Semico is a semiconductor marketing & consulting research company located in Phoenix, Arizona. We offer custom consulting, portfolio packages, individual market research studies and premier industry conferences.
In early April 2018, the Materials Research Society held their spring meeting and exhibit at the Phoenix, Arizona convention center. With over 110 symposium presentations, it was difficult to select which sessions to attend. But one forum caught my eye, “AI for Materials Development”. These days AI seems to be everywhere.
As we all speculate about the impact of AI on autonomous driving and the next killer app, Carla Gomes, Professor of Computer Science and director of the Institute for Computational Sustainability at Cornell University, is focusing on large-scale constraint-based reasoning. She pointed out that AI still can’t compete with good ol’ human common sense. Human reasoning and inference planning are still lacking in most AI systems. One of the key fundamentals of AI is building a neural network that resembles the human brain. Even with the advancements of 7nm silicon technology, this is a daunting task, not to mention the complexities of software algorithms to mimic the human thought and decision process.
But in the world of materials development, AI excels. By integrating material experimentation and AI, the discovery of new materials and the application of materials in the real world is progressing at an accelerated pace. AI is capable of developing the hypotheses and—along with robotics—is following through with new scientific discovery.
Semico Research is pleased to announce Jim Feldhan will be speaking at The ConFab, held May 20-23, 2018 at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. Jim's speech is titled: "Emerging Technology Markets Fueling IC Growth" on Wednesday, May 23rd.
Artificial intelligence in the IoT category-especially in automotive, industrial and home automation-has helped boost semiconductor revenues which are expected to increase over 8.5% in 2018. Unit sales will see an increase of 5.4%, while wafer demand is expected to grow 5.2% according to Semico's recent report, Semico Wafer Demand Update Q1 2018 (MA110-18).
The Wafer Demand Summary and Assumptions is a quarterly publication. It includes an excel spreadsheet with annual wafer demand by product by technology from 2010-2021. Product categories include DRAM, SRAM, NAND, NOR, Other Non-volatile, MPU, MCU, DSP, Computing Micro Logic, Communications, Other Micro Logic, Programmable Logic, Standard Cell, Gate Array, Analog, Discrete, Optoelectronics, Sensors and Digital Bipolar. In addition, there is a summary write-up providing the major assumptions behind the forecast and changes from the previous quarter.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) functionality has emerged into the semiconductor market with many companies participating at all levels of the semiconductor, software, services and IP industries offering a variety of products. The emergence of the AI market represents the 'next big thing' for both the semiconductor industry as well as the overall economy. Deployment has already started in factory floor environments delivering better control and maintenance over a multitude of industrial processes and products.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is anticipated to be the next big market driver that will create new or additional semiconductor demand for a wide spectrum of semiconductor devices. We believe that AI will be integrated in devices from the cloud to factories, homes, offices and vehicles. The application must accommodate mobile and IoT products. Semico's latest Technology Brief, Artificial Intelligence: Powering the Next Generation of Processors, focuses on examples of AI applications, semiconductor processor architectures and the companies that are developing products to make AI functionality a success. Architectural issues for AI processors are explored, and a market forecast is provided. This 36-page report is the first in Semico’s series of AI-related reports and presentations that are expected to be released in the coming year.
The 3rd Party Semiconductor Intellectual Property (SIP) market has seen great innovation in the products it offers to System-on-a-Chip (SoC) designers over the last ten years. If any market segment in the semiconductor industry typifies the intense evolutionary pressures that the entire electronics market has undergone, it is the 3rd Party SIP market. A new Semico Research Report, Licensing, Royalty and Service Revenues for 3rd Party SIP:
The 3rd Party Semiconductor Intellectual Property (SIP) market has seen great innovation in the products it offers to System-on-a-Chip (SoC) designers over the last ten years. If any market segment in the semiconductor industry typifies the intense evolutionary pressures that the entire electronics market has undergone, it is the 3rd Party SIP market. This new Semico Research Report, Licensing, Royalty and Service Revenues for 3rd Party SIP: A Market Analysis and Forecast for 2018, (SC105-18) forecasts revenue for the SoC IP market to approach $10 Billion by 2022
Semico President Jim Feldhan spoke at Semicon Korea 2018 in the Smart Automotive Forum (January 31) and Market Seminar (February 1). Jim's presentation was titled "Market Dynamics Driving the Future of Automotive Semiconductors."
The ASIC design starts market continues to evolve with changes in the end-use markets. In terms of unit growth rates the Communications segment is now third behind Industrial and Consumer. The communications segment will have the most number of design starts over the next 5 years while automotive will have the highest growth rate of all the segments. However Industrial, while a very fragmented market, will have a higher number of design starts than automotive driven by Smart Grid applications along with a renewed growth in factory automation applications.
