Latest Semiconductor News Released on August 20 to 26, 2023

AMD acquires French startup Mipsology to further expand AI inference

AMD has acquired Mipsology, an artificial intelligence (AI) software company in Frence, as the chip designer launches its biggest challenge yet to chips maker Nvidia.

Mipsology was founded in Palaiseau, France in 2015 by FPGA experts from the emulator company EVE. It develops FPGA compilation technology to achieve an structure utilization rate more than 100%, and enters the AI field in 2020. Its Zebra AI software supports industry frameworks including TensorFlow, PyTorch, and ONNX Runtime, which will help accelerate FPGAs to do AI works. The integration also supports the AMD’s unified artificial intelligence (UAI) software stack, which provides a cohesive AI training and inference across edge, endpoint and cloud.

Intel expands packaging production capacity greatly

Intel is actively investing in R$D of advanced manufacturing processes, especially the ICs packaging. The company is building a new packaging plant in Penang, Malaysia, to strengthen the layout of 2.5D/3D packaging. On the 22nd, it announced that by 2025, its most advanced production capacity of 3D Foveros will increase by four times compared with the current one, and at the same time, it will be open so that customers can have more advanced packaging solutions.

Arm submits IPO application for US listing

Arm today announced that it has publicly filed a registration statement on Form F-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) relating to the proposed initial public offering of American depositary shares (ADS) representing its ordinary shares under the code "ARM".

However, the prospectus did not disclose info about Arm’s valuation, issue pricing and fundraising scale. However, according to Bloomberg and other media reports, Arm plans to start the roadshow in the first week of September, with a fundraising scale of between US$8 billion and US$10 billion, and a valuation of US$60 billion to US$70 billion. In addition, the underwriters leading Arm’s offering include 28 investment banks including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Barclays, and Mizuho Financial. If Arm succeeds in listing, it will be the world's largest IPO this year.

Samsung prepares to produce 300+ layer 3D NAND next year

According to a report by DigiTimes Asia, Samsung plans to produce 300-layer 3D NAND.

This will make Samsung the second 3D NAND manufacturer to reach the 300-layer point after SK Hynix. Skhynix announced the launch of 321-layer NAND at FMS 2023 a few days ago. In addition, Micron has 232-layer technology, SK hynix subsidiary Solidigm has 192-layer technology, and Kioxia/WD has BiCS gen 8 technology with 218-layer technology.

Baikal forms AI ASIC development team

Russian processor and system-on-a-chip developer Baikal Electronics is gearing up to develop AI processors to meet the country's demand for AI applications.

The company official said: "A new department has been established to develop a series of artificial intelligence-specific chips that will adopt the best existing architectural practices. A key task of the team is to build a software ecosystem for the new processor."

Samsung receives huge order of HBM3 memory to AMD’s instinct MI300X accelerator

According to industry sources, Samsung Electronics is preparing to provide high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips and one-stop packaging services to AMD. According to the report, Samsung's fourth-generation HBM chip "HBM3" and packaging services recently passed AMD's quality tests, and AMD plans to use these chips and services for its Instinct MI300X accelerator. Instinct MI300X combines CPU, GPU and HBM3, and is expected to be released in the Q42023.

Broadcom receives final approval for VMware deal from UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)

Broadcom has received the final transaction approval from the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), confirming that the acquisition of VMware is expected to be completed on October 30.

It is reported that Broadcom's acquisition has obtained foreign investment control approval in all necessary jurisdictions, including the European Union, Australia, Brazil, Canada, etc. Among them, the United States did not challenge the deal.

At present, the acquisition has entered the follow-up process, and the company stated that it believes that these approvals will be obtained before October, 2023.