Consolidation Creates Confusion

By Mike Gianfagna - 30 Jul, 2015 - Comments: 0

Consolidation in any industry is a sign of maturation. Diverse business models converge to the ones that really work. Supply and demand find equilibrium with a right-sized supply base. And generally, the fittest survive. The semiconductor industry is somewhere around a half-century old, so consolidation in this industry is to be expected, and we have certainly seen some consolidation of late. ... » read more

Executive Insight: Grant Pierce

By Ed Sperling - 27 Jul, 2015 - Comments: 0

Grant Pierce, president and CEO of Sonics, sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to talk about the effects of industry consolidation, China's impact, and the unfolding security threat with the IoT. What follows are excerpts of that interview. SE: Consolidation is one of the big stories right now. What does that mean for your company and the industry as a whole? Pierce: It's a very inter... » read more

Consolidation And Innovation

By Ed Sperling - 16 Jun, 2015 - Comments: 0

Consolidation is happening across the semiconductor industry, in ways that are very apparent and others that aren't so obvious. On the chipmaker side, NXP's acquisition of Freescale, Avago's acquisition of Broadcom and LSI, and Intel's acquisition of Altera are so big that they require approval by multiple governments. Less obvious are moves such as Apple's build out of its processor team, a... » read more

IP Integration Challenges Increase

By Ed Sperling - 16 Jun, 2015 - Comments: 0

Semiconductor Engineering sat down with Chris Rowen, CTO of [getentity id="22032" e_name="Cadence"]'s IP group; Rob Aitken, an [getentity id="22186" comment="ARM"] fellow; Patrick Soheili, vice president of product management and corporate development at [getentity id="22242" e_name="eSilicon"]; Navraj Nandra, senior director of marketing for DesignWare analog and mixed-signal IP at [getentity ... » read more

Synopsys To Buy Atrenta, Ansys To Acquire Gear

By Ann Mutschler - 09 Jun, 2015 - Comments: 0

By Ann Mutschler & Ed Sperling As evidence of the continued consolidation in the EDA industry, Synopsys announced Sunday it would acquire privately held formal verification provider Atrenta, for an undisclosed sum. That was followed quickly by Ansys' announcement that it would buy data analytics firm Gear Design Solutions. From a strategic perspective, Synopsys co-CEO Aart de Geus said ... » read more

Executive Insight: Charles Janac

By Ed Sperling - 08 Jun, 2015 - Comments: 0

SE: One of the big stories these days is consolidation. What are you seeing on your side? Janac: There are about 230 companies doing SoCs right now. Maybe 150 should be doing that. As the game gets more expensive and more difficult, some of the companies that don't have volume may have to do something else. Consolidation is part of that. But you're also going to see movement toward platforms... » read more

Executive Insight: Jack Harding

By Ed Sperling - 28 May, 2015 - Comments: 0

SE: What's changed over the past 12 months? Harding: My starting point these days is around consolidation. At last count there were about 85 companies in the semiconductor industry. My bet is that at this time next year there will be about 70. The size of deal will not matter. Nothing will be too big. The strategic question is whether you're playing musical chairs and when the music stops, ... » read more

Executive Insight: Prakash Narain

By Ed Sperling - 27 May, 2014 - Comments: 0

SE: What’s your biggest concern? Narain: We are a smaller company, and ultimately we compete on the basis of the quality of the solutions we provide to customers. What’s the value proposition? How many X better will our solution be compared to the existing solutions that are in deployed in the market? You make a projection about it in your mind, and you make investments, and until they�... » read more

Executive Insight: CH Wu

By Ed Sperling - 21 Apr, 2014 - Comments: 0

Semiconductor Engineering sat down with CH Wu, president and CEO of Advantest Taiwan, to talk about business, politics, and his philosophy on what really motivates people. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. SE: Tell us a little about who you are and your background. Wu: I graduated from college with a degree in electrical engineering and started at Philips Electric, then moved ... » read more

Where Is The Real Value?

By Ed Sperling - 08 Jan, 2009 - Comments: 0

If customers aren’t willing to pay for EDA or ESL tools, then something is clearly missing from the equation. It’s not that there isn’t value in the tools. Clearly, you can’t get the job of creating a system on chip done without them. But the real value has shifted. These shifts have occurred at various points throughout the history of semiconductors. The big question is whether ... » read more

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tag: consolidation