UMS Holdings

[specuvestor]

Interesting article:

The End of the Shrink

Nobody will say that Moore's Law is over. But it's starting to get really complicated.

By : Rachel Courtland

http://www.abmassociation.com/images/Nea...0Entry.pdf

(vested)

We actually discussed this back in June when we were discussing the rationale of major shareholders selling

On 450mm there are many conflicting views because end of the day it is still R&D stage. If it cannot be commercialised you have to abort it. IMHO however I think it probably needs to go on because the node shrinkage is finally reaching a dead end beyond 10nm. Moore's law has already been slowing down dramatically in past few years. I am not unaware of the progress that semicon has made over past 50 years that "nothing is impossible" but the next step is likely to be a revolutionary change as significant as the shift from vaccuum tubes to transistors. There is that much you can improve on vacuum tubes, and I think the point has come for node shrinkage. Material science can only go that far to fit an atom width.

That's why the "easier" step is likely to increase the wafer size rather than shrink node further to cut costs until the next techological replacement is found. But I think we can live pretty comfortably next 2 decades with the die size we have now

I'm enjoying the robust discussion. No ill will intended

[Boon]

Both billings and bookings have been trending down in 3Q - consistent with seasonally weaker 3Q.

Would the downward trend continues into 4Q ? Only time will tell !

(vested)
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

North American Semiconductor Equipment Industry Posts September 2014 Book-to-Bill Ratio of 0.94

SAN JOSE, Calif. — October 20, 2014 — North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $1.17 billion in orders worldwide in September 2014 (three-month average basis) and a book-to-bill ratio of 0.94, according to the September EMDS Book-to-Bill Report published today by SEMI. A book-to-bill of 0.94 means that $94 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month.

The three-month average of worldwide bookings in September 2014 was $1.17 billion. The bookings figure is 12.9 percent lower than the final August 2014 level of $1.35 billion, and is 18.1 percent higher than the September 2013 order level of $992.8 million.

The three-month average of worldwide billings in September 2014 was $1.25 billion. The billings figure is 3.3 percent lower than the final August 2014 level of $1.29 billion, and is 22.5 percent higher than the September 2013 billings level of $1.02 billion.

“Following 11 months of above parity book-to-bill ratios, the three-month average ratio declined in September,” said Denny McGuirk, president and CEO of SEMI. "While order activity moderated, equipment spending this year is expected to be robust and remain on pace for double-digit year-over-year growth.”

The SEMI book-to-bill is a ratio of three-month moving averages of worldwide bookings and billings for North American-based semiconductor equipment manufacturers. Billings and bookings figures are in millions of U.S. dollars.

Billings (3-mo. avg)
Bookings (3-mo. avg)
Book-to-Bill

January 2014
1,233.2 ( 27.0% HIGHER than January 2013 billing of USD 0.968 billion )
1,280.3 ( 19.0% HIGHER than January 2013 booking of USD 1.08 billion )
1.04

February 2014
1,288.3 (32% HIGHER than February 2013 billing of USD 0.9747 billion )
1,295.4 (21.0% HIGHER than February 2013 booking of USD 1.07 billion )
1.01

March 2014
1,225.5 (23.7% HIGHER than March 2013 billing of USD 0.991 billion)
1,297.7 (18% HIGHER than March 2013 booking of USD 1.10 billion)
1.06

April (2014)
1,403.2 (28.7% HIGHER than April 2013 billing of USD 1.09 billion)
1,443.0 (23.3% HIGHER than April 2013 booking of USD 1.17 billion)
1.03

May 2014
1,407.8 (15.4% HIGHER than May 2013 billing of USD 1.22 billion)
1,407.0 ( 6.6% HIGHER than May 2013 booking of USD 1.32 billion)
1.00

June 2014
1,327.5 (9.7% HIGHER than June 2013 billing of USD 1.21 billion)
1,455.0 (9.4% HIGHER than June 2013 booking of USD 1.33 billion)
1.10

July 2014
1,319.1 (9.9% HIGHER than July 2013 billing of USD 1.20 billion)
1,417.1 (17.1% HIGHER than July 2013 booking of USD 1.21 billion)
1.07

Aug 2014 (Final)
1,293.4 (19.5% HIGHER than August 2013 billing of USD 1.08 billion)
1,346.1 (26.5% HIGHER than August 2013 booking of USD 1.06 billion)
1.04

Sep 2014 (prelim)
1,250.4 (22.5% HIGHER than Sept 2013 billing of USD 1.02 billion)
1,172.8 (18.1% HIGHER than Sept 2013 booking of USD 0.99 billion)
0.94

http://www.semi.org/en/node/51796?id=highlights

[Boon]

Foundries Use Small Feature Sizes to Boost Revenue per Wafer
60% of foundry sales at TSMC from devices built using ≤45nm process technology.

OCTOBER 21, 2014 , IC Insights

Revenue per wafer start (expressed in 200mm equivalents) varies considerably among the leading pure-play foundry companies (Figure 1). Among the Big 4 pure-play foundries, TSMC is forecast to have the highest revenue per wafer in 2014 at $1,328, 27% higher than GlobalFoundries. UMC’s revenue per wafer in 2014 is expected to be only $770, 42% less than TSMC’s revenue per wafer. Although the average revenue per wafer of the Big 4 foundries is forecast to be $1,145 in 2014, the actual revenue per wafer is highly dependent upon feature size....................................................

http://www.icinsights.com/data/articles/...ts/728.pdf

(vested)

[Boon]

Smart Sensors Spur Smart City and Internet of Things Landscapes in Singapore: IDC Government Insights

23 Oct 2014

By Gerald Wang, research manager, IDC Government Insights

Singapore and Hong Kong, October 23, 2014 – Singapore - as a global center of socio-economic commerce and cultural and social developments - possesses the necessary ingredients for sustained Smart City developments, says IDC Government Insights.

While it is still unclear which paths lead to the success of Smart City implementations, IDC Government Insights explains that this forecast relates to an effective and innovative strategic leadership as well as strengths in close cross-industry ties across a multitude of technology and business partners alike to drive the necessary future developments of its city.

IDC Government Insights defines the term "Smart City" broadly. Smart Cities can be a district, town, city, county, metropolitan area, city state (e.g., Singapore), or even functionally clustered government operations such as public order and safety, transportation, healthcare, and education sectors. Such next-generation models of cities are anticipated to capture, analyze, and use information to achieve over-arching long-term sustainability goals around improving the lives of their residents, business, and government services.

In line with that, the Singapore government recently unveiled plans to enhance existing Smart City initiatives through the use of sensor technologies that monitor air and water quality, transport and public safety operations.

These Smart sensors will be deployed across various selected jurisdictions, such as Orchard Road, Little India, and Jurong Lake District; and functional proposes, including environmental air and water quality, traffic and public safety.

According to IDC Government Insights, a successful Smart City program needs to continually engage citizens and private entities to define the strategic direction and city priorities through a thoroughly planned technological enablement and assimilation.

As with Singapore's landscape, a key factor for this transformation, however, lies in the propensity and competence of city planners to embrace and continually test new ideas. This is to promote opportunities for superior stakeholder engagement services and a healthy enthusiasm toward embracing disruptive innovation changes.

With rapid urbanization, migration and population growth, coupled with constrained socio-economic resources and aging infrastructures, Singapore is seeking investments in Smart City solutions for its future generations.

Such solutions are expected to deliver higher-quality stakeholder engagement and closer collaboration and participation services as well as influence behavioral transformation in government employees, local businesses, and residents so cities can develop more sustainably.

Critical success factors that IDC Government Insights has observed in Singapore's public sector-led Smart City programs include:

• Specialization: Building competencies on small yet targeted solutions;

• Scalability: For effective replications, expertise transfers and expansions;

• Strong government support and leadership by example; and

• Driving demand for domestic manpower as well as sustained ICT capability building.

- Ends –

http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prSG25217614

(vested)

[Greenrookie]

Smart Sensors Spur Smart City and Internet of Things Landscapes in Singapore: IDC Government Insights

23 Oct 2014

By Gerald Wang, research manager, IDC Government Insights

Singapore and Hong Kong, October 23, 2014 – Singapore - as a global center of socio-economic commerce and cultural and social developments - possesses the necessary ingredients for sustained Smart City developments, says IDC Government Insights.

While it is still unclear which paths lead to the success of Smart City implementations, IDC Government Insights explains that this forecast relates to an effective and innovative strategic leadership as well as strengths in close cross-industry ties across a multitude of technology and business partners alike to drive the necessary future developments of its city.

IDC Government Insights defines the term "Smart City" broadly. Smart Cities can be a district, town, city, county, metropolitan area, city state (e.g., Singapore), or even functionally clustered government operations such as public order and safety, transportation, healthcare, and education sectors. Such next-generation models of cities are anticipated to capture, analyze, and use information to achieve over-arching long-term sustainability goals around improving the lives of their residents, business, and government services.

In line with that, the Singapore government recently unveiled plans to enhance existing Smart City initiatives through the use of sensor technologies that monitor air and water quality, transport and public safety operations.

These Smart sensors will be deployed across various selected jurisdictions, such as Orchard Road, Little India, and Jurong Lake District; and functional proposes, including environmental air and water quality, traffic and public safety.

According to IDC Government Insights, a successful Smart City program needs to continually engage citizens and private entities to define the strategic direction and city priorities through a thoroughly planned technological enablement and assimilation.

As with Singapore's landscape, a key factor for this transformation, however, lies in the propensity and competence of city planners to embrace and continually test new ideas. This is to promote opportunities for superior stakeholder engagement services and a healthy enthusiasm toward embracing disruptive innovation changes.

With rapid urbanization, migration and population growth, coupled with constrained socio-economic resources and aging infrastructures, Singapore is seeking investments in Smart City solutions for its future generations.

Such solutions are expected to deliver higher-quality stakeholder engagement and closer collaboration and participation services as well as influence behavioral transformation in government employees, local businesses, and residents so cities can develop more sustainably.

Critical success factors that IDC Government Insights has observed in Singapore's public sector-led Smart City programs include:

• Specialization: Building competencies on small yet targeted solutions;

• Scalability: For effective replications, expertise transfers and expansions;

• Strong government support and leadership by example; and

• Driving demand for domestic manpower as well as sustained ICT capability building.

- Ends –

http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prSG25217614

(vested)

Hmm... Boon

What has this got to do with Chips and UMS?

I thought beneficiary is ST engineering electronics segment with exposure to smart living urban system or Sembcorp industries?

[Boon]

Smart Sensors Spur Smart City and Internet of Things Landscapes in Singapore: IDC Government Insights

23 Oct 2014

By Gerald Wang, research manager, IDC Government Insights

Singapore and Hong Kong, October 23, 2014 – Singapore - as a global center of socio-economic commerce and cultural and social developments - possesses the necessary ingredients for sustained Smart City developments, says IDC Government Insights.

While it is still unclear which paths lead to the success of Smart City implementations, IDC Government Insights explains that this forecast relates to an effective and innovative strategic leadership as well as strengths in close cross-industry ties across a multitude of technology and business partners alike to drive the necessary future developments of its city.

IDC Government Insights defines the term "Smart City" broadly. Smart Cities can be a district, town, city, county, metropolitan area, city state (e.g., Singapore), or even functionally clustered government operations such as public order and safety, transportation, healthcare, and education sectors. Such next-generation models of cities are anticipated to capture, analyze, and use information to achieve over-arching long-term sustainability goals around improving the lives of their residents, business, and government services.

In line with that, the Singapore government recently unveiled plans to enhance existing Smart City initiatives through the use of sensor technologies that monitor air and water quality, transport and public safety operations.

These Smart sensors will be deployed across various selected jurisdictions, such as Orchard Road, Little India, and Jurong Lake District; and functional proposes, including environmental air and water quality, traffic and public safety.

According to IDC Government Insights, a successful Smart City program needs to continually engage citizens and private entities to define the strategic direction and city priorities through a thoroughly planned technological enablement and assimilation.

As with Singapore's landscape, a key factor for this transformation, however, lies in the propensity and competence of city planners to embrace and continually test new ideas. This is to promote opportunities for superior stakeholder engagement services and a healthy enthusiasm toward embracing disruptive innovation changes.

With rapid urbanization, migration and population growth, coupled with constrained socio-economic resources and aging infrastructures, Singapore is seeking investments in Smart City solutions for its future generations.

Such solutions are expected to deliver higher-quality stakeholder engagement and closer collaboration and participation services as well as influence behavioral transformation in government employees, local businesses, and residents so cities can develop more sustainably.

Critical success factors that IDC Government Insights has observed in Singapore's public sector-led Smart City programs include:

• Specialization: Building competencies on small yet targeted solutions;

• Scalability: For effective replications, expertise transfers and expansions;

• Strong government support and leadership by example; and

• Driving demand for domestic manpower as well as sustained ICT capability building.

- Ends –

http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prSG25217614

(vested)

Hmm... Boon

What has this got to do with Chips and UMS?

I thought beneficiary is ST engineering electronics segment with exposure to smart living urban system or Sembcorp industries?

Hi Greenrookie,

Smart Sensors Spur Smart City and Internet of Things - to make these happen, more chips would be needed.

This is news on industry trend - on IoT.

http://blog.appliedmaterials.com/legacy-fabs-iot-demand

(vested)

[Boon]

Redefining A System…And Why It Matters

October 23rd, 2014 - Posted by: Ed Sperling

Methodologies will be altered radically as we move into stacked die and the IoT.

The concept of a system on chip has been around since the mid-1990s, but the actual mass implementation of this scheme is almost synonymous with the rise of the smart phone over the past decade. Put in perspective, it isn’t that old, and it’s about to change.

Prior to the SoC [KC], an electronic system was largely a collection of components on a PCB that included memory, a processor, and some sort of I/O and networking. Putting it all together on a single die was an engineering feat, but it was one that was based on the components and approaches that were already well defined. As one industry expert observed, if Nokia remained the market leader in cell phones we would have had a smaller phone.

Instead, we have multi-function smart phones with more performance and capabilities than most PCs had a decade ago. But the PC era is over. We’re well into the smart phone era. And what comes next may not even be tied to any single device. It may be more about following the data, as Cadence []fellow Chris Rowen termed it in a speech last year, than the electronics themselves. When that finally happens, it would mark the single biggest shift in the history of computing.

The Internet of Things [KC] concept—an incredibly bad description for what’s about to take place—will revolutionize how we think of a system. Where exactly do your songs live in iTunes, for example? Do you really own Waze? And where is your social media data really being kept?

This has a direct bearing on the electronics you choose to access this data. It doesn’t matter if your on-chip processor can run at 3 GHz when all you’re doing is listening to music that’s being stored in the cloud. It also doesn’t matter if you have two cores of 16 if all you’re doing is streaming a video.

What’s changing here is as fundamental as the creation of the SoC in the first place. We are migrating, in the words of Sonics []CTO Drew Wingard, from a processor-defined world to one that is application-focused. This has ramifications for everything from semiconductor design to EDA tools, and it opens the door to many more players and ideas because the fundamental building blocks will be platforms, derivatives, and more standardized approaches to connecting everything together more quickly.

We are moving into a world where the next big thing is how you slice up existing platforms and technologies into customized little things—basically using aggregation of standardize parts to specialize in unique ways. And all of this has to be done efficiently, meaning quickly, with minimal added cost, and with multiple options that can fit a particular slice of a market. Some may require extremely low power, while in others the emphasis will be on performance or the addition of very unique sensors.

Add all of this up and it presents one of the biggest opportunities ever for semiconductors and EDA. They will be the engines and the building blocks for these changes, driving economies of scale and innovation well beyond their own narrowly defined physical world into a much broader universe of interconnected systems where data defines the system.

http://semiengineering.com/redefining-a-system/

(vested)

[btws548]

Interesting article regarding the semiconductor industry

Paul Mozur: Using cash and pressure, China builds its chip industry

Beijing is starting programmes to increase investment and gain expertise from foreign firms

China churns out many of the world's electronic devices: smartphones, computers, complicated networking equipment. Now the country is redoubling its efforts to design and produce the brains behind most of those electronics, the chip. China is playing catch-up with global rivals. Last year, the country imported $232 billion of semiconductor products, eclipsing even the amount spent on petroleum.

To narrow the gap, Beijing is starting programmes to increase investment by the state and to gain expertise from foreign chip companies. Experts say the chip industry is one focus of Chinese espionage efforts.

http://www.business-standard.com/article...337_1.html

(Not vested)

[Boon]

Foundry houses in Taiwan and China ramping 8-inch wafer capacity for IoT applications

Josephine Lien, Taipei; Steve Shen, DIGITIMES [Monday 27 October 2014]

Major wafer foundry houses in Taiwan and China are ramping up the capacity of their 8-inch fabs in order to grasp opportunities in the growing business opportunities derived from the expanding Internet of Things (IoT) applications, according to industry sources.

Foundry houses participated in the race for capacity ramps include Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), Vanguard International Semiconductor (VIS), Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) and Huahong Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (HHGrace), the sources indicated.

Most foundry houses are ramping 8-inch wafer production capacity because the production of chips for related IoT applications are mostly optimized 8-inch wafers using special manufacturing processes or low-power platforms, rather than applying to advanced processes on 12-inch wafers, said the sources.

TSMC has the highest 8-inch wafer production capacity, accounting for over 400,000 units a month currently. TSMC has recently ramped up its 8-inch wafer production capacity at its fab in Shanghai to over 100,000 units a month recently, focusing on production of chips mainly for MEMS, sensor, embedded flash and smart cards.

TSMC has formed an IoT business development team to develop businesses related IoT.

UMC has also established a task force to monitor the development of the IoT industry and will focus to offer its ultra-low power platform for related IoT applications.

VIS is ramping the production capacity its newly acquired 8-inch fab to 27,000-28,000 units a month and could expand the plant's capacity to 30,000 units, depending on market situations, indicated the sources.

HHGrace reportedly will increase the capacity of its 8-inch wafers to 160,000 units a month from 120,000-130,000 units currently. HHGrace has been focusing on embedded flash, mixed-signal chips, RF, power managed (PWM) and MEMS chips.

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20141027PD208.html

(vested)

[Boon]

IoT is gaining traction
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Government aims to make $15 billion Internet of Things industry in India by 2020

PTI Oct 26, 2014

NEW DELHI: The government is working on an ambitious plan to create USD 15 billion 'Internet of Things' industry in the next six years.

Internet of Things, or IoT, can be loosely described as a network of inter-connected devices that can be accessed through the Internet.

For instance, with IoT, street lights will automatically go off when they sense no traffic on the roads and consequently save power. Another application could be a smart band that will automatically alert physician when body vitals go to abnormal levels.

"Among other things, IoT can help automate solutions to problems faced by various industries like agriculture, health services, energy, security, disaster management etc. through remotely connected devices," the draft IoT policy document says.

Some of the proposed concepts under the policy include development of tools to monitor quality of water flowing in taps and levels in reservoirs, smart environment to monitor quality of air, technology to monitor changes in body vitals and send alerts to hospitals.

Human role will be limited to setting up parameters for alerts and other activities expected from the objects.

The policy has the objective "to create an IoT industry in India of USD 15 billion by 2020. This will also lead to increase in the connected devices from around 200 million to over 2.7 billion by 2020."

The number of internet-connected devices (12.5 billion) surpassed the number of human beings (7 billion) on the planet in 2011, and by 2020, Internet-connected devices are expected to number between 26 billion and 50 billion globally, the draft policy document said.

The proposed policy is in line of government's plan to develop 100 smart cities in the country, for which Rs 7,060 crore has been earmarked in the current year's Budget.

Devices or objects under IoT, will be connected seamlessly on networks and communicate with least human intervention. The IoT policy excludes phones, tablets and personal computers.

The Department of Telecom has already floated a draft policy on technical communication among machines but is yet to finalise guidelines.

To boost IoT, the government has plans to fund creation of resource centres and test-beds as a common experimental facility to conduct experiments with an allocation of Rs 18 crore as 100 per cent fund with Rs 1 crore for each partner and Rs 3 crore for nodal agency over a period of five years................................................

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes...y-document

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

High-tech applications seen at IOT fair

By Zhu Shenshen | October 29, 2014, Wednesday

UNMANNED aerial vehicles monitoring environment conditions of paddy fields and in-vehicle systems able to check available parking lots nearby were some of the Internet of Things applications displayed at an industrial show, which opened in Shanghai yesterday.

Shanghai has identified the IOT, which refers to radio connection technology linking up various devices, as a strategic industry to develop in sectors like transport, agriculture and health care.

An UAV featuring eight arms with sensors and cameras which can monitor temperature, humidity, air quality and plant growth was displayed at the IOT China 2014.

The UAV is used in Shanghai’s Chongming Island to monitor paddy plants, said Sun Dong, Shanghai Agriculture Information Co’s marketing manager.

Sun said the UAV acts like smart eyes to help monitor the growth condition of the paddy so that any potential risks can be hedged before they occur.

The IOT also has applications in the automotive industry for connecting the car, mobile phone and other infrastructure.

Qoros, one of the fair’s participants, has an in-vehicle application to help car owners check available parking lots nearby and their charges. Users pay 300 yuan (US$49) a year for the application.

Shanghai eyes new health care detecting and diagnosis systems with IOT applications to create an output of 10 billion yuan in 2020, industry officials said at the show which ends today

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/business/it...aily.shtml

(vested)