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Commentary / Analysis

• Intel's 14-nm process delay (Tuesday Nov. 20, 2012)
  The Irish Times recently reported that Intel was sending up to 600 Irish staffers home early from production training in the U.S. after deciding to delay the introduction of the P1272 14-nm process at Fab 24 in Leixlip, near Dublin
  
  
• Intel's CEO search begins, and the nominees are... (Tuesday Nov. 20, 2012)
  For 45 years, Intel Corp.’s succession plan has been so orderly it was boring. With this week’s unexpected announcement that Paul Otellini will step down in May as CEO, the field to replace Otellin is wide open with a strong possibility of the first chief executive coming from outside the company.
  
  
• Decrease in Third Quarter 2012 Silicon Wafer Shipments (Monday Nov. 19, 2012)
  Worldwide silicon wafer area shipments decreased during the third quarter 2012 when compared to second quarter 2012 area shipments according to the SEMI Silicon Manufacturers Group (SMG) in its quarterly analysis of the silicon wafer industry
  
  
• ISSCC: Samsung big.little, but no Intel, Nvidia CPUs (Monday Nov. 19, 2012)
  Samsung will describe the first mobile applications processor to use ARM’s big.little concept at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference in February.
  
  
• Globalfoundries eyes IPO as ATIC sets expectations (Friday Nov. 16, 2012)
  Foundry chip manufacturer Globalfoundries Inc. is expected to be a profitable and self-sustaining business by 2015, one that does not require additional funding from its present parent Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC).
  
  
• North American Semiconductor Equipment Industry Posts October 2012 Book-to-Bill Ratio of 0.75 (Friday Nov. 16, 2012)
  North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $743.2 million in orders worldwide in October 2012 (three-month average basis) and a book-to-bill ratio of 0.75, according to the October Book-to-Bill Report published today by SEMI.
  
  
• Semiconductors negative in 2012, may grow 9% in 2013 (Thursday Nov. 15, 2012)
  September WSTS data shows the 3Q 2012 semiconductor market increased 1.8% from 2Q 2012. The year 2012 semiconductor market will certainly show a decline. 4Q 2012 would need to grow 11% to result in positive growth for 2012.
  
  
• Apple A6X uncovered (Thursday Nov. 15, 2012)
  After conducting a full teardown analysis of Apple Inc.'s iPad mini and iPad 4 tablets shortly after the devices hit the street Nov. 2, engineers from UBM TechInsights put the Apple A6X processor—available for the first time in the iPad 4—under the knife (and microscope).
  
  
• Apple, HTC patent deal may not open Android door (Thursday Nov. 15, 2012)
  Apple's deal to license smartphpone patents to Taiwan's HTC does not necessarily indicate it is ready to end disputes with larger Android rivals Google, Motorola and Samsung, according to two experts.
  
  
• Sharp said to be in talks with Intel, Qualcomm (Thursday Nov. 15, 2012)
  Japan’s cash-strapped Sharp Corp. is reportedly in detailed talks with both Intel Corp. and Qualcomm Inc. for an investment of up to $500 million, the Kyodo News agency reported Tuesday (Nov. 14).
  
  
• AMD says it's not for sale (Thursday Nov. 15, 2012)
  Chip vendor Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) said Tuesday (Nov. 13) its board of directors is not actively pursuing the sale of the company after a national news service reported the firm hired financial experts to explore strategic options, including the possible sale of the company.
  
  
• Gartner Says Worldwide Sales of Mobile Phones Declined 3 Percent in Third Quarter of 2012; Smartphone Sales Increased 47 Percent (Wednesday Nov. 14, 2012)
  Worldwide sales of mobile phones to end users reached almost 428 million units in the third quarter of 2012, a 3.1 percent decline from the third quarter of 2011, according to Gartner, Inc. Smartphone sales accounted for 39.6 percent of total mobile phone sales, as smartphone sales increased 46.9 percent from the third quarter of 2011.
  
  
• Apple, HTC patent deal seen as first of many (Tuesday Nov. 13, 2012)
  The licensing deal between Apple and Taiwan’s HTC will be the first of many to come, according to patent watchers who see the deal as a turning point in a two-and-a-half-year mobile war.
  
  
• ARM CEO talks about IoT, platforms (Monday Nov. 12, 2012)
  "The Internet of Things for us is about the sale of microcontrollers. We think it is likely to follow a similar path to mobile phones," said Warren East, CEO of processor intellectual property licensor ARM, in an interview with EE Times conducted at the ARM TechCon exhibition and conference.
  
  
• Qualcomm overtakes Intel in market capitalization (Monday Nov. 12, 2012)
  Qualcomm's standing as the leading supplier of application processors for mobile devices – and the fact that it is fabless – has boosted its market capitalization past Intel Corp., the world's largest chip maker.
  
  
• Teardown: Apple iPad 4 (Monday Nov. 12, 2012)
  UBM TechInsights peers inside the fourth-generation iPad to find out if there is anything new under the hood.
  
  
• Most OEMs Plan to Reduce Number of Contract Manufacturers, IHS iSuppli Survey Reveals (Thursday Nov. 08, 2012)
  More than half of all electronic original equipment manufacturers (OEM) worldwide plan to reduce the number of contract manufacturers they work with during the next year, according to the IHS iSuppli Survey.
  
  
• HP and the vanishing systems engineer (Thursday Nov. 08, 2012)
  Systems engineers are a vanishing breed at Hewlett-Packard. I suspect that’s the case for many OEMs, and I’m concerned what that means.
  
  
• Top 20 Semiconductor Suppliers' Sales Growth Rates Forecast to Range from Great (+31%) to Terrible (-17%) in 2012. (Thursday Nov. 08, 2012)
  GlobalFoundries, Qualcomm, and TSMC expected to register strong double-digit growth this year.
  
  
• Global Semiconductor Sales Up Slightly in September (Wednesday Nov. 07, 2012)
  SIA today announced that worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $24.79 billion for the month of September 2012, a 2 percent increase from the prior month when sales were $24.30 billion.
  
  
• Qualcomm, MediaTek and Intel Together Held Three-Fourths of Cellular Baseband Revenue Share in 1H 2012 (Wednesday Nov. 07, 2012)
  According to Strategy Analytics, Qualcomm topped the cellular baseband market with 51 percent revenue share in the first half of 2012 on the strength of its leading position in CDMA, W-CDMA and LTE basebands.
  
  
• Imagination won't kill MIPS (Wednesday Nov. 07, 2012)
  Things could hardly turned out better for MIPS Technologies in the latest patent acquisition deal in which ARM and Imagination Technologies are carving up the company.
  
  
• Apple mulls switch away from Intel chips (Tuesday Nov. 06, 2012)
  When Apple Inc. switched from using IBM processors to Intel chips in its venerable Macintosh computer line almost seven years ago, it was a big deal.
  
  
• Big.little test results show promise, ARM reports (Monday Nov. 05, 2012)
  ARM reported a test chip using its A15 and A7 cores saved 50 percent on power consumption without sacrificing performance. It also revealed a road map for enabling software for the so-called big.little initiative which pairs a large and small core.
  
  
• Android Marks Fourth Anniversary Since Launch with 75.0% Market Share in Third Quarter, According to IDC (Monday Nov. 05, 2012)
  The Android smartphone operating system was found on three out of every four smartphones shipped during the third quarter of 2012 (3Q12).
  
  
• ARM's expansion challenge (Monday Nov. 05, 2012)
  ARM this week sketched out a vision of moving methodically into servers and deeper into embedded. There's an architecture, a vision, a market need and an evolving ecosystem. A lot of great generals throughout history had similar ambitions but overreached and outran their supply lines. What's different today?
  
  
• ARM's East cites power as key IC design driver (Monday Nov. 05, 2012)
  The prospect of both climate change and "unsustainable" data growth means engineers should focus on reducing power consumption in their device designs, according to Warren East, CEO of ARM
  
  
• Microprocessor server benchmarks seen as irrelevant (Friday Nov. 02, 2012)
  Server design--and by extension microprocessor and component considerations--are now driven by new-media companies such as Facebook and Google, whose system specifications render traditional benchmarks useless.
  
  
• Slideshow: ARM A57 core revealed (Thursday Nov. 01, 2012)
  ARM provided the first peak at its Cortex A57 high-end 64-bit core at ARM Tech Con here Wednesday (Oct. 31). The A57 aims to provide maximum performance in a mobile power envelope, extending ARM’s reach into networking and server systems.
  
  
• Quad patterning a possibility at 10nm, says TSMC (Tuesday Oct. 30, 2012)
  Quad patterning may be needed for 10-nm process technology if extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography is not ready in 2015 or so when Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. expects to start early production of the technology.