Major shakeups in top 10 semiconductor supplier rankings

According to the latest report from IC Insights, there have been major shakeups in the global top 10 rankings among suppliers of semiconductors.

Here's what IC Insights has to say regarding some of the changes that took place in 3Q07:

* Toshiba rode the coat-tails of a 46 percent 3Q07/2Q07 NAND flash memory market surge to post an amazing 40 percent 3Q07/2Q07 semiconductor sales increase. This increase helped propel Toshiba to a third place ranking, its highest since being ranked as the second largest semiconductor supplier in 2000.

* AMD continues to display a nice recovery this year with its 3Q07 sales increasing 18 percent over 2Q07, which follows a 12 percent sequential increase in 2Q07/1Q07. As part of its continuing MPU marketshare battle with Intel, AMD is expected to announce a major manufacturing/foundry deal in the second half of 2007.

* The largest pure-play foundry in the world, TSMC, jumped one spot in 3Q07 as compared to the full-year 2006 ranking as the company recorded a strong 3Q07/2Q07 sales increase of 21 percent. It should be noted that after operating at only 83 percent capacity utilization in 1Q07, TSMC surpassed its “company-defined” 100 percent capacity utilization level in 3Q07!

* If pure-play foundry TSMC were excluded from the ranking, NXP would have been in the tenth position.

* In spite of 3Q07 DRAM pricing weakness, Hynix took advantage of its strong NAND flash marketshare to move from seventh to sixth place in the ranking.

* Freescale continues to feel the pain of its biggest customer, Motorola, as the company went from being ranked as the ninth largest semiconductor supplier in the world in 2006 to sixteenth in 3Q07. Unfortunately for Freescale, Motorola has gone from holding a 22 percent share of cellular phone unit shipments in 3Q06 (53.7 million) to securing only a 13 percent share in 3Q07 (37.2 million).

* TI, ST, and Renesas were the only top 10 companies to register less than double-digit 3Q07/2Q07 sequential sales growth rates. Each one of these companies is a top-10 supplier to the currently slow-growing analog IC market.

* The top 10 listing consists of three U.S., three Japanese, two Korean, one European, and one Taiwanese company.

Through the end of 2007, IC Insights expects to see pricing stability return to the DRAM memory market, surging IC demand for PCs and high-end cellular phones, and a continuation of the seasonal rebound in overall semiconductor demand that began in August.

Speculating on Indian 3G spectrum specter

The ongoing saga regarding spectrum for 3G services, use of dual technologies, etc., reminds me of 2002, the MII, TD-SCDMA and 155MHz! Read on...

Anything on the spectrum spectacle in India makes very interesting reading! It’s as though two sides fighting over a valuable possession. Worth a click!!

We have been following how the two GSM and CDMA lobbies -– COAI and AUSPI -– have been in the news over the use of mixed bands. GSM operators have constantly warned that any move to allocate spectrum in the 1900MHz band to CDMA players would adversely impact their services in the 2100MHz band. We've been following what the TRAI, the DoT and others have to say on all of this.

Then AUSPI informed this week that field trials conducted in Hyderabad last week had proved successful. The trial conducted by AUSPI on behalf of the Department of Telecom (DoT) claims that the co-existence of 1900 MHz and 2100 MHz is possible.

Now, we are told that defence would be vacating spectrum by end of this year and India would have 3G services by next year. Hope all disputes are settled amicably and India finally gets to see what 3G services would have to offer.

I am reminded of two things – one, the 3G license auctions in Europe, which nearly brought the wireless house down in the early 2000s, and two, an interesting development in China. I’ll dwell on the second one.

Nearly seven years ago, I happened to break the news on TD-SCDMA (Time Division-Synchronous Code-Division Multiple Access), a 3G technology being developed at that point of time by Datang Telecom and Siemens. That story link no longer exists, so I'm providing a link to another story, mentioned below.

About two and a half years later, around October 2002, the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) in China allocated a total frequency of 155MHz for TD-SCDMA! This, for an untested, untried 3G technology, in a country much larger than India, was and is still unheard of!

Makes me wonder, why did the MII give away so much of spectrum so long back to an untested 3G technology, when in India, we keep hearing reports about spectrum issues, use of dual technologies, etc. Are there lessons to be learnt from the Chinese example?

On TD-SCDMA, much later, in 2002, I also discovered not many had even heard of it in India. However, around the time I reported this 155MHz spectrum story, STING’s Robin Grewal contacted me in Delhi to find out more about this 3G technology! That was the level of interest in 3G and TD-SCDMA, and spectrum in India, at least, at that time. Things have changed since! Hopefully!!

Growth drivers for semiconductor industry

Michael J. Fister, president and CEO, Cadence Design Systems Inc., who was in India for the CDNLive event, delivered a wonderful keynote at the recently held CDNLive. Here's what he had to say!

The semiconductor industry is maturing. Since 2000, the industry’s annual growth rate has experienced extreme highs and lows.

Though the semiconductor industry's revenue growth will be low in 2007, the good news is that growth rates are smoothing out as costly fabs demand consistent production. Wireless communications, computers, and consumer products continue to be the growth drivers for semiconductors. A couple of the semiconductor technology trends driving electronic design and product development are:

* More designs at advanced nodes — Beginning this year, 90nm designs will outnumber those at 130nm. Meanwhile, 65nm is design activity is ramping up and advanced designs are targeting 45nm.

* Growth in transistor count and logic — Not only are transistor counts increasing according to Moore’s Law, those transistors are being used to create more functions -– and therefore more complexity -– on a single chip, not just adding memory to the existing designs.

A related trend is that the amount of chip production outsourced to foundries continues to grow, with many Integrated Device Manufacturers (IDMs) moving to a 'Fab-lite' strategy for advanced nodes. This is happening as design is becoming a greater product differentiation than production.

Note that Fister's reference to Fab-lite is interesting, even though lot of new investments are said to be getting into, and he himself says, "costly fabs demand consistent production." There is another point that should not be overlooked -- the one concerning Qualcomm, a fabless company, making it to the Top 10 semicon companies, for the first time.

Coming back the Cadence CEO, all of these trends create two kinds of challenges for chip design. These are: 1) manufacturability at advanced process nodes like 90nm and below, and 2) increased complexity and scale of chip design of system-on-chip (SoC).

Design solutions today must address these challenges, and increase team productivity and schedule predictability. To accomplish this, Cadence is focused on a holistic approach to the design flow. The Cadence Low-Power Solution and the Encounter Timing System are good examples of this holistic approach addressing the challenges of escalating scale and complexity.

The same holistic approach is shown in Cadence’s approach to manufacturability, which is to integrate design for manufacturability (DFM) into all aspects of the design flow, rather than just apply DFM techniques as a post-design step.

Measuring performance of carbon nanotubes as building blocks for ultra-tiny computer chips of the future

There is this really great story from IBM Research Labs that I simply have to seed here for my readers.

IBM's scientists have created a method to measure the performance of carbon nanotubes as building blocks for ultra-tiny computer chips of the future. Of course, you can also read it on IBM Research Lab's site as well as on CIOL's semicon site.

IBM scientists have measured the distribution of electrical charges in tubes of carbon that measure less than 2nm in diameter, 50,000 times thinner than a strand of human hair.

This novel technique, which relies on the interactions between electrons and phonons, provides a detailed understanding of the electrical behavior of carbon nanotubes, a material that shows promise as a building block for much smaller, faster and lower power computer chips compared to today's conventional silicon transistors.

Phonons are the atomic vibrations that occur inside material, and can determine the material's thermal and electrical conductivity. Electrons carry and produce the current. Both are important features of materials that can be used to carry electrical signals and perform computations.

The interaction between electrons and phonons can release heat and impede electrical flow inside computer chips. By understanding the interaction of electrons and phonons in carbon nanotubes, the researchers have developed a better way to measure their suitability as wires and semiconductors inside of future computer chips.

In order to make carbon nanotubes useful in building logic circuitry, scientists are pushing to demonstrate their high speed, high packing density and low power consumption capabilities as well as the ability to make them viable for potential mass production.

Dr. Phaedon Avouris, IBM Fellow and lead researcher for IBM's carbon nanotube efforts, said: "The success of nanoelectronics will largely depend on the ability to prepare well characterized and reproducible nano-structures, such as carbon nanotubes. Using this technique, we are now able to see and understand the local electronic behavior of individual carbon nanotubes."

To date, researchers have been able to build carbon nanotube transistors with superior performance, but have been challenged with reproducibility issues. Carbon nanotubes are sensitive to environmental influences.

For example, their properties can be altered by foreign substances, affecting the flow of electrical current and changing device performance. These interactions are typically local and change the density of electrons in the various devices of an integrated circuit, and even along a single nanotube.

France rising in nanotech excellence

This was sent to me by the French Technology Press Office in New Delhi. Reproduced here for readers.

More and more companies from the USA and Japan are investing and launching partnerships in France to take advantage of its cutting-edge nanotechnology expertise. France boasts several zones dedicated to advancing nanotechnology excellence, including the SCS cluster in Sophia Antipolis, the Systematic cluster in the Paris region and notably, the global micro-nanotechnology cluster Minalogic in Grenoble.

In 2007, Minalogic will strengthen its leader status by investing €80 million into 8 new collaborative projects focused on micro and nanotechnologies for next-generation semiconductors and new manufacturing processes, and it recently welcomed Hewlett-Packard as its 50th partner. Starting in September, HP will help cluster members save valuable amounts of time and money with access to highly advanced 2-TeraFlop data processors, called Virtual Nodes.

On the research side, France’s world-class nanotech laboratory CEA-Leti and the leading Japanese lithography company Nikon announced a joint effort to examine Double Patterning and Double Exposure technology for 32 nm semiconductor devices. "Leti offers an outstanding, state-of-the-art facility with all of the processes required for Double Patterning," says Toshikazu Umatate, Executive Officer, Precision Equipment Co., Nikon Corp. Another Japanese leader, Yamatake, is already working with Leti to develop nanotechnologies.

International companies looking to expand in nanotechnology are also choosing France for their European headquarters. The California-based analog semiconductor company Monolithic Power Systems, ranked as one of the fastest growing companies in Silicon Valley by Deloitte, has now opened its headquarters in Bernin-Crolles, and Boc Edwards, part of the Linde Group, has also moved its European semiconductor business headquarters from London to Grenoble to be closer to its electronics customers and to recruit skilled talent in the region.

France’s expertise is expected to grow on the healthcare side of nanotechnologies following the recent announcement of the opening of Clinatec, an experimental nanotechnology-based neurosurgery clinic expected to be set up in the next three years. The clinic will benefit from the work being carried out at Minatec, Europe’s largest research center in micro-nanotechnologies.

Semicon sales up in August really augurs well for CE industry

The global semiconductor industry can breathe a sigh of relief, hopefully, following the recent report by the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), which has said that worldwide semicon sales were up sharply in August 2007.

According to the SIA press release, semicon sales grew to $21.5 billion in August 2007, an increase of 4.9 percent over August 2006, when sales were $20.5 billion, and an increase of 4.5 percent from July of this year when sales were $20.6 billion.

The release further adds that sales of NAND flash memory devices led the growth as supplies tightened and prices firmed. NAND flash sales were up by 48 percent compared to August 2006 and up by 19 percent from July of this year.

Yes, August is historically, the start of a long holiday season build by various manufacturers of electronics products, as SIA also mentions. This drives the demand for a wide range semicon related products.

Having spent considerable time in the Far East and Greater China region, I am well aware of the excitement that builds up starting September -- for a whole line-up of Fall Electronics Shows across Asia. CEATEC, Japan, KES, Korea, Hong Kong Electronics Show, China Sourcing Fair, Taitronics, Taiwan -- for Electronic Components and Finished (Electronics) Products.

There's CEATEC in Japan, which is currently going on at full steam at Makuhari Messe Chiba. CEATEC -- which is short for Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies － Providing Image, Information and Communications -- really lives up to its billing.

Already, Toshiba has somewhat rocked the world at CEATEC by announcing plans to manufacture CMOS camera modules for mobile phones in-house. It will be commencing the mass production of world's first CSCM (chip scale camera module) ultra-small camera module applying TCV (through chip via) technology. These modules are also being demoed at CEATEC.

Elsewhere, Broadcom has also fired a salvo, announcing breakthrough technology in form of the VideoCore 3 solution, which will likely be the first to deliver triple-play multimedia at ultra-low power levels for mobile phones. What this means is -- once this solution is applied, your mobile phone would be capable of playing high-definition (HD) video, sport a 12Mpixel digital camera, and deliver ultra-low power 3D graphics for world-class gaming experience.

These are just few examples of happenings in the semiconductor, consumer electronics and components. They do augur well for the industry at large. As the SIA President George Scalise, says, "The semiconductor industry will continue to outpace overall economic growth with consumer demand leading the way."

Movers and shakers in semicon; new fabs in Asia

While speaking with the Fabless Semiconductor Association, USA, some time back, I quizzed them on the major movers and shakers (or slips) among the top 25, and what are the reasons for those.

Qualcomm has broken into the top 10 for the first time. It's the first time in the history of semiconductors that such a thing has happened, and is probably a sign of the times ahead.

One reason for this growth has been -- Increasing foundry orders. A Digitimes article reported that Qualcomm will increase orders by 15-20 percent in the September quarter to meet projections of strong 3G handset sales. According to the article, sources at Qualcomm suggest that wafer starts per month in the December quarter could surpass 30,000.

There have also been reports of strong June quarter for 2007. Qualcomm’s $2.32 billion in June quarter sales represents 19 percent year-on-year growth. Record chipset volumes of 65 million were at the high end of 62 million-65 million guidance. UMTS chipset shipments were noted to have increased by 127 percent year-over-year and 79 percent quarter-over-quarter, with the quarter-over-quarter growth rate roughly 4 times the market growth rate.

Finally, chipset ASPs increased by 2 percent year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter, and are likely to remain stable.

Situation in Asia
FSA quoted the Strategic Marketing Association's Quarterly Spot Report - July. While there have been announcements in India by SemIndia, HSMC, Moser Baer, etc., for fabs, there is every likelihood of another fab in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal. The technology ministry announced plans for a yet to be named fab at the India Design Center. Another possibility is a fab in Kochi, South India, by the NeST Group.

In China, Strategic Marketing Association expects that eight new fabs will start construction this year. Two fabs have started construction in the first quarter (Hua Hong NEC and ProMOS), and two more have started construction in the second quarter.

Grace Semiconductor, now headed by former Infineon boss, Dr. Ulrich Schumacher, which opened its first fab in 2003, began moving equipment into the shell of Fab 2, which was built at the same time as Fab 1. The company is installing used equipment and plans to begin production in Q1 0f 2008. The company also plans to begin building a 300mm fab, perhaps as early as next year, although financing is said to remain an issue for such a project.

Also in China, IC Spectrum began building a 200mm fab in Kunshan, about 45km east of Shanghai. Using 0.35micron technology from Toshiba, the new foundry expects to begin volume production by the first quarter of 2009.

TSMC began production in the second phase of its 300mm Fab 14 in Tainan in the south of Taiwan. This $2.4 billion fab will start production at 65nm and move to 45nm in 2008. There are also plans for a 300mm Fab 14, Phase 3 at the same location.

Looking at capex
In 2007, companies with capital spending budgets of $1 billion or more (the Billion Dollar Club) will account for 77 percent of all capital spending. Most of these companies (13 out of 20) are memory companies. Nine of these companies are from Asia Pacific (South Korea, China, Taiwan and Southeast Asia). Together, they plan to spend $23 billion this year, more than half of what the Billion Dollar Club has budgeted for capital spending.

Challenges of selling used equipment in global secondary market

The recently concluded SEMICON TAIWAN had a very interesting session on: The Challenges of Selling Used Equipment in Global Secondary Market, by Michael Mihin, Global Account Manager, Broadway Engineering Services Teams Inc. (BEST).

According to Mihin, there are about 600 IC fabs worldwide in 2007 -- 47 in Taiwan, 42 in China, 35 in Korea, 19 in Southeast Asia, and 28 in rest of world, 182 in Japan, 89 in Europe and 158 in the USA. As a result, the challenges posed by used equipment exists worldwide.

Mihin put down these challenges as -- rebuilding OEM equipment to capabilities equal to OEM specifications; supplier response at factory location instead of single country location; providing capacity at a lower cost with recycled equipment; and project revenue to support local resources in country with fab locations.

As for the benefits meeting these challenges, those are said to be extending life of tools by refurbishing, lowering cost of ownership, local contact for warranty and maintenance, parts support with local partners, out of country tech support within 48 hours, and partnering with local resources to meet fab requirements.

Applications include rebuild company supplies refurbished tool, fab supplies tool and rebuild company refurbishes tool onsite at fab, rebuild company changes chambers on in fab tool to reflect new process requirement, and rebuild company supplies refurbished chambers and fab installs on tool. Time is the issue with 2X the time in fab.

Equipment opportunities exist such as providing refurbished equipment that is capable of meeting new equipment operating specifications, availability of donor tools as market requires, new equipment versus refurbished equipment value analysis, and refurbished parts versus new parts to complete the project.

As for the pricing challenges, these include dealing with refurbished tool that is 30-50 percent less than new, travel costs and expenses without margin adder, software upgrades without margin adder, rebuild field service engineer hourly rate less than OEM, and market price of donor tools influenced by supply and demand.

The 200mm tool supply is increasing, and the refurbish process takes eight to 12 weeks for most tools. Apparently, regional support/alliances are being developed. BEST offers USA phone support Monday to Friday, and parts support in 48 hours from USA.

Concluding, Mihin said that the world was operationally flat. Challenges were being met by alliances and consolidation of service providers. Legacy tool support was moving to certified rebuild companies. Finally, local capabilities were needed to meet language and communication requirements of a fab.

The challenges of selling used equipment could be a challenge in India too, as and when fabs come up, make no mistake.

Broadband hasn't grown as expected in India

Yes, I believe so! The numbers, if one were to contend with those alone, DO NOT meet the expectations. Broadband was and is considered to be the new paradigm of India. However, are we anywhere near whatever growth we have been expecting? Let's see the stats for the various telecom segments.

According to the statistics made available by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the total number of telephone subscribers was 232.87 million at the end of July 2007, and the overall teledensity had increased to 20.52!

In the wireless segment, 8.06 million subscribers were added in July 2007 and the total wireless subscribers (GSM, CDMA and WLL (F)) base was 192.98 million. The wireline segment subscriber base stood at 39.89 million, with a decline of 0.20 million in July 2007.

And what about broadband? For broadband (≥256Kbps downloads), the total broadband connections in the country had reached only 2.47 million by the end of July 2007. In fact, during July 2007 there was an addition of 0.05 million connections!

Let's go back a few months! Venkat Kedalya of Convergent Communications had pointed out in an article to CIOL that India was nowhere on course to reach a target of 9 million broadband subscribers by this year! India has a target of achieving 20 million broadband subscribers by 2010, which now seems to be highly ambitious and well, unachievable!

Allocation of frequencies for BWA (broadband wireless access) is the immediate need of the moment. There is a need to look at WiMax and broadband over powerline (BPL) as far as technology is concerned. Some folks have entered the IPTV domain, so hopefully, we will get to see some content over broadband.

Even TRAI has urged the government to boost broadband growth. One of its suggestions has been to ask BSNL and MTNL to adopt a franchisee model so that local players may use their copper cables and offer high-speed Internet services. Decisions need to be taken for allocating spectrum for WiMax as well as making the National Internet Exchange of India more effective.

TRAI said: "Only 0.47 million broadband subscribers have been added in first six months of 2007, which is far below the growth trend required to achieve broadband policy targets. This necessitated an analysis of regulatory and policy frameworks, and to formulate new approach necessary for rapid roll-out of broadband in the country."

TRAI also accepts that while the growth of Internet subscribers was satisfactory, we are seriously lagging behind as far as broadband is concerned. It adds: "The government should ensure availability of more number of Ku-band transponders to roll out broadband services through DTH platform and utilize Universal Service Obligation (USO) fund to provide subsidy for providing broadband services through satellite in remote and hilly areas."

I'm not really sure how all of this will help. You do need at least a PC to access the Internet services. Am not sure how many folks are still willing to invest in home PCs and broadband, given that watching TV is a favorite pastime. Broadband over cable TV has not been a success either. What are we doing about this?

Indian government announces policy to woo investments in semicon fabs

Better late than never, as the saying goes. The Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communication and IT, Government of India, needs to be congratulated for coming up with the Special Incentive Package Scheme (SIPS)to encourage investments for setting up semicon fabs, and other micro and nanotechnology manufacturing industries in India!

The "ecosystem units" have been clearly defined as units, other than a fab unit, for manufacture of semiconductors, displays including LCDs, OLEDs, PDPs, any other emerging displays; storage devices; solar cells; photovoltaics; other advanced micro and nanotechnology products; and assembly and test of all the above products.

Just a week or two back, I was in conversation with some companies from Israel who were looking to develop business in India. Now, they, and others, have clear guidelines to follow. One of the companies, Nova Measuring Instruments Ltd, should feel happy that the definition of "ecosystem" includes assembly and test of products.

Nova develops, produces, and markets advanced monitoring, measurement and process control systems for the semiconductor manufacturing industry. Another well-known player, Tessolve, has been present in India since 2005 and would surely feel glad with the notification. At least, the media and others will take more notice of the company.

In Hong Kong, an ex-colleague and I used to cover OLEDs. When I first read about this technology back in the early 2000, I used to wonder whether India could have such a capability. Seems, it is now in a position to have OLEDs! I hope Lite Array (OLED) HK is watching and reading all of this.

Plasma display panels is another interesting line. The guidelines should interest LG, Matsushita, Sichuan Changhong Electric Co. Ltd, IRICO Group Corp. Panasonic, Asahi, Mitsui Chemicals, Nippon Electric, Samsung etc. Some of these firms are already present in India in one form or the other. It's just a matter of their being keen on developing PDP in India.

LCDs could be another big investment area. Taiwan's AU Optronics (AUO), Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO), Sharp, Samsung, as well as other biggies like LG, NEC, etc., need to be wooed.

It really excites me to see all the possibilities in front of India. If this goes on well, India would be in for a great ride in electronics manufacturing, and in the semicon space.

In the same context, the Bangalore Nano 2007, which will be held in December, could not be better timed. There should be a whole lot of companies looking to be present at this show!

India's now on the threshold of major initiatives in the electronics manufacturing space. Some semicon fabs will also come up, and the number of fabless companies should likely increase. Maybe, TSMC and Tower could oblige with some foundries too. Should all of this happen at the right time, we are in for exciting times.

Last mile problem -- in transportation!

The last mile problem in telecom is an issue close to the heart of all those part of the telecom industry. What it means is, providing or at least trying to provide some connectivity between two points where no other connectivity is possible. That's how wireless in local loop (WiLL) evolved.

There's another last mile problem -- in commuting from one place to the other -- at least if the distance is hardly anything. Not everyone's blessed with cars, bikes, etc. Some people still have to depend on other means of transport -- such as autorickshaws, buses, etc.

Well, my friend Bhaskar and I got into the "last mile problem in transportation or commuting", while trying to reach The Eros International Hotel in Nehru Place from Panchsheel Enclave in Delhi. Not a single autorickshaw we stopped and asked to be taken to our destination was willing to drive us from Panchsheel to Nehru Place -- which is barely 1-2km away.

We stopped and asked at least half a dozen autorickshaws, all of whom refused and merrily went their ways. Their reasons for not taking the route were: no mood, I'm headed this way; I'm driving on only straight; need to refill gas (maybe true), not interested, if you want to go to Trans Yamuna -- welcome, and so on and so forth!

Finally, the one who agreed, only drove us from the Chirag flyover to Nehru Place -- about a km away -- charging Rs. 30, though he later settled for Rs. 25! This was daylight (evening light) robbery at its best! What could we do? We were getting late for an event!

Am sure there are several like us who've experienced such a plight. Seems all the autorickshaw folks are the same everywhere. It all depends on their mood and distance, and of course, the haggling for more money.

There are no short-distance buses either. Reminds me of all those times when I either took trams in some other cities of the world; and the best of them all -- those 16-seater mini buses in Hong Kong -- which ply point to point. The drivers never grimaced even if there was only one person -- me -- seated in the mini bus -- especially the route from Wong Chuk Hang to Aberdeen!

Wish we had those mini buses here to travel short distances! Otherwise, we will continue to suffer from this last-mile problem in transportation!

Toshiba-Sandisk Fab 4 takeaways for Indian fabs

The recent news regarding the opening of Toshiba-Sandisk Fab 4, the latest 300mm wafer fabrication facility for NAND flash memory at Toshiba’s Yokkaichi Operations, in Mie Prefecture, Japan, may have missed the eyeballs of many of us.

There are lot of takeaways for those looking to set up fabs in India. HSMC and SemIndia are building fabs in FabCity, Hyderabad.

Obviously, funding was never a problem for Toshiba and Sandisk. Toshiba funded the construction of the Fab 4 building, and Flash Alliance, Ltd, a Toshiba-SanDisk venture established in July 2006, 50.1 percent owned by Toshiba and 49.9 percent by SanDisk, is funding the advanced manufacturing equipment now being installed in the fab.

HSMC and SemIndia would have partners for its fabs. HSMC has roped in Infineon as a technology partner and licensed its 130nm technology, while SemIndia has AMD as a partner, besides having folks such as Flextronics and Broadcom, among others by its side.

Some other learnings from Toshiba-Sandisk's Fab 4 are: it has been designed to minimize any impact on operations from natural disasters. Also, Fab 4 would employ 56nm process technology at start-up, and plans for the gradual transition to 43nm technology, starting from March 2008. Maybe, the proposed Indian fabs would need to look at both aspects. Yes, 130nm is a good area to start, but let's look ahead at what the industry's doing too. By the way, Toshiba-Sandisk Fab 4 was built in about a year's time. So, the fabs coming up in India should perhaps, look at similar timelines.

May I mention here that recently, a member from an Israeli semicon delegation mentioned that it would not be a bad idea for India to have 200mm fabs, which would be able to make products for the aftermarket. However, India does not have a concept of aftermarket yet.

In between, there's news that Hynix signed a contract to sell the equipment in its 200-mm fab in Wuxi, China to China Resources Holdings. Now, should this have any bearing on the idea of a 200mm fab? Or should Indian fabs focus on having 300mm fabs? It's for them to decide!

It's worth adding here that the India Semiconductor Association (ISA) has been doing great work in making lots of things happen, the latest being the MoU with the Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Association (TSIA). The MoU focuses on developing business ties and exchanges between companies in the semiconductor industry in the two countries.

Slow India has already missed the Intel bus. Also, there are TSMC and the others, like Tower, who have an eye on India. Should they choose to open shop here big time, there's every chance that they might steal the thunder from these proposed Indian fabs.

If we are to be a world-class semicon hub, we simply cannot afford to be slow -- in strategy and in its implementation. Decisions should be quick and effective!