Demand for chips remains strong, says China&#39;s SMIC
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Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) is expanding production capacity at its chip fabrication plants (fabs) in an effort to keep pace with growing semiconductor demand, the company&#39;s chief operating officer (COO) said Friday.
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Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC), China's largest chip maker and also one of the world's biggest contract chip makers, Saturday formally began commercial production at a 300-millimeter semiconductor fabrication plant (fab) in Beijing called Fab 4, the first such facility to open in China.
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BEIJING, June 25 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- CCID Consulting Co., Ltd, via its Industry Research Center, recently released its views on the ongoing battle between AMD and Intel.
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Advanced Micro Devices Inc. AMD.N,   the world's number two maker of microchips for personal   computers, will supply China's second-largest PC maker with   chips, scoring its latest victory in a market share battle with   bigger rival Intel INTC.O.
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Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp, or SMIC, has established a 12-inch chip production line in Beijing, the first of its kind on the Chinese mainland.
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The graphics chipmaker is optimistic about the future, but competitors aren't standing still.
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A strong demand for its computer chips brightens otherwise dismal year for the maker of semiconductors. By Laurie J. Flynn. SAN FRANCISCO -- Eking out a strong finish to end a disappointing year, Intel Corp
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Strong demand from emerging markets and the introduction of more low-cost laptops will boost Intel&#39;s sales in Asia during 2008, but company executives are keeping a close eye on the U.S. economy for signs of a slowdown.&quot;Overall, I&#39;m optimistic about growth in Asia, but it would be imprudent not to be cautious and mindful of the economic situation in the U.S.,&quot; said Navin Shenoy, general manager of Intel&#39;s Asia-Pacific operations, during a telephone interview.Intel&#39;s Asia-Pacific sales include chips sold for use in Asia as well as products that are built into computers for export to other regions. As a result, regional executives are closely watching what happens in the U.S., where concerns are mounting that the economy is headed for a recession.&quot;The export business that&#39;s dependent on the United States might see a bit of a slowdown, but the bulk of the growth is coming from [Asian] consumption. The consumption that we see across Asia-Pacific is quite strong and I see no impact or slowdown there whatsoever at this point in time,&quot; Shenoy said.&quot;But we&#39;re going to watch it. We&#39;re going to watch it carefully,&quot; he said.Analyst firm IDC expects Asian PC shipments to grow 16.7 percent this year, compared to an increase of 3 percent in the U.S.&quot;We&#39;ve pretty much been assuming no major impact [on PC demand] from the subprime crisis in the U.S.,&quot; said Bryan Ma, director of personal systems research at IDC Asia-Pacific, adding that the market research firm is monitoring economic developments in the U.S.Intel is coming off a strong fourth quarter, despite being squeezed somewhat by lower-than-expected flash memory prices. Strong processor demand during the period helped push Intel&#39;s Asia-Pacific revenue to US$5.3 billion, a quarterly record and about half of the company&#39;s total sales.&quot;Demand on the CPU side was strong. We set a record in terms of CPU shipments [and] we set a record for chipsets,&quot; Shenoy said.Most of Intel&#39;s processor revenue during the period came from 65-nanometer chips. The first chips from Intel&#39;s 45-nanometer processor lineup, called Penryn, were introduced in November and made a &quot;nominal&quot; contribution to Asia-Pacific revenue during the fourth quarter, Shenoy said.That contribution will increase rapidly over the next several months, with Intel&#39;s shipments of 45-nanometer processors to surpass those of 65-nanometer chips during the third quarter, he said.Two upcoming Intel products, Silverthorne and Canmore, should also make their presence felt in Asia this year, Shenoy said.Silverthorne, which is produced using the same 45-nanometer manufacturing process, is the first chip designed by Intel to be used in low-cost laptops and will be available during the second half of the year. Currently, Intel offers a version of its aging Celeron M processor for these types of machines, such as Asustek&#39;s popular Eee PC.Silverthorne, which is intended to be inexpensive and easy on battery life, will appear in low-cost notebooks that should spur faster growth in Asian demand for mobile computers, Shenoy said.The other chip that Intel expects to see do well in Asia is Canmore, a system-on-chip announced during the Consumer Electronics Show that combines a processor with graphics and high-definition video capabilities. Designed for set-top boxes and other consumer electronics, Canmore is due during the second half of this year.&quot;There are tremendous opportunities for a product like that in countries like Taiwan and Korea,&quot; Shenoy said.One technology that isn&#39;t expected to make much headway in Asia this year is WiMax.Apart from South Korea, where WiMax is already in commercial use, the wireless broadband technology hasn&#39;t caught on much in Asia. As a result, WiMax products will not see widespread adoption in the region until 2009, Shenoy said.
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Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) said Wednesday it will defend itself against the latest allegations of patent infringement and trade secret misappropriation made by rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC).
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Global microchip sales rose 5.9  percent in September, driven by demand for consumer products  such as personal computers and cell phones, the Semiconductor  Industry Association said on Monday.
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Intel Corp. INTC.O will make   chips with four processing cores in November the world's   biggest microchip maker said on Tuesday as it tries to maintain   a lead over rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc.AMD.N.
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Taiwan&#39;s Asustek Computer complained on Tuesday of a shortage of Intel central processing units (CPUs) for laptop PCs, but said it didn&#39;t expect the problem to affect its sales.&quot;The biggest shortage in notebook components is in CPUs, Intel CPUs. Intel isn&#39;t meeting demand,&quot; said Jerry Shen, president of Asustek, answering questions at an investors conference in Beitou, Taiwan.The statement highlights persistent problems laptop PC makers have faced this year in trying to procure certain parts. Strong demand for mobile computers has caused&#160;a shortage&#160;of small LCD (liquid crystal display) screens and small hard disc drives (HDD), laptop makers have complained. Therecall of around 10 million laptop batteries&#160;containing cells manufactured by Sony has also kept these vital parts in short supply since last year.Intel could not immediately be reached for comment.Back-to-school sales in September, and the run-up to the end-of-year holiday season are hot times for people to buy new laptop PCs, and hype around Microsoft&#39;s Windows Vista and&#160;Intel&#39;s Santa Rosa laptop chips&#160;has given an added spurt to demand this year. Laptop PC sales are expected to hit record highs, and some companies believe the market will grow by around 30 percent next year.Supplies of certain laptop parts could become more plentiful once the peak season ends and demand slows down.Meantime, laptop makers have had to keep up with suppliers by maintaining relationships and building inventory when they can.&quot;Our relationship with Intel is good so we don&#39;t have a big problem, but if it wasn&#39;t so good, our troubles might be worse,&quot; said Shen, of the CPU issue.Asustek forecasts it will ship between 4.2 million and 4.4 million of its own-brand laptops this year, not including its popular new Eee PC. The company has targeted shipments of up to 400,000&#160;Eee PCs&#160;this year.&#160;
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(InfoWorld) - News coming out the chip sector has been great so far this week, but analysts warn that economic woes such as the housing mess might still spoil the party. The consensus among analysts appears to be that corporate and personal spending on technology products will be hurt by the housing issues in the U.S., but nobody knows how bad the impact will be, according to Peter Sutton, head of research at CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets in Taipei. Demand for technology products, especially computers and mobile phones, in the rest of the world is going strong, he said, but even that demand could pull back in the event of a U.S. slowdown because many developing countries depend on exports to the U.S. for income. By the end of this year, people should know how bad the loan and home foreclosure situation will be, according to Sutton. The housing market in the U.S., he said, is expected to bottom in the first quarter of next year. The fear is that the housing issues could hurt consumer spending at some point later this year, but so far the technology industry isn't showing any signs of trouble. The flow of good news started in Asia on Monday with the world's largest contract chip maker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), reporting record high sales in August and revising up its third quarter financial guidance. The company, considered a bellwether for the overall tech industry because of the variety of gadgets it makes chips for, said consolidated sales in August rose 10 percent year-over-year to NT$30.02 billion (US$907.0 million), beating its previous record of NT$27.96 billion from July of last year. TSMC also predicted its third quarter revenue will likely hit between NT$87 billion to NT$89 billion, higher than a previous forecast of NT$85 billion to NT$87 billion, and said its gross margin would come out at the top end of expectations. Some customers asked TSMC to ship some chips earlier than expected, a spokesman for the company said, but the company won't comment on how that might impact the fourth quarter. Taiwanese chip designer MediaTek followed up TSMC's news, announcing an agreement to buy certain telecommunications chips products from Analog Devices Inc., of Norwood, Massachusetts, for US$350 million in cash. The deal itself isn't huge, but merger and acquisition activity normally takes place when companies see bright prospects for the future, and MediaTek is looking to use the acquisition as part of its mobile phone chip strategy. Among the products the company acquired is a chipset used in TD-SCDMA (Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access) basebands and radio receiver products, which will help it increase its presence in its main market, China. TD-SCDMA is the 3G (third-generation) telecommunications standard being pursued in China. Positive corporate news for chip makers didn't stop in Asia. As the work day opened in the U.S., technology industry watchers were treated to theÂ long-awaited launch of Barcelona, the new quad-core processors from Advanced Micro Devices. The Sunnyvale, California company announced a number of companies are already using the chips, including IBM, Sun Microsystems, Dell, and Gateway. The world's largest chip maker capped Monday with the biggest news of the day.Â Intel raised its third quarter revenue forecastÂ to between US$9.4 billion and US$9.8 billion from a previous range of US$9.0 billion and US$9.6 billion, and said its gross margin would be at the upper end of guidance due to stronger than expected global demand for computing products. Despite the strong chip news and outlook for the current quarter, which ends Sept. 30, the future remains uncertain. "Near term data shows little evidence of order cutbacks in the tech supply chain," said Warren Lau, chip analyst at Macquarie Research Equities. "But having said that, the question remains: will the sky come crashing down because of the meltdown in the U.S. subprime markets?"
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The worldwide demand for storage capacity continues to accelerate rapidly, with the latest research from analyst IDC showing a 41.
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InfoWorld - Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC), China's largest chip maker, has signed a deal to license a 45-nanometer (nm) manufacturing process from IBM, the company said Wednesday.
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Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c50016)  has announced the addition of "Computer  Hardware in China" to their offering.
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Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) reported its profits to be promising for the rest of the year. The company said it noticed a $42.