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, 2020-09-14 23:42
On September 13, 2020, NVIDIA announced it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire Arm Holdings from SoftBank for $40 billion in a combination of NVIDIA stock and cash. SoftBank will retain a 10% interest in Arm. While there are regulatory issues to be resolved in the UK, the US and China, NVIDIA anticipates this process will take 12 to 18 months. The process of integrating the two companies will not start until the deal is consummated.
Revenues in July fell -8.0% from June, right in line with the average decline for July over the last ten years of -8.1%. However, compared to July 2019, revenues grew 5.0% in July 2020. This marks the eighth consecutive month of single-digit YoY percent increases.
With first half results in, we have some perspective on this historic year. Revenues were up 5.9% from 1H 2019, and they were down 3% from 2H 2019. Revenues in 2Q 2020 were down only 0.9% from 1Q 2020, and they were up 5.0% from 2Q 2019. Units in the 2Q were down 2.4% compared to 1Q 2020, and they were down 2.7% compared to 2Q 2019.
On a regional basis, China had the best results in 2Q 2020, with revenues up 6.6% and units up 7.1%. This reflects the country recovering from the devastating lockdowns the country experienced ........
The unanticipated COVID-19 pandemic is playing havoc with both the world economic scene as well as the semiconductor industry outlook. In January 2020, as Wuhan, China and other surrounding areas shut down, there was speculation that the world would experience an interruption in the supply chain. Today it is clear that the U.S. and world GDP have been affected, and most forecasters adjusted their numbers down. On the other hand, the semiconductor industry is experiencing some positive results by responding quickly to the warning signs from China and the shelter-at-home directive.
Our interaction with electronic devices has changed much over the decades. We have gone from command-line to graphical user interfaces to touchscreens. We have now arrived at a new user interface: voice interaction with assistants such as Amazon's Alexa. Smart speakers installed with a voice assistant are the new way to easily play music or get information. Speakers have transitioned to interactive, connected devices that can operate in concert with other smart devices in the home.
Our interaction with electronic devices has changed much over the decades. A big step up was the transition from command-line to graphical user interface, along with keyboards and mice. The next big jump was the touchscreen, which had been around for decades before being popularized on a global scale by Apple’s iPhone in 2007. We now have arrived at a new user interface: voice supported by natural language processing.
published by Rich Wawrzyniak on Thu, 2020-07-23 21:37
On June 23rd, 2020, Siemens AG signed a letter of intent to acquire Cambridge, UK-based 3rd Party Semiconductor Intellectual Property (SIP) vendor, UltraSoC. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed except to say Siemens plans to integrate UltraSoC’s technology into the Xcelerator portfolio as part of Mentor’s Tessent™ software product suite. The acquisition is expected to close in Siemens 4th fiscal quarter this year.
There are several areas where this acquisition is impactful to the SIP market, the EDA market and the broader semiconductor market.
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.
May 2020 semiconductor revenues increased 9.0% from April, which was down 14% from March. April's 14.2% drop was the largest sequential decline since 2011, but May's 9.0% increase was the largest for the month of May since 2006. Year-over-year, May was up 6.4% compared to May 2019. The North American PCB book-to-bill ratio fell from 1.19 in April to 1.1 in May. However, anything above one is a positive sign for sales six months out. The ratio has been at 1.0 or higher since May 2019.
Silicon Carbide (SiC) is a wide bandgap material and can be used for discrete components such as Schottky diodes and MOSFETs as well as bare die in power modules. Wide bandgap (WBG) refers to materials that permit devices to operate at much higher voltages, frequencies and temperatures than conventional semiconductor materials like silicon and gallium arsenide. It offers many advantages, including higher thermal conductivity that results in more efficient heat transfer and a lower on-state resistance that decreases conduction losses.
