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Commentary / Analysis

• Communications Rise To Represent Largest Portion of Foundry Sales (Thursday Oct. 18, 2018)
  With tremendous growth of smartphones over the past decade, foundry sales to the communications market have soared and are now forecast to account for about 3x more than IC foundry sales to the computer market in 2018
  
  
• Wafer Shipments Forecast to Set New Highs Through 2021 (Wednesday Oct. 17, 2018)
  Total wafer shipments in 2018 year are expected to eclipse the all-time market high set in 2017 and continue to reach record levels through 2021, according to SEMI’s recent semiconductor industry annual silicon shipment forecast.
  
  
• Advanced Technology Key to Strong Foundry Revenue per Wafer (Monday Oct. 15, 2018)
  Analysis shows more than a 16x difference between the average revenue generated by 0.5µ 200mm wafers ($370) and ≤20nm 300mm wafers ($6,050).
  
  
• Apple, Amazon Refute China Chip Hacking Story (Friday Oct. 05, 2018)
  Tech giants Apple and Amazon are denying a report by Bloomberg Businessweek that they are among nearly 30 companies that had their hardware compromised by Chinese spies that allegedly implanted tiny microchips for the purpose of accessing their networks.
  
  
• TSMC Goes Photon to Cloud (Thursday Oct. 04, 2018)
  TSMC taped out its first chip in a process making limited use of extreme ultraviolet lithography and will start risk production in April on a 5nm node with full EUV. Separately, the foundry forged partnerships with four partners to support online services for back-end chip design.
  
  
• DRAM Market Braces For Slower Growth (Thursday Oct. 04, 2018)
  In its September Update to The 2018 McClean Report, IC Insights discloses that over the past two years, DRAM manufacturers have been operating their memory fabs at nearly full capacity, which has resulted in steadily increasing DRAM prices and sizable profits for suppliers along the way.
  
  
• ESD Alliance Reports EDA Industry Revenue Increase for Q2 2018 (Monday Oct. 01, 2018)
  The Electronic System Design (ESD) Alliance Market Statistics Service (MSS) today announced that the Electronic Design Automation (EDA) industry revenue increased 8.2 percent for Q2 2018 to $2389.8 million, compared to $2209.2 million in Q2 2017.
  
  
• Intel Promises to Boost 14nm Production (Monday Oct. 01, 2018)
  Seeking to allay fears of revenue shortfall amid tight supply, Intel said Friday that the company believes it has the supply to meet its full-year sales target of $69.5 billion. The company also reiterated plans to increase its capital spending for the year to a record $15 billion and to be in volume production of 10nm chips next year.
  
  
• GF Grabs AI Wins with FD-SOI (Wednesday Sep. 26, 2018)
  In its first annual conference since halting work on 7nm, Globalfoundries described a handful of enhancements to its existing nodes. It also showcased a new customer making at least three embedded deep-learning chips in its 22nm fully depleted silicon-on-insulator process.
  
  
• China Forecast to Account for 90% of Pure-Play Foundry Market Growth in 2018 (Wednesday Sep. 26, 2018)
  IC Insights’ September Update to The McClean Report shows that as a result of a 51% forecasted increase in the China pure-play foundry market this year, China’s total share of the 2018 pure-play foundry market is expected to jump by five percentage points to 19%, exceeding the share held by the rest of the Asia-Pacific region.
  
  
• North American Semiconductor Equipment Industry Posts August 2018 Billings (Friday Sep. 21, 2018)
  North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $2.24 billion in billings worldwide in August 2018 (three-month average basis), according to the August Equipment Market Data Subscription (EMDS) Billings Report published today by SEMI.
  
  
• ARM's Greg Yeric on memory, logic and making it (Wednesday Sep. 19, 2018)
  eeNews Europe took the chance to sit down with ARM Fellow Greg Yeric at this year's ARM Research Summit in Cambridge. We started by asking Yeric what was ARM's position on the plethora of emerging non-volatile memories.
  
  
• Report: Intel to outsource 14nm chip production to TSMC (Wednesday Sep. 19, 2018)
  Intel is not able to make enough 14nm chips to meet demand and so is looking to outsource a portion of its 14nm production to foundry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC), according to a Digitimes report that references unnamed industry sources.
  
  
• Seven IC Products to Outpace Total 16% IC Market Growth in 2018 (Wednesday Sep. 19, 2018)
  For the second consecutive year, the DRAM market is forecast to top all IC product segments with 39% growth. Overall, 13 product categories are forecast to experience double-digit growth and 28 total IC product categories are expected to post positive growth this year, down slightly from 29 segments in 2017.
  
  
• New Fabs Invest Over $220 Billion; 2019 to Mark All-Time Spending High (Monday Sep. 17, 2018)
  Global fab equipment spending will increase 14 percent this year to US$62.8 billion and is expected to rise 7.5 percent, to US$67.5 billion, in 2019, marking the fourth consecutive year of spending growth and the highest investment year for fab equipment in the history of the industry, according to the latest World Fab Forecast Report published today by SEMI.
  
  
• How much did Apple pay to settle with Imagination? (Friday Sep. 14, 2018)
  Apple has just announced its second applications processor since it said it would stop using intellectual property from graphics developer Imagination Technology and that it would eventually stop paying royalties. There have been no lawsuits.
  
  
• Facebook Builds Chip Team, ASIC (Friday Sep. 14, 2018)
  A Facebook executive confirmed reports the social networking giant is hiring chip engineers and designing at least one ASIC.
  
  
• Apple Describes 7nm iPhone SoC (Thursday Sep. 13, 2018)
  Apple’s 7nm A12 Bionic chip packs 6.9 billion transistors and is “the most powerful chip in a smartphone,” said chief executive Tim Cook.
  
  
• MCUs Sales to Reach Record-High Annual Revenues Through 2022 (Thursday Sep. 13, 2018)
  MCU sales and units shipments driven by the spread of embedded control in systems, more sensors, and the rush to connect end-use applications to the Internet of Things (IoT).
  
  
• TSMC: Chip Scaling Could Accelerate (Wednesday Sep. 12, 2018)
  Chip scaling can double each year if the semiconductor industry pushes forward on a number of new technological fronts, according to TSMC Chairman Mark Liu, speaking at an industry event in Taiwan last week.
  
  
• Worldwide Semiconductor Equipment Billings Reach $16.7 Billion in Second Quarter 2018, SEMI Reports (Monday Sep. 10, 2018)
  Worldwide semiconductor manufacturing equipment billings reached US$16.7 billion in the second quarter of 2018, 1 percent lower than the previous record quarter and 19 percent higher than the same quarter a year ago, SEMI reported today.
  
  
• New Chip Seen Boosting Huawei's Market Share (Monday Sep. 10, 2018)
  Huawei, which has overtaken Apple to become the new No. 2 in smartphones, is expected to increase its market share with the introduction of a new chip, according to analysts.
  
  
• Global Semiconductor Sales Increase 17.4 Percent Year-to-Year in July (Wednesday Sep. 05, 2018)
  SIA today announced worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $39.5 billion for the month of July 2018, an increase of 17.4 percent compared to the July 2017 total of $33.6 billion.
  
  
• China's Semiconductor Fab Capacity to Reach 20 Percent Worldwide Share in 2020 (Tuesday Sep. 04, 2018)
  The China IC Ecosystem Report, a comprehensive report for the IC manufacturing supply chain, reveals that front-end fab capacity in China will grow to account for 16 percent of the world's semiconductor fab capacity this year, a share that will increase to 20 percent by the end of 2020.
  
  
• ADAS SoC: Show Me Your Benchmark (Monday Sep. 03, 2018)
  Automotive chip companies talk about system-on-chips designed for Advanced Driving Assistance Systems all the time. But how can the rest of us — reporters, analysts and most important, carmakers — tell one ADAS SoC from another?
  
  
• Jon Peddie Research reports the Q2'2018 GPU shipments (Thursday Aug. 30, 2018)
  Overall GPU shipments decreased -1.5% from last quarter, AMD decreased -12.3%, Nvidia decreased -7% and Intel, increased 3%.
  
  
• MRAM Makes a Move into the Embedded Space (Thursday Aug. 30, 2018)
  Magnetoresistive RAM, already supported by major silicon foundries, is looking to expand its niche into the embedded space with embedded MRAM.
  
  
• Apple Goes Vertical & Why It Matters (Wednesday Aug. 29, 2018)
  As part of EE Times’ look at Apple’s march to becoming the first trillion-dollar company, I will look at their “modern” semiconductor work.
  
  
• Memory ICs to Account for 53% of Total 2018 Semi Capex (Wednesday Aug. 29, 2018)
  IC Insights forecasts total semiconductor capital expenditures will rise to $102.0 billion this year, marking the first time that the industry has spent more than $100 billion on capital expenditures in one year.
  
  
• Analysis: Outpaced by TSMC, GloFo cuts its cloth (Tuesday Aug. 28, 2018)
  Globalfoundries' lack of business success at the leading-edge of FinFET foundry work means it can no longer afford to pursue a twin FinFET and FDSOI development strategy and is stopping all 7nm development.