Nanotech - The Circuits Blog

Qimonda, an affiliate of Germany-based Infineon Technologies, is seeking protection under Chapter 11 for its U.S. unit, the company said Monday. Separately, a research report was released today forecasting dim prospects for chipmakers in 2009.

The U.S. unit of Qimonda AG, one of the world's largest memory chip manufacturers, said in a statement that it is seeking bankruptcy protection. "The US subsidiaries Qimonda North America Corp. and Qimonda Richmond L.L.C. filed for creditor protection under Chapter 11 on February 20, 2009," the company said in a statement Monday. "No disruptions to operations, particularly to customer deliveries, are expected to result from this," the statement said.

In January, Qimonda AG filed for insolvency protection in Germany after it was not able to secure government financing.

The company listed the following vital statistics on its Web site:

• Pioneer in 300mm manufacturing: Almost 90 percent of the DRAM bits shipped are 300mm
  
• About 13,500 employees worldwide (status: December 31, 2007)
  
• 3.61 billion EUR net sales in Financial Year 2007
  

In related news, a report released by market research firm In-Stat forecasts continued contraction of worldwide chip sales.

"The global recession will wreak havoc on semiconductor sales this year," the report said. Worldwide semiconductor revenue will decline by nearly 20 percent in 2009 to $199.2 billion, the firm said. The industry will not recover to 2007 levels until at least 2012. This echoes recent comments from Morris Chang, chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co..

"Declining confidence resulting from recent shocks and increased uncertainty about the future will lead to more conservative spending even after liquidity improves and the economic recovery is well underway," wrote Jim McGregor, an In-Stat analyst. Revenue growth in 2010 will be modest, at 11.8 percent, the report added.

iSuppli releases its preliminary 2008 top-20 chip rankings as semiconductor suppliers fall upon hard times.

Intel, Samsung, Texas Instruments, Toshiba, and STMicroelectronics occupy the top five positions, while Advanced Micro Devices was No. 11 and Nvidia No. 20 in the ranking.

Memory chip manufacturers are some of the hardest hit. South Korea-based Hynix, which dropped from No. 6 to No. 9, and Micron Technology (No. 16) are both restructuring. Micron is reducing staff and shutting down facilities, while Hynix seeks outside investors.

Micron is expected to post a 9.2 percent revenue decrease in 2008 and Hynix's revenue should dive by about 29 percent in 2008, iSuppli said.

The world's largest memory chip supplier and the world's No. 2 chipmaker, Samsung Electronics, is set for a 9.1 percent revenue decline for the year, the market researcher said.

Toshiba, a major flash memory chip manufacturer, is expected to post a 5.9 percent decline in chip revenue in 2008.

iSuppli said 2008 will go down as "a year to forget" for memory chip suppliers.

Preliminary 2008 worldwide ranking of the top 20 chip suppliers

(Credit: iSuppli)

Munich, Germany-based Infineon (No. 10) said Wednesday it expects 2009 revenue to fall at least 15 percent from the previous year. Infineon makes chips for automotive and communications devices, but is also a large player in the memory chip market through its subsidiary Qimonda.

Global semiconductor revenue is expected to decline by 2 percent in 2008 due to a 16.9 percent plunge in sales of memory integrated circuits (ICs), iSuppli said. "Only two out of the Top-29 memory IC suppliers, i.e. companies that are expected to earn roughly $100 million or more in 2008, will see their memory IC revenue grow in 2008. For the memory IC business, 2008 can only be described as disastrous," Dale Ford, senior vice president of market intelligence services for iSuppli, said in a statement.

The downturn in semiconductor revenue in 2008 is not limited to memory suppliers. Six of the top-10 chip suppliers are expected to see revenue falls in 2008, including some companies that are not focused on memory, including Texas Instruments, Renesas Technology, and Sony, according to iSuppli.

"In the face of increasingly negative economic news, orders for semiconductors have virtually stopped," the market researcher said.

"About the only good thing that can be said about the 16.9 percent decline in memory revenue in 2008 is that it pales in comparison to the 48.2 percent plunge in 2001," Ford said.

And a few companies have been performing relatively well. Based on an expected revenue growth of 19.6 percent, Qualcomm is expected to jump five places to No. 8 in the rankings in 2008, up from No. 13 in 2007, iSuppli said.

1999 Psion Revo Plus PDA looks a lot like MIDs today.

(Credit: Miha Ulanov)

The iPhone is a mobile Internet device. Just in case you forgot, ARM wants to remind you that before the Intel Atom processor there was the iPhone and its handful of ARM processors. Yeah, it's a MID too.

Listening to Intel, a casual observer might believe that the world's largest chipmaker is single-handedly creating the class of tiny devices called mobile Internet devices or MIDs.

But ARM processors have been powering small, low-power devices since 1985. There was the Psion series of handhelds, the Apple Newton, Nintendo DS, and, today, products like the Microsoft Zune. All used or use ARM architecture chips.

On a Web page titled Mobile Internet Devices, ARM now posts this marketing message: "It is clear that the future of mobile computing rests in devices that are truly mobile, always connected and providing a rich Internet browsing experience--ARM calls these devices Mobile Internet Devices (MID)." Intel does too.

The Apple iPhone is full of ARM silicon and technically a MID

(Credit: ARM)

ARM lists other devices like the Nokia N95, the BlackBerry 8700g, and the Motorola Q. All powered by ARM silicon.

The Web page continues: "ARM licenses the intellectual property that powers MIDs. This includes all the technology required by the chips at the heart of these devices: the microprocessor, digital signal processing, embedded memory, graphics acceleration, (and) fabric interconnect."

And ARM is not exaggerating. If anything ARM is understating the case. As one of the most understated chip architectures today, few consumers know the name. And almost no one listening to their Zune or iPod or talking on their Nokia phone knows that there is ARM silicon inside. But consumers can hardly miss the flashy Intel, AMD, ATI, or Nvidia branding on their PCs.

And this conspicuous PC-style branding strategy will carry over to Intel MIDs and Netbooks too. Lest consumers forget, maybe ARM should do a little more in-your-face branding.