Mannerisms

The European semiconductor industry is goimg fab-lite, on its way to becoming fabless, as NXP, then Infineon, now STMicroelectronics take the route to disposing of their leading edge manufacturing capability, it was stated at the IFS 2007 meeting in London today.

In the wake of the fab-lite strategies, possibly moving to fabless strategies, of NXP, Infineon, Texas Instruments and STMicroelectronics, the pros and cons of having a fab were listed during IFS2007 in London this week organised by analysts Future Horizons.

War over bragging rights to being first to 45nm broke out this month with Intel and IBM claiming to be first out of the starting gate. TSMC, usually vocal in these contests, stayed mum.

Are the present generation of managers in the semiconductor industry too lily-livered to make the big decisions?

Engineers around the world can experience the same nostalgic thrill as J.R.Hartley, the author, according to the TV ad, of 'Fly-Fishing'.

Before China gets too excited by Intel's decision to build a fab to make chip-sets in China, it ought to have a word with the Scots.

The Infineon deal in India to help set up 'Fab City' seems a much smarter deal all round than the Intel-China deal to set up a PC chip-set fab in China.

An age-old argument in the industry is: Is it affordable? Can anyone carry on paying for the horrendous costs of fabs?

It seems that Infineon has solved a number of challenges with its deal in India. Challenge No.1: How to get fab after its current fab stable obsoletes? Challenge No, 2: How to get into new markets? Challenge No.3: How to expand its manufacturing capability?

Just how much power is the foundry industry going to have? Intel says it will ship its first 45nm production microprocessors in the second half of this year. TSMC is saying it will run commercial 45nm wafers in September with volume production in the first half of next year.

Every new process node has recently been characterised by a flurry of conflicting claims from Intel and TSMC about who is going to be first.

If the adage is right that there's 'No such thing as fab-lite, you either have a fab or you're fabless' then it looks as if STMicro took another step forward this week to going fabless.

What are IDMs for? With every skill-set in the industry being practised by specialist companies with a competence as good as an IDM, how will IDMs maintain their competitiveness?

How far does the semiconductor industry have to fear the foundries? At several industry conferences this year, the topic of conversation has come round to this.

So how's Lenovo doing two years on from its purchase of IBM's PC division? Contrary to the prevailing orthodoxy that everything China touches turns to gold, it seems that Lenovo is struggling to find growth and profit just like everyone else in the PC business.

Rahul Sud, former Inmos chip designer, and the founding president of Lattice Semiconductor, now General Partner at venture capitalists Silicon Capital, has come up with a new industry business model.

Does it matter if the cost of running fabs is more in Europe than Asia? It obviously would matter if fab is to be the major value-add of the chip business but, like production operations in many other industries, it’s R&D and design which increasingly make up the value-add.

Even in a poor capex spending year, and a particularly bad year for memory so far, SEMI, the equipment trade body, is reporting strong investment in manufacturing capacity by two sectors of the industry: memory companies and foundries.

The agreement by Qimonda to transfer its 70nm DRAM process technology to SMIC, with 65nm possibly to follow, is the second such deal this year in which a memory manufacturer transfers a leading edge process to a foundry. The first was Spansion agreeing to develop a 40nm flash process with TSMC.

Every now then it’s good to be gob-smacked, and one of the great things which EDA leader Synopsys brings to the semiconductor industry, besides its peerless design tools of course, is a tracking analysis for the new technologies, which frequently comes up with some gob-smacking statistics.

Fabs have been getting bigger for a while, but to build, and equip, an 80,000 300mm wafer a month fab, as Toshiba and SanDisk have just done, is truly awesome, especially when it’s dedicated to one product: NAND flash.

Are all those figures showing China’s huge trade surplus real? A new US study reveals that, when a $300 Apple iPod is exported from China, where final assembly is carried out, the value is recorded in China’s export statistics as $144, but the actual value added in China is only $4.

If there is to be more consolidation in the Japanese semiconductor industry, and it looks as if there will be, then Toshiba would appear to be the most lkely consolidator.

Gordon Moore always used to say he had never been able to see more than two process generations ahead, and this still seems apply, according to Toshiba Semiconductor's CEO, Shozo Saito.

The Japanese are going bananas on solar cells. Sanyo, Kyocera and Sharp are all ramping up production dramatically.

Japan’s electronics industry is going through the same sort of process as the UK’s did a decade or two ago.

It’s been a kind of Greek or Shakespearian tragedy. The North Tyneside wafer fab was cursed before birth, and everything went wrong for it thereafter. An unwanted baby, it became an unwanted child, and the announcement today of its dismemberment and sale completes the sorry saga.

Synplicity’s Synplify DSP tool, which uses Electronic System Level Design (ESL) models for DSP synthesis, is achieving some considerable success, it seems.

Spaghetti or Asparagus? NXP reckons we’re moving from spaghetti-like electronics systems design to asparagus-like systems design.

Gestating technology can be a very long process, and it’s interesting to see today’s announcement that Matsushita is putting the reconfigurable IC technology it acquired when it bought Elixent last year into a camcorder. It is the first commercial use of the technology.

One of the highlights of the Silicon Cycle is the regular tussle about who is first to the next process technology node. The usual suspects, TSMC, IBM and Intel, have been squaring up to eachother. This time with a nice extra twist.

Only in the semiconductor industry is it thought newsworthy if companies cut back on capital spending in order to match supply with demand.

Toshiba's announcement today that it is joining the IBM camp for its core CMOS technology puts the seal on a year in which NXP, TI, Infineon, STMicro and Freescale have all given up basic CMOS process development. Infineon, ST and Freescale are already in the IBM collaboration

Fujitsu’s decision to spin off its semiconductor became inevitable as its options for future technology development and manufacturing capability started to close.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing of course, but, for a couple of quarters now, the boss of STMicroelectronics, Carlo Bozotti, has been blaming ST’s poor financial results on the weak dollar.

Thanks to WTC for this one. The top ten MEMS manufacturers, judged by revenues are:

Double patterning looks like being the lithography tool of choice at 32nm, but how do you absorb the inevitable extra costs of a double lithography process?

Nine 300mm volume fabs will begin operation in 2008, and twelve new volume fabs are expected to start construction this year, according to SEMI the equipment manufacturers’ trade body.

The resignation of Toshihiko Ono from Fujitsu is quite amazing. Ono is a really good bloke who made a great job of running Fujitsu's semiconductor division, or Electronic Devices Group as they call it, then left to take up a corporate job planning product strategy for Fujitsu’s systems products.

Another week, another semiconductor joint venture. This week we’ve had MeiYa Technology, the new DRAM joint venture between Micron and Nanya. Last week we had the NXP-STMicroelectronics wireless joint venture. Another half a dozen DRAM companies are talking about joint ventures. Why are JVs so popular?

It’s funny to see Intel, TSMC and Samsung saying they want 450mm wafer manufacturing. Wouldn’t any device manufacturer? The question is: Will Samsung, Intel and TSMC pay for it?

Something pretty amazing seems to be happening in the semiconductor equipment industry, it's no longer dependent on selling equipment for manufacturing semiconductors, and appears to be getting less so.

STMicroelectronics is not becoming a financial holding company with its operating units spun off into separate entities, despite the two joint ventures it has entered into this year, according to the company's Chief Financial Officer, Carlo Ferro.

TSMC, the Taiwan foundry, will be in risk production of 32nm wafers in Q4 2009, according to Tom Quan, deputy director, EDA & design service marketing programme at TSMC.

There will be a fight for wafers next year as the chip industry moves to a period of severe capacity shortage, and the reason for the dire situation is the lack of 'chip-savvy' CEOs, says Europe's top chip industry analyst.

Within the semiconductor industry a new elephant is in the room, and the elephant is getting hungry.

The process technology of graphics processors will overtake the process technology of CPUs next year, when TSMC starts making graphics processing units (GPUs) for Nvidia and ATI  on a 40 nm process in the first half of next year, according to a piece in TG Daily.

SEMI has come up with a great guide to the Intel/Samsung-promoted push for 450mm wafers in which SEMI destroys what it calls 'The Five Misconceptions' about 450mm wafers.

Was Philips' investment in TSMC the greatest semiconductor investment ever made? Last week Philips said it had sold the last of its shares in TSMC. Was it the biggest single investment coup in chip industry history?

India's technology industry is shrinking, according to the Wall Street Journal, hit by the various negative forces of the credit crunch, the falling dollar, the slowdown in US spending, rising labour costs, and low-cost competition from places like Vietnam, the Philippines and Eastern Europe.

Blue laser diodes are coming down in price towards the point where consumer applications are finding them affordable.

With NXP closing or downsizing four fabs today, you have to ask: Are asset-lite strategies a good idea?  

Semiconductor-savvy CEOs are becoming a much-missed, diminishing breed in the chip industry, so it was particularly refreshing to meet Ted Tewksbury, CEO of IDT, last week. 

It's fairly amazing to think that, if you want a fully functional 28nm chip, you'll be able to get one by the end of this year. TSMC is promising to have a 28nm CyberShuttle prototyping service available by the end of the year.

Are the foundries trying to jack up prices? Future Horizons' CEO Malcom Penn says Yes; Rich Beyer, CEO of Freescale says No; TSMC's President for Europe, Maria Marced, says, well . . .up to a point.

Margin is the name of the semiconductor game these days and Rich Beyer, the new CEO of Freescale Semiconductor, sees increasing margin as one of his most urgent priorities.

Just when you think America's really in a mess brought low by incompetent politicians and a ruthlessly greedy Wall Street, you suddenly hear a wonderful story which shows all is well with America's greatest strength - its endlessly resourceful and energetic entrepreneurs.

Intel shares at $12.50. ST's shares at Euros 5.05. TI at $14.50. National Semiconductor at $9.97. What's happening to the semiconductor industry?

When your product's commoditised is the answer. What's in a margin? Well a lot these days. Beset by stock market analysts, private equity owners and pro-active shareholders, CEOs are expected to target very precise margins and, even more inconveniently, to actually achieve them.

Andy Grove, Intel's legendary Co-founder, ex-CEO and Chairman, has hit the headlines this week with his espousal of non-linear strategic dynamics and his championing of the idea that Intel should go into battery manufacturing for electric cars.

Here's a bit of a turnaround. Last year all the noise was that the foundries would soon be holding the industry to ransom as the IDMs became increasingly dependent on them.

Sony seems to be handling the restructuring of its electronics business very clumsily leading to a sharp deterioration in morale at the company.

See also Craig Barrett resignation sparks Intel manufacturing queries

Craig Barrett's resignation as Chairman of Intel was not done in the normal Intel way. When Gordon Moore handed the CEO role to Andy Grove, Moore retained the position of Chairman. When Grove handed over the CEO role to Barrett, Grove became Chairman and Moore became Emeritus Chairman. When Barrett handed over the CEO job to Otellini, Barrett became Chairman. Not so this time.

As predicted in our post of January 23^rd, Intel is to out-source Atom. The reasons are very simple, Atom has to be a low margin part as it competes for slots in end-user products now costing around $400 but expected to decline to $100-200 within a year.

One of the questions Intel has undoubtedly got lots of briefing notes on for this evening's announcement of its outsourcing deal on Atom with TSMC is: Why is Intel outsourcing its Atom chip when it has enormous amounts of spare capacity itself?

Rich Beyer, CEO of Freescale Semiconductor, sees Intel's foundry deal with TSMC for the Atom processor, as a way of levelling the playing field between Intel and other companies, like Freescale, competing in Atom's target market for Netbooks and MIDs.

Is Intel really worried about AMD's moves to set up an Arab-backed foundry company? Is that why Intel has said the foundry won't have a licence to manufacture x86 parts?

Oh dear. My plan to use the current economic chaos to make my next (actually my first) significant fortune has come unstuck. AMD shares have shot up from $2 to $3 in March without my noticing.

TSMC looks as if it will win the race to the next process node with Intel and Globalfoundries trailing behind.

The 450mm wafer issue is becoming a fascinating debate. Is it worth doing? Is it affordable? Who will benefit from it?

The Japanese  used to argue that when consumer electronics became the biggest sector of the high-tech market - overtaking computing and telecommunications - that their companies would be in pole position to benefit  because of the traditional Japanese company model of  vertical integration - where a company makes every important part of a product from the componentry to assembly to the applications software.

Could EuroFab fly? Heinz Kundert the European president of SEMI proposes the idea of a joint fab for Europe to be set up with EC funding where the European semiconductor companies can get their wafers made.

Unity Semiconductor, the US start-up with a new non-volatile memory technology, is extremely exercised about the plague that afflicts the memory industry - commoditisation.

 "If you look at the current business model for memory it's unsustainable because it's not generating cash," says Darrell Rinerson, founder and CEO of Unity.

TSMC really cranked up the process technology treadmill when it announced, earlier this year, that its 28nm process would be a full node affair rather than the expected half node.

The HsinChu Science Park in Taiwan has been one of the great success stories of the semiconductor industry but it's getting crowded. So much so that, when TSMC wanted to add Phase 4 to its Fab 12 Gigafab (defined as a fab capable of 100,000 wpm) it had to put it on the opposite side of a main road to Phases 1, 2, and 3.

A good omen for the European IC industry is that it becoming an increasingly important customer for the world's No.1 silicon foundry, TSMC.

It's good to see the EU doing something sensible. Apparently it is trying to cut European road deaths from 40,000 a year in 2001 to 20,000 in 2010.

The silicon foundry industry is mostly profitless, and a profitless foundry industry may force IDMs going fab-lite to think again, because a profitless industry will have to start re-thinking its prices.

The indicators just keep on getting better for the semiconductor industry. Fab capacity utilisation is now above 90% for all processes better than 80nm, and for all 300mm wafer processing.

Will the expected Globalfoundries take-over of Chartered create a real competitor to TSMC?

Could Toshiba be going fabless? It seems unimaginable, but an official Toshiba spokeswoman, Hiroko Mochida, said earlier this week that Toshiba is considering out-sourcing 28nm chips where demand exceeds Toshiba's capacity.

"How do you go from no activity to frenetic activity?" asked the ASML guy I phoned yesterday to see if the company could meet soaring demand for immersion scanners.

There has been much talk of the 'game-changing' nature of the entry of the Abu Dhabi-backed Globalfoundries into the semiconductor industry, but the guys from the Gulf will have to do much more if they are to have a significant effect on the industry.

TSMC is to start cranking out Atoms in Q4, according to DigiTimes, and is expected to reach 6k wafers a month by the end of the year and 35k wpm next year.

What should you ask a semiconductor CEO? The answer, according to Pasquale Pistorio, the great former CEO of STMicroelectronics is: 'Are you out shopping?' And, if  not: 'Why not?'

The story of their business involvement reads like a thriller, and it makes you wonder: Is there something personal between the two great Changs of the chip business - Morris and Richard?

The semiconductor industry is either being very smart, or uncharacteristically cautious, but it's not responding to full capacity by ordering a swathe of new manufacturing equipment.

The thing about the financial community is that they all think alike. What did Jerome Ramel, head of the semiconductor analyst team at the French bank BNP Paribas, tell the recent European Nanoelectronics Forum 2009 in Amsterdam?

A paper from SEMI, the trade body for the semiconductor equipment industry, asks: Are we doing enough to meet future demand?

Texas Instruments acknowledged earlier this week that it is having supply problems. TI, remember, is the company which lost more employees this year than any company in the industry cutting 3,200 jobs at the beginning of the year.

Plessey Semiconductors, which has been resurrected as the new name for Plus Semi with last month's acquisition of the Plessey-built Roborough fab, was a force to be reckoned with in the world semiconductor industry between 1950 and 1990.

'A classic competitive chip industry knock-out punch' is how TI's decision to build a 300mm fab for analogue was described at IFS 2010, earlier this week.

The reputation of the fast-growth, high market share success of the fabless semiconductor business model has been much overblown, it was argued at the IFS2010 meeting in London last month.

Speculation is mounting over the plans for the Southampton site of NXP's home business unit which designs MIPS-based ICs for TVs and Set-Top Boxes.

Trident Microsystems have now issued a statement in response to the question put to them earlier today about whether they plan to make redundancies at the Southampton plant of NXP's home business unit on Monday morning.

Rumours in two earlier posts, here and here, that Trident Microsystems will lay off 70 employees from the Southampton site of NXP's home business unit on Monday February 8^th, which is the same day that the sale of the unit by NXP to Trident is due to be completed, are not being denied by either Trident or NXP.