The semiconductor market was down 0.4% in first quarter 2017 from 4Q 2016 and up 18.1% from a year ago, according to World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS). The 0.4% decline in 1Q 2017 versus 4Q 2016 is strong compared to an average 4% decline from 4Q to 1Q over the previous five years. The relative strength in 1Q 2017 was driven… Read More
Tag: qualcomm
Apple Going (IP) Vertical with no Imagination!
What conclusion could we derive from the recent (April 3) PR from Imagination where we learn that the company “has been notified by Apple Inc. (“Apple”), its largest customer, that Apple is of a view that it will no longer use the Group’s intellectual property in its new products in 15 months to two years time, and as such will not be … Read More
Webinar: Top Five Challenges Preventing Design Closure!
According to a recent engineering survey, completing IC designs on time and within specifications gets exponentially more challenging with each node. Why? Here are the top five reasons:… Read More
Talking Cars, Quiet Qualcomm
Qualcomm is a technology titan standing astride both the automotive and wireless industries with 10’s of thousands of patents, 340M automotive-grade chipsets shipped and a leading position in the connected car industry. So it is fascinating to find executives at the company almost totally tongue-tied of late when it … Read More
GlobalFoundries Makes Pure-Play Foundry Great Again!
The pure-play foundry business just got stronger and so did semiconductor manufacturing in the United States. As we all know, the fabless semiconductor industry started by utilizing extra capacity from traditional semiconductor manufacturers (IDMs). However, putting your designs in the hands of a competitor is not a good … Read More
Qualcomm Hit With $853M Penalty for Patent Licensing Practices
Qualcomm was hit in December with a $853M fine by the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) for not fairly sharing patents related to mobile phone chipsets. In setting the standards for CDMA, WCDMA and LTE, agreements were struck that enable sharing technology to advance the standard. Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND)… Read More
Intel Spreadtrum ARM SoCs
In June of 2013 Edward Snowden copied and leaked classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA). His actions exposed numerous surveillance programs that many governments around the world reacted to, including China. In September of 2013 China Vice Premier Ma Kai declared semiconductors a key sector for the … Read More
Semiconductors flat for second straight year
The global semiconductor market posted strong 11.6% growth in 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] quarter 2016 from 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] quarter, according to WSTS. This strength is reflected in the 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] quarter revenue growth reported by the major semiconductor suppliers. Of the 12 companies, half (Intel, Samsung, Broadcom, TI, Micron… Read More
Qualcomm Brings Us One Step Closer To Gigabit LTE Speed Products
Qualcomm announced at their 4G/5G Summit in Hong Kong specific products their 1 Gigabit Snapdragon X16 LTE modem will ship inside of. In February, the company announced, as we wrote in Forbes last Febraury here, that they had achieved speeds of up to 1 Gbps using this newly-announced Snapdragon X16 modem. Many questioned when we… Read More
How The Snapdragon X50, World’s First 5G Modem, Puts Qualcomm Ahead Of The Curve
Regardless of what part of technology you come from, the entire tech industry has been talking about 5G. 5G will reshape the way we will use mobile devices, deliver self-driving cars and smart cities, and even the way get content delivered to our homes. Some companies talk about it to be part of the conversation, while others lead … Read More