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.
published by Rich Wawrzyniak on Mon, 2021-05-03 22:37
What is the Real Promise of Artificial Intelligence?
And Where Does BrainChip Fit into the Picture?
Past and Present Technological Innovations
Unquestionably, the introduction of augmented Artificial Intelligence (AI) into our economy and society is going to have profound effects on how we engage with the world around us and how we expect the world to engage with us. Many parallels can be drawn between today’s AI innovations and similar past periods in history. In each of these cases, the world experienced great leaps in innovation and invention, which correspondingly produced great improvements in our daily lives.
Perhaps one of the most notable technological introductions was that of the mainframe computer for business and science applications back in the early 1950’s by IBM. This innovation led to the deployment of computing power to many companies throughout the world and allowed even small companies, through time-sharing arrangements, to have access to this capability. The 1950s and 1960s were decades where great leaps in productivity were made, enabled by this and other advancements.
The 3rd Party Semiconductor Intellectual Property (IP) 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 IP market.
published by Rich Wawrzyniak on Fri, 2021-03-12 22:14
Semico recently published an article in our March, 2021 IPI Newsletter detailing a press release between NaNose (Nano Artificial Nose) Medical and BrainChip in which they jointly announced a new system for medical diagnosis COVID-19. This system used an artificially intelligent nano-array based on molecularly modified gold nanoparticles and a random network of single-walled carbon nanotubes paired with the Akida neuromorphic AI processor from BrainChip.
Using a non-invasive breathalyzer approach, this system collects Volatile Organic Chemicals (VOC’s) given off by long list of diseases and passes these chemicals past the AI nano-array sensor and used the Akida neuromorphic processor to analyze the data, giving the results almost immediately with 86% accuracy.
Each of these technologies is projected to have great positive impacts on our society and economies in the near future. How much better then to detail the marriage of metamaterials and AI in this system as an impressive first step in that direction. In addition to the great achievement of being able to detect the COVID-19 virus non-invasively, this technology pairing can also detect a range of other diseases simultaneously with similar results.
The table below shows the other diseases that are detectable by the nano-array sensor and the BrainChip neuromorphic AI processor.
List of Diseases Detected by NaNose Medical Nano-array Sensor
There are challenges on the semiconductor supply side that will place some restraints on semiconductor sales in 2021. As electric vehicles and AI continue to penetrate the general consumer market, there are reports of chip shortages. Current semiconductor manufacturing capacity is finding it challenging to keep up with demand. A new report from Semico Research, Semico Wafer Demand Q1 2021 Highlights (MA110-21), forecasts wafer demand for 2021 to increase 8.2% in 2021.
The Wafer Demand Summary and Assumptions is a quarterly publication. It includes an excel spreadsheet with annual wafer demand by product by technology from 2010-2025. Product categories include DRAM, SRAM, NAND, NOR, Other Non-volatile, MPU, MCU, DSP, Computing MOS Logic, Communications MOS Logic, Consumer MOS Logic, Automotive MOS Logic, Other MOS Logic, Programmable Logic, Standard Cell, Gate Array, Analog, Discrete, Optoelectronics, Sensors and Digital Bipolar.
The semiconductor intellectual property (SIP) market is an integral part of the semiconductor industry. Third-party IP has propelled the industry, opening the door for many new products from start-ups to established IDMs. Enabling increasingly complex devices, reducing the cost of product development and reducing the time to market for both leading-edge and mature products are just a few of the benefits of third-party IP.
Semico Research conducted a survey in November 2020 of RISC-V users. This follows an initial survey and report published by Semico in 2019. With this study, we wanted to quantify the total available market (TAM) for IP cores and estimate the served available market (SAM) for RISC-V IP cores. We surveyed and interviewed a cross section of the semiconductor industry in order to gather information related to the type of devices that are being designed with RISC-V and their target markets.
There is a significant amount of economic uncertainty due to the COVID‑19 pandemic; however, Semico’s outlook for semiconductor sales includes several areas of growth which have positively impacted the updated forecast. A new report from Semico Research, Semico Wafer Demand Q4 2020 Highlights (MA112-20), forecasts wafer demand to grow by 3.1% this year over 2019.
The Wafer Demand Summary and Assumptions is a quarterly publication. It includes an excel spreadsheet with annual wafer demand by product by technology from 2010-2024. Product categories include DRAM, SRAM, NAND, NOR, Other Non-volatile, MPU, MCU, DSP, Computing MOS Logic, Communications MOS Logic, Consumer MOS Logic, Automotive MOS Logic, Other MOS Logic, Programmable Logic, Standard Cell, Gate Array, Analog, Discrete, Optoelectronics, Sensors and Digital Bipolar.
Semiconductor revenues in September grew 11.4%, breaking a three-year streak of single-digit monthly increases. 3Q 2020 revenues grew 10.8% over 2Q 2020 and 6.4% over 3Q 2019. Semico is forecasting 4Q 2020 revenues will decline 0.4%; this will result in revenue growth for the year of 5.3%.
