What’s Ahead For Chips & Equipment?


It’s been a topsy-turvy year in the semiconductor industry. 2020 was supposed to be a strong year. Then, the coronavirus outbreak hit. Countries implemented various measures to mitigate the outbreak, such as stay-at-home orders and store closures. Economic turmoil and job losses soon followed. Earlier in the year, the chip market looked bleak. Now, business appears to be strong. To gain... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Chipmakers and OEMs Intel is exiting the NAND flash market. SK Hynix and Intel announced that they have signed an agreement on Oct. 20, under which SK Hynix would acquire Intel’s NAND memory and storage business for $9 billion.The transaction includes the NAND SSD business, the NAND component and wafer business, and the Dalian NAND memory manufacturing facility in China. Intel will retain it... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Chipmakers and OEMs AMD is in talks to acquire Xilinx in a deal that could be worth more than $30 billion, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. If the deal transpires, AMD will enter the FPGA business, putting it further in competition with Intel. No deal has been struck, though. --------------------------------------------- Multiple sources believe that China’s Huawei i... » read more

Upturn Seen In Semi Equipment Biz


Business continues to get better in the semiconductor equipment sector. VLSI Research, for one, has raised its forecast in the arena. But there is still some uncertainty amid mixed growth for semiconductors, trade wars and other factors. After a downturn in 2019, the semiconductor equipment market expected an upturn in 2020. Then, the Covid-19 pandemic struck. Suddenly, a large percentage... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Top story NVIDIA and SoftBank Group Corp. (SBG) have announced a definitive agreement under which NVIDIA will acquire Arm from SBG and the SoftBank Vision Fund in a transaction valued at $40 billion. Market research Here’s the latest fab equipment forecast from VLSI Research: “The semiconductor equipment market has been very resilient in 2020 despite a very challenging macroeconomic ... » read more

Startup Funding: August 2020


Semiconductor startups were hot this month, with big funding going to designers and chip analytics. In automotive, one Chinese electric vehicle company raised another large round right before its IPO, and a LiDar maker's reverse merger gave it a cash infusion and set it on its own IPO road. Plus, a growing quantum computer developer saw a funding boost. This month, we feature 17 startups that c... » read more

Rethinking Competitive One Upmanship Among Foundries


The winner in the foundry business used to be determined by who got to the most advanced process node first. For the most part that benchmark no longer works. Unlike in the past, when all of the foundries and IDMs competed using basically the same process, each foundry has gone its own route. This is primarily due to the divergence of end markets, and the realization that as costs increase, ... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Chipmakers TSMC posted mixed results in the quarter, although the news was generally positive. The foundry giant raised its capital spending plans. “Our second quarter business was sequentially flat, as the continued 5G infrastructure deployment and HPC-related product launches offset weaknesses in other platforms,” said Wendell Huang, vice president and CFO at TSMC. “Moving into third q... » read more

China Speeds Up Advanced Chip Development


China is accelerating its efforts to advance its domestic semiconductor industry, amid ongoing trade tensions with the West, in hopes of becoming more self-sufficient. The country is still behind in IC technology and is nowhere close to being self-reliant, but it is making noticeable progress. Until recently, China’s domestic chipmakers were stuck with mature foundry processes with no pres... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Chipmakers Jim Keller, senior vice president in the Technology, Systems Architecture and Client Group (TSCG) and general manager of the Silicon Engineering Group (SEG) at Intel, has resigned amid a major reorganization at the company. Here's one report about the situation. Cree as well as China’s Yutong Group and StarPower are working together to accelerate the commercial adoption of sili... » read more

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