Forecasts Worldwide Semiconductor Revenues Will Grow 4.9% and Reach $319 Billion in 2013 (Thursday Jan. 03, 2013)
  Semiconductor revenues worldwide will see nominal growth this year at less than 1% reaching $304 billion according to the year-end 2012 update of the International Data Corporation (IDC) Semiconductor Applications Forecaster (SAF).
  
  
• Report: TSMC confirms U.S. wafer fab site hunt (Thursday Dec. 20, 2012)
  Amid plans to increase capital spending to a record $9 billion in 2013, Taiwanese foundry TSMC is seeking a location for a wafer fab, with the U.S. as a possibility, according to a local news report.
  
  
• Mentor's Rhines sees 'modest growth' in 2013 (Thursday Dec. 20, 2012)
  Global economic uncertainty is contributing to a down year for the global semiconductor industry, but 2013 could bring “modest growth, according to Mentor Graphics CEO Wally Rhines
  
  
• Gartner Says Worldwide Wafer Fab Equipment Spending to Decline 9.7 Percent in 2013 (Wednesday Dec. 19, 2012)
  Worldwide wafer fab equipment (WFE) spending is forecast to total $27 billion in 2013, a 9.7 percent decline from 2012, according to Gartner, Inc. In 2012, WFE spending is on pace to reach $29.9 billion, a decrease of 17.4 percent from 2011 spending. The market is projected to return to growth in 2014.
  
  
• Globalfoundries mulls third manufacturing option (Wednesday Dec. 19, 2012)
  Globalfoundries Inc. is evaluating a third manufacturing option to follow conventional bulk planar CMOS: super-steep retrograde well (SSRW) technology that creates a ground plane under a transistor using a doping technique.
  
  
• Linley Group Report estimates embedded processor market will exceed $4 billion in 2015 (Wednesday Dec. 19, 2012)
  Estimating that the embedded processor market will top $4 billion in 2015, The Linley Group, the industry's leading source for independent technology analysis of semiconductors for networking, communications, mobile, and wireless applications, released their latest report, “A Guide to Embedded Processors.”
  
  
• Gartner Says Worldwide Semiconductor Revenue Declined 3 Percent in 2012 (Monday Dec. 17, 2012)
  Worldwide semiconductor revenue has totaled $298 billion in 2012, a 3 percent decline from 2011 revenue of $307 billion, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc.
  
  
• Altera eyes FDSOI process for FPGAs (Monday Dec. 17, 2012)
  A senior engineer at FPGA vendor Altera has evaluated fully-depleted silicon on insulator (FDSOI) chip manufacturing process and concluded that the technology could have particular benefits for FPGAs.
  
  
• Foundries not dead, just evolving, says Globalfoundries CEO (Friday Dec. 14, 2012)
  The fabless/foundry model may have its issues, but it’s a long way from being dead, said Globalfoundries CEO Ajit Manocha, speaking at the International Electron Devices Meeting
  
  
• FDSOI roadmap renames next node as 14-nm (Friday Dec. 14, 2012)
  Documents presented at the fully depleted silicon on insulator (FDSOI) workshop in San Francisco this week show that the FDSOI roadmap now omits a 20-nm and goes straight to 14-nm and then on to 10-nm.