Texplained opens Nice lab for IC analysis

Three year-old French reverse-engineering and IC security analysis company Texplained of Sophia Antipolis, near Nice, has opened a new laboratory.

The lab offers analyses of microchip security and helps companies protect ICs against counterfeiting and piracy.
“Microchips are extremely vulnerable to security threats,” says Texplained CEO Olivier Thomas, “we approach, assess and solve microchip security issues with a different mindset – half hacker, half engineer with electronics knowledge. Armed with this unique mindset and the latest laboratory technologies, our pioneering ‘savoir-faire’ enables us to solve our clients’ microchip security issues on a worldwide basis.”
Texplained provides its clients with services including auditing the security of ICs, backdoor research and IP infringement investigation.
Texplained’s clients include microchip manufacturers, government organisations and systems integrators that integrate microchips into their products.
Texplained believes that it is one of the only companies in the market to specialise solely in microchip reverse engineering and security.
Building a new lab in-house enables Texplained to reverse engineer microchips and analyse ICs using the latest imaging and deprocessing technologies.
The process involves removing the five to 20 layers of metal and oxide that typically make up a chip.
This requires a combination of different chemical and mechanical processes. After the delayering, Texplained scans images of these microscopic layers with a scanning electron microscope. The Texplained team then uses its proprietary ARES ‘automated reverse engineering software’ to analyse the images of the circuits on each layer.
Texplained’s new lab provides clients with a greater depth of analysis more quickly and cost-effectively. With Texplained housing all the technologies and processes for microchip analysis in its new lab, clients can enjoy more security and flexibility as they now no longer have to outsource their microchip analysis to multiple partners to obtain reliable results.

http://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/texplained-opens-nice-lab-ic-analysis-2016-11/

Intel to Team With Delphi and Mobileye for Self-Driving Cars

Today’s automobiles are often described as computers on wheels, for the scores of processors and chips they use to control everything, including the transmission, brakes, power windows and navigation system.

The advent of self-driving cars may require the equivalent of a supercomputer on wheels. Which is why three technology companies in the field — Intel, Delphi Automotive and Mobileye — plan to collaborate in an alliance to be announced Tuesday.

For Intel, especially, it will be an effort to catch up in autonomous vehicles, a field where some chip makers have made deeper inroads.

The processing power required to scan the road, identify pedestrians and fuse images from radar, cameras and other sensors — all in real time — is spurring a race to provide increasingly complex computer brains that will dwarf those found in cars today.

The competition is reflected in the partnership being announced on Tuesday, in which Intel will provide specialized computer chips to Delphi, an auto supplier, and Mobileye, an Israeli company that specializes in vision systems that have been used in some of the autonomous-driving systems made by Tesla Motors.

Within about two years, Delphi and Mobileye hope to offer automakers a system that can give less expensive cars and trucks the intelligence to drive themselves. At the center will be a package of Mobileye and Intel chips capable of computing about 20 trillion mathematical operations a second, Glen DeVos, Delphi’s vice president of engineering and services, said in an interview on Monday.

A later version of the system, he said, will aim to have two to three times that processing power.

“To be able to do all the computation you need for a fully automated vehicle, you can almost never have too much processing power,” he said.

An Intel spokeswoman confirmed the partnership. She said Delphi and Mobileye would begin using the Core i7 Intel chip, and later would use a more powerful and unnamed processor to be unveiled in a few weeks.

The partnership is the latest by Intel in its bid to muscle into the rapidly expanding automotive chip business. Nvidia, Qualcomm and a few other companies are ahead of Intel, which once dominated the personal computer business but has struggled to duplicate that success in other areas, including mobile devices and automobiles.

Intel announced this month that it would invest $250 million in start-ups working on automated-driving technologies. In July it formed a partnership with Mobileye and the German automaker BMW to provide chips for a self-driving car that BMW intends to begin producing by 2021.

“Intel is looking to get into the automotive space because the demand for processing power in cars is going to skyrocket,” said Michael Ramsey, an analyst at Gartner Group who follows automated driving trends.

According to Gartner, the automotive semiconductor business generated revenue of nearly $30 billion in 2015, up from nearly $15 billion in 2003.

Specialized chips are one of the essential technologies needed to make self-driving cars a reality. To perform safely and competently, autonomous vehicles need radar to detect obstacles, cameras to identify pedestrians and the color of traffic lights, highly detailed 3-D maps to determine the vehicle’s precise position and superfast computer brains to pull all of this information into split-second decisions.

“You’re taking in vast amounts of visual data, and you have to process it really fast, with no delay,” Mr. Ramsey said. “It all has to happen in real time.”

Intel faces formidable competition. Nvidia makes a processing unit that Audi is putting into its newest models, and another that Tesla has just started using its cars.

The Nvidia device used by Tesla, called the Drive PX 2, can compute 24 trillion operations a second. Nvidia recently demonstrated a more powerful version called Xavier.

“Intel is a very powerful company,” said Danny Shapiro, Nvidia’s senior directive of automotive technology. “But they are coming late to the game. We have been in this space a long time already.”

Mr. DeVos said Delphi chose to work with Intel because the chip maker had a plan to produce increasingly powerful automotive processors, and the scale to make the system affordable for mainstream cars.

“It’s all about getting to mass production,” he said.

Delphi is using its own radar technology and Mobileye’s image processing system, with self-driving algorithms developed by Ottomatika, a company spun off from Carnegie Mellon University.

Ottomatika, which Delphi acquired last year, is a source for many of the basic technologies used in autonomous vehicles.

Correction: November 29, 2016
An earlier version of this article misstated the number of operations per second that Nvidia’s Drive PX2 can compute. It is 24 trillion operations a second, not 24 million.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/29/business/intel-to-team-with-delphi-and-mobileye-for-self-driving-cars.html?WT.mc_id=SmartBriefs-Newsletter&WT.mc_ev=click&ad-keywords=smartbriefsnl&_r=0

Infineon acquisition aims at mass deployment of Lidar

Infineon has got into the Lidar business by acquiring the Dutch company Innoluce. Infineon’s aim is to reduce the cost of Lidar so far that it can be widely deployed.

“We have further strengthened our leading position in automated driving by entering the Lidar market through the acquisition of Innoluce, a fabless semiconductor company headquartered in the Netherlands,” Infineon CEO Reinhard Ploss (pictured) told shareholders earlier this week.
Innoluce has developed solid state laser scanning modules, based on resonant 1D MEMS mirror technology and integrated ASIC, which delivers a wide range of applications including holographic imaging, minimally invasive surgery and lithography..
“Innoluce specializes in MEMS-based scanning mirrors for laser beams,” said Ploss, “current Lidar systems that will be introduced in premium cars within the next couple of years are based on mechanical scanning mirrors which make them bulky and rather expensive to become a standard feature in all car classes. Lidar systems need to semiconductor based.”
“Innoluce’s technology, combined with our expertise, allows the development of compact, cost effective and robust semiconductor based Lidar systems for mass deployment,” added Ploss.

http://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/infineon-acquisition-aims-mass-deployment-lidar-2016-11/

Spray-on process yields quality organic semiconductors

UK scientists have grown high-quality mono-crystals of organic semiconductors, which are large enough to construct FETs on. Such FETs show good clean characteristic curves, although have comparatively low mobility.

A common way to create organic semiconductor crystals is to dissolve the material in a solvent, then deposit the solution onto a surface. Subsequent evaporation of the solvent leaves behind crystals of the semiconductor, with slower evaporation favouring the creation of larger crystals.
However, said a team of researchers from the University of Surrey and the National Physical Laboratory, these crystals are still comparatively small and generally yield only poly-crystalline transistors.
The technique invented by Surrey and NPL to grow larger crystals involves an ‘anti-solvent’ process.
In this, the organic semiconductor is dissolved in a volatile (easily-evaporated) solvent while, separately, the substrate is coated with a second solvent – dubbed the anti-solvent.
Anti-solvent
Solvent and anti-solvent are selected so that the organic semiconductor is less-soluble (or sometimes insoluble) in the anti-solvent.
And, in this case, the anti-solvent is selected to have a higher boiling point (be less volatile) than the solvent, and have a higher surface tension than the solvent.
Spraying the dissolved semiconductor gently onto the anti-solvent-coated substrate, results in a process that yields crystals of organic semiconductor floating in the anti-solvent as the solvent evaporates away.
Because the spraying is gentle, all this happens in the upper part of the anti-solvent layer, away from any disruptive substrate effects. As such, the crystals grow with few defects – confirmed by polarised optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction and polarised Raman spectroscopy, emphasised the University of Surrey.
Under the right conditions, these crystals are regular – a similar shape to a microscope slide – and over 20μm along the short side.
Subsequent evaporation of the anti-solvent lands these crystals on the substrate.
Solution shearing
The substrate has little effect on crystal formation, but – through a process called ‘solution shearing’ – the angle at which the spray hits the anti-solvent, and the distance from spray nozzle to anti-solvent surface, have a large effect and the size, shape and orientation of resulting crystals, said the University, and solution shearing can be used to control these attributes.
“The trick is to cover the surface with a non-solvent so that semiconductor molecules float on top and self-assemble into highly ordered crystals,” said Dr Maxim Shkunov of the the University of Surrey’s advanced technology institute. “This method is a powerful, new approach for manufacturing organic semiconductor single crystals and controlling their shape and dimensions.”
It works with many organic semiconductors, including anthracene, pentacene, tetracene, anthradithiophene and benzothiphene derivatives, said Surrey.
Most of the research was done with ‘TIPS-PEN’ – a soluble pentacene – dissolved in the volatile solvent toluene. DMF (N,N-dimethylformamide) was used as the anti-solvent as TIPS-PEN hardly dissolves in it.
A slower-evaporating solvent with similar surface tension to DMF yielded non-uniform crystals.
Bottom-contact bottom-gate transistors and the top-contact bottom-gate transistors were fabricated using the crystals, yielding devices with clear FET characteristics and 0.4cm²/Vs mobility, which is low for TIPS-PEN transistors operating in the linear region, said Surrey.
The reasons for low mobility are now under investigation, and improvements are expected.
Full results of the Surrey/NPL research are available in the Nature Communications paper: ‘Spray printing of organic semiconducting single crystals’.

Market for 10nm mobile chips to heat up in 2017

Cage Chao, Taipei; Jessie Shen, DIGITIMES [Tuesday 22 November 2016]

Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics, MediaTek, Apple and Spreadtrum Communications are gearing up to roll out their 10nm mobile chips which will be shipped in smartphones during 2017.

Qualcomm recently announced its 10nm mobile chips will be built by Samsung's foundry business. Qualcomm's Snapdragon 835 is in production now and expected to ship in commercial devices in the first half of 2017, the company said.

Samsung's next-generation Exynos series will also be built in-house using 10nm process technology. Mass production of Samsung's 10nm Exynos mobile chips is expected to kick off in the first half of 2017, according to industry sources.

MediaTek will reportedly roll out two 10nm mobile chips - the Helio X30 and X35 - manufactured using TSMC's 10nm FinFET process. MediaTek is among TSMC's first group of customers adopting 10nm process technology.

MediaTek is expected to enter volume production for the Helio X30-series SoCs between the end of 2016 and early-2017, and the X35 series will be built using a lower-spec variant of the foundry's 10nm processes, according to previous reports.

TSMC will also be engaged in the manufacture of 10nm chips for HiSilicon, which will power Huawei's flagship smartphone series for 2017, industry sources believe.

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20161121PD211.html

Fluorescent dye could fuel liquid-based batteries

Scientists at the University at Buffalo have identified a fluorescent dye called BODIPY as a suitable material for stocking energy in rechargeable, liquid-based batteries that could one day power small and large scale devices, including cars and homes.

According to the researchers, a BODIPY-based test battery can operate efficiently and with longevity, running well after researchers drained and recharged it 100 times.
"All alternative energy sources are intermittent, so we need batteries that can store enough energy to power the average house," explained lead researcher Timothy Cook.
Redox flow batteries consist of two tanks of fluids separated by various barriers.
When the battery is being used, electrons are harvested from one tank and moved to the other, generating an electric current. To recharge the battery, solar, wind or other energy sources would be used to force the electrons back into the original tank.
Redox flow batteries can be enlarged to store more energy – enough to allow a homeowner to power a solar house overnight, for instance, or to enable a utility company to stockpile wind energy for peak usage times.
Also, according to Cook, lithium-ion batteries are risky in that they can catch fire if they break open. If the dye-based batteries ruptured, however, they would simply leak.
"The library of molecules used in redox flow batteries is currently small but is expected to grow significantly in coming years," Cook says. "Our research identifies BODIPY dye as a promising candidate."
The BODIPY compounds display a notable quality: they can give up and receive an electron without degrading. This trait enabled the dye to store electrons and facilitate their transfer between the battery's two ends during repeated cycles of charging and draining.
Based on the experiments, scientists predicted BODIPY batteries could generate 2.3V of electricity.

8pin logic package for mobile, portable and IoT apps

The leadless logic package for 8 lead logic functions from NXP Semiconductors is said to be the world’s smallest.

Measuring 0.8 x 1.35 x 0.35mm, the GX 8 which comes in an SOT1233 package reduces PCB assembly costs and is suitable for mobile, portable and IoT applications. With less than 0.4mm pad pitch, the package offers ease of assembly and less risk of shorts, without the need for a step-down mask, Type 4 solder, or the restrictions on PCB placement.
With the 8pin package, it is said that most Mini Logic functions are available. The logic devices are used to provide the interface between the different ASICs. Standard functions include LVC, AUP and AXP, as well as inverters, buffers, Flip-flops, combination logic, and OR, AND, NAND and NOR dual gates.

http://www.newelectronics.co.uk/electronics/electronica-8pin-logic-package-for-mobile-portable-and-iot-applications/148158/

IBM, Nvidia target deep learning, AI workloads

IBM and Nvidia said they are collaborating on a deep learning tool that trains computers faster and scales better.

Specifically, IBM launched a software kit dubbed PowerAI that will run on its OpenPOWER LC servers for high performance computing.
The Power S822LC for high performance computing (HPC) uses Nvidia NVLink technology to work with IBM's architecture. IBM and Nvidia said that the S822LC system can run AlexNet with Caffe faster than x86 servers with multiple configurations.
Caffe is a deep learning framework created by Berkeley Vision and Learning Center (BVLC). Caffe is widely used, but IBM's PowerAI tookit supports another four deep learning software packages.
IBM and Nvidia see HPC as a growth market as more enterprises adopt deep learning for big data and analytics workloads. Both companies are members of the OpenPOWER Foundation, which aims to spread the POWER architecture in the data center.
Big Blue's POWER8 processor is integrated with Nvidia's Tesla P100 Pascal GPU accelerators in the S822LC systems. IBM said the new servers are being used to study the human brain, crunch data and supercomputing.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/ibm-nvidia-target-deep-learning-ai-workloads/

Three major China firms gearing up to enter DRAM market

Yangtze River Storage Technology (YRST), Fujian Jin Hua Integrated Circuit, and a joint venture set up by GigaDevice Semiconductor and the Hefei city government of China's Anhui province, are all gearing up to compete in the DRAM field and targeting to become China's largest DRAM producer, according to industry observers.

YRST is being supported by China's state-backed tech conglomerate Tsinghua Unigroup. YRST is evaluating the possibility of acquiring an existing 12-inch wafer fab or building a brand new one in Nanjing that will be dedicated to producing DRAM and NAND flash chips, the sources indicated.

YRST already has a 12-inch memory fab in Wuhan run by subsidiary Wuhan Xinxin Semiconductor Manufacturing (XMC), which is expected to produce China's first homegrown 3D NAND flash devices as early as end-2017, the sources said. YRST would use technology from Cypress (formerly Spansion) to produce 32- and 64-layer 3D NAND chips.

As for technology to make DRAM, YRST is exploring the feasibility of cooperation with three major vendors particularly Micron Technology, the sources noted.

Meanwhile, Fujian Jin Hua Integrated Circuit is constructing a new 12-inch wafer fab, which will be engaged in the manufacture of DRAM products using production technology developed by Taiwan's United Microelectronics (UMC), the sources said. Jin Hua is owned by the Fujian government.

UMC with funding from Jin Hua has assigned a group of engineers to develop 25/30nm process technologies at the Taiwan-based foundry's manufacturing site in Tainan, southern Taiwan, the sources indicated. The technologies, developed in-house by UMC, will be used for the manufacture of DRAM products at Jin Hua's 12-inch fab in Quanzhou, Fujian.

Jin Hua with government support has reportedly poured almost NT$10 billion (US$312.6 million) into UMC's development of DRAM technologies, which is set to complete by the end of 2017 to allow Jin Hua's new 12-inch fab to enter volume production by 2018, the sources noted.

UMC in mid-2016 disclosed the company had signed an agreement for technical cooperation with Jin Hua to develop DRAM-chip production technology. The developed technologies will be jointly owned by both Jin Hua and UMC, UMC said. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The sources also identified another potential China-based DRAM player. A joint venture will be set up between GigaDevice and the Hefei government to enter the design, development and manufacture of DRAM memory, according to the sources.

The three major China-based DRAM players are expected to emerge and compete for the title of China's number-one DRAM producer starting 2018, the sources said.

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20161114PD201.html

SMIC Expects Record Roll to Continue

TAIPEI—Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC), China’s largest foundry, said it expects strength in its business to continue as it rides a wave of demand in China.

The company forecast in a conference call to announce its third-quarter results that sales in the current quarter will rise as much as 7 percent from the record $774.8 million in revenue it posted during the July to September period this year.

“SMIC is seeing robust demand across the board, and we reiterate our growth target of 20% compounded annual growth from 2016 to 2019,” said SMIC CEO Tzu-Yin Chiu. “In 2016, SMIC is growing in excess of 28 year on year. We are forecasting growth for both the fourth quarter of 2016 and the first quarter of 2017. We are on track to achieve another record year of revenue and net profit.”

The company said it is addressing demand by preparing for expansion. In the last month, SMIC announced several new fab projects in the Chinese cities of Tianjin and Shenzhen that it plans to roll out based on demand, technological readiness and sustained profitability. A fab in Shanghai will increase the company’s supply of finer geometry products.
China accounted for 51.6 percent of SMIC’s sales during the third quarter, followed by North America with 28.3 percent. Communications chips are SMIC’s largest segment by sales. The company’s cash cow process technology is 40/45nm, more than two generations behind larger foundry rivals such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and Samsung.
Even so, SMIC has been cruising along at nearly full utilization in its six fabs in the Chinese cities of Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin and Shenzhen since the middle of 2015. In addition, the company has completed the takeover of LFoundry in Italy this year. The company said it will nudge up capital expenditures in 2016 to $2.6 billion from the $2.5 billion it planned earlier this year, with the increase in capex going toward expanded output of 55nm products.
SMIC said it is likely that the company’s 2017 capex will be less than the $2.6 billion budgeted for this year.
SMIC said it expects to outpace global industry growth during the next few years.
28nm
The company expects to double its revenue from its leading edge 28nm process during the fourth quarter this year from the amount it made during the third quarter. That process node accounted for 1.4 percent of overall sales in the third quarter.
SMIC said it aims to expand output at its Beijing fab to meet demand for 28nm and 40nm products. The company is ramping 8-inch and 12-inch production at several locations with a combination of second-hand and new equipment.
SMIC's largest competitors are years ahead with process technology. TSMC expects to see its first revenue from 10nm during the first quarter of 2017.

http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1330810

Toshiba catching up with Samsung in 3-D NAND chips

SEOUL, Nov. 10 (Yonhap) -- Japan's Toshiba Corp. is rapidly catching up with Samsung Electronics Co. in the global market for advanced flash memory chips for mobile devices, or 3-D NAND chips, according to industry observers Thursday.
Toshiba announced earlier this week that it will build a fabrication facility in February next year to begin production of the 3-D NAND chips.
"Decisions on the new fab's overall capacity and equipment investment, the start of production, production capacity and production plan will reflect market trends," Toshiba said in a statement.

Toshiba also said it will continue cooperation with Western Digital for their joint venture on flash memory chips.
According to a market tracker DRAMeXchange, Samsung accounted for 36.3 percent of the global market for NAND flash memory chips, while Toshiba's market share stood at 20.1 percent.
Samsung started mass production of the 48-layer 3-D NAND chips in 2013 and is believed to begin mass production of next-generation 64-layer 3-D NAND chips at the end of this year.
Although Toshiba will expand its facility for the 3-D NAND chips, an industry observer said it may be difficult for Toshiba to mass-produce such chips.


http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/business/2016/11/10/0502000000AEN20161110007500320.html

Qualcomm strikes deal for cooperation with Taiwan MOEA

Qualcomm and Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) have signed a MoU on cooperation in the wireless communications sector including joint development of IoT, 4G and 5G networks, and technologies for connected cars, according to MOEA.

Qualcomm will also set up a lab in Taiwan according to the deal. The lab is expected to be a platform to share technology and information to assist Taiwan's industry supply chains to play an important role in the world's deployment of next-generation wireless technologies, MOEA indicated.

The Taiwan government-sponsored Industrial Technology Research Institute, local OEMs and ODMs, and mobile operators and solution providers will be able to work with Qualcomm to jointly develop next-generation wireless technologies, MOEA said.

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20161108PD212.html

Supercapacitors Have Optimal Pulse Power Handling Characteristics

AVX Corporation has released a new series of supercapacitor modules composed of series-connected cylindrical, electrochemical and double-layer supercapacitors. The SCM Series supercapacitor modules come in two voltage ratings (5 V and 5.4 V) and exhibit optimal pulse power handling characteristics, including: high capacitance values (0.47 F–7.5 F ±20% tolerance), low ESR (4 mΩ–300 mΩ at 1,000 KHz), low leakage (2 µA–1,000 µA), high energy density (1 to 5.6 Wh/kg), and long lifetime performance (50,000+ cycles).
The SCM Series modules can be used alone or in conjunction with primary or secondary batteries to provide extended back-up time, longer battery life and instantaneous pulse power in applications, including uninterrupted power supplies (UPS), wireless alarms, remote meters, global systems mobile (GSM) and galvanic skin response (GSR) transmissions, camera flash systems, scanners, toys and games.
The modules are rated for operating temperatures spanning –40° C to +65° C at 5.0–5.4 V balanced, or, with voltage de-rated to 3.9–4.6V per cell, –40° C to +85° C balanced. Unbalanced options are also available.
Packaged in plastic or shrink-wrapped cases spanning 14 mm to 24 mm in length with vertical or horizontal radial leads, the series is compatible with hand, reflow and wave soldering as long as appropriate precautions are enacted. The series is both lead-free compatible and RoHS compliance compatible.
All SCM Series parts are tested and qualified for life cycle, high temperature load-life, temperature and humidity characteristics, and vibration resistance, and they are shipped in bulk packaging. Current lead-time for the series is four to eight weeks, and custom modules are available upon request.

http://electronics360.globalspec.com/article/7629/supercapacitors-have-optimal-pulse-power-handling-characteristics

Marvell to Divest Businesses, Lay Off 900

Marvell Technology Group is divesting unspecified non-strategic businesses, reducing R&D spending and laying off 17% of its workforce -- 900 employees.

Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (Nasdaq: MRVL) plans to complete this restructuring by the end of October 2017. It said it expects these actions will lead to lower annual operating expenses from a current annualized run rate of $1.08 billion to somewhere between $820 million and $840 million.
The company said it intends to cut costs by cutting some R&D programs, streamlining engineering processes and consolidating R&D sites for greater efficiency, all of which will lead to the layoffs. Marvell also expects to cut legal and accounting costs. Marvell estimates it will incur charges of anywhere from $90 million to $110 million associated with the restructuring.
As for the businesses the company intends to divest, it said only that they together represent about $60 million in operating expenses and $100 million in revenue, based on a first half of fiscal 2017 annualized run rate.

In recent months, Marvell has been identifying itself as "a world leader in storage, cloud infrastructure, Internet of Things (IoT), connectivity and multimedia semiconductor solutions," but in the announcement of its restructuring, the company dropped any mention of IoT and multimedia.
In his canned comment accompanying the announcement, Marvell President and CEO Matt Murphy also skipped mention of IoT and multimedia. "The single biggest factor limiting the potential of the Cloud and utilization of billions of connected devices is the bandwidth of today's technology. By focusing on our strengths in storing, moving and accessing data at high speeds, Marvell is well-positioned to enable the technology of tomorrow," he wrote.
Asked by Light Reading specifically about IoT and multimedia, a Marvell spokesman declined to comment.
The company said it will provide specifics, including the identities of the businesses it is considering divesting, during its regularly scheduled conference call regarding its third-quarter results, which will be on November 17.


http://www.lightreading.com/components/comms-chips/marvell-to-divest-businesses-lay-off-900/d/d-id/727561

Qualcomm reports better-than-expected quarterly revenue

Smartphone chipmaker Qualcomm Inc, which agreed to buy NXP Semiconductors NV for about $38 billion last week, reported a better-than-expected 13.3 percent rise in quarterly revenue, helped by strong demand, particularly in China.
The company's shares were marginally higher in after-hours trading on Wednesday.
The San Diego-based company, which supplies chips to Android smartphone makers and Apple Inc, reported mobile chip shipments of 211 million for the quarter compared with its own forecast of 195 million-215 million.


Analysts on average had expected shipment of 206.1 million in the quarter, according to research firm FactSet StreetAccount.
"Our chipset business is also benefiting from a strong new product ramp across tiers, particularly with fast growing OEMs in China," said Qualcomm Chief Executive Officer Steve Mollenkopf.
Qualcomm gets the bulk of its revenue from chip sales but most of its profit comes from wireless patents it licenses to the mobile industry.
The NXP deal - the largest-ever in the semiconductor industry - would make Qualcomm the leading supplier to the fast-growing automotive chips market.
Qualcomm said it expects revenue of $5.7 billion-$6.5 billion for the current quarter. Analysts had expected $6.15 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Net income attributable to Qualcomm rose to $1.60 billion, or $1.07 per share, in the fourth quarter ended Sept. 25, from $1.06 billion, or 67 cents per share, a year earlier. (bit.ly/2f1RLQQ)
Revenue rose to $6.18 billion from $5.46 billion.


http://www.reuters.com/article/us-qualcomm-results-idUSKBN12X2IR

Samsung Electronics to invest more than $1 billion in U.S. chip production

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS) said on Tuesday it planned to invest more than $1 billion by the end of June 2017 to boost production of system chips at its Austin, Texas, facilities in the United States to meet growing demand.
The South Korean firm, the world's second-largest chipmaker behind Intel Corp (INTC.O), said in a statement its investment would boost output of chips for mobile and other electronics devices from its existing facilities in the city.
The investment comes after Samsung said last week its capital expenditure for 2016 would rise to a record 27 trillion won ($24 billion), with 13.2 trillion won earmarked for its semiconductor business.
While most of Samsung's semiconductor profits come from memory chip sales, it has been trying to boost earnings from other products including its own Exynos mobile processors and contract manufacturing deals with clients such as Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.O) and Nvidia Corp (NVDA.O).Samsung did not give further details for its investment plans in Austin, such as how much production capacity would be added.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-samsung-elec-investment-idUSKBN12W40K

President Obama announces semiconductor industry working group to review U.S. competitiveness

President Barack Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science & Technology (PCAST) today announced the launch of a new Semiconductor Working Group that will provide recommendations to address the rapid rise of semiconductor businesses abroad.
Chips are the heart of everything electronic, and they have become a $330 billion worldwide industry. U.S. companies have held the leading market share in the industry — which puts the “silicon” in Silicon Valley — for decades. The Semiconductor Working Group includes 11 experts on chips and the broader economy.
John Neuffer, president of the Semiconductor Industry Association, the U.S. industry trade group, said in a statement:

SIA welcomes this timely announcement, given new challenges facing the U.S. semiconductor industry, including unprecedented government investment programs from some countries and the increasing technological complexity involved in achieving new innovation breakthroughs. These developments have implications not only for the economy and society, but also national security. In fact, SIA earlier recommended the Administration form a public-private advisory group to help guide government policy related to improving the competitiveness of the U.S. semiconductor industry.

In a related development, Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker will give a policy address on the importance and future of the U.S. semiconductor industry at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) this Wednesday at 1 p.m. EST. The semiconductor industry directly employs 250,000 workers, is the third-largest source of U.S. manufactured exports, and has the highest level of investment in research and development (R&D) as a percentage of sales of any major industry, according to a post by John Holdren and former Intel CEO Paul Otellini, who are co-chairs of the group.
Neuffer said that semiconductors are a “fundamental building block for U.S. technology leadership. They enable commercial innovations that drive economic growth and productivity, as well as strategically important platforms that ensure U.S. national security, such as satellites and supercomputers. The chip industry spawns new industries, makes existing industries more productive, and drives advances once never imagined.”
To stay ahead in the tech, the U.S. needs a vibrant industry. Neuffer said, “We view today’s announcement as helpful for assessing, analyzing, and formulating recommendations to this and the next Administration on how to maintain U.S. leadership in this key sector. We look forward to working with the PCAST Semiconductor Working Group and hope this and other efforts can lead to a more comprehensive and robust national strategy to spur greater competitiveness, innovation, and research and development in the U.S. semiconductor industry.”
The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) just announced the formation of a new working group focused on strengthening the U.S. semiconductor industry in ways that benefit the nation’s economic and security interests — big news for our industry and the tech sector, in general.
The full working group includes the following members:

• John Holdren (director, OSTP; PCAST co-chair); working group co-chair
• Paul Otellini (former president and CEO, Intel); working group co-chair
• Richard Beyer (former chair and CEO, Freescale Semiconductor)
• Wes Bush (chair, CEO, and president, Northrop Grumman)
• John Hennessy (President Emeritus, Stanford University)
• Paul Jacobs (executive chair, Qualcomm)
• Ajit Manocha (former CEO, GlobalFoundries)
• Jami Miscik (co-CEO and vice chairman, Kissinger Associates; co-chair, President’s Intelligence Advisory Board)
• Craig Mundie (president, Mundie and Associates; former senior advisor, Microsoft; member of PCAST)
• Mike Splinter (former CEO and chair, Applied Materials)
• Laura Tyson (Distinguished Professor of the graduate school, UC Berkeley; former CEA chair and NEC director)

http://venturebeat.com/2016/10/31/president-obama-announces-semiconductor-industry-working-group-to-review-u-s-electronics-competitiveness/