Finance

In Q4, Toshiba is to sample three new families of SSDs with high-speed PCIe interfaces that provide high-bandwidth point-to-point links with the processor and reduce system bottlenecks. The drives use the NVMe protocol and have been designed for various applications including high performance notebooks, thin notebooks, 2-in-1/convertible notebooks, all-in-one PCs and tablets; and server and storage applications. Each SSD family ...

Silicon Labs claims best-in-class jitter performance for its Si5348 clock IC which enables hardware designers to implement a “clock-tree-on-a-chip” solution for Synchronous Ethernet (SyncE), IEEE 1588v2 and general-purpose frequency translation for wireless and telecom infrastructure, broadband networks (e.g., G.fast DSL and PON) and data centre applications. SyncE and IEEE 1588 have become increasingly popular methods to deliver synchronization over packet ...

Worldwide silicon wafer area shipments increased during Q2 2015 compared to Q1, says the SEMI Silicon Manufacturers Group (SMG). Total silicon wafer area shipments were 2,702 million square inches during the most recent quarter, a 2.5% increase from the 2,637 million square inches shipped during the previous quarter resulting in a new quarterly volume shipment record, says SEMI’s Silicon Manufacturers” ...

Infineon has overtaken ST to become Europe’s largest chip company – Infineon’s Q2 sales were $1.762 billion while ST’s were $1.754 billion, according to IC Insights. Samsung continues to close the gap on Intel with revenues of $10.3 billion in the quarter compared with Intel’s $11.96. Top Ten Vendors Q2 2015 $bn Intel 11.946 Samsung 10.3 TSMC 6.6 Hynix 4.2 ...

Qualcomm is to buy Ikanos for $47 million to expand its broadband and modem portfolio for fixed line consumer business. It will help provide, says Qualcomm: ‘a central hub for Internet of Everything (IoE) enabled devices, services and 3G/LTE small cells.’ “Qualcomm Atheros has always viewed the home gateway as the enabler for consumers to not only access the Internet ...

Q2 semi sales rose 1% over Q1 and 2% over Q2 2014 to reach an all-time sales record for Q2 of $84 billion, reports the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). June sales were down 0.4% on May but up 2% on June 2014 reaching $28bn. Year-to-date sales are 3.9% higher than last year. “Macroeconomic headwinds and softening demand have slowed global semiconductor ...

China’s semiconductor industry value chain was worth $48 billion last year, according to the China Semiconductor Industry Association (CSIA) but is largely contributed by foreign companies. The output value of the China semiconductor industry was $12.5bn in 2014, of which $5bn came from IC design, $3.7bn from fabrication, and $3.8bn from packaging and testing. 80% of the wafers produced in ...

After a decade of struggle, Samsung workers whose health has been affected by working in fabs are to be compensated. Samsung has set up an $85.8 million fund for employees who contracted diseases while working at its semiconductor and display plants. The fund will also be available to the families of deceased workers. The workers have been represented by an ...

ARM has bought the five year-old Israeli security firm Sansa which has a hardware solution for mobile connectivity. The price is thought to be somewhere around $90 million. Sansa, which was called Discretix until last October, has had $37 million of venture capital money and is backed by both Sequoia and Accel, among others. Car-hacking demonstrations have recently shown the vulnerability ...

IQE has been announced as a key partner in a new consortium to establish the United States’ first Integrated Photonics Institute for Manufacturing Innovation (IP-IMI). Created as part of President Obama’s National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI), the IP-IMI was launched this week in Rochester, NY by US Vice President Biden as the sixth of nine new manufacturing institutes designed ...