Last week was the Linley Mobile Conference. Mobile is a huge semiconductor market and, outside of Intel, is the main driver for next generation process technologies. A new generation of mobile phones comes along, fills the leading edge fabs for a year or two and then moves on to the next generation. Nothing comes close to requiring… Read More
Tag: apple
Intel Goes After Broadcom
Intel continues shopping spree with Broadcom
AMAT drops TEL merger due to high remedy cost
Global Foundries wins Apple A9 business at 20nm for 6S & “6C”
Intel follows Altera with Broadcom chaser…..
Sources in the industry have confirmed that Intel is advanced discussions to acquire Broadcom, following… Read More
Passage of Time with Watches
During my childhood in my native place in India, although there were good watches around from Seiko, Citizen and some of the Indian companies, I used to see some old men and women never using any watch but still being fairly accurate in perceiving time by just watching the position of sun, or moon, or the shadow formed by a certain object.… Read More
The Apple A9 Samsung & TSMC Love Triangle
The Apple A9 drama continues to play out with no certainty!
At the end of the day does it matter?
Will the winner be the loser?
A Comedy, Tragedy or Love Story?
Depends on your view…
Act I Scene I…The stage is set….
We are watching an Italian Opera of a standard love triangle….
The object of desire is the rich … Read More
Apple’s ARMed History
Apple has redefined three industries within a decade: media player with the iPod, mobile handset with the iPhone and portable computers with the iPad. If there is anything common in these three game-changing product development stories other than Apple, it’s the ARM footprint. Even now the technology media is abuzz with speculation… Read More
Apple Watch Announcement
Rock music, invitation only tickets, hollywood lighting, journalists from around the world, live streaming on the web, yes, another typical Apple-orchestrated product launch on Monday, March 9th at the Yerba Buena Center in California.
Up first was a video about Apple’s store opening in West Lake China with superb cinematography.… Read More
Mobile 2014 and the Future
The numbers are in now and so we can look at the top suppliers into the mobile market for 2014, and then a look out to what the future might bring. Before getting to the companies it is worth looking just how dominant the Chinese market is, at 32% of the entire world market compared to, for example, US’s 9%. China Mobile alone has … Read More
Has the Semiconductor Industry Gone Mad?
The weather in Taiwan last week was very strange. It was so cold I tried to turn on the heat in my hotel room only to find out it was not possible. If you want more heat they bring a portable heater because who needs central heat in Hsinchu? Even stranger is all of the media hyperbole on the next process nodes:
Intel CFO: We’re so far… Read More
Samsung and Apple: What is Really Going On?
Apple reported that it sold $74.6B in products last quarter, and earned an all-time record (for any company) $18.06B in profits. Sammy reported its lowest quarterly profit since 2011 at $21.3Bk, down almost a third.
In 2013 mobile had been 70% of Sammy’s profits so any drop in revenue or profitability would have an amplified… Read More
Apple’s Implications for Semiconductor
Apple’s iPhone 6 alone represents at least 50K wafer starts/month plus the iPad (A8X). What could the Iphone 6S/7 & A9 mean? What about the iWatch? Apple is the technology and volume driver of the semiconductor industry so lets take a look at the broader implications.
If we do the math the A8 is 89mm2 and 8.47 X 10.5mm. Using… Read More