CUPERTINO, USA: RMI Corp., a leading provider of high-performance processors for networking, communications, data center, security, storage and media-rich applications, announced that its Au1250 Ultra Low-Power processor product line has been selected by Samsung Electronics for its revolutionary LED TV Couple product family, which was introduced this week at the IFA event in Berlin Germany.
Samsung’'s new LED TV Couple offers consumers a first-of-its-kind multi-media experience of being able to watch two separate channels of high-quality video on a primary digital TV set as well as on a remote portable LED TV Couple device simultaneously.
The remote portable LED TV Couple device features a 7” screen and integrated high-speed 802.11n Wi-Fi for ubiquitous streaming throughout the home. The LED TV Couple also allows users to access multimedia content on the Internet or on local PCs and storage devices within the home through the integrated PC Content Sharing technology.
RMI’s Ultra Low-Power processor has been selected by Samsung due to its unmatched performance in high-quality video, audio and graphics processing while consuming only half the power of competitive solutions.
The unique combination of RMI’s best-in-class processing performance and energy efficiency has enabled Samsung to deliver the portability, networked connectivity and uncompromised rich-media experience required for its new LED TV Couple product family.
“Through our collaboration with RMI, Samsung Electronics has now created the world’s premier LED TV Couple product which redefines the TV watching experience in the home,” said Suk-sun Lee, vice president at Samsung Electronics. “We have been very impressed with RMI’s Ultra Low-Power processors as they offer the ultimate processing performance at extremely low power consumption for ultra portable networked applications.”
In addition to serving as a second TV within the home, Samsung’s LED TV Couple product features a digital photo frame, and doubles as a full-function, interactive Universal Remote Control for the primary digital TV set. The LED TV Couple supports interactive Electronic Programming Guide (iEPG), which provides users with a digital guide to scheduled terrestrial, satellite and cable TV broadcast television programs.
“We are very pleased to have expanded our broad relationship and collaboration with Samsung Electronics to now include Samsung'’s new LED TV Couple product family,” said Mike Wodopian, vice president and general manager at RMI Corp.
“Our being selected by Samsung for its new high-profile LED TV Couple product family further strengthens our leadership position in high-performance, low-power processing, and is a testament to the superior feature set and functionality of our ultra low-power processor family.”
The low-power Au1250 processor leverages high levels of integration and very low power to achieve performance up to 700MHz. The Au1250 Processor also includes a best-in-class LCD controller with four graphics planes for 32-bit RGB, and a Media Acceleration Engine™ (MAE) for D1 video decoding of a wide variety of formats including MPEG1/2/4, WMV, Divx, Xvid, and H.264.
Showing posts with label Samsung. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Samsung. Show all posts
Saturday, September 5, 2009
SEMI World Fab Forecast: Predicts 64 percent growth in fab spending
SAN JOSE, USA: SEMI’s World Fab Forecast predicts 64 percent growth in fab spending for 2010 to reach $24 billion.
A large portion (about $14 billion) is expected to come from six companies that have announced ambitious investment plans.
The major investments will come from six companies -- TSMC, GlobalFoundries, Toshiba, Samsung, Intel and Inotera. These companies will contribute more than half of the total fab capex spending expected in 2010. The increase of 64 percent appears high, but this percentage increase is against historic lows in 2009.
Christian Dieseldorff, senior analyst at SEMI, noted “Worldwide installed capacity is expected to decline by 2-3 percent in 2009 mainly due to the closure of 31 fabs. This overall capacity is expected to have a slow growth rate of only 4-5 percent in 2010, to about 21.5 million wafers per month (in 200 mm equivalents), and most spending in 2010 is expected to go towards upgrading fabs rather than expansion of installed capacity.”
The World Fab Forecast tracks planned projects resulting in any change of installed capacity.
SEMI World Fab Forecast report provides high-level summaries and graphs, in-depth analyses of capital expenditure, capacity, technology and products, down to the detail of each fab, and forecasts for the next 18 months by quarter. These tools are invaluable for understanding how 2009 and 2010 will look, and learning more about capex for construction projects, fab equipping, technology level, and products.
A large portion (about $14 billion) is expected to come from six companies that have announced ambitious investment plans.
The major investments will come from six companies -- TSMC, GlobalFoundries, Toshiba, Samsung, Intel and Inotera. These companies will contribute more than half of the total fab capex spending expected in 2010. The increase of 64 percent appears high, but this percentage increase is against historic lows in 2009.
Christian Dieseldorff, senior analyst at SEMI, noted “Worldwide installed capacity is expected to decline by 2-3 percent in 2009 mainly due to the closure of 31 fabs. This overall capacity is expected to have a slow growth rate of only 4-5 percent in 2010, to about 21.5 million wafers per month (in 200 mm equivalents), and most spending in 2010 is expected to go towards upgrading fabs rather than expansion of installed capacity.”
The World Fab Forecast tracks planned projects resulting in any change of installed capacity.
SEMI World Fab Forecast report provides high-level summaries and graphs, in-depth analyses of capital expenditure, capacity, technology and products, down to the detail of each fab, and forecasts for the next 18 months by quarter. These tools are invaluable for understanding how 2009 and 2010 will look, and learning more about capex for construction projects, fab equipping, technology level, and products.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Samsung selects NXP to power 240Hz LCD HD panels
EINDHOVEN, THE NETHERLANDS: NXP Semiconductors announced that Samsung Electronics has selected the NXP PNX5120 video co-processor for its 240Hz LCD panels to empower TV OEMs’ 240Hz Full HDTV.
These panels, currently in mass production by Samsung Electronics, take advantage of NXP’s Motion Accurate Picture Processing (MAPP2) technology and full motion compensated up-conversion to deliver high-definition action scenes that are smoother and more realistic than ever before. The 240Hz refresh rate is twice the speed of current 120Hz TV sets and quadruple that of standard HDTVs.
“Samsung Electronics has been the leader in 240Hz panel manufacturing. 240Hz LCD panels showcase the enhanced HD viewing experience made possible by the PNX5120 and NXP MAPP2 technology,” said Lou Schreurs, business line TV general manager, NXP Semiconductors.
“From the fastest moving action films to the most hotly contested football tournaments, the PNX5120 video post-processor helps to totally immerse the viewer and bring moving images to life.”
The NXP PNX5120 video post-processor combines three-frame HD Movie Judder Cancellation (MJC), motion sharpness and vivid color management to successfully reduce the visible halo and blur in fast-moving scenes, and deliver an enhanced viewing experience for sports and action films. The Automatic Picture Control (APC) feature dynamically adjusts the processing parameters used to obtain optimal improvements on every output frame.
These panels, currently in mass production by Samsung Electronics, take advantage of NXP’s Motion Accurate Picture Processing (MAPP2) technology and full motion compensated up-conversion to deliver high-definition action scenes that are smoother and more realistic than ever before. The 240Hz refresh rate is twice the speed of current 120Hz TV sets and quadruple that of standard HDTVs.
“Samsung Electronics has been the leader in 240Hz panel manufacturing. 240Hz LCD panels showcase the enhanced HD viewing experience made possible by the PNX5120 and NXP MAPP2 technology,” said Lou Schreurs, business line TV general manager, NXP Semiconductors.
“From the fastest moving action films to the most hotly contested football tournaments, the PNX5120 video post-processor helps to totally immerse the viewer and bring moving images to life.”
The NXP PNX5120 video post-processor combines three-frame HD Movie Judder Cancellation (MJC), motion sharpness and vivid color management to successfully reduce the visible halo and blur in fast-moving scenes, and deliver an enhanced viewing experience for sports and action films. The Automatic Picture Control (APC) feature dynamically adjusts the processing parameters used to obtain optimal improvements on every output frame.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Samsung says memory ‘dynamic duo’ critical for today’s data centers
SAN FRANCISCO, USA: Samsung Electronics, the largest producer of DRAM and solid state drives (SSDs) in the world, today announced that the ‘dynamic duo’ of server power savings: Samsung’s DDR3 memory chips and SSDs, has the potential to sharply reduce data center costs.
DDR3, which can be specified at 1.35Volts, and enterprise SSDs, which can be installed in arrays of servers as a replacement for far less-efficient hard disk drives, have the combined potential to save over 10 percent of power usage per server, and sometimes even more.
“With anywhere from dozens to thousands of servers in any given data center, the potential for substantial cost savings with DDR3 and SSDs is enormous,” said Jim Elliott, vice president, memory marketing, Samsung Semiconductor, Inc.
“Blending the exceptionally low power of today’s DRAM with performance optimized, high capacity enterprise SSDs provides data center managers with a solid alternative to slower, high-voltage DRAM and hard disk drives,” he added.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the need for reducing energy consumption in servers will reach critical proportions over the next three years as consumption is expected to reach 120 billion kilowatts a year by 2011. To reduce this significantly, data center managers must adopt newer technologies that provide substantial energy savings and greater performance efficiencies.
Samsung said the use of higher density, low-voltage DDR3 as a replacement for its long-running DDR2 predecessor, can save over 70 percent in reduced power consumption, through lower voltage requirements and the use of more energy-efficient 40nm class process technology.
In a data center environment, SSDs provide a compelling value when the total cost of ownership is considered, including hardware cost, maintenance, repairs and reduced electricity bills. A single SSD can realize up to 70 percent in power savings.
Samsung Enterprise SSDs can process as much as 100 times the number of IOPs (input/outputs per second) per watt as a 15K rpm 2.5-inch SAS HDD with a very low heat load on data center air conditioning. The IOPs-based performance of one SSD can equal up to 40 hard disk drives.
“The combination of Samsung’s DDR3 and SSDs in new server architectures will provide more powerful green IT solutions and help immensely in putting the brakes on unnecessary energy drain. This has already been proven by server OEMs that have adopted our 50nm class process DRAM,” Elliott added.
DDR3 and SSDs deliver more than energy-savings. DDR3 effectively doubles the performance level of its predecessor, DDR2, with speeds of up to 1333 megabits (mbps) per second. Samsung’s 100 gigabyte (GB) SSD reads data sequentially at 230 megabytes per second (MB/s) and writes it sequentially at 180 MB/s.
With module densities ranging from 2GBs to 16GBs (and soon 32GBs), Samsung’s DDR3 enables OEMs to more easily design servers that use up to 192GBs of memory per system (16GBx12), considerably more than traditional server configurations. With virtualization requiring higher density memory, Samsung’s memory solutions become all the more attractive.
In addition to virtualization, Samsung’s “dynamic duo” will benefit a wide range of other data center storage applications such as video on demand, web serving and secure online transaction processing.
DDR3, which can be specified at 1.35Volts, and enterprise SSDs, which can be installed in arrays of servers as a replacement for far less-efficient hard disk drives, have the combined potential to save over 10 percent of power usage per server, and sometimes even more.
“With anywhere from dozens to thousands of servers in any given data center, the potential for substantial cost savings with DDR3 and SSDs is enormous,” said Jim Elliott, vice president, memory marketing, Samsung Semiconductor, Inc.
“Blending the exceptionally low power of today’s DRAM with performance optimized, high capacity enterprise SSDs provides data center managers with a solid alternative to slower, high-voltage DRAM and hard disk drives,” he added.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the need for reducing energy consumption in servers will reach critical proportions over the next three years as consumption is expected to reach 120 billion kilowatts a year by 2011. To reduce this significantly, data center managers must adopt newer technologies that provide substantial energy savings and greater performance efficiencies.
Samsung said the use of higher density, low-voltage DDR3 as a replacement for its long-running DDR2 predecessor, can save over 70 percent in reduced power consumption, through lower voltage requirements and the use of more energy-efficient 40nm class process technology.
In a data center environment, SSDs provide a compelling value when the total cost of ownership is considered, including hardware cost, maintenance, repairs and reduced electricity bills. A single SSD can realize up to 70 percent in power savings.
Samsung Enterprise SSDs can process as much as 100 times the number of IOPs (input/outputs per second) per watt as a 15K rpm 2.5-inch SAS HDD with a very low heat load on data center air conditioning. The IOPs-based performance of one SSD can equal up to 40 hard disk drives.
“The combination of Samsung’s DDR3 and SSDs in new server architectures will provide more powerful green IT solutions and help immensely in putting the brakes on unnecessary energy drain. This has already been proven by server OEMs that have adopted our 50nm class process DRAM,” Elliott added.
DDR3 and SSDs deliver more than energy-savings. DDR3 effectively doubles the performance level of its predecessor, DDR2, with speeds of up to 1333 megabits (mbps) per second. Samsung’s 100 gigabyte (GB) SSD reads data sequentially at 230 megabytes per second (MB/s) and writes it sequentially at 180 MB/s.
With module densities ranging from 2GBs to 16GBs (and soon 32GBs), Samsung’s DDR3 enables OEMs to more easily design servers that use up to 192GBs of memory per system (16GBx12), considerably more than traditional server configurations. With virtualization requiring higher density memory, Samsung’s memory solutions become all the more attractive.
In addition to virtualization, Samsung’s “dynamic duo” will benefit a wide range of other data center storage applications such as video on demand, web serving and secure online transaction processing.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Elpida’s DRAM sales soar in Q2; DRAM market up 34pc
EL SEGUNDO, USA: Japan’s Elpida Memory Inc. was the star of the global DRAM market in the second quarter, with a robust increase in its pricing causing its revenue to surge by 50 percent from the first quarter, according to iSuppli Corp.
Elpida posted the strongest performance among the Top-5 DRAM suppliers in the second quarter, with revenue rising to $745 million, up from $497 million in the first quarter. Company performance was boosted by a robust 32 percent rise in its DRAM ASP in the second quarter compared to the first.
“Elpida accomplished its strong increases in revenue and pricing by expanding its specialty DRAM sales to mobile and consumer applications,” said Nam Hyung Kim, director and chief analyst for memory ICs and storage at iSuppli. “These specialty DRAMs command higher prices than commodity parts, allowing Elpida to outperform its competitors.”
The table presents iSuppli’s top-10 DRAM supplier ranking the second quarter.
iSuppli: Top-10 DRAM Supplier Ranking the Second Quarter (Ranking by Revenue in Millions of US Dollars)
Source: iSuppli, Aug. 2009
The news comes amid a strong performance for the overall DRAM market, with revenue reaching $4.5 billion in the second quarter, up 34 percent from $3.4 billion in the first quarter. This contrasts with a 19 percent decline in the first quarter compared to the fourth quarter of 2008.
“Due to a shortage in DDR3 parts and to buyers’ inventory re-stocking efforts, the per megabyte price for DRAM jumped by 18 percent in the second quarter, an unusual increase for a market that customarily sees its prices decline during each quarter,” Kim added.
This 18 percent rise was much higher than iSuppli’s previous forecast of a 2.6 percent increase.
Megabyte equivalent unit shipments of DRAM also grew by 14 percent, surpassing iSuppli’s estimate of 6.2 percent and resulting in a dramatic improvement in overall market conditions.
The other big winner during the second quarter was Taiwan’s Winbond Electronics Corp., whose revenue doubled, rising to $87.6 million, up from $44 million in the first quarter.
Tier-1 results mixed
Among the other Tier-1 suppliers, results were mixed. The Top two South Korean companies -- Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Hynix Semiconductor Inc. -- captured 55.9 percent of the global market, with DRAM sales for each company increasing sequentially by more than 30 percent during the second quarter.
Micron Technology Inc. of the United States saw its share of DRAM revenue dip to 13.9 percent in the second quarter, down from 14.3 percent in the first quarter, owing to the very strong sales growth of the other Tier-1 DRAM suppliers. However, Micron’s second-quarter revenue declined by only 15.2 compared to the same period in 2008, the lowest level of decrease among the Top-10 DRAM suppliers in the second quarter.
Taiwan’s Nanya Technology Corp. also performed relatively well on the year-over-year comparison, with only a 15.4 percent decline in revenue.
“The relatively limited declines of Micron and Nanya, which recently entered a partnership, showed that the companies are seriously striving to increase their scale to become more competitive in the market,” Kim said.
DDR3 shortage continues until the end of the year
iSuppli believes that the recent shortage of DDR3 DRAM will persist through the end of this year.
Limited capital investments will continue to delay the migration to the 5x nanometer process until the first quarter of 2010. Until that time, DDR3 supply will continue to be tight in the market.
The DDR3 shortage recently has been making PC OEMs panic. A few OEMs are considering reducing their DDR3 adoption by returning back to DDR2 as most of Intel’s current chipsets still support dual modes (i.e. DDR2 and DDR3). The momentum of the price increases will definitely decelerate.
However, tight supply will persist and PC OEMs' profit margins are expected to be challenged in the second half of 2010, Kim said.
Elpida posted the strongest performance among the Top-5 DRAM suppliers in the second quarter, with revenue rising to $745 million, up from $497 million in the first quarter. Company performance was boosted by a robust 32 percent rise in its DRAM ASP in the second quarter compared to the first.
“Elpida accomplished its strong increases in revenue and pricing by expanding its specialty DRAM sales to mobile and consumer applications,” said Nam Hyung Kim, director and chief analyst for memory ICs and storage at iSuppli. “These specialty DRAMs command higher prices than commodity parts, allowing Elpida to outperform its competitors.”
The table presents iSuppli’s top-10 DRAM supplier ranking the second quarter.
iSuppli: Top-10 DRAM Supplier Ranking the Second Quarter (Ranking by Revenue in Millions of US Dollars)
Source: iSuppli, Aug. 2009The news comes amid a strong performance for the overall DRAM market, with revenue reaching $4.5 billion in the second quarter, up 34 percent from $3.4 billion in the first quarter. This contrasts with a 19 percent decline in the first quarter compared to the fourth quarter of 2008.
“Due to a shortage in DDR3 parts and to buyers’ inventory re-stocking efforts, the per megabyte price for DRAM jumped by 18 percent in the second quarter, an unusual increase for a market that customarily sees its prices decline during each quarter,” Kim added.
This 18 percent rise was much higher than iSuppli’s previous forecast of a 2.6 percent increase.
Megabyte equivalent unit shipments of DRAM also grew by 14 percent, surpassing iSuppli’s estimate of 6.2 percent and resulting in a dramatic improvement in overall market conditions.
The other big winner during the second quarter was Taiwan’s Winbond Electronics Corp., whose revenue doubled, rising to $87.6 million, up from $44 million in the first quarter.
Tier-1 results mixed
Among the other Tier-1 suppliers, results were mixed. The Top two South Korean companies -- Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Hynix Semiconductor Inc. -- captured 55.9 percent of the global market, with DRAM sales for each company increasing sequentially by more than 30 percent during the second quarter.
Micron Technology Inc. of the United States saw its share of DRAM revenue dip to 13.9 percent in the second quarter, down from 14.3 percent in the first quarter, owing to the very strong sales growth of the other Tier-1 DRAM suppliers. However, Micron’s second-quarter revenue declined by only 15.2 compared to the same period in 2008, the lowest level of decrease among the Top-10 DRAM suppliers in the second quarter.
Taiwan’s Nanya Technology Corp. also performed relatively well on the year-over-year comparison, with only a 15.4 percent decline in revenue.
“The relatively limited declines of Micron and Nanya, which recently entered a partnership, showed that the companies are seriously striving to increase their scale to become more competitive in the market,” Kim said.
DDR3 shortage continues until the end of the year
iSuppli believes that the recent shortage of DDR3 DRAM will persist through the end of this year.
Limited capital investments will continue to delay the migration to the 5x nanometer process until the first quarter of 2010. Until that time, DDR3 supply will continue to be tight in the market.
The DDR3 shortage recently has been making PC OEMs panic. A few OEMs are considering reducing their DDR3 adoption by returning back to DDR2 as most of Intel’s current chipsets still support dual modes (i.e. DDR2 and DDR3). The momentum of the price increases will definitely decelerate.
However, tight supply will persist and PC OEMs' profit margins are expected to be challenged in the second half of 2010, Kim said.
Competition for high-growth mobile chip market escalating
SCOTTSDALE, USA: The battle for the fast-growing mobile semiconductor market will intensify in late 2009 with the introduction of new processors from each camp–ARM and x86, reports In-Stat.
Intel will introduce processors that will finally reduce the power consumption of the x86 architecture to acceptable levels for smartphones and other mobile devices.
Shortly after, many in the competing ARM camp, including Freescale, TI, and Samsung, will essentially be scaling up performance with multi-core processors that maintain similar power levels to existing single-core products.
“While both will offer competitive solutions, In-Stat does not anticipate quick changes in the current market mix; the x86 architecture dominates the computing applications, and the ARM architecture dominates cellular devices,” says Jim McGregor, In-Stat analyst.
“Mini-notebooks will be the primary battleground as the market starts seeing some crossover in 2011. However, both architectures are likely to co-exist as devices become more focused in features and usage models.”
Recent research by In-Stat found the following:
* The Total Available Market (TAM) for merchant market mobile processors is projected to grow 22.3 percent through 2013.
* Integration of additional cores, graphics/multimedia, I/O, and baseband functionality will continue, particularly in handheld applications. Among smartphones, for example, 87 percent will feature mobile processors with integrated baseband functionality by 2013.
* The estimated value of the processing, graphics/multimedia, and baseband functions will all increase at double-digit growth rates over the next few years.
Intel will introduce processors that will finally reduce the power consumption of the x86 architecture to acceptable levels for smartphones and other mobile devices.
Shortly after, many in the competing ARM camp, including Freescale, TI, and Samsung, will essentially be scaling up performance with multi-core processors that maintain similar power levels to existing single-core products.
“While both will offer competitive solutions, In-Stat does not anticipate quick changes in the current market mix; the x86 architecture dominates the computing applications, and the ARM architecture dominates cellular devices,” says Jim McGregor, In-Stat analyst.
“Mini-notebooks will be the primary battleground as the market starts seeing some crossover in 2011. However, both architectures are likely to co-exist as devices become more focused in features and usage models.”
Recent research by In-Stat found the following:
* The Total Available Market (TAM) for merchant market mobile processors is projected to grow 22.3 percent through 2013.
* Integration of additional cores, graphics/multimedia, I/O, and baseband functionality will continue, particularly in handheld applications. Among smartphones, for example, 87 percent will feature mobile processors with integrated baseband functionality by 2013.
* The estimated value of the processing, graphics/multimedia, and baseband functions will all increase at double-digit growth rates over the next few years.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
SAMSUNG targets fast-performing 256GB SSD for PC gaming industry
SAN JOSE, USA: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd recently announced that it is targeting the PC gaming industry with its high-performance 256-gigabyte (GB) SSD (solid state drive), which delivers lightning-fast processing power for a superior PC gaming experience.
As solid state drive (SSD) technology continues to gain mass market appeal, Samsung envisions that its SSDs will also make major inroads in the PC gaming arena as the high-speed alternative to traditional hard disk drives.
"In addition to processing power, advanced graphic cards and high-resolution monitors, gamers want a fast storage drive for reduced loading times and faster game performance," said Jim Elliott, vice president of memory marketing, Samsung Semiconductor.
"Our 256GB SSD provides much better overall performance than conventional HDDs, as well as longer battery life for the notebook gamer. Clearly, all PC gamers will benefit from the blistering speeds and dazzling photorealism enabled by the Samsung 256GB SSD."
"The PC gaming market continues to evolve into a more mainstream segment, and should reach $30.7 billion by the end of 2012," according to Jon Peddie, president of Jon Peddie Research.
"PC gaming enthusiasts are at the forefront for demanding the latest high-powered hardware available, making the PC gaming industry an important innovation driver for adopting cutting-edge technology, like high-performance solid state drives. Using an SSD will give the gamer the extra edge that he or she is seeking."
As the online conversation about SSD technology continues to grow, Samsung will directly engage the gaming community by offering SSD-enabled game stations at the World Cyber Games (WCG) in the United States.
Samsung is a worldwide partner of the WCG, which is known as the Olympics of video gaming, with the 2008 event drawing approximately 1.6 million participants from 78 countries.
Samsung will encourage participants to experience the SSD game stations at the US National Finals, taking place Sept. 25-27 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City.
As solid state drive (SSD) technology continues to gain mass market appeal, Samsung envisions that its SSDs will also make major inroads in the PC gaming arena as the high-speed alternative to traditional hard disk drives.
"In addition to processing power, advanced graphic cards and high-resolution monitors, gamers want a fast storage drive for reduced loading times and faster game performance," said Jim Elliott, vice president of memory marketing, Samsung Semiconductor.
"Our 256GB SSD provides much better overall performance than conventional HDDs, as well as longer battery life for the notebook gamer. Clearly, all PC gamers will benefit from the blistering speeds and dazzling photorealism enabled by the Samsung 256GB SSD."
"The PC gaming market continues to evolve into a more mainstream segment, and should reach $30.7 billion by the end of 2012," according to Jon Peddie, president of Jon Peddie Research.
"PC gaming enthusiasts are at the forefront for demanding the latest high-powered hardware available, making the PC gaming industry an important innovation driver for adopting cutting-edge technology, like high-performance solid state drives. Using an SSD will give the gamer the extra edge that he or she is seeking."
As the online conversation about SSD technology continues to grow, Samsung will directly engage the gaming community by offering SSD-enabled game stations at the World Cyber Games (WCG) in the United States.
Samsung is a worldwide partner of the WCG, which is known as the Olympics of video gaming, with the 2008 event drawing approximately 1.6 million participants from 78 countries.
Samsung will encourage participants to experience the SSD game stations at the US National Finals, taking place Sept. 25-27 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
"Billion-Dollar Club" members for capex reduced to three in 2009
USA: The number of companies expected to spend at least $1 billion on semiconductor capital equipment is forecast to fall to its lowest number in more than 10 years in 2009, according to IC Insights' recently released Mid-Year Update to The McClean Report.
Only three companies, Intel, Samsung, and TSMC, are expected to have capital outlays exceeding $1.0 billion in 2009, down from eight companies in 2008, and 16 companies in 2007 (Figure 1). As shown in the figure, these three companies alone have been part of the "Billion-Dollar Club" every year since 2000.
Source: IC Insights
As shown, the billion-dollar spenders accounted for a record-high 74 percent of worldwide semiconductor industry capital expenditures in 2007. This figure fell to 56 percent in 2008 and is likely to drop to 43 percent in 2009.
While only three companies are expected to spend $1.0 billion or more on capex in 2009, they will represent a very significant amount of the total worldwide semiconductor industry capital spending for the year.
The average amount of capex spent by companies on the billion-dollar club list is forecast to be $3.84 billion in 2009, up 28 percent from $3.01 billion in 2008. Intel ($4.7 billion) and Samsung ($4.5 billion) will spend significantly more than the average, while TSMC has budgeted $2.3 billion.
Intel (-10 percent) and Samsung (-33 percent) are forecast to spend less than they did in 2008, while TSMC's planned capex is up 23 percent from its 2008 spending level.
Capital spending as a percent of semiconductor sales reached a record low of 16 percent in 2008. With only three companies dedicating $1.0 billion or more for capital equipment in 2009, this ratio is forecast to move even lower, to only about 12 percent this year!
As described in the Mid-Year Update, IC Insights believes that these record low capital spending as a percent of sales ratios will lead to much stronger IC average selling prices (ASPs) beginning in 2010 and extending through 2012.
Source: IC Insights
Only three companies, Intel, Samsung, and TSMC, are expected to have capital outlays exceeding $1.0 billion in 2009, down from eight companies in 2008, and 16 companies in 2007 (Figure 1). As shown in the figure, these three companies alone have been part of the "Billion-Dollar Club" every year since 2000.
Source: IC InsightsAs shown, the billion-dollar spenders accounted for a record-high 74 percent of worldwide semiconductor industry capital expenditures in 2007. This figure fell to 56 percent in 2008 and is likely to drop to 43 percent in 2009.
While only three companies are expected to spend $1.0 billion or more on capex in 2009, they will represent a very significant amount of the total worldwide semiconductor industry capital spending for the year.
The average amount of capex spent by companies on the billion-dollar club list is forecast to be $3.84 billion in 2009, up 28 percent from $3.01 billion in 2008. Intel ($4.7 billion) and Samsung ($4.5 billion) will spend significantly more than the average, while TSMC has budgeted $2.3 billion.
Intel (-10 percent) and Samsung (-33 percent) are forecast to spend less than they did in 2008, while TSMC's planned capex is up 23 percent from its 2008 spending level.
Capital spending as a percent of semiconductor sales reached a record low of 16 percent in 2008. With only three companies dedicating $1.0 billion or more for capital equipment in 2009, this ratio is forecast to move even lower, to only about 12 percent this year!
As described in the Mid-Year Update, IC Insights believes that these record low capital spending as a percent of sales ratios will lead to much stronger IC average selling prices (ASPs) beginning in 2010 and extending through 2012.
Source: IC Insights
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Global DRAM revenue rises 27.1 percent in 2Q09
TAIPEI, TAIWAN: According to DRAMeXchange, with the production cut effect in DRAM contract price, PC system vendors continue to replenish their DRAM inventory under the low pricing status and resulted in the 23 percent growth contract price in 2Q09.
Given the tight supply, spot price also hikes that DDR2 1Gb 667MHz chip spot price once reached $1.27 in May and it was anticipated to reach $1.5 by the quarter end. However, it is said that a certain DRAM vendor released the low price chip to spot market that trigger the price fallen to the rage of US$1.05~US$1.19. Average price for DDR2 1Gb 667 MHz rose 27 percent to $1.12 in 2Q09.
The 2Q09 DRAM revenue rose about 10 percent~50 percent given the 23 percent growth contract price and 27 percent growth spot price. Samsung and Elpida have outperformed the market and increase 3 percent to their market share. Compared with the overall industry revenue in 1Q09, DRAM revenue for 2Q09 rose 27.1 percent to US$4,043M in 2Q09.
Global own brand revenue ranking for DRAM vendors
According to DRAMeXchange, 2Q09 DRAM revenue increased 27.1 percent. Samsung continued its unchallenged leadership in the DRAM industry with $1,179M DRAM revenue in 2Q09 while its market share has climbed 2.8 percent to 29.2 percent given the upward pricing trend in contract price, technology migration and raise DDR3 portion.
In 2Q09, Hynix's DRAM sales rose 31.5 percent to $928M given the 20 percent average price growth, 10 percent quarterly bit growth and dropping unit cost. Currently, Hynix ranks at the 2nd place and its market share has increased 0.7 percent to 22.9 percent.
Elpida recorded the dramatically 50.1 percent sales increase and strengthened its 3rd market leading position to surpass Micron given the 27 percent ASP growth and 12 percent bit growth.
For the different accounting period (2Q for Micron is March, April and May) it applied for the accounting periods, contract price still decline 2 percent compared with last periods (Dec., Jan. and Feb.).
According to DRAMeXchange, DDR2 1Gb 667MHz contract price was merely $0.88 in March while the contract price increased to $1.16 in June that the revenue upward pattern is less than other vendors. Therefore, Micron would grab 4th place in the ranking while its market share has declined to 13.6 percent in 2Q09 from 15.2 percent in 1Q09.
As for the Taiwanese vendors, Nanya ranks at the 5th position along with $230M DRAM revenue and 34.5 percent QoQ given the upward pricing trend in both spot market and contract market, and peaking utilization rate of outsourcing partner-Inotera.
Benefited from the 27 percent boosting spot price and 42 percent utilization rate from 25 percent, PSC shows the amazing 38.1 percent revenue growth in 2Q09 and its market share has slightly increased.
Winbond announced its 2Q09 DRAM revenue at $80m with merely 8.6 percent QoQ. The market share has declined to 2 percent since growth momentum is comparably weaker than the market. ProMOS also demonstrates 20.9 percent QoQ revenue pattern with the upward pricing trend as well.
Fig. 1: 2Q09 WW DRAM revenue ranking, by own brand DRAM revenue
(Company revenue includes outsourced portion and excludes the sub-manufacturing revenue)
Source: DRAMeXchange, Aug. 2009
*Qimonda did not announce any financial results in 2Q09 under the stage of bankruptcy.; Unit: Million USD
Note:
Fig. 1: For Samsung 2Q DRAM revenue , we approximately derived the resulted by deducting LSI revenue from semiconductor based on the assumption that DRAM revenue accounts for 48.3 percent in memory sectors and 2Q09 average exchange rate is $1 against KRW$1,283. We apply this estimation to other vendors by indicating 71 percent for Hynix total revenue, 49.8 percent for Micron, 89 percent for PSC, 90 percent for ProMOS, 94 percent for Nanya and 80 percent for Winbond under the following exchange rate: US$1 against NT$33.09, US$1 against JPY$97.41.
Own brand market share of global DRAM industry (By country)
The Korean vendors share rose 3.5 percent to 53.4 percent compared with 1Q09 and their leader position remained unchallenged in 2Q09.
Shares from the Taiwanese vendors slightly rose to 13.8 percent in 2Q09 from 13.5 percent in 1Q09. The rest of market share is occupied by Japanese vendors(18.9 percent) and American vendors (13.9 percent), as per Fig. 2.
Fig. 2 The market share of own brand DRAM revenue, by country
Source: DRAMeXchange, Aug. 2009
Given the tight supply, spot price also hikes that DDR2 1Gb 667MHz chip spot price once reached $1.27 in May and it was anticipated to reach $1.5 by the quarter end. However, it is said that a certain DRAM vendor released the low price chip to spot market that trigger the price fallen to the rage of US$1.05~US$1.19. Average price for DDR2 1Gb 667 MHz rose 27 percent to $1.12 in 2Q09.
The 2Q09 DRAM revenue rose about 10 percent~50 percent given the 23 percent growth contract price and 27 percent growth spot price. Samsung and Elpida have outperformed the market and increase 3 percent to their market share. Compared with the overall industry revenue in 1Q09, DRAM revenue for 2Q09 rose 27.1 percent to US$4,043M in 2Q09.
Global own brand revenue ranking for DRAM vendors
According to DRAMeXchange, 2Q09 DRAM revenue increased 27.1 percent. Samsung continued its unchallenged leadership in the DRAM industry with $1,179M DRAM revenue in 2Q09 while its market share has climbed 2.8 percent to 29.2 percent given the upward pricing trend in contract price, technology migration and raise DDR3 portion.
In 2Q09, Hynix's DRAM sales rose 31.5 percent to $928M given the 20 percent average price growth, 10 percent quarterly bit growth and dropping unit cost. Currently, Hynix ranks at the 2nd place and its market share has increased 0.7 percent to 22.9 percent.
Elpida recorded the dramatically 50.1 percent sales increase and strengthened its 3rd market leading position to surpass Micron given the 27 percent ASP growth and 12 percent bit growth.
For the different accounting period (2Q for Micron is March, April and May) it applied for the accounting periods, contract price still decline 2 percent compared with last periods (Dec., Jan. and Feb.).
According to DRAMeXchange, DDR2 1Gb 667MHz contract price was merely $0.88 in March while the contract price increased to $1.16 in June that the revenue upward pattern is less than other vendors. Therefore, Micron would grab 4th place in the ranking while its market share has declined to 13.6 percent in 2Q09 from 15.2 percent in 1Q09.
As for the Taiwanese vendors, Nanya ranks at the 5th position along with $230M DRAM revenue and 34.5 percent QoQ given the upward pricing trend in both spot market and contract market, and peaking utilization rate of outsourcing partner-Inotera.
Benefited from the 27 percent boosting spot price and 42 percent utilization rate from 25 percent, PSC shows the amazing 38.1 percent revenue growth in 2Q09 and its market share has slightly increased.
Winbond announced its 2Q09 DRAM revenue at $80m with merely 8.6 percent QoQ. The market share has declined to 2 percent since growth momentum is comparably weaker than the market. ProMOS also demonstrates 20.9 percent QoQ revenue pattern with the upward pricing trend as well.
Fig. 1: 2Q09 WW DRAM revenue ranking, by own brand DRAM revenue
(Company revenue includes outsourced portion and excludes the sub-manufacturing revenue)
Source: DRAMeXchange, Aug. 2009*Qimonda did not announce any financial results in 2Q09 under the stage of bankruptcy.; Unit: Million USD
Note:
Fig. 1: For Samsung 2Q DRAM revenue , we approximately derived the resulted by deducting LSI revenue from semiconductor based on the assumption that DRAM revenue accounts for 48.3 percent in memory sectors and 2Q09 average exchange rate is $1 against KRW$1,283. We apply this estimation to other vendors by indicating 71 percent for Hynix total revenue, 49.8 percent for Micron, 89 percent for PSC, 90 percent for ProMOS, 94 percent for Nanya and 80 percent for Winbond under the following exchange rate: US$1 against NT$33.09, US$1 against JPY$97.41.
Own brand market share of global DRAM industry (By country)
The Korean vendors share rose 3.5 percent to 53.4 percent compared with 1Q09 and their leader position remained unchallenged in 2Q09.
Shares from the Taiwanese vendors slightly rose to 13.8 percent in 2Q09 from 13.5 percent in 1Q09. The rest of market share is occupied by Japanese vendors(18.9 percent) and American vendors (13.9 percent), as per Fig. 2.
Fig. 2 The market share of own brand DRAM revenue, by country
Source: DRAMeXchange, Aug. 2009
Friday, July 31, 2009
2Q09 branded NAND Flash makers sales rose 33.6pc QoQ to $2.786bn
TAIPEI, TAIWAN: Benefited from NAND Flash suppliers’ production-cut effect and restock demand from emerging market, NAND Flash ASP rose about 20 percent QoQ in 2Q09.
Total branded NAND Flash shipment increased about 10 percent QoQ and it resulted in the overall branded NAND Flash makers’ revenue improvement in 2Q09. 2Q09 branded NAND Flash makers’ total sales increased 33.6 percent QoQ to $2.786bn from $2.086bn in 1Q09.
According to the ranking, Samsung remains its leadership place with 37.2 percent market share and records $1.037bn revenue, followed by Toshiba with 34.5 percent market share and $960mn revenue.
Hynix ranks No. 3 with 10.3 percent market share and $288mn revenue, while Micron takes the No. 4 seed with $236mn. Intel and Numonyx grab No. 5 and No. 6 with $193mn and $72mn, respectively.
Benefited from the inventory replenishment from mobile market, NAND Flash shipment slight increased with raising ASP in 2Q09. Samsung’s 2Q09 revenue was up 38.3 percent QoQ to $1.037bn, while the 2Q09 market share climbed to 37.2 percent from 36 percent in 1Q09.
Toshiba maintained lower utilization in 2Q09, but quarterly sales increased 29.7 percent QoQ to $960mn because of the enhancing ASP. The 2Q09 market share is slightly down to 34.5 percent from 35.5 percent in 1Q09.
With boosting 23 percent QoQ ASP and 40 percent QoQ shipment, Hynix’s sales significantly rose 68.4 percent QoQ to $288mn in 2Q09. The 2Q09 market share is up to 10.3 percent from 8.2 percent in 1Q09.
Micron and Intel camp demonstrated the upward shipment pattern with lower ASP in 2Q09. Micron’s sales rose 18 percent QoQ to $236mn with 8.5 percent market share in 2Q09. Intel recorded $193mn revenue with 24.5 percent QoQ growth rate and 6.9 percent market share in 2Q09.
Numonyx recorded $72mn revenue with 2.9 percent QoQ despite of mild shipment decline and slightly raising ASP in 2Q09. Numonyx market share in 2Q09 is about 2.6 percent.
Source: DRAMeXchange
Total branded NAND Flash shipment increased about 10 percent QoQ and it resulted in the overall branded NAND Flash makers’ revenue improvement in 2Q09. 2Q09 branded NAND Flash makers’ total sales increased 33.6 percent QoQ to $2.786bn from $2.086bn in 1Q09.
According to the ranking, Samsung remains its leadership place with 37.2 percent market share and records $1.037bn revenue, followed by Toshiba with 34.5 percent market share and $960mn revenue.
Hynix ranks No. 3 with 10.3 percent market share and $288mn revenue, while Micron takes the No. 4 seed with $236mn. Intel and Numonyx grab No. 5 and No. 6 with $193mn and $72mn, respectively.
Benefited from the inventory replenishment from mobile market, NAND Flash shipment slight increased with raising ASP in 2Q09. Samsung’s 2Q09 revenue was up 38.3 percent QoQ to $1.037bn, while the 2Q09 market share climbed to 37.2 percent from 36 percent in 1Q09.
Toshiba maintained lower utilization in 2Q09, but quarterly sales increased 29.7 percent QoQ to $960mn because of the enhancing ASP. The 2Q09 market share is slightly down to 34.5 percent from 35.5 percent in 1Q09.
With boosting 23 percent QoQ ASP and 40 percent QoQ shipment, Hynix’s sales significantly rose 68.4 percent QoQ to $288mn in 2Q09. The 2Q09 market share is up to 10.3 percent from 8.2 percent in 1Q09.
Micron and Intel camp demonstrated the upward shipment pattern with lower ASP in 2Q09. Micron’s sales rose 18 percent QoQ to $236mn with 8.5 percent market share in 2Q09. Intel recorded $193mn revenue with 24.5 percent QoQ growth rate and 6.9 percent market share in 2Q09.
Numonyx recorded $72mn revenue with 2.9 percent QoQ despite of mild shipment decline and slightly raising ASP in 2Q09. Numonyx market share in 2Q09 is about 2.6 percent.
Source: DRAMeXchange
Thursday, July 23, 2009
2H’July contract price for DDR3 rose 9pc to $24
TAIPEI, TAIWAN: According to DRAMeXchange, resulting from the 5 percent upward pricing in term 1H’July, DDR3 contract price for 2H’July hikes again due to tight DDR3 supply and aggressiveness in inventory replenishment for PC-OEMs.
Most DDR3 2GB price deal are negotiated at $24, while Samsung’s pricing was sustained at $22/2GB in 1H’July and was adjusted to $24/2GB in 2H’July.
“Low” price of DDR3 2GB rose 9 percent to $24, and the “Average” price just merely increased to $24.5 from $24, but not much deal was done for "High" price.
The main reason for upward pricing trend is triggered by higher premium on extra DDR3 requirement for PC-OEMs. It is indicated that PC-OEMs pay 7 percent premium on the extra volumes. 2H’July DDR2 contract “Low” price and “Average” price rose around 5 percent since DRAM vendors applied “bundle-sales” strategy to promote DDR2 along with DDR3 despite of weak demand in DDR2 market.
Unlike the boosting upward trend in contract market, DDR3 1333Mhz 1Gb chip rose 9 percent to $1.7 from $1.56 at 1H’July in the spot market given the rare DDR3 supply in the spot market. DDR2 still remains the main transaction target and DDR3 exposure is less than 1 percent among the product mix of module houses.
According to DRAMeXchange's analysts, the boosting demand for DDR3 is triggered by aggressive DDR3 migration of Acer. It is estimated that around 70 percent of notebook shipments in Q4 will be equipped with DDR3 modules.
Acer looks forward to take advantage of DDR3 migration to achieve higher market share in terms of PC shipments. HP and Dell are forced to raise the DDR3 exposure in 2H’09 in advance to protect their leadership even though they plan to adopt DDR3 in mainstream NB market next year. It resulted in the huge demand for DDR3 in 2H’09.
However, DRAM vendors are cautious toward the DDR3 migration since they don’t want to record bigger loss again with anxious migration plans. Therefore, DDR3 contract price rose 14 percent in July due to tight DDR3 supply.
It is indicated that around 30 percent ~70 percent PC models in Q4’09 will be equipped with DDR3, while DRAM vendors are required to speed up the migration process by PC-OEMs.
Korean vendors such as Samsung and Hynix demonstrate their competitiveness in terms of migration speed and production capability. Not only with penetration in 50nm technology, Samsung and Hynix will adopt 40nm technology to produce DDR3 in 2H’10.
DDR3 will be amounted 35 percent ~40 percent in terms of wafer-in production in Q4’09. On the other hand, Elpida is much aggressive toward DDR3 compared with Korean vendors. DDR3 wafer-in production portion will be estimated as 50 percent of total DDR2 production along with DDR3 in Q4’09.
To enhance the competitiveness during the periods without 50nm technology, Elpida is developing 60nm technology to produce DDR3 chip that production volume will raise 20 percent under 60nm technology without immersion facility. As for Taiwanese vendors, Nanya/Inotera currently apply Qimonda’s 70nm technology to produce DDR3 while Micron’s 68nm technology and 50nm technology will be mainly adopted to produce DDR3 followed by the migration plans in 2H’09.
That is, DDR3 portion in Fab 3A will be obtained to 90% if Micron’s technology is applied in 90 percent of total production in Fab 3A. Rexchip ramp up DDR3 production in small volume while PSC will decide to follow depends on the spot market status.
Global DDR3 Migration Trend (Percentage of commodity DRAM production)
Source: DRAMeXchange, July 2009
Most DDR3 2GB price deal are negotiated at $24, while Samsung’s pricing was sustained at $22/2GB in 1H’July and was adjusted to $24/2GB in 2H’July.
“Low” price of DDR3 2GB rose 9 percent to $24, and the “Average” price just merely increased to $24.5 from $24, but not much deal was done for "High" price.
The main reason for upward pricing trend is triggered by higher premium on extra DDR3 requirement for PC-OEMs. It is indicated that PC-OEMs pay 7 percent premium on the extra volumes. 2H’July DDR2 contract “Low” price and “Average” price rose around 5 percent since DRAM vendors applied “bundle-sales” strategy to promote DDR2 along with DDR3 despite of weak demand in DDR2 market.
Unlike the boosting upward trend in contract market, DDR3 1333Mhz 1Gb chip rose 9 percent to $1.7 from $1.56 at 1H’July in the spot market given the rare DDR3 supply in the spot market. DDR2 still remains the main transaction target and DDR3 exposure is less than 1 percent among the product mix of module houses.
According to DRAMeXchange's analysts, the boosting demand for DDR3 is triggered by aggressive DDR3 migration of Acer. It is estimated that around 70 percent of notebook shipments in Q4 will be equipped with DDR3 modules.
Acer looks forward to take advantage of DDR3 migration to achieve higher market share in terms of PC shipments. HP and Dell are forced to raise the DDR3 exposure in 2H’09 in advance to protect their leadership even though they plan to adopt DDR3 in mainstream NB market next year. It resulted in the huge demand for DDR3 in 2H’09.
However, DRAM vendors are cautious toward the DDR3 migration since they don’t want to record bigger loss again with anxious migration plans. Therefore, DDR3 contract price rose 14 percent in July due to tight DDR3 supply.
It is indicated that around 30 percent ~70 percent PC models in Q4’09 will be equipped with DDR3, while DRAM vendors are required to speed up the migration process by PC-OEMs.
Korean vendors such as Samsung and Hynix demonstrate their competitiveness in terms of migration speed and production capability. Not only with penetration in 50nm technology, Samsung and Hynix will adopt 40nm technology to produce DDR3 in 2H’10.
DDR3 will be amounted 35 percent ~40 percent in terms of wafer-in production in Q4’09. On the other hand, Elpida is much aggressive toward DDR3 compared with Korean vendors. DDR3 wafer-in production portion will be estimated as 50 percent of total DDR2 production along with DDR3 in Q4’09.
To enhance the competitiveness during the periods without 50nm technology, Elpida is developing 60nm technology to produce DDR3 chip that production volume will raise 20 percent under 60nm technology without immersion facility. As for Taiwanese vendors, Nanya/Inotera currently apply Qimonda’s 70nm technology to produce DDR3 while Micron’s 68nm technology and 50nm technology will be mainly adopted to produce DDR3 followed by the migration plans in 2H’09.
That is, DDR3 portion in Fab 3A will be obtained to 90% if Micron’s technology is applied in 90 percent of total production in Fab 3A. Rexchip ramp up DDR3 production in small volume while PSC will decide to follow depends on the spot market status.
Global DDR3 Migration Trend (Percentage of commodity DRAM production)
Source: DRAMeXchange, July 2009
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Samsung intros 45nm application processor for next gen CE devices
SEOUL, KOREA: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd announced the latest in its popular, ARM11 series of application processors, the S5P6440. Designed using Samsung's advanced 45nm low power CMOS process technology, the S5P6440 offers a low power, high performance, and cost effective solution for consumer electronic (CE) products such as personal navigation devices (PND).
"Today's ultra-competitive consumer electronics market demands rapid performance upgrades and effective cost reduction to continue its expansion," said Dr. Kwang-hyun Kim, Senior VP of Sales and Marketing at Samsung Electronics' System LSI division.
"Our S5P6440 application processor is specifically designed with those objectives in mind to offer substantial improvements in CPU performance at low power, high quality graphics capability, and lower system BOM cost. CE device manufacturers using S5P6440 can offer exciting new products such as next generation PND to the market in a timely manner."
Samsung's S5P6440 is based on an ARM1176 CPU core which runs at either 533 MHz or 667MHz clock speed. The CPU core and all on-chip hardware accelerators and peripheral interfaces are connected through a 64-bit AXI bus running at 166MHz, allowing ample input/output bandwidth for handling the multiprocessing requirements in real-life applications.
The S5P6440 features 2D graphics acceleration hardware that is compliant with the OpenVG application programming interface (API) standard. The OpenVG API standard enables advanced graphics functions such as alpha blending for transparency effects, anti-aliasing for sharper graphics, and vector graphics support for scaling without loss of image quality. Utilizing this graphical capability, devices implemented with the S5P6440 can offer a vivid graphical user interface that greatly enhances the user experience.
To lower the system BOM cost and ease the design complexity, the S5P6440 incorporated various interface hardware IP. An advanced NAND error correction hardware is included to support current and next generation MLC NAND flash devices which offer higher storage density at a lower cost.
The S5P6440 also integrated a DRAM memory controller that supports both mobile DDR (mDDR) as well as the lower cost DDR2 memory chips, allowing device manufacturer's different choices of storage device types to meet different market segments' requirements.
In addition, the S5P6440 integrated a mobile industry processor interface (MIPI) display serial interface (DSI) for advanced graphics and display capabilities at low power. The MIPI DSI interface is valuable to customers wanting to reduce the complexity of the display interface by reducing the number of pins, which has benefits in terms of design simplicity and cost.
MIPI DSI also uses a differential signal which substantially reduces EMI issues. These advantages are increasingly important for mainstream connected CE products where noise interference among electronic components in within a product can adversely affect the product's performance.
Samsung's new S5P6440 application processor supports all major high-level operation systems including WinCE and Linux. This allows OEMs and PND manufacturers to differentiate their products through a rich, easy-to-use, customizable user interface, as well as robust, flexible application architecture.
The S5P6440 application processor is sampling to key customers now and is scheduled for volume shipment in the third quarter of this year. The chip is housed in a 13x13 FBGA package with a ball pitch of 0.65mm.
"Today's ultra-competitive consumer electronics market demands rapid performance upgrades and effective cost reduction to continue its expansion," said Dr. Kwang-hyun Kim, Senior VP of Sales and Marketing at Samsung Electronics' System LSI division.
"Our S5P6440 application processor is specifically designed with those objectives in mind to offer substantial improvements in CPU performance at low power, high quality graphics capability, and lower system BOM cost. CE device manufacturers using S5P6440 can offer exciting new products such as next generation PND to the market in a timely manner."
Samsung's S5P6440 is based on an ARM1176 CPU core which runs at either 533 MHz or 667MHz clock speed. The CPU core and all on-chip hardware accelerators and peripheral interfaces are connected through a 64-bit AXI bus running at 166MHz, allowing ample input/output bandwidth for handling the multiprocessing requirements in real-life applications.
The S5P6440 features 2D graphics acceleration hardware that is compliant with the OpenVG application programming interface (API) standard. The OpenVG API standard enables advanced graphics functions such as alpha blending for transparency effects, anti-aliasing for sharper graphics, and vector graphics support for scaling without loss of image quality. Utilizing this graphical capability, devices implemented with the S5P6440 can offer a vivid graphical user interface that greatly enhances the user experience.
To lower the system BOM cost and ease the design complexity, the S5P6440 incorporated various interface hardware IP. An advanced NAND error correction hardware is included to support current and next generation MLC NAND flash devices which offer higher storage density at a lower cost.
The S5P6440 also integrated a DRAM memory controller that supports both mobile DDR (mDDR) as well as the lower cost DDR2 memory chips, allowing device manufacturer's different choices of storage device types to meet different market segments' requirements.
In addition, the S5P6440 integrated a mobile industry processor interface (MIPI) display serial interface (DSI) for advanced graphics and display capabilities at low power. The MIPI DSI interface is valuable to customers wanting to reduce the complexity of the display interface by reducing the number of pins, which has benefits in terms of design simplicity and cost.
MIPI DSI also uses a differential signal which substantially reduces EMI issues. These advantages are increasingly important for mainstream connected CE products where noise interference among electronic components in within a product can adversely affect the product's performance.
Samsung's new S5P6440 application processor supports all major high-level operation systems including WinCE and Linux. This allows OEMs and PND manufacturers to differentiate their products through a rich, easy-to-use, customizable user interface, as well as robust, flexible application architecture.
The S5P6440 application processor is sampling to key customers now and is scheduled for volume shipment in the third quarter of this year. The chip is housed in a 13x13 FBGA package with a ball pitch of 0.65mm.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Samsung, Numonyx join forces on phase change memory
SEOUL, KOREA & GENEVA, SWITZERLAND: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Numonyx B.V. are jointly developing market specifications for Phase Change Memory (PCM) products, a next generation memory technology that will help enable makers of feature-rich handsets and mobile applications, embedded systems and high-end computing devices to meet the increasing performance and power demands for platforms loaded with content and data.
Creating common hardware and software compatibility for PCM products should help simplify designs and shorten development time, enabling manufacturers to quickly transition to high-performance, low-power PCM products from both companies.
Phase change memory produces very fast read and write speeds at lower power than conventional NOR and NAND flash memory, and allows for bit alterability normally seen in RAM.
"Our joint efforts with Numonyx will enable a more secure path for introducing PCM into the mobile environment,” said SeiJin Kim, vice president, mobile memory technology planning and enabling, Samsung Electronics. “We anticipate that PCM will eventually be a major addition to our family of memory products, one that will nicely compliment our other mobile memory solutions and ultimately increase our leadership in the industry,” he added.
“This is a significant milestone for both the development of PCM and for the overall memory market,” said Brian Harrison, president and CEO of Numonyx. “The collaboration between two memory industry leaders, Numonyx and Samsung, is helping to provide the kind of direction and clarity that is often needed when new technologies are introduced. The common specifications will enable chipset vendors and others in the ecosystem to standardize and more easily support the delivery of a new generation of memory technology that will benefit not only handset OEMs, but also manufacturers of embedded systems and high-end computing devices, and their customers.”
Samsung and Numonyx are developing common specifications –- or “pin for pin” hardware and software compatibility -– for mobile, embedded and other potential computing applications supporting the JEDEC LPDDR2 Low Power Memory Device Standard. The LPDDR2 standard offers advanced power management features, a shared interface for nonvolatile memory (NVM) and volatile memory (SDRAM), and a range of densities and speeds.
Phase change memory has many of the advantages of NAND and NOR flash memory as well as other RAM memories –- allowing data to be read at RAM speeds while lowering the cost and power consumption levels by reducing the large amounts of RAM often used in today’s digital applications.
Phase change memory will also be “executable”, allowing a separation of code and data for reliable code storage —- particularly useful in handsets with higher data content. PCM devices will have faster programming ability than other types of memory as its RAM-like features will enable programming changes to be made bit by bit, instead of having to erase entire blocks of information.
Common specifications between the two companies will be completed this year, with both companies expecting to have compliant devices available next year.
Creating common hardware and software compatibility for PCM products should help simplify designs and shorten development time, enabling manufacturers to quickly transition to high-performance, low-power PCM products from both companies.
Phase change memory produces very fast read and write speeds at lower power than conventional NOR and NAND flash memory, and allows for bit alterability normally seen in RAM.
"Our joint efforts with Numonyx will enable a more secure path for introducing PCM into the mobile environment,” said SeiJin Kim, vice president, mobile memory technology planning and enabling, Samsung Electronics. “We anticipate that PCM will eventually be a major addition to our family of memory products, one that will nicely compliment our other mobile memory solutions and ultimately increase our leadership in the industry,” he added.
“This is a significant milestone for both the development of PCM and for the overall memory market,” said Brian Harrison, president and CEO of Numonyx. “The collaboration between two memory industry leaders, Numonyx and Samsung, is helping to provide the kind of direction and clarity that is often needed when new technologies are introduced. The common specifications will enable chipset vendors and others in the ecosystem to standardize and more easily support the delivery of a new generation of memory technology that will benefit not only handset OEMs, but also manufacturers of embedded systems and high-end computing devices, and their customers.”
Samsung and Numonyx are developing common specifications –- or “pin for pin” hardware and software compatibility -– for mobile, embedded and other potential computing applications supporting the JEDEC LPDDR2 Low Power Memory Device Standard. The LPDDR2 standard offers advanced power management features, a shared interface for nonvolatile memory (NVM) and volatile memory (SDRAM), and a range of densities and speeds.
Phase change memory has many of the advantages of NAND and NOR flash memory as well as other RAM memories –- allowing data to be read at RAM speeds while lowering the cost and power consumption levels by reducing the large amounts of RAM often used in today’s digital applications.
Phase change memory will also be “executable”, allowing a separation of code and data for reliable code storage —- particularly useful in handsets with higher data content. PCM devices will have faster programming ability than other types of memory as its RAM-like features will enable programming changes to be made bit by bit, instead of having to erase entire blocks of information.
Common specifications between the two companies will be completed this year, with both companies expecting to have compliant devices available next year.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
TV IC market experiences seasonal decline in Q1’09
AUSTIN, USA: DisplaySearch’s latest research indicates that the TV IC shipments declined seasonally to 30.8 million units for flat panel TVs in Q1’09, according to its Quarterly TV Electronics Report.
Shipments were down by 4.3 percent Q/Q, but up 11 percent Y/Y. This is in line with seasonal trends and with the maturing of the flat panel TV market as developed markets have completed the switch from CRT TVs.
“Concerns over the economic outlook caused set-makers to slash inventory in 2008,” noted Paul Gray, Director of Europe TV Market Research. “Despite this, sales in developed regions have remained resilient, and there is some inventory re-build to support ongoing market levels.”
DisplaySearch’s results also indicate that continued industry consolidation has resulted in an increased share for top-tier IC vendors. At the same time, the real expansion of the flat panel TV market is now in emerging regions and in price-fighter models in mature markets.
Specifically, Micronas completed the sale of its FRC, Audio and Demod product lines to Trident, with the remainder of its consumer business (including the TV SoC business) ceasing by the end of the year. In addition, NEC and Renesas announced an intention to merge, and AMD’s TV IC business completed its first quarter as part of Broadcom.
Table 1: Top TV System IC Vendors
Source: Q1’09 Quarterly TV Electronics Report
Other highlights from the most recent Quarterly TV Electronics Report include
* Mediatek regained some share as seasonal emphasis returned to the North American market and TV set inventories were rebuilt after a cautious end to 2008.
* Growing rapidly, propelled by a shipment surge from LGE and also showing strength in China.
* Samsung also gained share as their in-house customer continues to grow in the TV market. The depreciating Korean won has also made them more competitive against merchant ICs priced in US dollars.
Shipments were down by 4.3 percent Q/Q, but up 11 percent Y/Y. This is in line with seasonal trends and with the maturing of the flat panel TV market as developed markets have completed the switch from CRT TVs.
“Concerns over the economic outlook caused set-makers to slash inventory in 2008,” noted Paul Gray, Director of Europe TV Market Research. “Despite this, sales in developed regions have remained resilient, and there is some inventory re-build to support ongoing market levels.”
DisplaySearch’s results also indicate that continued industry consolidation has resulted in an increased share for top-tier IC vendors. At the same time, the real expansion of the flat panel TV market is now in emerging regions and in price-fighter models in mature markets.
Specifically, Micronas completed the sale of its FRC, Audio and Demod product lines to Trident, with the remainder of its consumer business (including the TV SoC business) ceasing by the end of the year. In addition, NEC and Renesas announced an intention to merge, and AMD’s TV IC business completed its first quarter as part of Broadcom.
Table 1: Top TV System IC Vendors
Source: Q1’09 Quarterly TV Electronics ReportOther highlights from the most recent Quarterly TV Electronics Report include
* Mediatek regained some share as seasonal emphasis returned to the North American market and TV set inventories were rebuilt after a cautious end to 2008.
* Growing rapidly, propelled by a shipment surge from LGE and also showing strength in China.
* Samsung also gained share as their in-house customer continues to grow in the TV market. The depreciating Korean won has also made them more competitive against merchant ICs priced in US dollars.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Samsung's first 32 Gigabyte DDR3 memory module for low-power servers
NEW YORK, USA: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. announced today that it has developed the world’s first 32 Gigabyte (GB) DDR3 module -– for use in server systems.
The new module operates at 1.35-volts, in support of the global trend to cut power usage in mass storage computing environments.
“Compared to the 8GB memory modules used in today’s servers, our new module packs an eco-sensitive wallop with four times the density at significantly reduced power levels and no increase in the overall footprint,” said Jim Elliott, vice president, memory marketing, Samsung Semiconductor, Inc. “For data centers, it’s a powerhouse in energy efficiency and performance,” he added.
Based on Samsung’s 50nm-class 4 Gigabit (Gb) DDR3, the 1.35V DDR3 DRAM improves throughput by 20 percent over a 1.5V DDR3. Its lower power consumption levels are in line with the pressing concern for more energy-efficient “green” systems and components.
The development of low-power 4Gb DDR3 will be viewed as critical in reducing data center costs, improving server time management and increasing overall operational efficiency at higher densities.
For the new generation of green servers, the 4Gb DDR3’s high density combined with its lower level of power consumption will not only reduce electricity bills, but also allow for a cutback on installment fees, maintenance fees and repair fees involving power suppliers and heat-emitting equipment.
The new 32GB registered dual inline memory module (RDIMM) consists of 72 4Gb DDR3 chip dies produced using Samsung’s 50-nanometer class DRAM production technology. A row of nine quad-die package (QDP) 16Gb DDR3s are mounted on each side of the printed circuit board for a collective 32GB, highly compact configuration.
According to IDC, the worldwide DDR3 DRAM market will account for 29 percent of the total DRAM market in 2009 and 75 percent in 2011. In addition, IDC estimates that 2Gb-or-higher DDR3 DRAM will make up three percent of the total DRAM market in 2009 and 33 percent in 2011 (units in bits).
The new module operates at 1.35-volts, in support of the global trend to cut power usage in mass storage computing environments.
“Compared to the 8GB memory modules used in today’s servers, our new module packs an eco-sensitive wallop with four times the density at significantly reduced power levels and no increase in the overall footprint,” said Jim Elliott, vice president, memory marketing, Samsung Semiconductor, Inc. “For data centers, it’s a powerhouse in energy efficiency and performance,” he added.
Based on Samsung’s 50nm-class 4 Gigabit (Gb) DDR3, the 1.35V DDR3 DRAM improves throughput by 20 percent over a 1.5V DDR3. Its lower power consumption levels are in line with the pressing concern for more energy-efficient “green” systems and components.
The development of low-power 4Gb DDR3 will be viewed as critical in reducing data center costs, improving server time management and increasing overall operational efficiency at higher densities.
For the new generation of green servers, the 4Gb DDR3’s high density combined with its lower level of power consumption will not only reduce electricity bills, but also allow for a cutback on installment fees, maintenance fees and repair fees involving power suppliers and heat-emitting equipment.
The new 32GB registered dual inline memory module (RDIMM) consists of 72 4Gb DDR3 chip dies produced using Samsung’s 50-nanometer class DRAM production technology. A row of nine quad-die package (QDP) 16Gb DDR3s are mounted on each side of the printed circuit board for a collective 32GB, highly compact configuration.
According to IDC, the worldwide DDR3 DRAM market will account for 29 percent of the total DRAM market in 2009 and 75 percent in 2011. In addition, IDC estimates that 2Gb-or-higher DDR3 DRAM will make up three percent of the total DRAM market in 2009 and 33 percent in 2011 (units in bits).
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Rambus XDR DRAM surpasses 100 million units shipped
LOS ALTOS, USA: Rambus Inc., one of the world's premier technology licensing companies specializing in high-speed chip architectures, announced that its customers have shipped over 100 million XDR DRAM devices worldwide. XDR DRAM is part of a total memory solution developed by Rambus.
The award-winning XDR memory architecture achieves an order of magnitude higher performance than today's standard memories. With the flexibility to provide more bandwidth at better power efficiency per device than competing technologies, XDR memory both reduces overall systems costs and delivers the performance needed for the most advanced electronic products.
“Consumers’ demand for increasingly powerful graphics and computing applications require superior memory bandwidth and power efficiency,” said Sharon Holt, senior vice president of Licensing and Marketing at Rambus. “The XDR memory architecture has proven an ideal solution for a broad range of products needing blazing fast speeds and excellent power efficiency. No other memory technology provides the flexibility the XDR architecture offers to system and chip designers.”
The XDR memory architecture features key enabling technologies built on patented Rambus innovations that include low-voltage, low-power Differential Rambus Signaling Level (DRSL); Octal Data Rate (ODR) technology that transfers eight bits of data each clock cycle; FlexPhase circuit technology for precise on-chip alignment of data with clock; and Dynamic-Point-to-Point (DPP) for both enhanced signal integrity and scalability.
Key components enabling the breakthrough performance of the XDR memory architecture are:
* XDR DRAM is a high-performance memory that turbo-charges standard CMOS DRAM cores with a high-speed interface capable of 7.2Gbps data rates providing up to 28.8GB/s of bandwidth with a single DRAM device.
* XIO controller IO cell provides the same high-speed signaling capability found on the DRAM, but adds additional enhancements like FlexPhase technology that eliminates the need for trace length matching.
* XMC memory controller is a fully synthesizable logical memory controller that is optimized to take advantage of innovations like Dynamic Point-to-Point which provides for capacity expansion while delivering the signal integrity benefits of point-to-point signaling.
* XCG clock generator provides the system clocks with four programmable outputs and is guaranteed to meet the clocking requirements for the XIO and XDR DRAM devices.
XDR DRAM is available fromleading memory suppliers Elpida and Samsung Electronics. It has been adopted in high-volume products, including the Sony PLAYSTATION3 computer entertainment system, DLP projectors, Teradici PC-over-IP computing systems, and Toshiba’s Qosmio laptop PCs and HDTV chipsets.
The award-winning XDR memory architecture achieves an order of magnitude higher performance than today's standard memories. With the flexibility to provide more bandwidth at better power efficiency per device than competing technologies, XDR memory both reduces overall systems costs and delivers the performance needed for the most advanced electronic products.
“Consumers’ demand for increasingly powerful graphics and computing applications require superior memory bandwidth and power efficiency,” said Sharon Holt, senior vice president of Licensing and Marketing at Rambus. “The XDR memory architecture has proven an ideal solution for a broad range of products needing blazing fast speeds and excellent power efficiency. No other memory technology provides the flexibility the XDR architecture offers to system and chip designers.”
The XDR memory architecture features key enabling technologies built on patented Rambus innovations that include low-voltage, low-power Differential Rambus Signaling Level (DRSL); Octal Data Rate (ODR) technology that transfers eight bits of data each clock cycle; FlexPhase circuit technology for precise on-chip alignment of data with clock; and Dynamic-Point-to-Point (DPP) for both enhanced signal integrity and scalability.
Key components enabling the breakthrough performance of the XDR memory architecture are:
* XDR DRAM is a high-performance memory that turbo-charges standard CMOS DRAM cores with a high-speed interface capable of 7.2Gbps data rates providing up to 28.8GB/s of bandwidth with a single DRAM device.
* XIO controller IO cell provides the same high-speed signaling capability found on the DRAM, but adds additional enhancements like FlexPhase technology that eliminates the need for trace length matching.
* XMC memory controller is a fully synthesizable logical memory controller that is optimized to take advantage of innovations like Dynamic Point-to-Point which provides for capacity expansion while delivering the signal integrity benefits of point-to-point signaling.
* XCG clock generator provides the system clocks with four programmable outputs and is guaranteed to meet the clocking requirements for the XIO and XDR DRAM devices.
XDR DRAM is available fromleading memory suppliers Elpida and Samsung Electronics. It has been adopted in high-volume products, including the Sony PLAYSTATION3 computer entertainment system, DLP projectors, Teradici PC-over-IP computing systems, and Toshiba’s Qosmio laptop PCs and HDTV chipsets.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Chaos reigns in Top 20 semiconductor company rankings
USA: The global recession and subsequent inventory corrections in the electronic system and semiconductor industries have caused a major shakeup in the 1Q09 top 20 semiconductor company ranking (Fig. 1). As discussed in detail in IC Insights' May Update to The McClean Report, the volatility in the ranking is forecast to continue in 2Q09. Many top semiconductor suppliers are expected to rebound from a weak 1Q09 to register strong double-digit 2Q09/1Q09 sequential sales growth!
Of the top 20 companies in 1Q09, only Intel (#1), Samsung (#2), and Fujitsu (#17) remained in the same positions as they ranked in 2008. Some notable changes to the top 20 ranking are shown below.
Climbers:
Qualcomm — The world's largest fabless IC supplier, which focuses on leading-edge cellphone devices, moved from being ranked 8th in 2008 to 6th in 1Q09. IC Insights anticipates increasingly positive news for Qualcomm as high-end cellphone (e.g., smartphone) sales pick up speed throughout 2009.
AMD — Jumped into the top 10 group, moving up three spots from 12th in 2008 to 9th in 1Q09. However, AMD is one of the few top semiconductor companies that has stated it expects 2Q09 sales to be worse than in 1Q09. How long will it stay in the top 10?
MediaTek — High-flying fabless IC supplier MediaTek joined the top 20 ranking by jumping five positions. In fact, MediaTek was the only top 20 semiconductor supplier to register a 1Q09/4Q08 sequential sales increase, a whopping 16% surge! The company attributed part of its success to the "stay-at-home-economy" driving digital TV IC sales as well as continued strength in its core wireless communications business.
Decenders:
TSMC — The largest foundry in the world dropped six positions in the 1Q09 ranking but managed to stay in the top 10. It is well known that fabless IC suppliers are some of the worst offenders with regard to IC inventory builds and burns. With fabless companies representing the bulk of TSMC's sales, the company has been caught in a hellacious two-quarter inventory burn period (4Q08 and 1Q09), with 1Q09 sales 57% less than were registered in 3Q08!
However, the anticipated recovery in TSMC's sales will be one of the most significant rebounds witnessed in the IC industry this year. Using current exchange rates, it is expected that TSMC's 2Q09 sales will be about $2.2 billion, a sequential increase of 89%! Moreover, IC Insights believes that if this level of sales is achieved next quarter, it would serve to rank TSMC as the third largest semiconductor supplier in the world in 2Q09!
NXP and Nvidia — These two companies fell out of the top 20 ranking in 1Q09, with NXP falling from being ranked 15th in 2008 to 21st in 1Q09 and Nvidia dropping from 20th to 22nd. However, IC Insights expects a significant rebound in both of these companies' sales in 2Q09, maybe even enough to put them back into the top 20!
The May Update to The McClean Report examines the top 20 semiconductor company ranking changes in more detail and incorporates company guidance in addition to IC Insights' own estimates to forecast the major ranking changes expected for 2Q09. Moreover, further details on the top 20 semiconductor suppliers as well as an additional 200 suppliers can also be found in IC Insights' Strategic Reviews Online database.
Source: IC Insights
Of the top 20 companies in 1Q09, only Intel (#1), Samsung (#2), and Fujitsu (#17) remained in the same positions as they ranked in 2008. Some notable changes to the top 20 ranking are shown below.
Climbers:Qualcomm — The world's largest fabless IC supplier, which focuses on leading-edge cellphone devices, moved from being ranked 8th in 2008 to 6th in 1Q09. IC Insights anticipates increasingly positive news for Qualcomm as high-end cellphone (e.g., smartphone) sales pick up speed throughout 2009.
AMD — Jumped into the top 10 group, moving up three spots from 12th in 2008 to 9th in 1Q09. However, AMD is one of the few top semiconductor companies that has stated it expects 2Q09 sales to be worse than in 1Q09. How long will it stay in the top 10?
MediaTek — High-flying fabless IC supplier MediaTek joined the top 20 ranking by jumping five positions. In fact, MediaTek was the only top 20 semiconductor supplier to register a 1Q09/4Q08 sequential sales increase, a whopping 16% surge! The company attributed part of its success to the "stay-at-home-economy" driving digital TV IC sales as well as continued strength in its core wireless communications business.
Decenders:
TSMC — The largest foundry in the world dropped six positions in the 1Q09 ranking but managed to stay in the top 10. It is well known that fabless IC suppliers are some of the worst offenders with regard to IC inventory builds and burns. With fabless companies representing the bulk of TSMC's sales, the company has been caught in a hellacious two-quarter inventory burn period (4Q08 and 1Q09), with 1Q09 sales 57% less than were registered in 3Q08!
However, the anticipated recovery in TSMC's sales will be one of the most significant rebounds witnessed in the IC industry this year. Using current exchange rates, it is expected that TSMC's 2Q09 sales will be about $2.2 billion, a sequential increase of 89%! Moreover, IC Insights believes that if this level of sales is achieved next quarter, it would serve to rank TSMC as the third largest semiconductor supplier in the world in 2Q09!
NXP and Nvidia — These two companies fell out of the top 20 ranking in 1Q09, with NXP falling from being ranked 15th in 2008 to 21st in 1Q09 and Nvidia dropping from 20th to 22nd. However, IC Insights expects a significant rebound in both of these companies' sales in 2Q09, maybe even enough to put them back into the top 20!
The May Update to The McClean Report examines the top 20 semiconductor company ranking changes in more detail and incorporates company guidance in addition to IC Insights' own estimates to forecast the major ranking changes expected for 2Q09. Moreover, further details on the top 20 semiconductor suppliers as well as an additional 200 suppliers can also be found in IC Insights' Strategic Reviews Online database.
Source: IC Insights
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Micron back among top 10 DRAM suppliers in Q1
EL SEGUNDO, USA: Reports of Micron Technology Inc.'s demise in the global DRAM market have been greatly exaggerated, with the company managing to return to the Top-3 rank in the first quarter, according to a preliminary estimate from iSuppli Corp.
Micron of the United States in the first quarter increased its share of global DRAM revenue to 14.6 percent, up from 13.8 percent in the fourth quarter, and up from 11.3 percent from the first quarter of 2008.
The rise back to third place represents an impressive comeback from the company’s recent low point in the first quarter of 2006, when it dropped to the fourth rank in the DRAM market. Micron in the first quarter surpassed Elpida to take the third rank.
Micron’s DRAM resurgence could upset the applecart in the DRAM market.
“Micron’s comeback poses a risk to the health of the DRAM industry and threatens the leading players in the market,” said Nam Hyung Kim, director and chief analyst, memory ICs, for iSuppli.
iSuppli Table: Preliminary Ranking of Top-10 DRAM suppliers in Q1 2009 (Ranking by Revenue in Millions of US Dollars)
Source: iSuppli Corp. May 2009
“Until 2003, the company had been a solid No. 2 behind Samsung but had seen its share decline due to its effort to diversify its product line beyond DRAM and its lateness to invest in 300mm fabs. Micron now has renewed its competitive vigor, mainly due to its acquisition of a 300mm fab from Inotera in Taiwan. Micron’s resurgence could trigger a DRAM market share war — which would drive prices down and adversely impact industry profitability in the future,” he said.
Whatever the impact on the market, Micron is likely to continue its advance in the coming quarters.
“iSuppli believes that Micron inevitably will gain market share with additional fab access in the future,” Kim said. “However, Micron’s success in acquiring a bigger piece of the market will depend on how quickly the Inotera fab converts from Qimonda’s old process technology to Micron’s stacked technology. This is something that will requires additional major investments before full production is achieved.”
DRAM disaster continues in Q1
The DRAM industry continues to suffer from overproduction and excess inventories that are causing prices and revenues to drop.
Global DRAM revenue in the first quarter declined by 20.1 percent compared to the fourth quarter and by 44.1 percent from the first three months of 2008. The DRAM per-megabyte ASP in the first quarter declined by 8 percent and shipments of megabyte units dropped by 13 percent compared to the fourth quarter.
In contrast, megabyte unit shipments grew 10 percent in the first quarter of 2009 compared to the same period in 2008, indicating that more production cuts are needed to accelerate market recovery during this worldwide recession.
Cutting the losses
Micron in the first quarter managed to outperform the market and gain share by limiting its revenue decline to 15.4 percent compared to the fourth quarter. In fact, all the Top-10 DRAM makers suffered sequential declines in revenue, except for Nanya, which actually mustered a 2.7 percent increase.
However, Nanya’s growth was a result of the comparison with its underperformance in the fourth quarter. Furthermore Qimonda’s move to stop all DRAM production helped Nanya to enter the Top-5 rank.
Samsung also posted a strong performance by containing its revenue decline to 8.4 percent in the first quarter. This gave Samsung a market share of 34.3 percent in the first quarter, a record high for the South Korean electronics giant.
Taiwanese suppliers, Powerchip and ProMOS, suffered substantial sales declines. In the case of Powerchip, its sales contracted 85 percent compared to the same quarter last year.
Micron of the United States in the first quarter increased its share of global DRAM revenue to 14.6 percent, up from 13.8 percent in the fourth quarter, and up from 11.3 percent from the first quarter of 2008.
The rise back to third place represents an impressive comeback from the company’s recent low point in the first quarter of 2006, when it dropped to the fourth rank in the DRAM market. Micron in the first quarter surpassed Elpida to take the third rank.
Micron’s DRAM resurgence could upset the applecart in the DRAM market.
“Micron’s comeback poses a risk to the health of the DRAM industry and threatens the leading players in the market,” said Nam Hyung Kim, director and chief analyst, memory ICs, for iSuppli.
iSuppli Table: Preliminary Ranking of Top-10 DRAM suppliers in Q1 2009 (Ranking by Revenue in Millions of US Dollars)
Source: iSuppli Corp. May 2009“Until 2003, the company had been a solid No. 2 behind Samsung but had seen its share decline due to its effort to diversify its product line beyond DRAM and its lateness to invest in 300mm fabs. Micron now has renewed its competitive vigor, mainly due to its acquisition of a 300mm fab from Inotera in Taiwan. Micron’s resurgence could trigger a DRAM market share war — which would drive prices down and adversely impact industry profitability in the future,” he said.
Whatever the impact on the market, Micron is likely to continue its advance in the coming quarters.
“iSuppli believes that Micron inevitably will gain market share with additional fab access in the future,” Kim said. “However, Micron’s success in acquiring a bigger piece of the market will depend on how quickly the Inotera fab converts from Qimonda’s old process technology to Micron’s stacked technology. This is something that will requires additional major investments before full production is achieved.”
DRAM disaster continues in Q1
The DRAM industry continues to suffer from overproduction and excess inventories that are causing prices and revenues to drop.
Global DRAM revenue in the first quarter declined by 20.1 percent compared to the fourth quarter and by 44.1 percent from the first three months of 2008. The DRAM per-megabyte ASP in the first quarter declined by 8 percent and shipments of megabyte units dropped by 13 percent compared to the fourth quarter.
In contrast, megabyte unit shipments grew 10 percent in the first quarter of 2009 compared to the same period in 2008, indicating that more production cuts are needed to accelerate market recovery during this worldwide recession.
Cutting the losses
Micron in the first quarter managed to outperform the market and gain share by limiting its revenue decline to 15.4 percent compared to the fourth quarter. In fact, all the Top-10 DRAM makers suffered sequential declines in revenue, except for Nanya, which actually mustered a 2.7 percent increase.
However, Nanya’s growth was a result of the comparison with its underperformance in the fourth quarter. Furthermore Qimonda’s move to stop all DRAM production helped Nanya to enter the Top-5 rank.
Samsung also posted a strong performance by containing its revenue decline to 8.4 percent in the first quarter. This gave Samsung a market share of 34.3 percent in the first quarter, a record high for the South Korean electronics giant.
Taiwanese suppliers, Powerchip and ProMOS, suffered substantial sales declines. In the case of Powerchip, its sales contracted 85 percent compared to the same quarter last year.
Revenue ranking of NAND Flash branded firms in 1Q09
TAIPEI, TAIWAN: The 1Q09 total revenue of WW NAND Flash Branding companies was $2.086 billion, which dropped 2.4 percent from $2.137 billion in 4Q08.
Although the industry was still under the continuing impact of global recession and weakening demand, the price remained stable because certain NAND Flash makers adjusted their supply strategies. The overall average selling price increased 18 percent QoQ and the total shipment dropped 17 percent QoQ in 1Q09, says DRAMeXchange.
Fig. 1. 1Q09 Revenue Ranking of NAND Flash branded companies
*1. 1Q09 foreign exchange average value: USD against JPY: 93.6 per dollar, USD against Korean Won: 1414 per dollar.
*2. 4Q08 foreign exchange average value: USD against JPY: 96 per dollar, USD against Korean Won: 1363 per dollar.
Source: DRAMeXchange, May 2009.
1Q09 NAND Flash branding company revenue rankings
Samsung’s revenue was $750 million, accounting for 36 percent of the market revenue and retained its number one position. Toshiba’s revenue was $740 million, which accounted for 35.5 percent of the market revenue as number two.
Micron surpassed Hynix with the 1Q09 revenue of $200 million, and accounted for 9.6 percent of the market revenue as number three. Hynix this time dropped to number four position with a revenue of $171 million. Intel's revenue was $155 million in the number five position. Numonyx was at number six position with a revenue of $70 million.
As far as Samsung is concerned, although the 1Q09 ASP went up, the shipment decreased. Under the influence of slow season, output reduction, and delaying new process, the supply bit growth declined. The demand of NAND Flash major applications, such as mobile phone and other consumer electronics products all had weakened in 1Q09.
Even with increasing ASP, the revenue of Samsung remained stable. Samsung's 1Q09 sales revenue was $750 million and its market share increased from 34.9 percent in 4Q08 to 36 percent in 1Q09. Samsung retained its number one position of the industry, according to DRAMeXchange.
Toshiba's NAND Flash ASP increased, but the supply decreased due to production cut. Its 1Q09 revenue remained stable and was at the $740 million level. Its market share was 35.5 percent, which slightly increased 1 percent as compared to Q409.
Micron became the number three with $200 million Q109 revenue. Its 1Q09 ASP and shipment dropped. Micron owned 9.6 percent market share in Q109. The 1Q09 ASP of Hynix increased, but its shipment decreased due to production cut. The 1Q09 revenue of Hynix was $171 million and dropped 22.3 percent QoQ. Hynix’s market share also slid down to 8.2 percent this quarter.
Intel's 1Q09 revenue was $155 million and its market share slightly increased to 7.4 percent, which is a little better than in 4Q08. The 1Q09 revenue of Numonyx remained stable and was estimated to be $70 million. The 1Q09 market share of Numonyx was 3.4 percent, which also slightly increased from the previous quarter.
Although the industry was still under the continuing impact of global recession and weakening demand, the price remained stable because certain NAND Flash makers adjusted their supply strategies. The overall average selling price increased 18 percent QoQ and the total shipment dropped 17 percent QoQ in 1Q09, says DRAMeXchange.
Fig. 1. 1Q09 Revenue Ranking of NAND Flash branded companies
*1. 1Q09 foreign exchange average value: USD against JPY: 93.6 per dollar, USD against Korean Won: 1414 per dollar.*2. 4Q08 foreign exchange average value: USD against JPY: 96 per dollar, USD against Korean Won: 1363 per dollar.
Source: DRAMeXchange, May 2009.
1Q09 NAND Flash branding company revenue rankings
Samsung’s revenue was $750 million, accounting for 36 percent of the market revenue and retained its number one position. Toshiba’s revenue was $740 million, which accounted for 35.5 percent of the market revenue as number two.
Micron surpassed Hynix with the 1Q09 revenue of $200 million, and accounted for 9.6 percent of the market revenue as number three. Hynix this time dropped to number four position with a revenue of $171 million. Intel's revenue was $155 million in the number five position. Numonyx was at number six position with a revenue of $70 million.
As far as Samsung is concerned, although the 1Q09 ASP went up, the shipment decreased. Under the influence of slow season, output reduction, and delaying new process, the supply bit growth declined. The demand of NAND Flash major applications, such as mobile phone and other consumer electronics products all had weakened in 1Q09.
Even with increasing ASP, the revenue of Samsung remained stable. Samsung's 1Q09 sales revenue was $750 million and its market share increased from 34.9 percent in 4Q08 to 36 percent in 1Q09. Samsung retained its number one position of the industry, according to DRAMeXchange.
Toshiba's NAND Flash ASP increased, but the supply decreased due to production cut. Its 1Q09 revenue remained stable and was at the $740 million level. Its market share was 35.5 percent, which slightly increased 1 percent as compared to Q409.
Micron became the number three with $200 million Q109 revenue. Its 1Q09 ASP and shipment dropped. Micron owned 9.6 percent market share in Q109. The 1Q09 ASP of Hynix increased, but its shipment decreased due to production cut. The 1Q09 revenue of Hynix was $171 million and dropped 22.3 percent QoQ. Hynix’s market share also slid down to 8.2 percent this quarter.
Intel's 1Q09 revenue was $155 million and its market share slightly increased to 7.4 percent, which is a little better than in 4Q08. The 1Q09 revenue of Numonyx remained stable and was estimated to be $70 million. The 1Q09 market share of Numonyx was 3.4 percent, which also slightly increased from the previous quarter.
Q109 revenue of global DRAM industry drops 22.3pc
TAIPEI, TAIWAN: According to DRAMeXchange, as the DDR2 1Gb contract quarterly average price dropped around 25 percent in Q109, the Q109 DRAM revenue decreased 22.3 percent QoQ.
Despite the declining contract price, Samsung and Hynix output cut down by 7.7 percent and 8.6 percent, and revenue shrunk by 16.1 percent and 16.3 percent, respectively. Samsung and Hynix proved a market share growth (26.5 percent and 22.3 percent). Samsung still ranks No. 1, followed by Hynix, resulting from the outperformed operation in first quarter.
For the different accounting periods (Q1 for Micron is Dec. Jan. and Feb.), Micron demonstrated the greater market share drop to 15.2 percent from 16.9 percent in Q4 with 35 percent contract price decline in last period (Q4 for Micron is Sep., Oct. and Nov.).
In March, Elpida started to receive all output production from Rexchip with the OEM shipment termination from PSC and revised capacity cut from Japan facility, the total production has descended in Q1. The Q1 revenue is down 24.5 % QoQ compared with Q408.
Qimonda filed bankruptcy in corporate restructuring process in Q1. The termination of OEM outsourcing from Inotera and Winbond and shutting down the US facility has resulted in the huge market share drop. Market share in Q1 is merely 4.7 percent.
Taiwan vendors
As for Taiwanese vendors, PSC announced $115 million in Q109 with -32 percent QoQ. Instead of contract manufacturing for Elpida, the capacity was used for own brand products. Thus, the own brand market share suprisingly grew to 17.4 percent.
Winbond announced $92 million in Q1 with -20% QoQ. Despite the revenue decline, Winbond's own brand market share increased 9.6 percent because of the output translation to own brand products since Qimonda filed bankruptcy.
With the contract price decline, Nanya's revenue merely shrunk 3.7 percent QoQ due to the raising portion in spot market and effect of two-weeks-degree inventory clearance. Due to the Qimonda's bankruptcy and revenue declining 55 percent in Q1, and Nanya jumped to No. 5 place in terms of brand-owned revenues. (Figure 1).
Fig. 1 1Q09 WW top 10 DRAM revenue ranking, by own brand DRAM revenue
(Company revenue includes outsourced portion and excludes the sub-manufacturing revenue)
Unit: Million US dollars
Source: DRAMeXchange, May. 2009
Korean vendors
Korean vendors accounts for 48.8 percent in terms of DRAM chip production market share and own brand revenue are consistent with production revenue now since Hynix stopped outsourcing from financial struggling ProMos in Q1. Taiwanese vendors used to have larger portion of OEM and this situation has changed dramatically in Q1.
Except for ProMos' case, PSC stopped OEM shipment to Elpida while Winbond and Inotera stopped the OEM shipment due to the Qimonda bankruptcy. The market share has dropped to 19.2 percent from 23.2 percent because of the capacity cut. Micron's share slightly decreased to 15.3 percent, while Elpida's increased to 12.1 percent (Figure-2 and Figure-3)
Fig. 2 1Q09 WW top 10 DRAM revenue ranking, by DRAM chip production revenue
(Company revenue includes sub-manufacturing revenue and excludes the outsourced portion)
Unit: Million USD
Source: DRAMeXchange, May. 2009
Market share of DRAM chip production revenue
Source: DRAMeXchange, May. 2009.
For the global own brand, the Korean vendors' share accounts for 50.1 percent (excluding others) and its leadership position remained unchallenged in Q1. Taiwanese vendors' share slightly increased to 13.6 percent from 11.8 percent due to the production adjustment by PSC, Nanya and Winbond.
The remaining market shares are occupied by Japanese vendors (15.8 percent) and American vendors (15.7 percent).
Market share of own brand DRAM revenue
Source: DRAMeXchange, May. 2009.
Note:
Figure 1:
** The revenue ranking by DRAM vendor own brand: The revenue in the table is using the results which were announced by the DRAM vendors and deduct the non-DRAM business revenue, then converted the number into USD basis with the average 1Q foreign exchange rate. This table is based on the vendor brand revenue basis.
** for Samsung Q1 DRAM revenue, DRAMeXChange approximatively derived the result by deducting LSI revenue from semiconductor based on the assumption that DRAM accounts for 48 percent in memory sectors and Q1 average exchange rate is USD KRW/1:1414. We apply this estimation to other vendors by indicating 76 percent for Hynix's total revenue, 79 percent for PSC, 90 percent for ProMos, 94 percent for Nanya and 80 percent for Winbond under the following exchange rate : USD to NTD/1:33.97, USD to JPY/1:93.63, USD to EUR/1:0.767.
Figure-2:
** Based on the fab manufacturing basis, the revenue is calculated and ranked by the total chip production revenue of the vendor’s fabs. Thus, the revenues of pure manufacturing vendors such as Rexchip and Inotera were independently listed. The Rexchip portion is excluded from the revenue of Elpida, the Inotera portion is excluded from the revenue of Nanya Technology. The reason we post the second table is because of the outsourcing percentage varied in Q109 and this effect will impact on Taiwanese vendor's revenue and market share ranking.
Despite the declining contract price, Samsung and Hynix output cut down by 7.7 percent and 8.6 percent, and revenue shrunk by 16.1 percent and 16.3 percent, respectively. Samsung and Hynix proved a market share growth (26.5 percent and 22.3 percent). Samsung still ranks No. 1, followed by Hynix, resulting from the outperformed operation in first quarter.
For the different accounting periods (Q1 for Micron is Dec. Jan. and Feb.), Micron demonstrated the greater market share drop to 15.2 percent from 16.9 percent in Q4 with 35 percent contract price decline in last period (Q4 for Micron is Sep., Oct. and Nov.).
In March, Elpida started to receive all output production from Rexchip with the OEM shipment termination from PSC and revised capacity cut from Japan facility, the total production has descended in Q1. The Q1 revenue is down 24.5 % QoQ compared with Q408.
Qimonda filed bankruptcy in corporate restructuring process in Q1. The termination of OEM outsourcing from Inotera and Winbond and shutting down the US facility has resulted in the huge market share drop. Market share in Q1 is merely 4.7 percent.
Taiwan vendors
As for Taiwanese vendors, PSC announced $115 million in Q109 with -32 percent QoQ. Instead of contract manufacturing for Elpida, the capacity was used for own brand products. Thus, the own brand market share suprisingly grew to 17.4 percent.
Winbond announced $92 million in Q1 with -20% QoQ. Despite the revenue decline, Winbond's own brand market share increased 9.6 percent because of the output translation to own brand products since Qimonda filed bankruptcy.
With the contract price decline, Nanya's revenue merely shrunk 3.7 percent QoQ due to the raising portion in spot market and effect of two-weeks-degree inventory clearance. Due to the Qimonda's bankruptcy and revenue declining 55 percent in Q1, and Nanya jumped to No. 5 place in terms of brand-owned revenues. (Figure 1).
Fig. 1 1Q09 WW top 10 DRAM revenue ranking, by own brand DRAM revenue
(Company revenue includes outsourced portion and excludes the sub-manufacturing revenue)
Unit: Million US dollarsSource: DRAMeXchange, May. 2009
Korean vendors
Korean vendors accounts for 48.8 percent in terms of DRAM chip production market share and own brand revenue are consistent with production revenue now since Hynix stopped outsourcing from financial struggling ProMos in Q1. Taiwanese vendors used to have larger portion of OEM and this situation has changed dramatically in Q1.
Except for ProMos' case, PSC stopped OEM shipment to Elpida while Winbond and Inotera stopped the OEM shipment due to the Qimonda bankruptcy. The market share has dropped to 19.2 percent from 23.2 percent because of the capacity cut. Micron's share slightly decreased to 15.3 percent, while Elpida's increased to 12.1 percent (Figure-2 and Figure-3)
Fig. 2 1Q09 WW top 10 DRAM revenue ranking, by DRAM chip production revenue
(Company revenue includes sub-manufacturing revenue and excludes the outsourced portion)
Unit: Million USDSource: DRAMeXchange, May. 2009
Market share of DRAM chip production revenue
Source: DRAMeXchange, May. 2009.For the global own brand, the Korean vendors' share accounts for 50.1 percent (excluding others) and its leadership position remained unchallenged in Q1. Taiwanese vendors' share slightly increased to 13.6 percent from 11.8 percent due to the production adjustment by PSC, Nanya and Winbond.
The remaining market shares are occupied by Japanese vendors (15.8 percent) and American vendors (15.7 percent).
Market share of own brand DRAM revenue
Source: DRAMeXchange, May. 2009.Note:
Figure 1:
** The revenue ranking by DRAM vendor own brand: The revenue in the table is using the results which were announced by the DRAM vendors and deduct the non-DRAM business revenue, then converted the number into USD basis with the average 1Q foreign exchange rate. This table is based on the vendor brand revenue basis.
** for Samsung Q1 DRAM revenue, DRAMeXChange approximatively derived the result by deducting LSI revenue from semiconductor based on the assumption that DRAM accounts for 48 percent in memory sectors and Q1 average exchange rate is USD KRW/1:1414. We apply this estimation to other vendors by indicating 76 percent for Hynix's total revenue, 79 percent for PSC, 90 percent for ProMos, 94 percent for Nanya and 80 percent for Winbond under the following exchange rate : USD to NTD/1:33.97, USD to JPY/1:93.63, USD to EUR/1:0.767.
Figure-2:
** Based on the fab manufacturing basis, the revenue is calculated and ranked by the total chip production revenue of the vendor’s fabs. Thus, the revenues of pure manufacturing vendors such as Rexchip and Inotera were independently listed. The Rexchip portion is excluded from the revenue of Elpida, the Inotera portion is excluded from the revenue of Nanya Technology. The reason we post the second table is because of the outsourcing percentage varied in Q109 and this effect will impact on Taiwanese vendor's revenue and market share ranking.
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