By Guest Author Nalini Kumar Muppala

Licensees

ARM licensees comprise big and small IC vendors. They can be broadly classified into two groups: those that build around ARM cores and those that develop their own CPU implementation compliant to ARM instruction set architecture. The former group covers implementation licensees such as TI, Broadcom, and NXP, just to name a few, and foundry licensees. The latter comprises architecture licensees such as Marvell and Qualcomm. The architecture licensees need a lot of expertise and can bring in their know-how to differentiate on performance.

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By Guest Author Nalini Kumar Muppala

Software and OS

As the adage goes, "Software sells hardware." Apple probably knows this best, but Intel understands it as well. Intel acquired Wind River in an effort to spruce up its offerings outside of the PC market.

For the netbook market at least, Intel has some advantage on the software front. Intel and Microsoft had gone on an extended joyride, establishing the WinTel hegemony. Because of this, most major software vendors develop for x86 architecture. Case in point: Windows – the dominant operating system for PCs — is available on Intel's x86 and thus by extension on Atom. ARM has yet to convince Microsoft to port Windows to the ARM platform. This deficiency has meant that netbook makers opting to provide Windows OS have no choice but to use Intel’s Atom even if they prefer ARM’s performance per Watt.

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By Guest Author Nalini Kumar Muppala

The landscape of computing is undergoing a fundamental change. Mobile computing is gaining ground at the expense of traditional desktop-based computing. Computers are no longer merely productivity tools; they are increasingly being used for communication, networking, and entertainment on the go. To be sure, powerful desktops will still be around; but their use will be limited to developing content, R&D, technology, and businesses. For the average consumer, processing power to meet lifestyle computing needs is now available on mobile phones and other mobile Internet devices such as netbooks (or smartbooks, as Qualcomm and others prefer to market them).

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By Guest Author Nalini Kumar Muppala

Ms. Mitra recently raised some flags (and the beginnings of a lively reader discussion) by asking if Intel would buy ARM. There has been a lot of discussion lately in the technology press about the prospects of ARM being acquired and about the undeclared war between Intel and ARM. Over the next five parts, we will see why this potential acquisition is important and examine the possibility and impact of such a move.

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Last week, Intel entered into an agreement with AMD and also agreed to pay $1.25 billion to the former for dropping its antitrust lawsuits. According to the latest report from IDC, PC processor unit shipments in 3Q09 rose 23% q-o-q, and Intel increased its share by 2.2% to 81.1% while AMD had a share of 18.7%, a loss of 2%. Let’s take a closer look at the recent performances of AMD and its rival, Nvidia.

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There were several options for HP to combat Cisco in the networking arena, including Brocade and Polycom. It looks as though they have chosen to go after Cisco front and center by acquiring 3Com. The latter has done a marvelous turnaround in the past three years. The stock has moved steadily up, and now HP is paying a 40% premium to make 3Com central to its networking strategy ($7.9 a share).

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The two leading chipmakers, Broadcom (NASDAQ:BRCM) and Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) have recently reported their results. While Qualcomm is enjoying a more stable legal environment after ending its disputes with Nokia and Broadcom and extending its patent deal with Samsung, Broadcom is getting involved in a legal tug-of-war with Emulex. Let’s take a closer look.

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Guest author Nalini Kumar Muppala recently finished his in-depth analysis of STMicroelectronics' JV, ST-Ericsson. Today's Tech Stocks post reviews STM’s (NYSE:STM) recent results in the context of Nalini’s assessment and also takes a look at the results of another major semiconductor player, Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN). Sequential growth for some divisions at both companies may indicate that a semiconductor recovery is underway.

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According to a preliminary estimate from iSuppli, global PC shipments grew 9.8% sequentially in the third quarter. This week, Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), the world’s largest chip maker with annual revenue of $37.6 billion, reported strong third quarter results driven by the rebound in the PC market. Let’s take a closer look.

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The recession had a severe impact on the semiconductor industry in 2008, but the programmable logic device (PLD) market was one of the few segments which saw growth. This $3.8 billion market received a boost early this year following the expansion of 3G mobile networks in China. The overall programmable logic market is estimated to grow to $4.2 billion in 2013. Let’s take a closer look at the dominant players, Xilinx Inc (NASDAQ:XLNX) and Altera Corporation (NASDAQ:ALTR), which together account for about 86% of the market.

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