D&R Headline News | Most Popular | SoC News Alerts | |

Commentary / Analysis

• Analog IP offerings a hot commodity in semiconductor M&A (Wednesday Mar. 23, 2022)
  The acquisition of mixed-signal IP supplier Analog Bits by custom silicon solution provider SEMIFIVE once more underscores the critical importance of analog building blocks in system-on-chip (SoC) designs.
  
  
• Global Semiconductor Materials Market Revenue Tops $64 Billion in 2021 to Set New Record, SEMI Reports (Monday Mar. 21, 2022)
  The global semiconductor materials market grew 15.9% to $64.3 billion in revenue in 2021, surpassing the previous market high of $55.5 billion set in 2020
  
  
• Top 10 Foundries Post Record 4Q21 Performance for 10th Consecutive Quarter at US$29.55B, Says TrendForce (Thursday Mar. 17, 2022)
  The output value of the world’s top 10 foundries in 4Q21 reached US$29.55 billion, or 8.3% growth QoQ, according to TrendForce’s research.
  
  
• Arm to lay-off up to 1,000 workers as it preps for IPO (Wednesday Mar. 16, 2022)
  Processor licensor Arm Ltd. is set to lay off 12 to 15 percent of its staff – about 1,000 employees – as it prepares for an initial public offering of stock. The CEO, Rene Hass, has sent an email to staff discussing the cuts, which has been seen and reported…
  
  
• 2022 Flash Memory CapEx Expected to Reach $29.9B; Set New High (Wednesday Mar. 16, 2022)
  IC Insights forecasts NAND flash memory capital spending to rise 8% this year to $29.9 billion, surpassing the previous all-time high mark of $27.8 billion spent in 2018
  
  
• PCIe 6.0 Designed to Meet Automotive, AI Bandwidth Demands (Tuesday Mar. 15, 2022)
  To meet the bandwidth demands of rapidly advancing automotive and artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) workloads, companies such as Rambus are beginning to change where Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) interconnects are getting used, effectively joining PCIe and CXL data planes to optimize interconnect performance.
  
  
• 2022 to Mark the Third Year in a Row of ≥20% Growth for the Foundry Market (Wednesday Mar. 09, 2022)
  If IC Insights’ 20% increase now forecast for the foundry market in 2022 comes to fruition, the 2020-2022 timeperiod would mark the strongest three-year growth span for the total foundry market since 2002-2004.
  
  
• UK startup is raising funds for Open Power processor (Wednesday Mar. 09, 2022)
  Red Semiconductor Ltd. is a UK startup designing a family of “auditable” microprocessors based on the Open Power processor instruction set architecture. The processor is intended to run the Linux operating system amongst others and will be able to run x86 code in native mode thanks to emulation capabilities, according…
  
  
• Reshoring Chip Industry Risks Failure With Just More Fabs (Tuesday Mar. 08, 2022)
  Reviving U.S. semiconductor production, at the apex of the electronics industry, is unlikely to succeed without also rebuilding the more basic domestic ecosystem of companies in chip assembly and test, according to industry experts.
  
  
• Global Semiconductor Sales Increase 26.8% Year-to-Year in January (Friday Mar. 04, 2022)
  SIA today announced global semiconductor industry sales were $50.7 billion in the month of January 2022, an increase of 26.8% over the January 2021 total of $40.0 billion and 0.2% less than the December 2021 total of $50.9 billion.
  
  
• Graphcore Supercharges IPU with Wafer-on-Wafer (Thursday Mar. 03, 2022)
  Graphcore unveiled its third-generation intelligence processing unit (IPU), the first processor to be built using 3D wafer-on-wafer (WoW) technology.
  
  
• Semi Industry Capex Forecast to Jump 24% and Reach Over $190 Billion This Year (Wednesday Mar. 02, 2022)
  After surging 36% in 2021, semiconductor industry capital spending is forecast to jump 24% in 2022 to a new all-time high of $190.4 billion, up 86% from just three years earlier in 2019.
  
  
• Arm clears out top management (Tuesday Mar. 01, 2022)
  Four out of the top seven executives of Arm have now left the company following a clear-out by new CEO Rene Haas.
  
  
• U.S. Chops Russia's Access to Integrated Circuits (Monday Feb. 28, 2022)
  The U.S. government is tightening controls on the semiconductor supply chain to restrict Russian access to chip technology used in military equipment, in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
  
  
• Taking a RISC: Expanding Chip Options (Monday Feb. 28, 2022)
  With high-value M&A transactions and offers, adoption of reduced instruction set computing (RISC) architectures from large and small companies, and a drive by the most affected parties to mitigate geopolitical and supply chain risks, the semiconductor industry has never been more dynamic.
  
  
• Microprocessor Growth Will Slow in 2022 after Cellphone MPU Surge (Thursday Feb. 24, 2022)
  Worldwide sales growth in total microprocessors is expected to slide back in 2022 to an increase of 7%, which will lift the MPU market to another record high of $110.4 billion, with unit shipments rising 6% to 2.6 billion processors, according to the 1Q22 update’s forecast.
  
  
• Intel open to joining consortium to buy Arm (Tuesday Feb. 22, 2022)
  Gelsinger said that before Nvidia made its bid for Arm there had been industry talk about forming a consortium to buy Arm from Softbank.
  
  
• China's share of global wafer capacity continues to climb (Monday Feb. 21, 2022)
  Worldwide IC wafer capacity at the end of 2021 was 21.6 million 200mm-equivalent wafers per month, with fabs in China having the capacity to process 3.5 million.
  
  
• Intel Will Rely on TSMC for its Rebound (Monday Feb. 21, 2022)
  Intel is increasing its reliance on erstwhile rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) in its attempt to boost sales and eventually regain dominance as the world leader in manufacturing scale and chip process technology.
  
  
• With Tower acquisition, Intel will take over industry's ninth largest foundry (Friday Feb. 18, 2022)
  Intel announced plans to acquire Tower Semiconductor for $5.4 billion as part of efforts to become a major provider of foundry services and capacity. Intel describes the deal as highly complementary, bringing together its leading-edge nodes and scale manufacturing with Tower’s specialty technologies and customer-first approach to delivering technology and manufacturing capabilities.
  
  
• From the Beginning, Arm IPO Was Plan A (Wednesday Feb. 16, 2022)
  After SoftBank’s deal to sell Arm to Nvidia collapsed last week, the Japanese conglomerate was seemingly forced to resort to Plan B: relisting Arm as a public company. According to SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, however, an IPO was its Plan A all along.
  
  
• Global Semiconductor Sales, Units Shipped Reach All-Time Highs in 2021 as Industry Ramps Up Production Amid Shortage (Monday Feb. 14, 2022)
  SIA today announced global semiconductor industry sales totaled $555.9 billion in 2021, the highest-ever annual total and an increase of 26.2% compared to the 2020 total of $440.4 billion.
  
  
• A Big Week for RISC-V (Monday Feb. 14, 2022)
  It’s been a banner week for the RISC-V ecosystem. The profile of the open-source instruction set architecture (ISA) has been raised by a pair of announcements. Let’s take a closer look.
  
  
• SMIC Outpaces Rivals on Strong Local Demand (Monday Feb. 14, 2022)
  Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC), China’s largest chip maker, posted 39 percent growth in 2021 that led other foundries on strong domestic demand.
  
  
• Worldwide Silicon Wafer Shipments and Revenue Set New Records in 2021, SEMI Reports (Friday Feb. 11, 2022)
  orldwide silicon wafer area shipments in 2021 increased 14% while wafer revenue rose 13% compared to 2020, topping $12 billion, to reach new all-time highs, the SEMI Silicon Manufacturers Group (SMG) reported in its year-end analysis of the silicon wafer industry.
  
  
• Semiconductor Sales To Rise at 7.1% CAGR Through 2026 (Friday Feb. 11, 2022)
  The report forecasts total semiconductor sales will rise 11% this year following a very strong 25% increase in 2021 and an 11% increase in 2020.
  
  
• Intel Invests in Foundry Ecosystem, Embraces RISC-V (Thursday Feb. 10, 2022)
  Intel continues to expand its IDM 2.0 strategy, unveiling a $1 billion investment fund supporting technology development that could be integrated into Intel’s foundry ecosystem. Intel also moved this week to increase its presence in the nascent RISC-V market.
  
  
• Nvidia Abandons Arm Deal, Segars Steps Aside for IPO (Wednesday Feb. 09, 2022)
  Citing “significant regulatory challenges,” Nvidia announced this week it is abandoning the Arm acquisition unveiled to much fanfare in September 2020. In response, Arm named Rene Haas as its new CEO, replacing Simon Segars as the chip IP vendor prepares for an initial public offering.
  
  
• How to Interpret Chip Supply Chain Data (Thursday Feb. 03, 2022)
  The press release issued by the U.S. Department of Commerce on Jan. 25 declares: “Commerce Semiconductor Data Confirms Urgent Need for Congress to Pass U.S. Innovation and Competition Act.”
  
  
• AMD Acquisition of Xilinx Heats Up Competition with Intel (Monday Jan. 31, 2022)
  AMD’s acquisition of Xilinx in an all-stock transaction valued at $35 billion promises to raise the stakes in the second-ranked CPU maker’s competition with Intel.