Chinese $80 Billion Fabless IC

Latest survey of Top fabless semiconductor IC shows the result of a large effort by China to increase the number of IC companies (see below).

 Between 2009 and 2014 the number of Chinese fabless IC companies in top 50 increased from one (HiSilicon) to nine (HiSilicon, Spreadtrum, Datang, Nari Smart Chip, CIDC,  ZTE, Rockchip, RDA, Allwinner) .

"In 2014, the Chinese government described new semiconductor industry programs that will utilize investment by both the Chinese national government ($19.5 billion) and local government and private equity investors ($97.4 billion).”

Already "Chinese fabless IC suppliers held 8% of the top 50 fabless IC market ($80.5 billion) in 2014 and currently hold twice as much top 50 fabless IC market share as the European and Japanese companies combined! Nineteen U.S. companies were represented among the top 50 fabless suppliers in 2014, and they accounted for 64% of the total top 50 fabless company IC sales.  In 2014, Japan held less than 1%”

Ron
Insightful, timely, and accurate semiconductor consulting.
Semiconductor information and news at - http://www.maltiel-consulting.com/

China Charts New Course in Targeting Worldwide IC Industry—Fabless!

January 08, 2015

Chinese companies held 9 of the top 50 spots in the 2014 fabless IC company ranking, up from 1 in 2009.

Later this month, IC Insights’ will release the 2015 edition of The McClean Report, which includes a ranking of the top 50 fabless IC suppliers for 2014.

China’s ambitious late-1990s plan to create numerous high-volume indigenous IC manufacturers in the pure-play foundry segment did not come to fruition, but the Chinese government is still very serious about keeping China and Chinese IC suppliers relevant in the future IC industry.  In 2014, the Chinese government described new semiconductor industry programs that will utilize investment by both the Chinese national government ($19.5 billion) and local government and private equity investors ($97.4 billion).  IC Insights believes that these outlays have to potential to significantly change the future IC supplier landscape.

As Chinese IC design houses continue to advance, IC Insights expects an increasing number of China-headquartered companies to move up in the ranking of top fabless IC suppliers.  As shown in Figure 1, there were nine Chinese companies among the top-50 fabless companies in 2014 as compared to only one company in 2009.

In total, the Chinese fabless IC suppliers held 8% of the top 50 fabless IC market ($80.5 billion) in 2014 and currently hold twice as much top 50 fabless IC marketshare as the European and Japanese companies combined! Nineteen U.S. companies were represented among the top 50 fabless suppliers in 2014, and they accounted for 64% of the total top 50 fabless company IC sales.  In 2014, Japan held less than 1% and the “other” countries (e.g., South Korea, Singapore, etc.) represented only 6% of the market held by the top 50 fabless IC suppliers.

Although its original plan of establishing numerous large indigenous IC manufacturers in China was not successful, it is obvious that the Chinese government still intends to create a dynamic environment in the China-based IC industry, including placing additional emphasis on establishing new fabless IC suppliers.  IC Insights believes that the Chinese government’s commitment to creating a more powerful Chinese presence in the future IC industry is alive and well and should be taken seriously.

                       

Figure 1

More details on the 2014 top 50 fabless IC suppliers and China’s future role in the IC industry will be provided in The 2015 McClean Report.

TSMC, MediaTek and Hynix,Sales >20% in 2014

IC Insights report on top 20 Semiconductor sale leaders below. TSMC is benefiting from manufacturing A7 for Apple iPhone.

MediaTek from low price smart phones and its merge with MStar. More about MediaTek in January 2013 blog Apples' Cook in China (MediaTek Impact) .

Hynix maybe is benefiting from it recovery from last year Fab fire.

As usually SanDisk is not included in this IC Insights which already had $5.66B sales in 2011. More about SanDisk in earlier blog Top 25 2011 Semiconductor Sales Ranking




Ron
Insightful, timely, and accurate semiconductor consulting.
Semiconductor information and news at - http://www.maltiel-consulting.com

Nine of the Top 20 Semiconductor Suppliers are Forecast to Register Double-Digit Growth in 2014!

TSMC, MediaTek, and SK Hynix’s sales are each expected to jump by >20% this year.

Later this month, IC Insights’ November Update to The 2014 McClean Report will show a forecast ranking of the 2014 top 25 semiconductor suppliers with the companies’ sales broken down on a quarterly basis.  A preview of the forecast for the top 20 companies’ total 2014 sales results is presented in Figure 1.  The top 20 worldwide semiconductor (IC and O S D—optoelectronic, sensor, and discrete) sales ranking for 2014 includes eight suppliers headquartered in the U.S., three in Japan, three in Europe, three in Taiwan, two in South Korea, and one in Singapore, a relatively broad representation of geographic regions.

This year’s top-20 ranking includes two pure-play foundries (TSMC and UMC) and six fabless companies.  Pure-play IC foundry GlobalFoundries is forecast to be replaced in this year’s top 20 ranking by fabless IC supplier Nvidia.  It is interesting to note that the top four semiconductor suppliers all have different business models.  Intel is essentially a pure-play IDM, Samsung a vertically integrated IC supplier, TSMC a pure-play foundry, and Qualcomm a fabless company.

IC foundries are included in the top 20 ranking because IC Insights has always viewed the ranking as a top supplier list, not as a marketshare ranking, and realizes that in some cases semiconductor sales are double counted.  With many of our clients being vendors to the semiconductor industry (supplying equipment, chemicals, gases, etc.), excluding large IC manufacturers like the foundries would leave significant “holes” in the list of top semiconductor suppliers.  Foundries and fabless companies are clearly identified in Figure 1.  In the April Update to The McClean Report, marketshare rankings of IC suppliers by product type were presented and foundries were excluded from these listings.

As shown, it is expected to require total semiconductor sales of over $4.2 billion to make the 2014 top 20 ranking. In total, the top 20 semiconductor companies’ sales are forecast to increase by 9% this year as compared to 2013. However, when excluding the two pure-play foundries (TSMC and UMC) from the ranking, the top “18” semiconductor companies’ sales are forecast to increase by 8% this year, the same rate as IC Insights’ current forecast for total 2014 worldwide semiconductor market growth.

Figure 1

Outside of the top six spots, there are numerous changes expected within the 2014 top-20 semiconductor supplier ranking.  In fact, of the 14 companies ranked 7th through 20th, 10 of them are forecast to change positions in 2014 as compared with 2013 (with NXP expected to jump up two spots).

Xbox, PlayStation 4 $332 Manufacturing Cost

TechInsights Teardown (see below) shows that both vendors used many similar parts to optimize their investment in the next generation of gaming consoles.

Based on iFixit tear down I believe that the tear down has a minor error that would add about $3 to Xbox cost of manufacturing due to the 8GB EMMC NAND flash being used instead of:  

"Xbox One also has 4GB eMMC NAND flash, making the non-volatile category US$3 higher for Xbox One"

Based on iFixit disassembles the Xbox One and finds NAND

"One interesting component is an 8GB chunk of eMMC NAND flash memory, the purpose of which Microsoft discussed last month with Eurogamer. In the words of Microsoft Technical Fellow Andrew Goossen:

We use it as a cache system-side to improve system response and again not disturb system performance on the titles running underneath. So what it does is that it makes our boot times faster when you're not coming out of the sleep mode—if you're doing the cold boot. It caches the operating system on there. It also caches system data on there while you're actually running the titles and when you have the snap applications running concurrently. It's so that we're not going and hitting the hard disk at the same time that the title is. All the game data is on the HDD. We wanted to be moving that head around and not worrying about the system coming in and monkeying with the head at an inopportune time.”

 Ron

Insightful, timely, and accurate semiconductor consulting.

Semiconductor information and news at - http://www.maltiel-consulting.com/

Teardown.com compares PlayStation 4 vs. Xbox One

25 November, 2013 TechInsights

 

TechInsights has performed a Quick Turn Teardown of the Sony PlayStation 4 and the Microsoft Xbox One.

TechInsights Teardown shows that both vendors used many similar parts to optimise their investment in the next generation of gaming consoles.

While AMD came out as a big winner in the APU (integrated CPU and GPU) there are choice design differences around the both the processor design and the use of memory in each device.

The TechInsights bill of materials (BOM) for the Microsoft Xbox One amounts to US$331.00. Based on this – and when the estimated costs for the peripherals are included – TechInsights believes Microsoft will have a gross profit of approximately US$100.00 per console sold. This is far better than the US$43.00 Sony will make per complete unit.

Says Al Cowsky, Costing Director, TechInsights: “At the console level, the Xbox One is US$10 less expensive than the PS4. This is primarily due to a US$23 memory premium on the PS4, but it is offset by an US$11 cost premium on the Xbox One processor.

"The Xbox One also has 4GB eMMC NAND flash, making the non-volatile category US$3 higher for Xbox One, while the housings/mechanicals of the Xbox One add another US$4 premium over the PS4.

"The Xbox One also comes with a Kinect vision system in-box with an estimated cost of US$39. This is more than made up for by the US$100 list price premium. Likewise, PS4 has an optional vision system accessory available for a list price of US$60 (unit not costed at this time)”

Apple and Samsung NAND/ DRAM Supply

Due to consolidation of semiconductor fabs and NAND memory vendors in the last few years, Apple is tied to Samsung as one of its key DRAM and NAND memory supplier.

 iPhone 5s Teardown use "SK Hynix H2JTDG8UD3MBR 128 Gb (16 GB) NAND Flash"

However MacBook Pro 15" Retina Display Late 2013 Teardown

Samsung K4P4G324EB-FGC2 512 MB Mobile DRAM

Samsung S4LNO53X01-8030 SSD Controller

Samsung K9HFGY8S5C 32 GB NAND Flash Modules (8 chips for 256 GB total)

The volume of smart phone is much larger than that of MacBook, however, MacBook use 8 NAND chips while the cell phone uses one.


Ron
Insightful, timely, and accurate semiconductor consulting.
Semiconductor information and news at - http://www.maltiel-consulting.com/

Altera 14nm FPGA Using Intel Foundry

A good move by Intel and Altera. 

Altera said at Morgan Stanley Tech conference: "Intel has die size advantage because it seems very difficult to scale the backend/ interconnect."
Also FPGA are early adopters of bleeding edge Intel has die size advantage because it seems very difficult to scale the backend/ interconnect.
It improves Altera competitive position relative to Xilinx since Intel has ahead in 14nm process manufacturing. Altera would have to tread carefully between Intel and other ARM processor vendors. Altera is guaranteed access for 12 years, I wonder how would they handle capacity and wafer yield crashes.







Ron

Insightful, timely, and accurate semiconductor consulting.

Semiconductor information and news at -www.maltiel-consulting.com

  

Intel to make 14-nm FPGAs for Altera

http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4407732/Intel-to-make-14nm-FPGAs-for-Altera

Rick Merritt, 2/26/2013 1:01 AM EST

Intel will let Altera make FPGAs in its 14nm FinFET process in a deal that turns up the heat on TSMC in foundry and Xilinx in high-end FPGAs. SAN JOSE, Calif. – Intel Corp. will build FPGAs for Altera Corp. using its 14-nm FinFET process technology in a deal that turns up the heat on TSMC in foundry and Xilinx in high-end FPGAs. The deal marks the largest of a string of publicly disclosed foundry deals for Intel to date--and its first at 14 nm--but is not expected to result in products until 2014.

Altera (San Jose, Calif.) declined to disclose details of the deal, including what products it will make when. However, Altera CEO John Daane did say he believes Intel is two to four years ahead of other foundries with its 14-nm FinFET process, which Altera will use initially to give its highest-end FPGAs advantages in density, performance and power.

High-end parts make up about half the FPGA market, with Altera claiming a lead with 40- and 28-nm parts that it aims to extend with the new Intel process. Besides winning more business away from rival Xilinx, the 14-nm parts could help Altera grab more sockets away from ASICs and application-specific standard devices, Daane said.

Intel promised Altera access to the 14-nm process for 12 years to satisfy long-term availability requirements of defense and other customers, Daane said. The multi-year deal allows Altera to use other existing and future nodes, but the FPGA maker initially will focus on high-end parts at 14 nm, he said.

Using multi-die chip stacks, Altera currently ships an FPGA that packs 1.2 million logic elements, lagging a similar chip from Xilinx with 2 million logic elements. However, such parts have relatively high costs and power and take a performance hit due to additional on-chip communications. They are used "for prototyping predominantly—it's a niche," Daane said.

Altera surveyed foundries for a year before striking the deal with Intel. It will continue to make chips at TSMC and conduct ongoing evaluations of other processes as they develop.

Daane cited reports that other foundries are grafting a first-generation of FinFETs on to existing 20-nm design rules to create what they are calling a 14-nm node. "Intel's 14-nm is a second generation FinFET process, while others are just starting to implement their first," he said.

The deal marks "a significant departure for Altera," said Deutsche Bank analyst Ross Seymore, who doesn't expect Altera to see revenue from it until 2015. It is also "a validation of Intel's manufacturing leadership" that "should help Intel make gains in foundry services," he added.

"It is not Intel's objective to become a general foundry service provider," said Len Jelinek, a chief analyst at IHS iSuppli.  Rather it aims "to select a few high volume [foundry] clients [that] provide Intel with an additional revenue stream to help defer the cost of its advanced manufacturing capability," he said. 
Intel says 14-nm node ready this year
To date, Intel has announced it is making chips in its 22-nm FinFET process for two FPGA startups, Achronix and Tablua, and network processor maker Netronome.  Achronix officially started sampling its FPGAs based on Intel's 22-nm technology last week, claiming it is two years ahead of competitors using TSMC.

Unconfirmed reports have said Intel could be making 22-nm ASICs for Cisco. Others said the PC chip giant may be working on a deal to make mobile processors for Apple, which is trying to reduce its foundry dependence on archrival Samsung.

Daane expressed confidence Intel will be able to meet Altera's volume requirements

"Clearly this is a step up for us," said an Intel spokesman. "We were proceeding slowly and cautiously [into the foundry business] and now we are increasing the pace," he said.

Intel will have its 14-nm process in production later this year, the spokesman added. Globalfoundries announced last fall it plans to accelerate its road map, making a 14-nm process available some time in 2014.

The Altera deal "puts Intel out there as a contender in the foundry market," said Joanne  Itow, manufacturing analyst at Semico Research Corp.

Itow noted that TSMC founder Morris Chang listed Intel as a competitor in a recent conference call. Altera will get at least a one or two year advantage using Intel's 14-nm process, Itow said, but she doubted the FPGA maker will be able to ship the parts until sometime in 2014.

FinFET Layout Design Rules and Variability

It is not simple to design circuits with FinFET transistors. Layout, 3D dimensions, and shape considerations are described in the article below. Some additional information about Intel's 22nm 3D Tri-Gate FinFETs Transistors.








Ron
http://www.maltiel-consulting.com/



FinFET structure design and variability analysis enabled by TCAD

Victor Moroz, Synopsys Inc.

10/8/2012 10:14 AM EDT

The introduction by Intel of FinFET transistors at the 22nm mode culminates many years of research and development of a replacement transistor to the immensely successful planar MOSFET whose progressive miniaturization is largely responsible for the electronics revolution. The need for a successor to the planar MOSFET had long ago been identified. Starting with the 90nm process node, improved transistor performance was achieved with the introduction of stress into the transistor channel in a way that boosts the speed of the electrons and holes traveling within it. However, controlling the transistor leakage in the off-state became progressively more difficult. Keeping the electrons and holes under the electrostatic control of the gate electrode is key to controlling leakage current, but a number of so-called short channel effects undermine the gate control. The introduction of high-k dielectrics as the gate insulator at the 45nm process node effectively extended the life of the planar MOSFET for another two process nodes, but by the 22nm process node the planar MOSFET could hardly offer an attractive balance of performance and leakage.


Intel’s FinFETs thus mark the first fundamental change in transistor architecture since the time when the MOSFET replaced the bipolar transistor as the transistor of choice for logic applications. Its performance improvements over the preceding process node (see table) are a clear indication of the promise this technology holds. Although the manufacturing of FinFETs is more complex than manufacturing of its planar predecessor, Intel’s introduction is a testament to the inevitability of these devices....   More at FinFET Layout Design and Variability