Talking Cars, Quiet Qualcomm

Talking Cars, Quiet Qualcomm
by Roger C. Lanctot on 03-25-2017 at 12:00 pm

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!

GlobalFoundries Makes Pure-Play Foundry Great Again!
by Daniel Nenni on 02-09-2017 at 9:00 pm

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 Hit With $853M Penalty for Patent Licensing Practices
by Tom Simon on 01-02-2017 at 12:00 pm

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

Intel Spreadtrum ARM SoCs
by Daniel Nenni on 12-27-2016 at 12:00 pm

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

Semiconductors flat for second straight year
by Bill Jewell on 12-20-2016 at 4:00 pm

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 Brings Us One Step Closer To Gigabit LTE Speed Products
by Patrick Moorhead on 12-07-2016 at 12:00 pm

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

How The Snapdragon X50, World’s First 5G Modem, Puts Qualcomm Ahead Of The Curve
by Patrick Moorhead on 12-05-2016 at 12:00 pm

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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


Final SemiWiki Book Signing at REUSE 2016!

Final SemiWiki Book Signing at REUSE 2016!
by Daniel Nenni on 11-08-2016 at 4:00 pm

It has been a hectic year for the semiconductor industry so now is a good time to reflect on how we got to where we are today in hopes of better understanding where we are going tomorrow.

Given the importance of semiconductor IP (the $32B ARM acquisition by SoftBank for example) I would strongly suggest attending the REUSE 2016 event… Read More


AI on the Edge

AI on the Edge
by Bernard Murphy on 11-02-2016 at 7:00 am

A lot of the press we see on AI tends to be of the “big iron” variety – recognition algorithms for Facebook images, Google TensorFlow and IBM Watson systems. But AI is already on edge-nodes such as smartphones and home automation hubs, for functions like voice-recognition, facial recognition and natural language understanding.… Read More


Intel Foundry Rounds Out IP Lineup With ARM at IDF 2016

Intel Foundry Rounds Out IP Lineup With ARM at IDF 2016
by Patrick Moorhead on 09-28-2016 at 12:00 pm

There are always debates on who does what best in the semiconductor industry, but most agree that Intel is the best in process and transistor technology. This leadership has served the company extremely well over the last few decades and allowed them to reach a position of dominance in the PC and server semiconductor markets. In … Read More