The latest TrendForce report reveals a notable 7.9% jump in 4Q23 revenue for the world's top ten semiconductor foundries, reaching $30.49 billion. This growth is primarily driven by sustained demand for smartphone components, such as mid and low-end smartphone APs and peripheral PMICs. The launch season for Apple's latest devices also significantly contributed, fueling shipments for the A17 chipset and associated peripheral ICs, including OLED DDIs, CIS, and PMICs. TSMC's premium 3 nm process notably enhanced its revenue contribution, pushing its global market share past the 60% threshold this quarter.

TrendForce remarks that 2023 was a challenging year for foundries, marked by high inventory levels across the supply chain, a weak global economy, and a slow recovery in the Chinese market. These factors led to a downward cycle in the industry, with the top ten foundries experiencing a 13.6% annual drop as revenue reached just $111.54 billion. Nevertheless, 2024 promises a brighter outlook, with AI-driven demand expected to boost annual revenue by 12% to $125.24 billion. TSMC, benefiting from steady advanced process orders, is poised to far exceed the industry average in growth.

According to TrendForce investigations, foundries have seen a wave of order cancellations with the first of these revisions originating from large-size Driver IC and TDDI, which rely on mainstream 0.1X μm and 55 nm processes, respectively. Although products such as MCU and PMIC were previously in short supply, foundries' capacity utilization rate remained roughly at full capacity through their adjustment of product mix. However, a recent wave cancellations have emerged for PMIC, CIS, and certain MCU and SoC orders. Although still dominated by consumer applications, foundries are beginning to feel the strain of the copious order cancellations from customers and capacity utilization rate has officially declined.

Looking at trends in 2H22, TrendForce indicates, in addition to no relief from the sustained downgrade of driver IC demand, inventory adjustment has begun for smartphones, PCs, and TV-related peripheral components such as SoCs, CIS, and PMICs, and companies are beginning to curtail their wafer input plans with foundries. This phenomenon of order cancellations is occurring simultaneously in 8-inch and 12-inch fabs at nodes including 0.1X μm, 90/55 nm, and 40/28 nm. Not even the advanced 7/6 nm processes are immune.

GLOBALFOUNDRIES (GF ) today announced its embedded magnetoresistive non-volatile memory (eMRAM) on the company's 22 nm FD-SOI (22FDX ) platform has entered production, and GF is working with several clients with multiple production tape-outs scheduled in 2020. Today's announcement represents a significant industry milestone, demonstrating the scalability of eMRAM as a cost-effective option at advanced process nodes for Internet of Things (IoT), general-purpose microcontrollers, automotive, edge-AI (Artificial Intelligence), and other low-power applications.

Designed as a replacement for high-volume embedded NOR flash (eFlash), GF's eMRAM allows designers to extend their existing IoT and microcontroller unit architectures to access the power and density benefits of technology nodes below 28 nm.

TSMC, the world's leading global innovator in semiconductor manufacturing, filed multiple lawsuits on September 30, 2019 against GlobalFoundries in the United States, Germany and Singapore for its ongoing infringement of 25 TSMC patents by at least its 40nm, 28nm, 22nm, 14nm, and 12nm node processes. In the complaints, TSMC demands injunctions to stop GlobalFoundries' manufacture and sale of infringing semiconductor products. TSMC also seeks substantial monetary damages from GlobalFoundries for its sale of infringing semiconductor products and unlawful use of TSMC's patented semiconductor technologies.

The 25 TSMC patents in the complaints relate to a diverse set of technologies, including FinFET designs, shallow trench isolation techniques, double patterning methods, advanced seal rings and gate structures, and innovative contact etch stop layer designs. These specific technologies cover the core features of mature and advanced semiconductor manufacturing processes. The patents at issue comprise just a small portion of TSMC's extensive portfolio that numbers more than 37,000 granted patents worldwide. TSMC was ranked one of the top 10 companies for U.S. patent grants last year, for the third consecutive year.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in semiconductor technology, today announced that it has commenced mass production of its first commercial embedded magnetic random access memory (eMRAM) product based on the company's 28-nanometer (nm) fully-depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI) process technology, called 28FDS.

As eFlash has faced scalability challenges due to a charge storage-based operation, eMRAM has been the most promising successor since its resistance-based operation allows strong scalability while also possessing outstanding technical characteristics of memory semiconductors such as nonvolatility, random access, and strong endurance. With today's announcement, Samsung has proved its capability to overcome technical hurdles and demonstrated the possibility for further scalability of embedded memory technology to 28nm process node and beyond.

In what will likely seem baffling to many, AMD is releasing a new APU for their ancient FM2+ socket. While the release of the newly minted A8-7680 was alluded to previously via an ASRock BIOS update for their A68H motherboards, many considered it a fake at the time. However, with AMD's own literature listing the processor for the mass market, along with it popping up at various etailers with the product number AD7680ACABBOX, its release is now all but certain.

The processor is still being manufactured on the old 28 nm node and is very similar to the older A8-7600, with this speculated to also being a quad-core design based on the AMD Excavator architecture. It would appear the main difference between the two, noting that the A8-7680 specs are not formally released yet, is a 400 MHz increase on the base clock bringing it up from 3.1 GHz on the A8-7600 to 3.5 GHz on the A8-7680. Sadly, the boost clock remains the same at 3.8 GHz as noted at various etailers. Currently, only the A68 chipset works with the new CPU with the following boards having all received BIOS updates adding support for the A8-7680: Asus A68HM-K, A68HM-Plus, Gigabyte F2A68HM-DS2 rev1.1, F2A68HM-H rev1.1, F2A68HM-S1 rev1.1, MSI A68HM-E33-v2, ASRock FM2A68M-HD+, and FM2A68M-DG3+.The rumored specifications follow.

Inventory clearing is as much a part of business as breathing is part of life; as such, various retailers have apparently started to offer deep, deep discounts on AMD's past technology in the form of their Radeon Pro Duo - the once and still king of the hill in the red camp, where performance and technology is concerned.

But as the "out with the old, in with the new" adage still stands, retailers are now clearing inventory of their Radeon Pro Duo graphics cards, sometimes offering almost 50% off from the original launch price of $1499. Newegg, for example, has the card for $799 on both their North American and Asia Pacific online stores.

Palit Microsystems Ltd, the leading graphics card manufacturer, announced the latest GeForce GT graphics card, the Palit GeForce GT 710 series. To make your entire PC experience up to 10x faster than integrated graphics-including web browsing, photo and video editing, and gaming.

The Palit GeForce GT 710 based on the 28nm GK208 silicon, the chip features 192 CUDA cores, and a 64-bit wide DDR3 memory interface, holding 2GB or 1GB of memory. It features core clock speeds of 954MHz. Based on Kepler architecture, Palit GeForce GT 710 offers ultra low power and great performance and features with 1GB/2GB of DDR3 memory that's superior to integrated graphics in all your PC multimedia applications. Take on modern games with advanced and reliable dedicated graphics. 80% faster performance than integrated graphics means a rich and smooth gaming experience.

Top technologists from AMD are detailing the engineering accomplishments behind the performance and energy efficiency of the new high-performance Accelerated Processing Unit (APU), codenamed "Carrizo," and the new AMD Radeon R9 Fury family of GPUs, codenamed "Fiji," at the prestigious annual Hot Chips symposium starting today. The presentations will focus on new details of the high-definition video and graphics processing engines on the 6th Generation AMD A-Series APU ("Carrizo"), and the eight year journey leading to die-stacking technology and all-new memory architecture included on the latest top-of-the-line AMD Radeon Fury Series GPUs ("Fiji") for 4K gaming and VR. Using a true System-on-Chip (SoC) design, 6th Generation AMD A-Series processors are designed to reduce the power consumed by the x86 cores alone by 40 percent, while providing substantial gains in CPU, graphics, and multimedia performance versus the prior generation APU. The new AMD Radeon R9 Fury X GPU achieves up to 1.5x the performance-per-watt of the previous high-end GPU from AMD.

"With our new generation of APU and GPU technology, our engineering teams left no stone unturned for performance and energy efficiency," said Mark Papermaster, chief technology officer at AMD. "Using innovative design for our APUs, we've vastly increased the number of transistors on-chip to increase functionality and performance, implemented advanced power management, and completed the hardware implementation of Heterogeneous System Architecture. For our latest GPUs, AMD is the first to introduce breakthrough technology in the form of die-stacking and High-Bandwidth Memory. The results are great products with very large generational performance-per-watt gains."

Even though AMD's next-generation Kaveri APU, based on the Steamroller x86 CPU, GCN (Graphics Core Next) GPU, and HUMA memory architecture might not arrive until late in 1H of 2014, its successor is already named and being worked on by AMD. Carizo, successor to Kaveri, will arrive sometime in 2015, we are betting before the end of 1H 2015, and will feature further improvements in AMD's big APU push.

While nothing is confirmed, Carizo most probably packs AMD's next-in-line Excavator CPU core and perhaps an improved GCN based GPU core. Memory architecture will undoubtedly feature further improvements, in line with AMD's big push for heterogeneous computing and unified memory.

AMD's next generation Kaveri APUs might be delayed until early 1H 2014. The Steamroller architecture based APU is officially slated for Q4 2013, but a new report says that Kaveri based APUs are yet to achieve the mass production levels required for a full-scale launch. Of course, AMD could still launch the APUs in limited supply, with the supply eventually improving over the months, but that doesn't ever go well with consumers.

"AMD originally expected to start supplying its Heterogeneous System Architecture (HAS) Kaveri APUs in the second half of 2013, but according to the company's latest plans, the CPU maker will only provide two A10 and one A8 APU pilot production samples to its clients in December 2013, indicating that Kaveri APU-based PC products may have difficulties showing up in the retail channel before April 2014, the sources said."

Hardware news site WCCF Tech spotted an interesting entry listed in the Bionic research database. The ES (Engineering Sample) chip could be a part of AMD's next-generation APU series featuring the new and improved Steamroller core. While we don't expect performance to increase by leaps and bounds, but Steamroller builds on the Bulldozer architecture and has a target to offer as much as a 30% improvement in performance over the original core.

The ES code 2M186092H4467_23/18/12/05_1304 tells us even more. According to earlier observations (here and here), the four numbers in the middle part tell a bit about clock speeds. If the first one is not 00 (no turbo, see Kabini ES), it indicates a turbo clock of 2.3GHz. The "18? stands for 1.8GHz nominal frequency. I'm not so sure about the "12?. It could stand for 1.2Ghz North Bridge clock. Finally the "05? indicates a 500MHz GPU clock. The right part "1304? is the GPU code, which - thanks to earlier revelations - can be identified as AMD1304.1 = "KV SPECTRE MOBILE 35W (1304)".

A 2.3 GHz Turbo core is pretty low, which can be attributed to the early state of the Engineering Sample. Hopefully clock speeds hit further north of just 1.8 GHz CPU and 500 MHz graphics, especially for the 35W part. The next-generation chips will be manufactured on the new bulk 28nm manufacturing process at Global Foundries.

GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Fuzhou Rockchip Electronics Co., Ltd. today announced that Rockchip's next-generation mobile processors are ramping to production on GLOBALFOUNDRIES' 28 nm High-K Metal Gate (HKMG) process technology. Based on a multi-core ARM Cortex-A9 design, the RK3188 and RK3168 chips are optimized for tomorrow's high-performance, low-cost tablets that require long-lasting battery life (see product specifications in annex).

The combination of Rockchip's design and GLOBALFOUNDRIES' 28 nm HKMG process technology resulted in a mainstream tablet System-on-Chip (SoC) capable of operating at up to 1.8 GHz performance, while still maintaining the power efficiency expected by mobile device users. The chips began sampling to OEMs in early 2013 and are now ramping to support a wide range of manufacturers.

ASUS today announced the GeForce GTX 780 graphics card, featuring the 28nm NVIDIA GK 110-300 GPU with 2304 CUDA cores and 3GB GDDR5 on a 384-bit memory interface. The core is clocked at 902MHz, while the video memory runs a 6008MHz frequency. At approximately 50% more compute power than a GTX 680, the GeForce GTX 780 offers highest-end DirectX 11 gaming and multimedia. It supports TXAA and FXAA advanced anti-aliasing for better image quality and sharper game graphics.

In addition to award-winning quality, ASUS ensures customers can make the most of the card with the accessible GPU Tweak graphics tuning utility, as performance and power savings are finely balanced thanks to NVIDIA GPU Boost 2.0 smart graphics processor frequency management. ASUS will also be showcasing GeForce GTX 780 DirectCU II graphics cards with a completely redesigned cooler at Computex Taipei 2013.

Club 3D unveils today the heir of our first Radeon HD 7990. This card already crushed the competition in terms of sheer power, performance and awesomeness. But now we present its successor, the even faster Club 3D Radeon HD 7990. As the world's fastest and most advanced graphics card, it descends from generations of AMD Radeon Graphics cards that wore the same crown. And with a heritage like that, you know what you're getting: an unparalleled experience wherein gaming is everything… but not the only thing. All hail the new king.

Compared to the previous Club 3D Radeon HD 7990, which was already a stellar performer and has a track record for being the fastest graphics card in the world for some months in 2012 and 2013, the new Club 3D Radeon HD 7990 offers even better performance while being quieter, cooler and more energy efficient. It's almost impossible to imagine but even that top of range product left room for the improvement shown in this iteration. It's clear that these improvements enable better performance than any other graphics card available in the market today and at the same time operates with less noise and using less power.

As a world-renowned market leader, Gainward proudly introduces new GeForce GTX members - Gainward GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST. The Gainward GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST is base on NVIDIA's Kepler architecture and 28nm ASIC process that offers you high performance operation but less power consuming.

Gainward GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST series, leads with award-wining "Golden Samples" version which is cooled by a dual-fan cooler with factory over-clocked speed and standard-clocked version with single-fan cooler, both come with 2GB GDDR5 memory.

AMD, creator of the performance tablet category, today announced a new innovation for hybrid PCs that delivers uncompromised mobile PC experiences when in tablet mode or when connected to its base keyboard. Hybrid PCs are a new market segment between full notebooks and pure tablets that AMD plans to demonstrate, along with stand-alone performance tablets, at Mobile World Congress 2013 in Barcelona, Spain next week.

AMD Turbo Dock technology automatically adjusts performance of the AMD accelerated processing unit (APU) higher while a hybrid PC is docked and being used for more complex tasks like content creation. Likewise, AMD Turbo Dock is designed to lower power consumption when in tablet mode, helping to save battery life and extend movie or video watching, as well as web browsing time.

ASUS today announced global availability of the GeForce GTX 650-E, a motherboard bus-powered DirectX 11.1 graphics card that's ideal for desktop PCs with low-wattage power supplies The GeForce GTX 650-E combines DirectX 11.1 compatibility and 28nm NVIDIA GPU technology with a mere 60W power consumption, making it a very appealing upgrade option for users looking for a high-performance graphics card at an affordable price.

The ASUS GeForce GTX 650-E offers a quick and accessible upgrade for customers interested in affordable NVIDIA 28nm GPU technology. Powered from a PCI Express slot with a modest 60W average power consumption, the ASUS GeForce GTX 650-E is an ideal choice for users looking to upgrade their PCs without investing in a new power supply, making the process much easier and less costly. Available with 1GB or 2GB GDDR5 video memory, the ASUS GeForce GTX 650-E supports medium-to-high detail in current PC games, along with smooth 1080p full HD video playback.

The Club 3D GeForce GTX 650Ti delivers exceptional performance at 35% faster than the GeForce GTX 560Ti reference board and 40% faster than the standard GeForce GTX 650 at only 29% higher price, offering excellent value. Featuring a non-reference design, the 80mm fan keeps the GPU temperature low at 31⁰C under idle and operate stable at 53⁰C under load (3DMARK 11 under Extreme preset settings). The aerofoil turboblades and dust repelling bearings designed to operate under extreme load conditions, provide a consistent 31.3dBA under load or idle.

With the short 146mm PCB size, this graphic card is designed for smaller system chassis, making it ideal for users who do not want to replace their computer case and convenient for HTPC users and boosting up the performance by up to 35% compared to previous generation GeForce graphics card*. The GeForce GTX 650Ti embodies the maturity of the 28nm NVIDIA Kepler architecture and offers support for the the PCI Express 3.0 bus interface allowing for the highest data transfer speeds.

Eurocom, is launching two new NVIDIA GeForce based graphics cards in its High Performance Notebooks, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX and 670MX. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX and 670MX are kepler based cards and have 4 GB and 3GB GDDR5 memory respectively. Eurocom is launching the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX and 670MX in the EUROCOM Scorpius, Panther Series, Neptune 2.0 and Racer 2.0 high performance, fully upgradeable and customizable notebooks.

NVIDIA GeFore GTX 675MX and 670MX graphics are manufactured on the newest 28nm kepler based GPU architecture from NVIDIA. This technology allows for improved performance, power efficiency and manageability. Featuring a long list of technologies such as PhysX, CUDA, DirectX 11 and OpenCL, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX and 670MX will offer next generation graphics performance for Eurocom notebooks.

Samsung Electronics, Co., Ltd., a world leader in advanced semiconductor technology solutions, announced foundry production of STMicroelectronics' leading products using 32/28nm High-K Metal Gate (HKMG) process technology. Samsung Electronics' foundry business has been selected by STMicroelectronics to provide it with products at the 32/28nm process node. The relationship has already resulted in taping-out of a dozen ST advanced system-on-chip (SoC) devices for mobile, consumer and network applications.

"We have successfully started production of STMicroelectronics' new-generation 32/28nm SoC products," said Kwang-Hyun Kim, executive vice president of Foundry business, Device Solutions, Samsung Electronics. "A foundry relationship with ST demonstrates our commitment to advanced process technology and our 32/28nm HKMG process-technology leadership. We have aggressively ramped 32/28nm capacity and will continue to deliver the most advanced process solutions to our customers."

GLOBALFOUNDRIES and ARM today announced a multi-year agreement to jointly deliver optimized system-on-chip (SoC) solutions for ARM processor designs on GLOBALFOUNDRIES' 20-nanometer (nm) and FinFET process technologies. The new agreement also extends the long-standing collaboration to include graphics processors, which are becoming an increasingly critical component in mobile devices. As part of the agreement, ARM will develop a full platform of ARM Artisan Physical IP, including standard cell libraries, memory compilers and POP IP solutions. The results will help enable a new level of system performance and power-efficiency for a range of mobile applications, from smartphones to tablets to ultra-thin notebooks.

The companies have been collaborating for several years to jointly optimize ARM Cortex-A series processors, including multiple demonstrations of performance and power-efficiency benefits on 28nm as well as a 20nm test-chip implementation currently running through GLOBALFOUNDRIES fab in Malta, N.Y. This agreement extends the prior efforts by driving production IP platforms that will enable customer designs on 20nm and promote rapid migration to three-dimensional FinFET transistor technology. This joint development will enable a faster time to delivering SoC solutions for customers using next-generation ARM CPUs and GPUs in mobile devices.

AMD today announced that it has agreed to sell $500 million aggregate principal amount of its 7.50% Senior Notes due 2022 in a private offering. AMD intends to close the transaction on or around August 15, 2012. AMD estimates that the net proceeds from the issuance and sale of the senior notes will be approximately $491 million after deducting the initial purchasers' discounts and estimated offering expenses.

AMD intends to use the net proceeds for general corporate purposes and working capital, which may include the following: (i) the repayment or repurchase of some or all of its outstanding 5.75% Convertible Senior Notes due 2012, (ii) repayment or repurchase of some or all of its outstanding 6.00% Convertible Senior Notes due 2015, (iii) cash payments to GLOBALFOUNDRIES related to the 28nm product limited waiver of exclusivity, or (iv) potential strategic transactions.

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NYSE: AMD) today announced that it intends to commence a private offering, subject to market and other conditions, of $300 million aggregate principal amount of senior notes due 2022. AMD intends to use the net proceeds for general corporate purposes and working capital, which may include the following: (i) the repayment or repurchase of some or all of its outstanding 5.75% Convertible Senior Notes due August 2012, (ii) repayment or repurchase of some or all of its outstanding 6.00% Convertible Senior Notes due 2015, (iii) cash payments to GLOBALFOUNDRIES related to the 28nm product limited waiver of exclusivity, or (iv) potential strategic transactions.

The new senior notes have not been registered under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or applicable state securities laws, and will be offered only to qualified institutional buyers in reliance on Rule 144A and in offshore transactions pursuant to Regulation S under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. Unless so registered, the new senior notes may not be offered or sold in the United States except pursuant to an exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act and applicable state securities laws.

TSMC today announced consolidated revenue of NT$128.06 billion, net income of NT$41.81 billion, and diluted earnings per share of NT$1.61 (US$0.27 per ADR unit) for the second quarter ended June 30, 2012.

Year-over-year, second quarter revenue increased 15.9% while both net income and diluted EPS increased 16.3%. Second quarter results included an impairment charge of NT$2.68 billion, equivalent to NT$0.09 EPS, of our holding of 5.6% stake of SMIC common stocks. Compared to first quarter of 2012, second quarter of 2012 results represent a 21.4% increase in revenue, and a 24.9% increase in both net income and diluted EPS. All figures were prepared in accordance with R.O.C. GAAP on a consolidated basis.