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Commentary / Analysis

• MIPS lands up in China (Thursday Aug. 27, 2020)
  MIPS has ended up in China, reports Reuters. It got there via a tortured series of deals starting with Imagination buying MIPS in 2013 followed by China-backed Canyon Bridge buying Imagination in 2017.
  
  
• China chip imports still at $300bn (Thursday Aug. 27, 2020)
  China’s semiconductor import substitution efforts have not paid off for this year, reports Reuters.
  
  
• Nvidia Data Center Growth: Could Buying Arm Be an Ideal Match? (Wednesday Aug. 26, 2020)
  With the data center being prime target, Nvidia buying Arm might actually be a natural match
  
  
• TSMC Plots the Process Course to Its Next "Generational Node" (Tuesday Aug. 25, 2020)
  Even as it ramps up production on its N5 process, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), at its annual Technology Symposium, introduced its N4 process, which it said is scheduled to come online in late 2021, with volume production in 2022.
  
  
• Huawei is hurrying to build a wafer fab (Tuesday Aug. 25, 2020)
  Communications giant Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. is hurrying to build a wafer fab capable of running 45nm CMOS manufacturing process, according to unsubstantiated Chinese social network reports.
  
  
• TrendForce Analyzes Impacts of Expanded U.S. Sanctions Against Huawei on Five Major Tech Industries (Monday Aug. 24, 2020)
  On August 17, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced the latest revisions to its Entity List, which now includes 38 additional Huawei subsidiaries. Suppliers are prohibited from providing semiconductor products and components manufactured with U.S. equipment and software to Huawei and its subsidiaries.
  
  
• Foundry Revenue Projected to Grow by 14% YoY in 3Q20 as Downstream Clients Exhibit Strong Demand, Says TrendForce (Monday Aug. 24, 2020)
  Downstream foundry clients are currently exhibiting strong demand due to upcoming year-end shopping festivities in Europe and North America and the National Day long weekend and Singles’ Day sales promotions in China, according to TrendForce’s latest investigations.
  
  
• North American Semiconductor Equipment Industry Posts July 2020 Billings (Monday Aug. 24, 2020)
  The billings figure is 11.8 percent higher than the final June 2020 level of $2.32 billion, and is 27.6 percent higher than the July 2019 billings level of $2.03 billion.
  
  
• Electronics Supply Chains Splitting Between China and U.S. (Thursday Aug. 20, 2020)
  Foxconn, the world’s largest contract manufacturer, says it plans to move more of its production outside China under the impact of the trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
  
  
• DRAM Capex Spending Expected to Decline 20% in 2020 (Thursday Aug. 20, 2020)
  The DRAM market is poised for a modest recovery in 2020, but suppliers are being very cautious, strategic, and thorough in their analysis of market conditions before they consider any further upgrades or decide to move ahead with any new DRAM wafer fab plans.
  
  
• Intel Looks to Regain Innovation Lead (Wednesday Aug. 19, 2020)
  Intel held an Architecture Day for the first time in two years; it was the company’s chance to reclaim the lead in technology innovation after some recent missteps.
  
  
• US Tightens Chip Export Screws on Huawei (Wednesday Aug. 19, 2020)
  The Trump Administration has moved to tighten chip export screws on China, further restricting access to U.S. advanced semiconductor manufacturing gear by adding more Huawei Technologies affiliates to its list of required licensees.
  
  
• CHIPS Act Targets Post-Globalized Industry (Thursday Aug. 13, 2020)
  The U.S. economy is tanking, America is recording more than 1,000 coronavirus deaths daily, millions file for unemployment benefits each week. Amid the crises, chips are taking center stage in what looks like a new, pandemic-driven industrial policy .
  
  
• Qualcomm's licensing model declared legal (Wednesday Aug. 12, 2020)
  Qualcomm’s practice of making customers sign broadly drawn patent licence agreements before selling them chips was declared legal.
  
  
• China-Based HiSilicon's Time in the Top-10 Ranking May be Short Lived (Wednesday Aug. 12, 2020)
  HiSilicon’s time in the top-10 ranking may be short lived. After the second round of U.S. sanctions, which prohibited semiconductor suppliers from using U.S.-made equipment to produce devices for Huawei/HiSilicon, the company’s chip manufacturers (e.g., TSMC) only accepted orders until May 15 and production is due to end on September 15
  
  
• Startup Claims Low-power IoT Geolocation Without a Positioning Chipset (Monday Aug. 10, 2020)
  Founded in 2014, Nestwave provides hybrid geolocation IP cores for integration within an IoT modem such as NB-IoT, Cat M1, LoRa, or Sigfox.
  
  
• Huawei to end production of leading edge mobile chipsets (Monday Aug. 10, 2020)
  Huawei is to end production of its top-of-the- range Kirin mobile processors in September, according to Caixin Global, the Chinese state news site.
  
  
• One on One with RISC-V CTO Mark Himelstein (Monday Aug. 10, 2020)
  This week, the RISC-V community member organization, RISC-V International, announced the appointment of 16 board members to the new legal entity headquartered in Switzerland, as it transitions away from the old RISC-V Foundation entity.
  
  
• Covid-19 Expected to Limit Growth Rates For Many IC Products in 2020 (Monday Aug. 10, 2020)
  NAND flash, DRAM, computer CPU, and embedded MPUs show improvement for 2020, but consumers and businesses moving cautiously forward with system purchases.
  
  
• Global Semiconductor Sales Increase 5.1 Percent Year-to-Year in June; Q2 Sales Down Slightly Compared to Q1 (Wednesday Aug. 05, 2020)
  SIA today announced worldwide sales of semiconductors were $34.5 billion in June 2020, an increase of 5.1 percent from the June 2019 total of $32.9 billion. Sales in June were 0.3 percent less than the May 2020 total of $34.6 billion.
  
  
• Nvidia in pole position to buy Arm (Monday Aug. 03, 2020)
  Talks between Softbank and Nvidia about selling a stake in Arm are reported by the Nikkei to be at an advanced stage.
  
  
• Nvidia-Arm Deal Would Be a Technology "Disaster" (Monday Aug. 03, 2020)
  That Nvidia intends to buy Arm from Softbank now appears to be more than just idle speculation. Nvidia initially approached SoftBank with a proposal to purchase Arm for more than $32 billion in a cash-and-stock deal, according to two news sources.
  
  
• Nvidia Buying Arm Would be Reckless (Monday Aug. 03, 2020)
  Nvidia Corp. is reported to be in talks to purchase Arm Holdings Plc. If true, the move would be beyond stupid. It would be reckless and would ignite a firestorm of negative reactions from current and potential Arm licenses and be, on a long-term basis, counter productive for Nvidia and its shareholders.
  
  
• NAND Flash, DRAM Forecast to Remain Largest IC Markets in 2020 (Monday Aug. 03, 2020)
  DRAM and NAND flash are expected to repeat as the two largest IC segments again in 2020 after holding the same positions in 2019.
  
  
• Gen-Z Seeks to Share Memory, Lower Latencies (Thursday Jul. 30, 2020)
  Not to be confused with the demographic cohort that succeeds millennials, Gen-Z is a memory-semantic fabric architecture that’s at a point where it must better define how it fits within the greater scheme of specifications and standards, including the somewhat mature NVM Express and the emerging Compute Express Link (CXL) protocol that’s gaining traction in data centers.
  
  
• Intel Outside ... Just Like all the Others (Thursday Jul. 30, 2020)
  Intel Corp. did not make a formal announcement but industry observers believe the company will within the next 5 to 10 years terminate the development of next-generation semiconductor process technology, stop building new wafer fabs and, like many of its rivals, depend solely on dedicated foundries for these critical services.
  
  
• Arm China asks Beijing government to intervene in row with Arm UK (Wednesday Jul. 29, 2020)
  Arm China is asking the Beijing government to step into the row between Arm UK and Arm China.
  
  
• Intel is a Potentially Great Foundry (Wednesday Jul. 29, 2020)
  Intel Corp. dropped the ball. It should today be the world’s biggest semiconductor foundry; not TSMC. This can still change but it will require a radically different vision and strategy completely at odds with what CEO Bob Swan outlined last week. The board of directors will also need to intervene.
  
  
• Second Quarter 2020 Silicon Wafer Shipments Up Over First-Quarter and Year-Ago Volumes (Monday Jul. 27, 2020)
  Worldwide silicon wafer area shipments rose 8 percent to 3,152 million square inches in the second quarter of 2020 compared to the 2,920 million square inches shipped in the first quarter of the year and surpassed second quarter 2019 shipments by 6 percent
  
  
• North American Semiconductor Equipment Industry Posts June 2020 Billings (Friday Jul. 24, 2020)
  North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $2.32 billion in billings worldwide in June 2020 (three-month average basis), according to the June Equipment Market Data Subscription (EMDS) Billings Report published today by SEMI .