A recent Bloomberg report on Apple’s RF ambitions is probably not as earth shaking as it seems. That being said, Apple appears to have some very big, tantalizing ambitions for pushing what is possible with communications.
The auto industry has a difficult relationship with semiconductors. Building their own chips is probably not a solution.
If Nvidia cannot buy Arm – the company is probably an IPO candidate, or possibly the target of a consortium of competing buyers with a private equity company providing arms length governance.
Two Chinese companies – Tencent and Innosilicon – launched chips this month that look to be important steps forward for China’s semis efforts.
Before we get to autonomous vehicles, there is going to be a big market for a special-purpose automotive processors (APU?). That chip is going to look a lot like a mobile app processor, and Qualcomm may be the best positioned to capture the opportunity.
The market for auto semis never quite seems to live up to its growth forecasts. Someday, it will get there, but there are some good reasons why it will take time.
The Reverse Qualcomm Squeeze – Qualcomm’s advances in RF products, including this week’s announcement of their filter line – positions Qualcomm to reverse the trend of their smartphone customers building their own silicon.
FUD, Channel, Software and Prices – Intel looks to be reaching the end of its competitive response playbook – cutting prices on their flagship products is not a good look for the company/
The materials we use to build semis are changing as new semis content in higher power devices like cars and power grids grows.
Roll Your Own Adventure – Semis companies are trading at all-time high valuations, but there is an ocean of competitors out there, including some of the biggest customer for those chips. Fun times.
Digits to Dollars 