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


Why are Top Brass from NXP, Qualcomm, Skyworks Keynoting Upcoming IEEE SOI-3D-SubVt (S3S) Conference? (San Francisco, Oct.’16)

Why are Top Brass from NXP, Qualcomm, Skyworks Keynoting Upcoming IEEE SOI-3D-SubVt (S3S) Conference? (San Francisco, Oct.’16)
by Adele Hars on 08-25-2016 at 12:00 pm

By Fred Allibert
The IEEE S3S Conference (10-13 October 2016 at the San Francisco Airport Hyatt Regency) brings together 3 key technologies that will play a major role in tomorrow’s industry: SOI, 3D integration, and Subthreshold Microelectronics. The numerous degrees of freedom they allow enable the ultra-low power operation… Read More


If an Intel 10nm transistor fell in the ARM forest

If an Intel 10nm transistor fell in the ARM forest
by Don Dingee on 08-18-2016 at 4:00 pm

Intel’s news at IDF this week about partnering with ARM for foundry services on 10nm set off some wild speculation. It’s not a surprise that ARM would enable Intel – they’ve worked together before, ARM is an equal opportunity ecosystem partner, and ARM has publicly announced 10nm cores taped out at TSMC.… Read More


Qualcomm is Back on Top of the SoC World!

Qualcomm is Back on Top of the SoC World!
by Daniel Nenni on 08-13-2016 at 7:00 am

In 2015 Qualcomm stunned the fabless semiconductor world with an unprecedented layoff. When I first heard about it the number was 5% but it kept growing and finally hit 15%. The big misstep here was, that after being the SoC leader starting in 2007 with the Snapdragon series of chips that powered the Smartphone revolution, QCOM did… Read More


MIPI DevCon 2016: Opened to non-MIPI Members!

MIPI DevCon 2016: Opened to non-MIPI Members!
by Eric Esteve on 08-08-2016 at 7:00 am

The MIPI Alliance was founded in 2003 by large IDM to standardize chip-to-chip interfaces in the wireless phone (mobile) segment. The various MIPI specifications (CSI, DSI, DigRF and many more) have been adopted by the application processor chip makers (usually large IDM or fabless, like Intel or Qualcomm initially and many … Read More


Linley Mobile and Wearable Conference Drills into Rapidly Evolving Markets

Linley Mobile and Wearable Conference Drills into Rapidly Evolving Markets
by Tom Simon on 08-04-2016 at 7:00 am

Last week the Linley conference on mobile and wearables started with an overview and keynote address by the event’s namesake Linley Gwennap. His talk offered a few surprises and was informative all around. As you have seen recently reported here on SemiWiki, he sees smartphone shipments continuing to rise, but with a declining… Read More


A Chinese smartphone drill in progress

A Chinese smartphone drill in progress
by Don Dingee on 07-27-2016 at 4:00 pm

One of our astute readers caught what looks like a major gaffe in the Linley Group mobile conference presentations from this week. It’s another indication of the speed of change in mobile markets and the instability that is giving Apple and others heartburn.

Here’s the chart in question:


The point of contention is who, exactly, … Read More