The Week In Review: Sept. 10
By Mark LaPedus
According to a recent study commissioned by Intel, nearly all countries surveyed say that mobile manners have become worse compared to a year ago.
Spot shortages, and possible price increases, for NAND flash have suddenly surfaced in the market amid recent production cuts by major memory suppliers.
SEMI said total fab spending could increase by 16.7% in 2013 and reach a new record high of $42.7 billion.
Intel said that Q3 revenue is expected to be below the company’s previous outlook due to lackluster PC demand. Full-year capital spending is expected to be below the low-end of Intel’s previous outlook of $12.1 billion to $12.9 billion, as the company accelerates the re-use of existing equipment to the 14nm node. “Intel’s guidance cut seems widely expected given many reports about weak consumer PC demand due to macro weakness in China and Europe and with a production/demand air pocket before Win8 launches in late October,” said Craig Berger, an analyst with FBR.
The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) said that worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $24.4 billion for the month of July 2012, a slight increase of 0.2% from the previous month. C.J. Muse, an analyst with Barclays Capital, sees a downturn coming based on the SIA figures. “As expected SIA data released saw semi revenues post modest growth and confirms our outlook for semis to track down -2% to -8% year-over-year, depending on demand in the month of September,” he said.
For months, there have been rumors that Fujitsu will sell its chip unit to Renesas. In the meantime, Fujitsu Semiconductor has unloaded and sold its LSI assembly and test facilities to J-Devices.
Integrated Silicon Solution has completed an equity investment in Nanya. ISSI will have access to leading-edge process technologies with certain volume guarantees from Nanya for specialty DRAM production. Taiwan DRAM maker Nanya will also provide foundry support capabilities for the continued development of ISSI’s NOR flash and analog products.
Altera unveiled several key technologies planned for its next-generation of 20nm products, including stacked 3D chips.
Cree rolled out 100mm epitaxial wafers based on silicon carbide (SiC). The wafers enable high-voltage bipolar devices such as IGBTs.
Semiconductor R&D spending is projected to hit a record-high of $53.4 billion in 2012, according to IC Insights.
The Microsoft/Intel cartel, known as Wintel, now finds itself playing catch-up in the new era of smartphones and media tablets, according to IHS iSuppli.
Global smart meter shipments grew 33.6% in Q2 over the previous quarter, and were up nearly 51.3% year over year, according to IDC.
Despite a fuzzy economic outlook and concerns regarding the decline in sales of consumer LCD products, TFT LCD panel suppliers are still expecting 2012 shipments to grow 8% to 757 million and revenue to increase 13% to $85.3 billion, according to NPD DisplaySearch.
Tags: 14nm, 3D IC, Altera, Barclay's Capital, Cree, fab spending, FBR, Fujitsu, IC Insights, IDC, IGBTs, IHS iSuppli, Intel, J-Devices, NAND, NPD DisplaySearch, OCZ, Renesas, Semiconductor Industry Association, SIA, silicon carbide, SK Hynix, SSD, stacked die, Toshiba, Windows 8