Robust Growth And Strong Outlook For Semiconductor Materials


2020 was a year that made a mark in the history of mankind as well as the semiconductor industry. It was a year of business and personal disruptions caused by COVID-19, supply chain interruptions, and exceptional agility of industries coping with the new normal imposed by the pandemic. Nevertheless, it was a year of extraordinary growth for the semiconductor industry, including semiconductor ma... » read more

The SEMI Industry Strategy Symposium Outlook


In mid-January, SEMI organized the two-day Industry Strategy Symposium. Presentations ranged from the outlook for the overall global economy, to purifying gases and materials to parts per quadrillion, to how TSMC took the leading-edge process crown from Intel. The first day was focused on the economy and business environment, along with its impact on the semiconductor supply chain. The secon... » read more

Startup Funding: October 2020


October 2020 was a big month for startups across the automotive space, with sizeable funding all around. Three startups based out of China brought in over $100M apiece for ADAS and autonomous driving, and a fourth U.S.-based startup saw $125M investment for simulating and testing autonomous driving systems. Two electric vehicle manufacturers also received $100M+ rounds. Collectively, the auto c... » read more

A Mid-Year End Market Recovery For Semiconductors


Although the semiconductor chip and capital equipment markets performed well in the first half of 2020, many of the electronic equipment end markets struggled globally. World electronic equipment sales declined almost 10% in 2Q’20 vs. 2Q’19 (chart 1). Better mid-year end market demand However, world business conditions are improving. The global purchasing managers index, a measure of broa... » read more

AI Drives A New Wave For Semiconductors


In Cadence's recent earnings call, Lip-Bu Tan, our CEO, talked about the five waves that are hitting us simultaneously. Here's what he said: First of all, I'm excited about this industry, because it's very unusual to have five major waves happening at the same time. You have the AI machine learning wave and you have 5G is starting to deploy and then you have the hyperscale guy, the really mas... » read more

Gradual Rebound Or Slight Dip


Uncertainty has gripped the silicon wafer market as the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to upend growth projections for 2020. Declines in both shipments and revenue plagued the silicon wafer market in 2019, a downturn that had given way to optimism for 2020 with rising expectations for normalizing inventory levels, memory market improvements, data center market growth and the 5G market takeoff. ... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Tools & IP Synopsys debuted VIP and a UVM source code test suite for IP supporting Ethernet 800G. The VIP supports DesignWare 56G Ethernet, 112G Ethernet, and 112G USR/XSR PHYs for FinFET processes, which can be integrated for 800G implementations based on 8 lane x 100 Gb/s technology. The VIP can switch speed configurations dynamically at run time and includes a customizable set of frame ... » read more

Making Sense Of EDA And Digital Twins


There is a new buzzword in town, “digital twins.” I have been using it for a while now in the context of system-on-chip (SoC) verification as well as a little more broadly when it comes to security issues for data in general. There are some differences in emphasis across different vertical domains, based on when they are used during the life cycle, which use models are desired and what scop... » read more

Fab Equipment Poised For A Record 2021


Global fab equipment spending promises to crawl out of a gloomy 2019 and see a modest recovery this year before a sharp uptick drives record investments in 2021 in a vivid display of the decades-old cyclicality playing out in the semiconductor industry. Typically – and reliably – fab investments fall into negative territory after two years of growth, though a few periods have bucked that... » read more

Impact Of Coronavirus Could Threaten Global Electronics Growth


Data through December showed a steady recovery in the global electronic supply chain with SEMI equipment leading the way in 3/12 growth (Chart 1). The global purchasing managers index moved into expansion territory (PMI>50) in January indicating accelerating growth in world manufacturing activity (Chart 2). But in late January the Coronavirus (COVID-19) began to make its negative impact f... » read more

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