1. MediaTek’s monthly revenue in February decreased by 24.5%, the lowest in three years;
According to the micro-network news, MediaTek announced its revenue for February 2018 on the 9th. Following January's revenue, it reached NT$16.635 billion, setting a new low for 23 months. It is then affected by the start date and holiday in February. The revenue was NT$12.708 billion, which was 24.5% lower than January's recession. It was also 20% lower than NT$16.951 billion in the same period of 2017, a record low in three years. Accumulated 2018 years ago 2 months It received NT$29,544 million in Taiwanese dollars, which was a decrease of 16.22% from NT$35,265 million in the same period of 2017.
According to the forecast of MediaTek's recent press conference, revenue in the first quarter of 2018, calculated in US$ to NT$1:29.5, will be between NT$48.3 billion and RMB53.2 billion in the first quarter and 12% in the quarter. To 20%. Therefore, for the current two months prior to the first quarter of the season's revenue calculations, to achieve the minimum standards must be in March revenue of 18.7 billion yuan level.
MediaTek mobile platform shipments in the first quarter of this year will drop from 110 million to 120 million units in the fourth quarter of last year to 75 million to 85 million units, which will have a significant off-season effect and be the main reason for the overall first-quarter revenue decline.
Following the launch of P23 and P30, P40 chips in 2017, and a few days ago at the MWC 2018 World Communications Conference, MediaTek also introduced a P60 processor with an artificial intelligence (AI) architecture. Currently, the P40 chip will be confirmed by OPPO and VIVO in 2018. The new aircraft is equipped, and the P60's end product is also expected to be launched in the second quarter of 2018. Although Facing Qualcomm, it also launched the Xiaolong 700 series chip to grab the market. However, the launch time of P60 is earlier than that of Qualcomm. In the case of aircraft, it will be able to boost Mediacom's revenue.
However, the new product benefits of MediaTek's mobile platform are expected to grow. With the rising proportion of mobile platform new product shipments, MediaTek's gross profit margin in the first quarter will be further improved and will return to 35.5% to 38.5%.
The industry stated that although the weak demand of the terminal market in the first quarter of 2018 was the low point of MediaTek's revenue, since the second quarter, with the increase of gross margin, the revenue will grow quarter by quarter. Estimated gross profit margin in 2018 It is expected to rebound to more than 38%, annual revenue growth of 6% to 10%, and annual shipments of about 460 million units, an annual growth of 5.4%.
2. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. reported a 10-month low for its revenue in February, and revenue in March will top 100 billion yuan.
According to the micro-network news, TSMC announced today (9th) that consolidated revenue in February (2018) was approximately 64.641 billion yuan, a decrease of 18.9% from the previous month and 9.5% from the same period of last year, reaching a new low of 10 months. Accumulated revenue for the first two months of this year was approximately RMB 14,443.81 million, a decrease of 2.5% from the same period last year.
According to the statistics announced by TSMC, the consolidated revenue in the first quarter was between 8.4 billion U.S. dollars and 8.5 billion U.S. dollars. Based on the exchange rate benchmark of 1 U.S. dollar against 29.96 U.S. dollars, the revenue for the first quarter will fall from 248.44 billion yuan to 251.6 billion U.S. dollars. Yuanjian; and if fiscal forecasts are unchanged, based on the current TSMC performance in January and February, TSMC’s revenue in March will reach a new high level of RMB100 billion.
Recently, TSMC has filed an application for land demand approval with the Bureau of Bamboo Branch and started the construction of a new R&D center for Bamboo Branch. The construction will start in the second half of next year as soon as possible. It is reported that the total investment of TSMC Zhuke New R&D Center is as high as 100 billion yuan, plus this year In the late 18th of this month, Nanke launched a new wafer 18 plant, Zhuke headquarters 5nm plant, and the follow-up 3nm investment funds. TSMC will invest nearly RMB 1 trillion in high-end processes in the future.
3. UMC’s February revenue fell 9.61% from the previous month;
According to the micro-network news, the wafer foundry UMC's February revenue was affected by the Chinese New Year holiday, and the number of working days was significantly reduced. The single-month revenue fell 9.61% from the previous month. Revenue in the previous month was still slightly better than last year's performance, but The company is optimistic that the production rate will remain high, and it is estimated that the first quarter is slightly better than the previous quarter.
UMC's January revenue climbed to NT$13,175 million, reaching the third highest in history. In February, revenue fell to NT$11.909 billion, which was a decrease of 9.61% compared with January. This was a slight increase from the same month of last year. Decrease of 0.88%, NT$25,084 million in revenue in the first two months of this year, an increase of 1.7% over the same period of last year.
Looking forward to operating in the first quarter of this year, the company previously stated at the press conference that capacity utilization is estimated to remain at 90% in the first quarter of this year, and shipments in the first quarter of this year are expected to increase by 2% from the fourth quarter of last year to 4%. The average selling unit price in US dollars will reduce the quarter by about 2%. It is estimated that the company's revenue in the first quarter of this year will be flat to slightly higher than the fourth quarter of last year.
The first quarter of UMC’s revenue is expected to be not weak in the off-season; however, the gross profit margin will be affected by the appreciation of the Taiwan dollar, silicon wafer price increases, 28nm process capacity utilization rate will continue to decline, and the first quarter gross profit margin is expected to be 11%-13%. Will continue to drop from 17.2% in the fourth quarter of last year.
UMC also said that it will continue to work hard to ensure that the new 28nm product design opportunities, through the finalization of new product design and production, in the next few months to re-build the growth momentum of UMC 28nm products.
4.CEVA is the first to provide Bluetooth 5 dual-mode IP to several licensees including Jiejie Technology;
According to the micro-message news, CEVA will provide RivieraWaves Bluetooth 5 dual-mode IP to a number of licensees, including Jiejie Technology, and once again strengthen its leading position in the Bluetooth IP market.
Bluetooth 5 dual mode is the latest version of the popular Bluetooth standard, which combines all the latest Bluetooth low energy 5 features, such as LE 2Mbps, long range and LE advertising extensions, as well as classic Bluetooth BR / EDR operation. Therefore, Bluetooth 5 Dual-mode products not only benefit from the latest low-power features, but also fully interoperate with billions of existing Bluetooth products, and fully support high-quality audio. This is a key feature of many Bluetooth products.
Dai Jie Jia, Chief Executive Officer of Sunnytech, commented: “CEVA is a key partner of Sunnytech, providing us with leading technology that enables us to develop best-in-class products. RivieraWaves Bluetooth 5 dual-mode IP ensures that we can Integrate the latest Bluetooth capabilities into chip design to stay ahead of the competition.
Aviv Malinovitch, vice president and general manager of the Wireless Connectivity Business Unit at CEVA, commented: “Low-power Bluetooth continues to evolve with an exciting array of new features, but for audio applications and universal compatibility with existing Bluetooth devices, traditional Bluetooth is still Necessary. We are honored to be able to pass the RivieraWaves Bluetooth 5 dual-mode IP set both, and are pleased to see the innovations developed by customers using this IP.
CEVA's RivieraWaves Bluetooth IP platform provides a comprehensive solution for low-power Bluetooth and Bluetooth dual-mode connectivity. Each platform consists of a hardware baseband controller and a feature-rich software protocol stack. The platform has a flexible wireless interface that can Integrates RivieraWaves RF or various partner RF IPs to achieve the best choice for foundry and process nodes. The RivieraWaves Bluetooth IP platform supports all Bluetooth 5 features, including LE 2Mbps data rates, long range and LE advertising extensions. It has been Applied to a variety of different processor subsystems, and CEVA also provides an integrated platform based on RISC-V. To date, the RivieraWaves Bluetooth IP platform has been used for more than 1.5 billion shipped devices and dozens of licensing vendors. Many of the world's leading semiconductor companies and OEMs are widely deployed in consumer products and IoT devices, including smartphones, tablets, speakers, headphones and earphones, hearing aids and other wearable devices.
5. GCT Semiconductor acquires CEVA Low Energy Bluetooth IP License for LTE IoT single chip;
Gathering Micro-Network News, CEVA announces that GCT Semiconductor, the leading designer and supplier of advanced 4G mobile semiconductor solutions, has obtained CEVA's RivieraWaves Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) license for its new Internet of Things (IoT) Solution GDM7243i LTE Single Chip. GDM7243i combines low-power Bluetooth BLE with GCT's advanced LTE-M and NB-IoT cellular technologies in a highly integrated single-chip solution for a wide range of next-generation IoT devices, including tracking , Wearables, Security, Agriculture, Healthcare, Industrial and Consumer Applications.
John Schlaefer, CEO of GCT, said: “The rapidly growing IoT market requires the next generation of highly integrated silicon solutions to realize its full potential. The key objectives of the GDM7243i and CEVA RivieraWaves Bluetooth IP are ultra-low power connections with minimal processor The load architecture is ideal for our solution.
Aviv Malinovitch, CEVA Vice President and General Manager of the Connectivity Business Unit, said: 'We are pleased to announce that GCT has obtained our Bluetooth IP license. GDM7243i is an outstanding product that integrates several of the most sought after IoT technologies into one IC. Such next-generation devices will undoubtedly quickly accelerate the pace of development of the IoT market.
CEVA's RivieraWaves Bluetooth IP platform provides a comprehensive solution for low-power Bluetooth and Bluetooth dual-mode connectivity. Each platform consists of a hardware baseband controller and a feature-rich software protocol stack. The platform has a flexible wireless interface that can Integrates RivieraWaves RF or various partner RF IPs to achieve the best choice for foundry and process nodes. The RivieraWaves Bluetooth IP platform supports all Bluetooth 5 features, including LE 2Mbps data rate, long range and LE advertising extensions. It has been For a variety of different processor subsystems, in addition CEVA also provides an integrated platform based on RISC-V.
To date, the RivieraWaves Bluetooth IP platform has been used in more than 1.5 billion shipped devices and dozens of licensees, and has been deployed by many of the world's leading semiconductor companies and OEMs in consumer products and IoT devices, including smartphones. Tablets, speakers, earphones and earphones, hearing aids and other wearable devices.
6. ASML recruits 600 people in Taiwan
According to the micro-message, ASML, the global leader in chip lithography equipment, has a record high revenue. This year, it also opened 600 positions in Taiwan. Since March, it has been successively established at National Taiwan University, Chengda University, Jiaotong University, Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Qingda University and North University. Universities such as HKUST, Zhongshan, and Yunke University carry out campus recruitment. They focus on all-round training and global job rotation opportunities. They also provide opportunities for student internships in the Netherlands. In addition to the competitiveness of the payroll, foreign welfare is even more enviable.
As a number of fabs announced their presence in Tainan, ASML also actively expanded recruitment in the Southern District, increased the proportion of fresh recruits, and welcomed the participation of semiconductor, flat panel display, solar energy, precision machinery and other related industry elites.
Employees invest 2-3 times more than their peers
Luo Kailin, ASML’s Public Relations Manager in Taiwan, stated: “The ASML's investment in employee training is 2-3 times higher than that of its peers. It not only provides technical professional training, but also provides various functional trainings for employees’ career development, including project management and leadership. Training, briefing skills, English training... etc. At the same time, the company offers opportunities for global job rotation. As long as employees have ideas for their career development, companies and supervisors will do their utmost to assist in the development of employees." For students, ASML Provide internship opportunities for Taiwan and the Netherlands.
ASML has released a total of 200 jobs in Tainan this year. In response to customer demand for plant expansion and e-beam inspection systems, ASML expects to recruit hundreds of system installed engineers and equipment customer service engineers in Tainan. In addition, ASML acquired Han Micro in 2016. After the Division, the first co-developed e-beam inspection system and the first EUV mask system inspection shipment were completed in 2017. Therefore, hundreds of e-beam inspection systems will also be recruited simultaneously. Manufacturing department engineer and R&D engineer.