Semiconductor (ICs, silicon IP, microchips, …) News

Sony and Microsoft to collaborate on cloud for D2C entertainment and AI
May 16, 2019 – Sony and Microsoft have announced that Sony will use Microsoft Azure datacenter solutions for its game and content streaming services, and that the two companies will explore joint development of cloud solutions for the future.
News categories: Microsoft, Sony Corp, Satya Nadell, Kenichiro Yoshida, Big Data, Content Distribution, Digital TV, Semiconductor, Worldwide

IDC expects worldwide semiconductor revenue to drop 7.2% in 2019
May 15, 2019 – After three consecutive years of growth, with year-over-year growth of 13.2% in 2018, the latest update from IDC forecasts that worldwide semiconductor revenue will decline to $440 billion in 2019, down 7.2% from $474 billion in 2018.
News categories: IDC, Mario Morales, Market Research, Semiconductor, Worldwide

Amphion extends IP family to support AV1 video decoding up to 4K/UHD
May 9, 2019 – Amphion has announced an AV1 decoding extension to its Malone family of high performance video decoders for SoC implementation. AV1 is the video coding format capable of delivering up to 30% better compression rates versus formats such as HEVC and VP9.
News categories: Amphion, Stephen Farson, Digital TV, Silicon IP, Worldwide

Semiconductor industry facing major downturn in 2019
May 7, 2019 – Conditions in the global semiconductor market have deteriorated rapidly since the start of the year, according to IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO). The worldwide microchip industry is set to suffer a 7.4% drop in revenue this year.
News categories: IHS Markit, Myson Robles Bruce, Market Research, Semiconductor, Worldwide

Arteris IP interconnect licensed by Samsung for DTV chips
Apr 23, 2019 – Arteris IP has announced that Samsung’s System LSI Business has renewed multiple Arteris IP FlexNoC Interconnect licenses for use in multiple high-performance digital TV (DTV) processing chips utilizing Samsung’s latest semiconductor technology process nodes.
News categories: Arteris IP, Samsung, K. Charles Janac, Jaeyoul Lee, Digital TV, Korea, Silicon IP, Smart TV, Worldwide

Allegro DVT introduces real-time AV1 encoder IP for 4K/UHD video
Apr 18, 2019 – Allegro DVT has announced the availability of its AL-E210 multi-format video encoder hardware IP which adds support for the new AV1 video format developed by the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia). The AL-E210 is built on Allegro DVT's multi-core architecture.
News categories: Allegro DVT, Nouar Hamze, Content Distribution, Digital TV, Silicon IP, Worldwide

Worldwide semiconductor revenue grew 12.5% in 2018
Apr 11, 2019 – Worldwide semiconductor revenue totaled $474.6 billion in 2018, a 12.5% increase from 2017, according to final results by Gartner. 2018 growth was weaker than the previous year (21.9%) due to memory growth slowing to 24.9% versus 2017 growth of 61.8%.
News categories: Gartner, Andrew Norwood, Market Research, Semiconductor, Worldwide

MainConcept accelerates HEVC encoding with NVIDIA RTX GPUs
Apr 8, 2019 – MainConcept has announced that its latest HEVC/H.265 Video Encoder SDK release will dramatically increase encoding speed by leveraging functions of the NVIDIA Video Codec, available with the latest Turing architecture-powered NVIDIA RTX GPUs.
News categories: MainConcept, NVIDIA, Deacon Johnson, Andrew Page, Content Distribution, Digital TV, NABShow, Semiconductor, Worldwide

Cord-cutting driving decline in set-top box SoC market
Apr 4, 2019 – The worldwide set-top box SoC market will generate US$2.4 billion in 2019, according to ABI Research. The forecast represents a 5% decline from 2018 including revenue from cable, satellite, terrestrial and IPTV set-top box SoCs.
News categories: ABI Research, Khin Sandi Lynn, Digital TV, Market Research, Semiconductor, Set Top Box, Worldwide