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Racyics GmbH announced today it has launched makeChip, a design service platform, developed using GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ 22FDX process technology and supported by Cadence. Available to start-ups, design experts, research institutes, and universities, makeChip is a central gateway to design integrated circuits based on advanced semiconductor technologies.

The platform provides an IT infrastructure with a full set of EDA tool installations and technology data setup such as PDKs, foundation IP, and complex IP. All tools and design data are linked by Racyics’ silicon-proven design flow and project management system. The turnkey environment enables any makeChip customer to realize complex systems on chips (SoCs) in the most advanced technology nodes.

GF’s 22nm FD-SOI technology, 22FDX, provides advantages in power efficiency and production cost. One key factor to a successful design, leveraging the full potential while achieving shortest time-to-market, is the support of a highly experienced design enablement team.

As a part of GF’s FDXcelerator Partner Program, Racyics  makeChip will provide comprehensive support for the most advanced technologies and thus helps smaller players to realize their enormous innovative potential.

“We want to move start-ups, small and medium sized businesses, and academia to the leading-edge of the game. With makeChip, we enable them to quickly execute analog, mixed-signal and digital designs in GF’s 22FDX technology, so they can develop the hardware basis for high-volume applications in the fields of IoT and Industry 4.0,” stated Holger Eisenreich, CEO of Racyics.

“Our 22FDX technology is quickly becoming a platform of choice for market-focused applications that require low power and operational efficiency with an affordability advantage,” said Alain Mutricy, senior vice president of Product Management at GF. “This collaboration with Racyics and Cadence will help lower the barrier of entry for SMEs, start-ups, and academia.”

Access to makeChip includes a complete digital design flow with advanced silicon-proven solutions from Cadence without additional costs for non-commercial academic projects. For commercial projects, different contract agreements will be applied.

“The Cadence full-flow digital solution, is a perfect match for the makeChip design platform. Users are enabled to meet their power, performance and area targets, “ said Jens Werner, Vice President, Technical Field Operation, at Cadence. “The makeChip platform will help to grow design starts in Europe and beyond.”

Racyics provides its in-house 0.4V IP for 22FDX to makeChip customers. It is free of charge in the frame of non-commercial projects and enables platform users to be the first in the world to explore an ultra-low voltage design space and uses its unparalleled potential for energy-efficient operation.

WIN Semiconductors Corp (TPEx:3105), the world’’s largest pure-play compound semiconductor foundry, has completed phase 2 expansion at its newest wafer fab, Fab C. This operation is now fitted with clean rooms, efficient process lines and advanced equipment for GaAs MMIC production, epitaxial growth of compound semiconductors, as well as fabrication and test of optical devices. Continued build-out of the new manufacturing facility further validates the pure-play foundry model in the compound semiconductor industry.

Serving customers in mobile PA, WiFi, wireless infrastructure and optical markets, WIN Semiconductors provides a broad portfolio of Hetero-junction Bipolar Transistor (HBT), Pseudomorphic High Electron Mobility Transistor (pHEMT), integrated BiHEMT technology solutions and optical devices. WIN Semiconductors’ manufacturing services can support most any application from 50MHz to 150GHz and through light-wave.

“In response to increasing demand across all market segments, we continue to add manufacturing capacity at our third wafer fab located in Guishan, Toayuan City, Taiwan. Known as Fab C, the facility now supports mass production of a wide range of compound semiconductor technologies. When fully built out, the 706,000ft2 facility will more than double our capacity,” said Kyle Chen, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of WIN Semiconductors.

Win Semi Fb C PR image

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (“SMIC”; NYSE:  SMI; SEHK: 0981.HK), China’s largest and most advanced semiconductor foundry, today announces the appointment of Dr. Haijun Zhao as CEO replacing Dr. Tzu-Yin Chiu, who will continue to serve as Vice Chairman and Non-Executive Director of the Board and guide the Company’s future strategic direction. In addition, Dr. Chiu will serve as a full-time advisor until June 30, 2017, working closely with Dr. Zhao to ensure a seamless transition of leadership responsibilities.

Dr. Zhao joined SMIC in October 2010 and has moved quickly through the company’s ranks. In April, 2013, he became Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer. In July, 2013, he also assumed the role of General Manager of SMNC, SMIC’s joint venture in Beijing. Dr. Zhao received his B.S. and Ph.D. in Electronics Engineering from Tsinghua University, Beijing, and an MBA from the University of Chicago. He has more than 25 years of experience in semiconductor operations and technology development.

Dr. Zhou Zixue, Chairman of the Board said, “We are pleased to have Dr. Zhao, as nominated by Dr. Chiu, as the Company’s new CEO, to lead the Company forward. Also, I want to express my sincere appreciation to Dr. Chiu for his invaluable contributions to the Company. Dr. Chiu, in the past six years, has done an incredible job of turning around the Company, regaining the confidence of our stakeholders, and repositioning the Company as a leading player in the global foundry industry.  Due to personal family reasons, he has decided to step down at this time. SMIC will remain a global, professional and independent company. With the solid management team which Dr. Chiu has already put in place at SMIC, I am fully confident of the Company’s future prospects.”

“It has been an honor to lead the team to transform SMIC over these past years,” said Dr. Tzu-Yin Chiu. “The Board and I are confident that now is the right time to transition leadership responsibility, and Haijun is the right leader for SMIC’s next chapter of growth. Since joining SMIC seven years ago, Haijun has been an invaluable leader and was a part of the executive team which brought about the transformation in these past few years. SMIC benefits from an outstanding management team with a diverse range of experienced leaders and thousands of dedicated employees. I would like to thank the Board and my SMIC colleagues for their support. I will continue to serve the Company as Vice-Chairman and Non-Executive Director on the Board and contribute to its continued growth and success.”

Dr. Haijun Zhao, SMIC CEO said, “I am greatly honored to have the opportunity to lead the SMIC team at this exciting moment in our history. I would like to thank Dr. Chiu for his guidance and mentorship, as well as the Board for their trust. I look forward to working with the Board and the management team as we continue to enhance our competitive position in the foundry markets.  As a global and independent foundry player, we are committed to deliver results benefitting our shareholders, customers and employees.”

IC Insights will release its May Update to the 2017 McClean Report later this month.  This Update includes a discussion of the 1Q17 semiconductor industry market results, an update of the capital spending forecast by company, a review of the IC market by electronic system type, and a look at the top-25 1Q17 semiconductor suppliers (the top-10 1Q17 semiconductor suppliers are covered in this research bulletin).

The top-10 worldwide semiconductor (IC and O S D—optoelectronic, sensor, and discrete) sales ranking for 1Q17 is shown in Figure 1.  It includes four suppliers headquartered in the U.S., two in Europe, two in South Korea, and one each in Singapore and Japan.  In total, the top-10 semiconductor suppliers represented 56% of the 1Q17 worldwide semiconductor market of $99.6 billion (2Q17 is forecast to be the first ever quarterly semiconductor market to exceed $100 billion).

Figure 1

Figure 1

Intel held a slim 4% lead over Samsung for the number one position in 1Q17.  However, as reported in an earlier IC Insights’ Research Bulletin, Samsung is on pace to displace Intel as the world’s largest semiconductor supplier in 2Q17. Memory giants SK Hynix and Micron made the biggest moves in the 1Q17 ranking as compared to the full-year 2016 ranking.  Spurred by the recent surge in the DRAM and NAND flash markets, each company moved up two spots in the top-10 ranking with SK Hynix now occupying the third position and Micron moving up to fourth.

There was one new entrant into the top-10 ranking in 1Q17—Germany-headquartered Infineon.  The company’s 1Q17/1Q16 sales increase was 6%.  Infineon replaced fabless supplier MediaTek, whose 1Q17/1Q16 sales were up by 7% to $1.8 billion but the company suffered a sequential 1Q17/4Q16 sales decline of 17%.  Half of the top-10 companies had sales of at least $4.0 billion in 1Q17.  As shown, it took $1.9 billion in quarterly sales just to make it into the 1Q17 top-10 semiconductor supplier list.

As would be expected, given the possible acquisitions and mergers that could/will occur this year (e.g., Qualcomm/NXP), as well as any new ones that may develop, the top-10 semiconductor ranking is likely to undergo some significant changes over the next few years as the semiconductor industry continues along its path to maturity.

The primary automotive display systems market will reach $11.6 billion in tier one supplier revenue globally in 2017, according to new analysis from business information provider IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO).

The market is set to increase drastically over the next few years, says the latest Automotive Display Systems Forecasts from IHS Markit. The most valuable are the Center Stack Displays and Instrument Cluster Displays, representing global revenues of $6.1 and $4.8 billion respectively. Head-Up Displays (HUD) account for only $731 million today, but show the largest growth potential in terms of percentage going forward through 2022. In 2022, combined value from the Center Stack Display, Instrument Cluster Display and Head-Up Display system markets total more than $20.8 billion, an increase of $9.2 billion in annual revenue in just five years, according to IHS Markit.

“There are a few different sources of this increase in display value within the automotive sector,” said Brian Rhodes, automotive technology analyst for IHS Markit. “First are simple volume increases, with more vehicles adding new displays to the instrument cluster and center stack, along with Head-Up Display deployments becoming more common. The second area of growth is in the technology value itself, as these displays are becoming larger and more capable – and therefore more expensive.”

Continental leads display system suppliers

Continental is expected to be the top supplier of primary automotive display systems in 2017 based on global revenue forecasts, the IHS Markit research says. Visteon follows closely behind, as the only other supplier with a double-digit market share in this space. Panasonic, Denso and Bosch round out the remaining market share leaders in the top five. Combined, these suppliers account for more than $6 billion in revenue resulting from Center Stack Display, Instrument Cluster Display and Head-Up Display systems in 2017.

“The top five primary display system suppliers command more than half of the total automotive display systems market,” Rhodes said. “While this is certainly a large portion of revenue for a handful of large players, it still means there is an incredible amount of fragmentation left over offering opportunity for the rest of the supply base — both in today’s market and in the foreseeable future based on our forecasts.”

Safety information related display panels offer strong growth potential

Thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT LCD) automotive display panel market shipments are expected to grow from 135 million units in 2016 to 200 million units in 2022. This technology will represent more than 67 percent share of total automotive display shipments, according to the Automotive Display Market Tracker from IHS Markit.

“The market growth momentum has shifted from center stack display, rear seat entertainment and other infotainment displays, to safety system displays, namely instrument cluster display, head-up display and eMirror systems,” said Stacy Wu, principal analyst for IHS Markit. While today’s volumes are large for infotainment display panels, safety-critical display panels will see double-digit growth through 2022, according to IHS Markit forecasts.

Japan Display, Innolux top tier two automotive display panel manufacturers

Based on the latest findings from IHS Markit, Japan Display, Innolux, Sharp, AU Optronics and LG Display are the top five TFT LCD automotive display panel manufacturers, representing more than 65 percent of the market in 2016.

“However, we expect to see increasing share gains from new entrants and possible ranking switches as well,” Wu said. “Stagnant panel demand from consumer electronics segments like notebooks, tablets, and smartphones, together with excess production capacity, is forcing display panel makers to enter the fast growing automotive market.”

IHS Markit experts covering various aspects of the global displays market will be attending SID’s Display Week in Los Angeles, May 23-25. In addition, IHS Markit will present in these three upcoming display events in the fall:

  • IHS Markit Global Display Conference on September 19-20 in San Francisco, CA
  • IHS Markit Automotive Conference on September 26 in Detroit, MI
  • SID Vehicle Display Symposium on September 26-27 in Detroit, MI

Global liquid crystal display (LCD) and organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panel shipments are expected to increase by 7 percent in the second quarter of 2017 quarter to quarter to 646.7 million units, a rebound from a 9 percent quarter-to-quarter decrease in the first quarter, according to IHS Markit.

“The increase in shipments has been driven by demand from new product model preparation and the annual Labour Day sales promotion in China held during May,” said Linda Lin, senior analyst of display research at IHS Markit. “Among applications, TV, monitor and smartphone panels will drive the shipment increase.”

IT panel demand is expected to be conservative this year, without strong enough replacement momentum to drive it up. Demand for notebook PC panels is forecast to decline 8 percent in the second quarter of 2017 from the previous quarter, weaker than that for monitors (up 5 percent) and tablet PC (down 1 percent) applications. In particular, tablet PC panel demand is expected to surge at the end of the second quarter as Apple and other tablet PC brands launch new products later.TV panel inventory level is balanced at this moment, and TV panel demand is expected to go smoothly through the second quarter of 2017. “TV inventory levels after China’s Labour Day sales promotions will determine whether panel demand can continue up or decline in the second half of 2017,” Lin said.Demand for TV panels is forecast to be up 3 percent in the second quarter from the previous quarter. After suffering from high panel prices, TV brands are likely to move their procurement plan to two different size segments at either 32-inch and below, or 65-inch and above.  Smaller TV brands are aiming for the smaller segment, seen as a boon for quantity sales given the lower retail price, while first-tier brands that command better purchasing power will look to the larger segment, despite the supply shortage caused by tighter capacity, according to IHS Markit.

“Panel makers are moving more capacity to IT panels from smartphone panels beginning the second quarter as mobile phone set demand slows down. This will aggravate the supply-demand imbalance in the IT panel market,” Lin said.

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), representing U.S. leadership in semiconductor manufacturing, design, and research, today announced worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $30.9 billion for the month of March 2017, an increase of 18.1 percent compared to the March 2016 total of $26.2 billion and 1.6 percent more than the February 2017 total of $30.4 billion. Sales from the first quarter of 2017 were $92.6 billion, up 18.1 percent compared to the first quarter of 2016 but down 0.4 percent compared to the last quarter of 2016. All monthly sales numbers are compiled by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization and represent a three-month moving average.

“Global semiconductor sales saw solid sales growth in March, increasing sharply compared to last year and more modestly compared to last month,” said John Neuffer, president and CEO, Semiconductor Industry Association. “Global sales are up 18 percent compared to last year, the largest increase since October 2010, with all major regional markets posting double-digit year-to-year growth. All major semiconductor product categories also experienced year-to-year growth, with memory products continuing to lead the way.”

Year-to-year sales increased across all regions: China (26.7 percent), the Americas (21.9 percent), Asia Pacific/All Other (11.9 percent), Europe (11.1 percent), and Japan (10.7 percent). Month-to-month sales increased in Europe (5.0 percent), Japan (3.6 percent), Asia Pacific/All Other (2.9 percent), and China (0.2 percent), but decreased slightly in the Americas (-0.5 percent).

March 2017

Billions

Month-to-Month Sales                               

Market

Last Month

Current Month

% Change

Americas

5.99

5.96

-0.5%

Europe

2.82

2.96

5.0%

Japan

2.77

2.87

3.6%

China

10.05

10.07

0.2%

Asia Pacific/All Other

8.77

9.02

2.9%

Total

30.39

30.88

1.6%

Year-to-Year Sales                          

Market

Last Year

Current Month

% Change

Americas

4.89

5.96

21.9%

Europe

2.67

2.96

11.1%

Japan

2.59

2.87

10.7%

China

7.95

10.07

26.7%

Asia Pacific/All Other

8.05

9.02

11.9%

Total

26.15

30.88

18.1%

Three-Month-Moving Average Sales

Market

Oct/Nov/Dec

Jan/Feb/Mar

% Change

Americas

6.33

5.96

-5.8%

Europe

2.80

2.96

5.6%

Japan

2.84

2.87

0.9%

China

10.17

10.07

-0.9%

Asia Pacific/All Other

8.86

9.02

1.7%

Total

31.01

30.88

-0.4%

After nearly a quarter of a century, the semiconductor industry could see a new #1 supplier in 2Q17. If memory market prices continue to hold or increase through 2Q17 and the balance of this year, Samsung could charge into the top spot and displace Intel, which has held the #1 ranking since 1993. Using the mid range sales guidance set by Intel for 2Q17, and a modest, yet typical, 2Q sales increase of 7.5% for Samsung, the South Korean supplier would unseat Intel as the world’s leading semiconductor supplier in 2Q17 (Figure 1).  If achieved, this would mark a milestone achievement not only for Samsung, specifically, but for all other competing semiconductor producers who have tried for years to supplant Intel as the world’s largest supplier.  In 1Q16, Intel’s sales were 40% greater than Samsung’s, but in just over a year’s time, that lead may be erased and Intel may find itself trailing in quarterly sales.

samsung 1

Samsung’s big increase in sales has been driven by an amazing rise in DRAM and NAND flash average selling prices (Figure 2).  IC Insights expects that the tremendous gains in DRAM and NAND flash pricing experienced through 2016 and into the first quarter of 2017 will begin to cool in the second half of the year, but there remains solid upside potential to IC Insights’ current forecast of 39% growth for the 2017 DRAM market and 25% growth in the NAND flash market.

samsung 2

As shown in Figure 3, Intel has been locked in as the world’s top semiconductor manufacturer since 1993 when it introduced its x486 processor and soon thereafter, its revolutionary Pentium processor, which sent sales of personal computers soaring to new heights.

samsung 3

Over the past 24 years, some companies have narrowed the sales gap between themselves and Intel, but never have they surpassed the MPU giant.  If memory prices don’t tank in the second half of this year, it’s quite possible that Samsung could displace Intel in full-year semiconductor sales results as well.  Presently, both companies are headed for about $60.0 billion in 2017 semiconductor sales.

MRAM lowers system power


April 28, 2017

BY BARRY HOBERMAN, CEO, Spin Transfer Technologies

ST-MRAM (spin-transfer magnetic RAM) is an extremely promising new technology with the potential to replace major segments of the market for flash, SRAM, and DRAM semiconductors in applications such as mobile products, automotive, IoT, and data storage. With ST MRAM technology, data is stored in minute magnetic nodes—a physical mechanism different from traditional non-volatile memory (NVM). MRAM technology fundamentally requires less energy to use, and features like byte-addressability that further contributes to energy efficiency.

Embedded MRAM primarily fills the role that is currently handled by embedded NOR flash: storage of code and data that must survive when the power is removed. Indeed, MRAM is challenging NOR flash due to overall lower power and byte-addressability.

Energy consumption starts with voltages and currents: their product yields the power of the device – that is, the rate of energy consumption. Lower voltages and currents mean lower power. Energy consumed is determined by how long that rate is sustained – power multiplied by operating time. Therefore speed, the ability to finish a job sooner, also contributes to lower energy consumption especially when devices can enter sleep mode after tasks are complete.

To understand how NOR flash consumes energy, we need to look at how it operates. Let’s say we have a 32-bit word whose value we wish to update. With NOR flash, you can store data only in locations that have been freshly erased. This means you have to erase the old value before you can write the new value.

But there’s a more significant challenge; you can’t just erase those 32 bits. NOR flash can only be erased in sectors. So, in order to update those 32 bits, you have to find a new place to write them. This means creating and maintaining pointers to keep track of stored data since, with each update, the data location will move. Eventually, you run out of fresh space, and must perform garbage collection to free up the space used by all the out-of-date instances.

By contrast, MRAM has none of these requirements. Because it is byte-addressable, you can read and write just as you would with SRAM. Those 32 bits that needed updating? You simply write the new value over the old value. MRAM consumes less energy for a number of reasons:

No erase before writing: NOR flash erasure is very slow. With MRAM, there’s really no notion of erasing data; you’re either writing 1s or 0s, in any combination. The need to erase is a key contributor to the energy consumption of a NOR flash device.
Faster, lower-power writing: Not only can MRAM devices be written more quickly than NOR flash (even without considering erasure), the power while writing is also lower. The fact that you can complete the operation sooner means you can put the device to sleep sooner, yet another advantage to lowering energy.

No charge pumps: NOR flash, unlike MRAM, needs high voltages internally – much higher than the voltages at the external power pins. Those voltages are generated by internal charge pumps. Ideally, power would stay the same, but real charge pumps aren’t ideal; their inefficiency means lost energy.
Charge pumps also take longer to power up, and settle after a sleeping device awakens. This increases wake-up times dramatically. MRAM wakes up in nanoseconds to micro- seconds; NOR flash in milliseconds.

No complex storage management: The lack of byte-addressability in NOR flash creates complexity that increases the time to store data and code. Data tables must be maintained, along with the occasional garbage collection. The CPU, or some other circuit, must manage this data storage. These other devices consume energy, so the more time spent managing data, the more energy consumed. This energy consumption doesn’t apply to MRAM technology.

Mixed read/write stream: NOR flash storage operations, due to complexity, mean long lock-out times during writes. No data reading is permitted during these times. If certain pieces of data are quickly needed, then further management may be required to anticipate this ahead of a data write, so the data can be cached. By contrast, MRAM can handle a stream of operations – reads and writes – in any combination.

Staggered writing: Data can be stored 32 bits at a time. While overall energy consumption in doing this is lower for MRAM than for NOR flash, it still might challenge the peak current capabilities of a battery-powered device. The ability for MRAM to break the write into four successive single-byte writes, a feature known as “staggered write,” reduces current demands on the battery.

Strong growth in MCUs for IoT applications and suppliers jockeying for marketshare in this IC segment have resulted in several major acquisitions that changed the pecking order of MCU leaders in 2016, according to data released in IC Insights’ April Update to The McClean Report, which was released earlier this month. Figure 1 ranks the largest MCU suppliers in 2016 by dollar-sales volume.  Among the top MCU suppliers shown, NXP, Microchip, and Cypress Semiconductor moved up in the sales ranking during 2016 with strong increases in revenues, which were driven by acquisitions of IC companies that sold microcontrollers. Meanwhile, those suppliers not making significant acquisitions in microcontrollers posted low-single digit percentage increases or declines in MCU sales in 2016.

Figure 1

Figure 1

Although overall growth in microcontrollers has wobbled and stalled in the past couple years, MCUs remain at the epicenter of tremendous growth in the Internet of Things, automotive, robotics, embedded applications and other emerging systems.   Major MCU suppliers have been improving their portfolios to address many of these key markets.  Part of that improvement process has included merging and acquiring competitors in order to gain a quick foothold into these developing markets.

In 2016, NXP in the Netherlands overtook Renesas Electronics in Japan as the world’s largest microcontroller supplier with MCU revenues climbing 116% following its $11.6 billion purchase of U.S.-based Freescale Semiconductor in December 2015.  Prior to its acquisition, Freescale was ranked second in MCUs and was catching up with Renesas in microcontroller sales with only $210 million separating the two companies in 2015 versus about a $1 billion gap in 2014.  Renesas suffered a 19% drop in MCU dollar sales in 2015 (largely due to the weak yen exchange rate in that year but also because of the continued fallout from Japan’s troubled economy).  In 2016, Renesas’ fall in MCU sales eased, dropping 4% to nearly $2.5 billion, or about 16% of the total microcontroller market.  In 2011, Renesas’ MCU marketshare was 33% of worldwide microcontroller sales.

The Freescale acquisition moved NXP from sixth in the 2015 MCU ranking to the top spot in 2016 with a marketshare of 19% ($2.9 billion).  About three-quarters of NXP’s 2015 microcontroller sales were 8-bit and 16-bit MCUs used in smartcards.  After Freescale’s business was merged into NXP, smartcard MCUs accounted for a little over one-quarter of the company’s total microcontroller sales in 2016. MCUs developed and introduced by Freescale are aimed at a wide range of embedded control applications, including significant amounts in automotive systems.  NXP and Freescale both have developed extensive 32-bit MCUs with Cortex-M CPU design cores licensed from ARM in the U.K.

U.S.-based Microchip Technology climbed from fifth in the 2015 MCU ranking to third in 2016 with sales increasing 50% to $2.0 billion following its $3.4 billion acquisition of Atmel in 2Q16.  U.S.-based Atmel was ranked ninth in MCU sales in 2015 ($808 million).  Prior to buying Atmel, Microchip had been the only major MCU supplier not licensing ARM CPU technology.  For about 10-years, Microchip has developed and sold 32-bit MCUs, based on a RISC-processor architecture developed by MIPS Technologies (which is now owned by Imagination Technology in the U.K.,  a rival of ARM).  Six months after completing the Atmel acquisition, Microchip said it would expand both its MIPS-based PIC32 MCU product line and Atmel’s ARM-based SAM series.  Microchip has promised to “remain core agnostic, fitting the best solution with the right customer and for the right application.”

Meanwhile, Cypress in Silicon Valley moved into eighth place in the MCU ranking with sales increasing 15% in 2016 to about $622 million.  Cypress boosted its presence in MCUs when it acquired Spansion for about $5.0 billion in stock in March 2015.  Originally spun out of Advanced Micro Devices as a NOR flash memory supplier, Spansion had purchased Fujitsu Semiconductor’s Microcontroller and Analog Business in 2013 for $110 million as part of its efforts to expand beyond nonvolatile storage ICs. Spansion also licensed ARM’s 32-bit CPU cores for microcontrollers in 2013.  Cypress’ increase in microcontroller sales was partly a result of having a full year of revenue from Spansion’s MCU business but also growth in the company’s programmable system-on-chip (PSoC) products, which combine microcontroller functionality with user-configurable peripherals of mixed-signal and digital functions that are targeted at end-use applications.

The biggest decline in the MCU leader list was posted by Samsung, which saw its sales drop 14% in 2016, primarily because of weakness in the smartcard microcontroller market.  Samsung sells MCUs to OEMs but also serves in-house needs for its own brands of consumer electronics, computers, and communications systems (i.e., smartphones).