Two of Taiwan's top semiconductor design firms rank among the top 10 in the world, according to IC Insights, a US-based chip-market research firm.
Via Technologies Inc (威盛), a designer of computer chipsets and central processors as well as optical equipment chips, ranked fourth worldwide in terms of net sales last year, and MediaTek Inc (聯發科技) , which designs microchips for use in CD and DVD recorders and players, took ninth place.
The ranking focuses on chip-design firms that do not own any chip plants, known fabs.
The most successful fabless design houses last year included the US firm Qualcomm Inc, a designer of chips for mobile phones, and Nvidia Corp, a graphics chip designer. These companies took the No. 1 and No. 2 spots, respectively, in a year when such companies faced a severe downturn in the semiconductor industry as a whole.
Overall, the chip industry dropped in value by 32 percent last year, yet the semiconductor-design segment suffered slightly less, falling 24 percent to US$12.89 billion from a record high US$16.93 billion in 2000.
The list highlighted the achievements Taiwanese chip design firms have worked so hard for over the past few years. Most design firms in Taiwan focus on making low-cost chips for products manufactured here or in China, and the lower costs help them gain market share, according to analysts. Taiwan's foundry chipmakers, such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), then provide the brawn behind the brains by actually making the chips.
The two chip foundries have been essential to Taiwan's chip-design industry, the second-largest in the world. The foundry model of manufacturing chips on a made-to-order basis saves chip-design firms the cost and trouble of building their own chip plants, which can cost between US$1 billion and US$3 billion, depending on the level of technology.
TSMC and UMC operate a range plants, from older six-inch wafer plants all the way up to the most advanced 12-inch plants that etch transistors into chips at near atomic levels.
Free from the burden of building costly chip plants, Taiwan's designers have focused on research. Some of the top firms in Taiwan, aside from Via and MediaTek, include Novatek Microelectronics (聯詠), a designer of chips for TFT-LCD screen panels, Sunplus Technology Co (凌揚科技), whose chips end up in high-tech toys and consumer electronics products and Realtek Semiconductor Corp (瑞昱半導體), a maker of telecommunications and networking chips.
The production value of the IC-design industry in Taiwan reached US$3.41 billion in 2001, up from US$3.29 billion in 2000, according to the Industrial Technology Information Service. This year, the government-run market research service expects the value to rise 24 percent to US$4.23 billion.
The government has promoted the development of system-on-chip products -- that integrate the functions of many chips onto a single unit -- in an effort to reduce costs and save space inside ever-smaller electronics gadgets.
IC Insights lists VIA Technologies as posting net sales of US$1.01 billion last year, while the company only reported sales of US$973.3 million. VIA would still retain its fourth-place ranking based on the company's sales figure.
The market researcher could not be reached for comment.
Of the 27 companies included in IC Insights overall ranking, all but eight were based in the US.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic gas stations are to fall NT$0.2 and NT$0.1 per liter respectively this week, even though international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices continued rising last week, as the US Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected drop in US commercial crude oil inventories, CPC said in a statement. Based on the company’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil rose 2.38 percent last week from a week earlier, it said. News that US President Donald Trump plans a “secondary
RSS