Pure-play Foundries to Prevail in Future

Pure-play Foundries to Prevail in Future
by Pawan Fangaria on 01-17-2016 at 7:00 am

In a consolidating semiconductor business environment and innovation in semiconductor fabrication already scaling new heights with existing strong players, where do you think the wafer capacity should concentrate? It’s pure-play foundries or pure-play-like foundries, and those who supply high-volume common components… Read More


Eliminating the Chasm of Computing

Eliminating the Chasm of Computing
by Pawan Fangaria on 10-25-2015 at 7:00 am

The world has come through a long way from the 1[SUP]st[/SUP] UNIVAC computer in 1952, IBM mainframes and minicomputers in secured computer rooms to laptops, tablets, mobile phones, and so on in our hands. Imagine the compute power of a minicomputer then and the compute power of your smartphone or tablet today. And do you know the… Read More


Samsung to cut Semi Capex 20% due to over capacity

Samsung to cut Semi Capex 20% due to over capacity
by Robert Maire on 09-24-2015 at 4:00 pm

Article confirms market fears…
An article in the Korea Times cites sources that say Samsung will cut Semi Capex by 20% due to current oversupply and weak pricing. This is obviously a huge negative as Capex for 2016 will certainly be down significantly from 2015 given these cuts which follow on cuts by Intel and others. We can
Read More


Changing Trends at the Top of Semicon Space

Changing Trends at the Top of Semicon Space
by Pawan Fangaria on 05-31-2015 at 5:00 am

As we have moved down from a CAGR of ~9% over last three decades to a CAGR of ~5% in the current decade, it’s time to check the realities. It can be definitely argued that a 5% of CAGR over a solid base of ~$378 billion should be considered good enough. In my view that’s the sign of maturity in the semiconductor market. At the same time we are… Read More


Breakfast was Fab: West Coast Wafers to Wall Street

Breakfast was Fab: West Coast Wafers to Wall Street
by Paul McLellan on 04-07-2015 at 7:00 am

SEMI describes themselves as “the global industry association serving the manufacturing supply chain for the micro- and nano-electronics industries.” That is a pretty broad remit. One of the things that they do as a neutral party is produce the World Fab Forecast. This is actually a bottom-up database that tracks fabs as they … Read More


Who Leads Semiconductor Innovation?

Who Leads Semiconductor Innovation?
by Pawan Fangaria on 02-25-2015 at 5:30 pm

Semiconductor business is highly dependent on technology and that changes very rapidly in the semiconductor space. It’s important to recognize the importance of research and innovation activities in this space. In my last article on 7nm technology node, one respondent commented, very rightly, “It’s important to have competition… Read More


Samsung Continues to Top 300mm Wafer Capacity

Samsung Continues to Top 300mm Wafer Capacity
by Pawan Fangaria on 02-03-2015 at 7:00 am

In 1992, when Samsungbecame the largest producer of memory chips, it was not in top10 list of semiconductor companies. It was ranked at #11. Since then it has strived to attain higher ranks in the top10 list. In around 2000, it climbed to the ranks of top5 and then since 2002 until now it is at #2 in the worldwide semiconductor sales which… Read More


Is Fab Business The Forte of APAC?

Is Fab Business The Forte of APAC?
by Pawan Fangaria on 12-23-2014 at 6:00 pm

A little ago, I was looking at the top20 semiconductor companies in the world and was surprised to see a couple of large companies in Taiwan and South Korea garnering >34% of total sales (See – Look who is Leading the World Semiconductor Business). This time it’s another surprise, when I look at IC Insights report on global 300mm… Read More


Look who is Leading the World Semiconductor Business

Look who is Leading the World Semiconductor Business
by Pawan Fangaria on 11-08-2014 at 7:00 pm

A couple of days ago I was reading a news article which said how long the world economy will be dependent on a single engine to drive it; obviously that single engine is USA. If we consider the overall economy, definitely USA is driving it, and semiconductor is a large part of it. The semiconductor is driving electronics and that is attracting… Read More