SanDisk is up for sale and has three interested potential buyers – Micron, Western Digital and Tsinghua Unigroup. SanDisk will cost a lot less with a market cap of about $12.6bn and is expected to go for $17bn. Micron’s flash technology partner, Intel, has paid $1.5bn for a 20% shareholding in Tsinghua Unigroup’s semiconductor subsidiary ...
Author Archives: david manners
FTDI Chip enhances Super-Bridge MCUs
FTDI Chip enhances Super-Bridge MCUs
FTDI Chip has introduced modules to facilitate the evaluation, development and subsequent implementation of its 32-bit FT90X Super-Bridge MCUs. Optimized for use in home security, industrial control, home/building automation systems, data logging and embedded multimedia applications, the MM900EVxA series of FT90X-centered modules is made up of 4 different units. The MM900EV2A and MM900EV3A incorporate 1.3M ...
Intel cuts capex again
Intel has cut its capex forecast again – the fourth time this year – and it now stands at $7.3bn (plus or minus half a billion) down from the $10.3bn figure of late last year. Samsung, after a reported 20% capex cut in September, will spend $12bn, TSMC $10.8bn, Intel $7.3bn, GloFo $4.7bn and Hynix ...
Intel cuts capex again
Intel has cut its capex forecast again – the fourth time this year – and it now stands at $7.3bn (plus or minus half a billion) down from the $10.3bn figure of late last year. Samsung, after a reported 20% capex cut in September, will spend $12bn, TSMC $10.8bn, Intel $7.3bn, GloFo $4.7bn and Hynix ...
Happy landings for Intersil ToF IC
Happy landings for Intersil ToF IC
Intersil is selling an innovative, small, sub-$5, time-of-flight (ToF) signal processing IC which delivers object detection and distance measurement when combined with an external emitter (LED or laser) and photodiode. “It’s a very unique IC with very complex signal processing,” says Andy Cowell, svp for mobile at Intersil. The ISL29501 overcomes the shortcomings of traditional ...
Happy landings for Intersil ToF IC
Happy landings for Intersil ToF IC
Intersil is selling an innovative, small, sub-$5, time-of-flight (ToF) signal processing IC which delivers object detection and distance measurement when combined with an external emitter (LED or laser) and photodiode. “It’s a very unique IC with very complex signal processing,” says Andy Cowell, svp for mobile at Intersil. The ISL29501 overcomes the shortcomings of traditional ...
The Mouser that roared
Mouser, with its 220,000 web-site users a day, has been gleaning some unique insights into the interests of engineers. Mouser is well-placed to do this because its business model focuses on quantities below volume – which means that these parts are being bought by customers engaged in R&D, prototyping or trial production, in a word ...
Foundry to grow 6%, says IC Insights
Foundry to grow 6%, says IC Insights
Although the overall semiconductor market is expected to be flat or slightly down this year, the foundry market is forecast to grow 6.1% to $44.9 billion in 2015, according to IC Insights. The entire increase in pure-play foundry sales is forecast to be due to sales of devices built using leading edge (<40nm) feature sizes. ...
Imec and Cadence tape out first 5nm IC
Imec and Cadence tape out first 5nm IC
Imec and Cadence have taped out the first 5nm test chip using EUV and 193nm immersion lithography. A set of designs using EUV lithography as well as Self-Aligned Quadruple Patterning (SAQP) for immersion lithography scaled metal pitches from the nominal 32nm pitch down to 24nm to push the limit of patterning. Cadence’s Innovus Implementation System ...
2015 IC market getting worse – Gartner
2015 IC market getting worse – Gartner
Semiconductor sales will fall to $337.8 billion in 2015, says Gartner, a decline of 0.8% from 2014 – the first decline since the 2.6% decline of 2012. “Once again the outlook for the major applications that drive the semiconductor market, including PCs, smartphones and tablets, has been revised downward,” says Gartner vp Andrew Norwood. “Not ...