By the end of 2011, ARM will be a "small but significant" PC processor architecture, said a Gartner analyst.

Samsung, Qualcomm, and Texas Instruments already use ARM designed chip cores. Intel used to have an ARM license too, but flogged it to Marvell.

Freescale Semiconductor plans to transfer its 3G cellular IP to Beijing Capital Semiconductor in a deal valued at US$30-40 million, according to a market analyst.

Nokia's strategic relationship with Intel, announced last month, may be very forward-looking and not about to worry any incumbent wireless chipset suppliers, but it is nonetheless threatening to Europe's local hero, ARM Holdings.

Synopsys has announced that its DesignWare DDR3/2 PHY and digital controller IP is the first DDR3 IP that has been fully verified in test silicon at 1600 Mbps, the maximum data-rate of the JEDEC DDR3 specification. DesignWare DDR3/2 PHY and the digital controller IP are available now in advanced process technologies for foundries.

As if the current downturn weren't challenging enough, the semiconductor industry is also headed for increasing challenges from higher design costs and production at smaller geometries, according to Aart de Geus, chairman and CEO of Synopsys.

Socle Technology has announced its partnership with Catena and CoreSonic to develop a comprehensive design platform on Chartered's 65nm process with integrateable wireless subsystems.

US manufacturers and retailers that get products or components from China are increasingly concerned about quality, IP and rising costs in China, and more are looking at alternate sites, according to a study published on Thursday.

Last year, for the first time, the US Patent & Trademark Office issued more patents to foreigners than to Americans. And the rest of the world is expected to widen its lead over the US as manufacturing and research and development continue to migrate to emerging markets.

Semiconductor designer ARM Wednesday reported a 10% fall in first quarter dollar sales as consumer demand for electronic products continued to suffer, but said there are signs of an improving trend in the semiconductor market.

Chinese companies are just as eager to defend patents as Western firms, and that China's intellectual-property regime has been tightened in recent years.

ARC International, a specialty semiconductor manufacturer, said Wednesday posted a larger-than-forecast GBP7.3 million net loss for 2008, and said it remains cautious for 2009. Analysts cautioned that the company is unlikely to reach break-even this year.

ARM, the company that has designed most of the processors in mobile phones, on Monday announced a new, low-cost processor called "Sparrow" at the Mobile World Congress trade show. The company said it is aiming to conquer the netbook market with its multi-core Cortex A9 architecture.

The Cambridge-based company was already eight years old when on Jan. 6 1999 EE Times reported ARM's own prediction that the company would have 70 percent of the market for processors in the mobile phone handset business. This was a statistic that came to define ARM's early success.

ARC International has warned of lower than expected revenues from semiconductor IP licensing at the end of 2008. "For 2009, management continues to remain cautious due to continuing uncertainty in the economic environment and fundamental industry changes," said the semiconductor IP developer.

The semiconductor IP industry has been the virtual and ongoing punching bag in the IC business. Lack of standards, quality metrics and business models have hurt the IP industry for years. Profitability remains elusive for many IP vendors. And most, if not all of those problems continue to haunt the industry as a whole. In total, there are 300 to 400 semiconductor IP vendors of all shapes and sizes. ARM, Cadence, MIPS, Rambus, Virage and Synopsys are among the bigger players, but most IP vendors are small-sized shops.

Numbers concerning counterfeiting vary from source to source, as do the suggested ways to defend the electronics supply chain against these fake components. In late 2007, the US Patent and Trademark Office estimated that counterfeiting and piracy drain about US$250 billion out of the US economy each year along with some 750,000 jobs...