The 5G infrastructure development in China is facing uncertainty arising from the US sanctions against telecom equipment vendor Huawei, but Taiwan-based suppliers of CCL still expect their overall shipments to remain robust despite possible declines in shipments to the 5G base station segment. But demand from China for mining chips has been rising amid surging cryptocurrency prices. Overall IC demand has been strong, but foundry support has been seriously insufficient. Foundry houses are striving to increase 8-inch fab capacity via acquisitions.CCL makers uncertain about demand for 5G base stations in China: Taiwan-based CCL makers remain uncertain about demand for 5G base stations in China this year, but their overall shipments will not be much affected, thanks to robust demand for datacenter and switch applications and from telecom equipment makers other than Chinese vendors, according to industry sources.Taiwan IC design houses see demand for mining chips pick up: Taiwan-based IC design service providers and analog chip suppliers have seen demand for mining chips start picking up recently, according industry sources.VIS to disclose details about new acquisition in 1Q21: Eight-inch foundry Vanguard International Semiconductor (VIS) is expected to announce details regarding a new acquisition later in the first quarter of 2021, according to market sources.

Time of flight (ToF) 3D sensors are emerging rapidly for massive consumer applications, prompting major semiconductor and optoelectronics players to join the supply chain and accelerating the formation of an AR application ecosystem, according to Digitimes Research.ToF 3D sensors are replacing structured-light 3D sensors as the most popular sensing solutions for handset vendors, and can be integrated with AR devices to provide consumers with new-generation man-machine interactive experiences including motion capture and blurred boundaries between virtuality and reality.Prior to consumer applications, 3D sensors had been mostly applied to industrial control, surveillance and robotic arms, with core technologies dominated by a few major suppliers. US-based Lumentum and II-VI have been major vendors of VCSEL chips for ToF signal transmission, while IDMs STMicroelectronics, Sony and Infieneon have dominated the supply of SPAD (single-photon avalanche diode) sensors and CMOS image sensors (CIS) for signal reception.With 3D sensors gaining ground in consumer applications, many companies have jumped on the bandwagon, including Chinese VCSEL startup Vertilite and traditional LED makers such as China's Sanan Optoelectronics and Taiwan's Epistar, as well as Korea's Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix cutting into the CIS segment.Smartphones featuring ToF 3D sensors can perform gesture recognition, identity verification and image optimization and simple AR functions. But both indirect and direct ToF (iToF and dToF) technologies have to be significantly improved and their killer applications have to be developed before ToF 3D sensors can rise to a new level of popularity.

Notebooks with foldable screens may hit store shelves by the end of 2021. Intel has been developing foldable-screen notebooks, with development reaching the final stage. Meanwhile, China-based foundry SMIC reportedly has obtained permission from the US for buying equipment for use in mature-node processes. Despite the US-China trade war, Silicon Catalyst, an incubator focused exclusively on semiconductor solutions, maintains in an interview by Digitimes that inventors know no borders.Intel-powered foldable-screen notebooks to become available in 2H21: Intel has reportedly continued to push the development of foldable-screen notebooks with the devices having a good chance to hit store shelves by the end of 2021, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.SMIC reportedly gets US license for mature manufacturing process: China's SMIC has reportedly received US licenses to import equipment for use in mature-node processes, which may help relieve the global 8-inch foundry capacity shortages, according to industry sources.Semiconductor knows no borders: Q&A with Silicon Catalyst partners: While many might be deterred by the hefty costs of starting a semiconductor company, there are still many other entrepreneurs with a silicon dream knocking on the door of Silicon Catalyst (SC), an incubator and accelerator for semiconductor startups.

While many might be deterred by the hefty costs of starting a semiconductor company, there are still many other entrepreneurs with a silicon dream knocking on the door of Silicon Catalyst (SC), an incubator and accelerator for semiconductor startups.Digitimes recently talked to SC's managing partners Richard Curtin and Tarun Verma, as well as partner Lance Bell over Zoom trying to better understand the company and their insights into the latest industry trends.Q: Please give a brief introduction to the accelerator and the background of the core team. Semiconductor is a very sophisticated tech and involves very complicated process. Do you have any specific aspect that you focus on?A: We are Silicon Catalyst, the world's only incubator exclusively focused on accelerating semiconductor solutions, including IP, MEMs, and sensors. We started operation in 2015, co-founded by Rick Lazansky, Dan Armbrust and Mike Noonen, against the backdrop of a falling growth in R&D in the industry, due to massive consolidation in recent years. Our executives and partners all have long careers in the semiconductor industry. We understood there is still significant room for improvement in industries developed by silicon. Based on that we try to address the largest problem silicon ventures have, mainly to lower infrastructure costs to make it happen. We put together an ecosystem of in-kind partners, that provide goods and services at either no cost or at a significantly reduced cost, spanning the pre-silicon and post-silicon stages of development, as well as an ecosystem of advisors, strategic-partners, and investors.We started this vision in 2015, at that time we had 18 in-kind partners, and a score of advisors; today we have 42 in-kind partners, almost 200 advisors, 300 investors, and seven strategic partners. We have expanded our footprints to other areas in the world. We have a JV in China, operations in Israel, and have been in discussion to expand to EU, India, Taiwan, and Korea as well. While we've done that, we are strengthening our partnerships with Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA) and SEMI. We have recently expanded our university ambassador program on a worldwide basis.Q: Out of the 350 startups that you have engaged with since 2015, you have only admitted 35 of them over the years. And your Chengdu joint venture has accepted 16 Chinese startups since 2019. How do you pick startups? What are the criteria?A: We look at all the factors that venture capitalists would look at. But we bring real experts to bear - some of whom have built companies, been CEOs, or have been at the forefront of the industry for decades. That is part of our secret sauce. The seasoned semiconductor veterans in our ecosystem see their engagement with Silicon Catalyst as a "give back" to the industry.How do we screen the startups? For example, first we look at the team: is it a capable team? We look at the market, what pain they are solving? We look for evidence of customer traction. What is the value proposition? Are customers willing to pay for it? Finally, can they execute their plans to hit the market window? Do they have access to the right channels and go-to-market strategies? And then to get to the right design, and realize the revenues? We are very selective. We try to help every startup that chooses to engage with us, providing feedbacks to them. Some of them come back and get admitted later. We use the same formulae in China. China is a market with huge demand, with thousands of startups. It's been almost two years since we started operation there, and our joint venture will finish this year with a dozen startups in their incubator.When we first started, we only look at early-stage companies. As we have grown our ecosystem, we now have later-stage companies that have joined us. People that have raised may be US$5-10 million, may be more. We don't focus on any specific area. We are really looking for a business model that needs a piece of silicon to differentiate itself. So whether it's 5G, data-harvesting, AI, it's ok. We don't focus on a specific market segment at this point.Q: You mentioned that you have established a joint venture in China. Can you elaborate on the details?A: We partnered with a company called Silicon Power Technologies. The primary ownership is a Sino-American company headquartered in Hong Kong. The Chengdu venture is focused on semiconductors for the power electronics market. There is a lot of semiconductor demand in China, and so the innovative products that the startups are developing can address the needs of the market.We help the generally techno-centric people to round out their value proposition, reduce the seed investment amounts and the time to prototype for them through our 24-month incubation. We provide in-kind partner goods and services. Everything from pre-silicon to post-silicon, all the way through to businesses support services, such as corporate attorneys, IP attorneys, business development consultants, advisors, etc. And this is done on a worldwide basis. We have an application cycle twice a year, and we are coming to our application deadline on January 11, 2021 for the next batch of applicants. We go through the screening processes, meet with the entrepreneurial team we select with an agreement, and bring them into the incubator. During those 24 months of incubation, all in-kind partner goods and services are provided free of charge, or at a dramatically reduced cost, so they don't need to raise the money just to get business off the ground. We take that burden of design tool and shuttle run cost completely off the table. We can take them with their concept, and everything through from design, IP, design services, foundry. We have been working with TSMC since the first days of our incubator, enabling the startups with rapid access to MPW shuttles. When a company comes into an incubator, they have full access to all these goods and services that are only available with Silicon Catalyst.Very clearly, TSMC is front and center for companies in our incubator, being able to provide shuttle runs for their designs. We have access to the process-design kits (PDKs) for all the models. They can immediately start designing and knowing they can get onto a shuttle when they are ready to tape out.Q: For the 16 startups of your JV incubator in China, do they use the local foundry or TSMC?A: Since they are focused on the power space, they have some specialty foundries in China applied on the power IC segment. When we set up a joint venture overseas, what they do is take our methodology and recipe and then localize it. They have experienced a very rapid learning curve because we have been at this for so long. We have a process that is second to none, and you need the support of an industry to get them from a concept on the back of a napkin all the way to have a cashflow-positive business that maybe ultimately ends up with an acquisition, whether domestic or international.Q: Due to the geopolitical competition, some people are saying that the G2 trend are going to last. What do you think?A: Silicon Catalyst is really looking to be "the Switzerland of the semiconductor industry." The semiconductor industry has been growing incredibly over the last few decades. This has always been a global innovation market. The inventors know no borders. Let's find a way to make that continue. There are too many problems to be solved. Some people focus their attention on 5G, but there are far more problems than 5G. Silicon Catalyst is a worldwide incubator, we stay agnostic and work with startups and partners from all countries. More than half of our startups are from outside of the United States. We find our incubator provides essentially an epicenter of synergy to connect those startups with industry experts, as well as access to all the resources they need. We have engaged with over 350 new applications to enter our incubator - we have incubated companies involved with diverse market segments, from memories to biotech, to 5G, to energy harvesting. Where do we see a startup that is applying to our incubator? How will they fit into our ecosystem of advisors, strategic partners, and in-kind partners? And that really is the secret sauce of our organization because there is so much support in each and different areas.We only accept a startup that we think will be enabled with the access that we provide. One thing we do is truly unique: we de-risk the investment. So you have a company like TSMC that offers us shuttle runs to companies in our incubator, with their knowledge and access to manufacturing experts. And Synopsis or Advantest, and other leading pre-silicon and post-silicon vendors of design tools and services, coupled with experienced semiconductor executives. Once accepted, the chances of succeeding for those startups become ultimately greater. They come from all over the world, which is very exciting for us.Q: You seem to have an interesting startup portfolio.A: Let me show you the landscape of applications: everything from life-sciences, to edge-computing, to artificial intelligence (AI), machine-learning, inferencing for edge-computing, energy harvesting, cyber-security, etc. Everything has to do with semiconductors. Just recently we expanded our footprint into the MEMS, sensors, and actuators markets. One of the recent partners is ST Microelectronics, which is the world's largest MEMS manufacturer. This is an exciting development for us because there are many applications such as microphones, all the way to life science, etc.Q: People are much concerned about the bottleneck of Moore's Law. But as you mentioned, there are emerging applications and developments in the industry. Do you foresee a period of "golden years" for semiconductor industry? Any new trends spotted?A: We are now down to 3nm process technology, enabling billions of transistors per design. But there is an interesting new segment we are seeing in our companies of portfolio, which is optical computing. Optical computing probably is going to be the next wave. So if you are thinking computing horse power is reaching its limit, because there are so many parallel machines and architecture. But the next bottleneck is interface communication, I/O. Now we are seeing enormous growth in optical interconnect. One of our portfolio companies, Ayar Labs, is doing optical connectivity. Many of the startups spawn from university environment. Ayar Labs had a foundation technology developed by a professor in UC Berkeley, collaborating with two PhD students and one master's student. They developed a revolutionary I/O solution that they are able to push for significantly faster data transmission speeds. The key to their success is that they answered one of the questions we asked during those screening meetings: in order for your technology to be successful, does the entire industry need to lean towards your direction? Or are you actually a plug-and-play the existing ecosystem? In fact, they are manufacturable. They not only had a break-through technology, but also easy for the industry once they overcome the hurdles as a startup. This optical I/O is truly a game changer.We introduced them to various venture capitalists, guided them and helped to establish their strong foundation for business growth. They recently closed on a Series B round, raising US$35 million from investors. We would like to think that our very early engagement with them in our incubator aided them on their meteor path to success. We have multiple success stories like that. New technologies are coming everywhere, and over 50% of our startups are located outside the United States. It's our knowledge-based connection to a unique and growing ecosystem that is heart of our success, coupled with a comprehensive screening process to filter out early, those companies that have the greatest chance to succeed. With a willing group of participants as in-kind partners, they brought in with their services at no cost or low cost to our startups, because they, too, are in search of potential customers at this significant age of consolidation. Budgets for research and development had been slashed, so innovation from large companies have been limited.The future landscape could not be healthier. It has a worldwide footprint, and we are beyond delighted to explain our model and communicate to Digitimes readers. You cannot think about semiconductor without mentioning Taiwan. Silicon Catalyst is looking forward to even more semiconductor innovation in the years ahead.(Editor's note: Digitimes Research analysts Eric Chen and Jim Chien contributed ideass to the making of the interview.)Richard CurtinTarun VermaLance BellPhotos: Silicon Catalyst

IoT is poised to become the backbone for the future of smart living. Some research institutions have projected the IoT market will have 50 billion connected devices and reach a scale of US$100 trillion by 2030. As a global high-tech hub, Taiwan has built up strong innovation capability.To help Taiwan-based startups tap into worldwide markets, especially during the times of COVID-19 pandemic when business travels become very costly and in many cases impossible, Taipei Computer Association (TCA) and InnoVEX co-hosted the AIoT New Generation Life Application Taiwan Startups Webinar - an online matchmaking forum targeting the Japan market. The event engaged nine Japanese venture capital and Japanese startup ecosystem experts who provided professional counselling to eight outstanding Taiwan-based startup teams with respect to their products and marketing strategies to help lower the entry barrier to the Japanese market.The nine Japanese experts invited to the event included: PKSHA Capital, focusing on AI technology investments; Bridge, a Japanese media website dedicated to local startup news; GiTV, funding all kinds of digital innovations worldwide; aKtivevision, devoted to matchmaking between startups and large enterprises; Orange Lab, a large-scale French incubator which holds two startup contests each year; TEP, centered on fostering academic startup teams; Pan Pacific Innovation Ventures, mainly investing during seed and pre-A rounds; Global Brain, holding a JPY5 billion capital and also providing technological resources; and TPTF with a Taipei branch office making full efforts to connect Asian startups with American and European markets.Targeting precise user groupsThe recent rapid advances in the combination of AI and video surveillance technologies have helped ensure security in people's daily lives. However, it is not easy to find the balance between privacy and security. Beseye Cloud Security's AI image recognition system protects security without compromising privacy. To Beseye Cloud Security's smart platform, PKSHA Capital managing partner Ebihara offers the advice that Beseye Cloud Security will have to differentiate itself from local Japanese firms in order to successfully introduce its technologies to Japan. He suggests that the team develop special-purpose systems targeting specific application scenarios or user groups so that its marketing strategies have a more precise target.Compared to other market sectors, few startups have thought of developing rental property management systems for income-producing real estate investments. The founder of JGB Property has more than 10 years of property investment experience in different countries and thus knows very well the pain points of property management. This prompted JGB Property to develop a smart platform that integrates 720-degee VR-enabled vacancy management, electronic lease signing, real-time bookkeeping and remote smart lock control. The all-in-one SaaS platform allows real estate agencies and property managing firms to significantly save costs and raise efficiency. In view of Japan's large rental property market, Bridge co-founder Ikeda thinks JGB Property can partner with other startups to further enhance the benefits of its platform. For example, target users will embrace the platform more enthusiastically if it can help reduce the vacancy rate.Industry 4.0 is the most critical trend to the manufacturing sector in recent years. KDH Design has built a smart warehousing system targeting Industry 4.0 applications based on a variety of advanced video technologies and the manufacturing experience of Foxconn subsidiary FHnet. In complimenting the technological content of KDH Design's product, GiTV co-founder Kinoshita further suggests that KDH Design gear its market strategy toward a more refined user group and develop a tailored warehousing system that closely matches the needs of a specific type of manufacturers.The senior market has enormous demand and clear needs, thus attracting a slew of startups. With an aim to help senior citizens cope with dementia and sarcopenia, LTPA Solution has designed an interactive somatosensory device that integrates IoT, cloud and AI technologies for cognitive rehabilitation training. Kawabata, aKtivevision founder, comments that with an aging population, seniors caring for other seniors will become the norm in both Taiwan and Japan, thus LTPA Solution's device has great potential going forward. He also points out that governments around the world have instituted healthcare laws and advises that startups gain a good understanding of local regulations and market conditions before venturing into foreign markets.Products with creativity and usabilityEnergy management is a key research area where governments and corporations around the world are focusing. NextDrive provides a comprehensive energy service solution that enables power companies and energy retailers to make use of the Internet of Energy (IoE) platform and create a sharing, co-thriving, sustainable and renewable energy system and circular economy. In offering advice to NextDrive, Orange Japan strategic partner manager Nishikawa notes the market already has a wide range of remote energy control solutions competing fiercely against one another. The fact that NextDrive is already marketing its solution in Japan proves the feasibility of its solution. For NextDrive to expand its market footprint, Nishikawa suggests that NextDrive develop power systems for specific application scenarios. By offering both general-purpose and special-purpose systems, NextDrive can build up leadership in this market segment.Pet owners have strong demand for all kinds of pet products, giving rise to immense innovations in this market segment. Shenli International has created a pet potty that cleans pet waste in just three seconds without the need for water or electricity. The company looks to apply the design concept to long-term care in the future. TEP chairman Ozaki thinks Shenli International's product has tremendous potential in Japan and suggests enhancements to its functionality by incorporating high-tech features. For example, by adding sensors and combining with smart appliances or smartphones, the pet potty can automatically detect pet waste and clean it up with corresponding smart devices. This will further strengthen the product's usability.Starting Point focuses efforts on optimizing attendee experience for physical events and facilitating event organization with the help of technology. Users can leverage Starting Point's website and app to easily plan an event and manage the process. They can also make use of data analytics to select the most suitable promotional products. There is also an internal meeting system for event planners to make it easier for them to complete the tasks. Pan Pacific Innovation Ventures Taiwan general manager Sekiguchi acknowledges that Starting Point's platform can ease the workload for event organizers and it is ideal for the Japanese society. He suggests that Starting Point target Japanese advertising agencies, public relations firms and local governments. In particular, Japan is actively promoting "local revitalization" so if Starting Point can strengthen the platform's connection with Taiwan and attract Taiwanese tourists to Japan, it will definitely strike it big.A fire can lead to serious and significant property damage and even loss of life. If a fire can be extinguished in the early stage, casualty and damage can be kept to a minimum. SunJet Robotics developed a solution integrating smartphones, sensors, surveillance cameras, AI technologies and big data analytics that can detect and put out an incipient stage fire. Global Brain partner Tatsuoka thinks the solution is viable but the deployment cost may be too high and hinder its widespread adoption. He suggests that SunJet Robotics adjust the deployment and maintenance costs and add more functions to expand the application scope and thereby increase market acceptance.Localization strategiesCommenting on the Japan-Taiwan collaboration, the experts agree that Taiwan, with robust hardware capability, market agility and strong execution, and Japan, with robust software capability, premium brand image and refined marketing planning, can complement each other and together achieve great success in worldwide markets. The experts also point out a few things to Taiwan-based startups looking to expand into Japan. First of all, they need to hire Japanese talent to help map out their localization strategies. Many Taiwanese may think they have a good understanding of the Japanese society but in fact Japan's business culture and practices are quite different from most other countries. Taiwan-based firms targeting the Japan market must take an in-depth look into the local needs. As to Japan's startup community, Tokyo still hosts the largest startup cluster while Osaka, Kyoto and Fukuoka also have complete startup ecosystems. In conclusion, the experts note Japan is the perfect first step on Taiwan-based startups' road to global expansion as Japan offers an open and fair market, it is in close proximity to Taiwan and the businesses and citizens of both countries maintain good relationships. They look forward to strengthened collaborations between the two countries going forward to jointly capture smartization opportunities in the IoT era.Participants at AIoT New Generation Life Application Taiwan Startups Matchmaking Webinar Photo: Digitimes, December 2020

Both TSMC and Samsung reportedly are facing issues that are slowing down the progress of their 3nm process node developments. The foundry houses may have to delay moving their respective 3nm process to voume production. In China, distributors of chip resistors have raised their prices reportedly to reflect unstable supplies from the manufacturing side. Taiwanese PCB makers remain upbeat about demand in first-quarter 2021, but are conservative beyond that, judging from uncertain developments arising from a number of factors, such as the momentum from the stay-at-home economy.Development of 3nm process challenging TSMC, Samsung: TSMC and Samsung Electronics have both encountered different but critical bottlenecks in the development of their respective 3nm process technologies, according to industry sources.Chip resistor prices rising in China: China-based channel distributors have raised their prices for chip resistors though some major manufacturers have stressed they did not start the upward pricing trend.PCB makers uncertain about 2Q21 on looming variables: Taiwan-based PCB makers are optimistic about demand growth in the first quarter of 2021, but are uncertain whether the momentum will carry on in the second quarter.

South Korea's top-3 telecom carriers saw their wireless businesses' average revenues per user (ARPU) slip in the first three quarters of 2020 due to fierce competition for 5G subscribers, while their plan to establish 28GHz base stations will be delayed, according to Digitimes Research's finding.Although 5G commercialization boosted the top-3 telecom carriers' quarterly wireless business revenues during the first three quarters of 2020 compared to their corresponding quarters in 2019, their ARPU still declined due to the fierce competition among them to attract 5G subscribers.South Korea had over 70 million mobile service subscribers as of third-quarter 2020 with 4G users accounting for more than 80% and 5G services rising to 13.2%.The top-3 South Korean telecom carriers all saw over 14% of their subscribers being 5G users in the third quarter. Mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) in South Korea, which were slower in offering 5G services compared to major telecom carriers, are the key factor dragging down South Korea's overall 5G penetration rate.At the end of 2020 or early 2021, South Korea's overall 5G service subscribers are expected to break 10 million with SK Telecom to have a chance of seeing over five million users and KT three million.With smartphone brands including Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics and Apple starting to release 5G devices in South Korea in October and local telecom carriers offering better subsidies, demand for 5G smartphones is expected to increase and boost the number of South Korea's 5G service subscribers in the fourth quarter.The South Korea government has confirmed that the top-3 telecom carriers together had built a total of 105,000 base stations at 3.5GHz nationwide as of the end of August 2020, and should achieve the goal of building a total of 150,000 units in 10 years earlier than expected.However, the telecom carriers are seriously behind for the target of building 15,000 base stations at 28GHz by the end of 2021.

Strong pandemic-fuled demand has resulted in shortages in a host of components, including MLCC. Yageo, a major passive components suplier, has only about two months of MLCC inventory, far below healthy levels, and the tight supply will not improve until after the Lunar New Year break in February. LCD panel shortages are also haunting second-tier TV vendors who focus on smaller size segments. Teh car market, hit hard by COVID-19 earlier this year, is recovering, with automotive chipmakers keenly placing orders with their suppliers.Yageo sees inventory stay below healthy levels: Yageo now has about two months of MLCC inventory, which is unlikely to reach healthy levels until after the Lunar New Year break, thanks to difficulty in recruiting new production employees before the holiday period in February, according to the passive component vendor.Second-tier TV brands grappling with panel shortages: Second-tier TV brands focusing on small-to-medium screen size segments face mounting pressure of insufficient supply from panel makers who are giving production priority to large-size applications, according to industry sources.Chip demand for automotive electronics gaining momentum: Chip demand for automotive electronics applications has been ramping up significantly since the fourth quarter of 2020 along with the gradual recovery of global car sales, which is expected to serve as a growth driver for the semiconductor supply chain in 2021, according to industry sources.

Robust demand for server-related hardward and software in the wake of the pandemic has boosted sales at Taiwan-based makers in this market segment. Digitimes Research estimates that Taiwanese makers will see server-related revenues grow 11% in 2020, with further growth lying ahead for them next year. The pandemic has triggered strong demand for an array of products and services, including game consoles. Production for Sony's PS5 is expected to reach as high as 18 million units in 2021, barring components shortages. The semiconductor sector continues to see tight supply, and silicon wafer supplier GlobalWafers is ready to raise prices to reflect tight capacity.Taiwan server-related product revenues to grow 11% in 2020, says Digitimes Research: Taiwan makers will see revenues from server-related hardware and software including motherboards, full-rack systems, networking equipment and storage equipment, increase by about 11% on year to reach over NT$1.5 trillion (US$52.88 billion) in 2020, higher than the 7% growth in server shipments in the year, according to latest numbers from Digitimes Research's Server Tracker.PS5 shipments to reach 16.8-18 million units in 2021: Production for Sony's PS5 game consoles is likely to reach 16.8-18 million units in 2021, fueled by additional capacity support from TSMC and backend services firms, according to industry sources.GlobalWafers to raise spot quotes for silicon wafers: GlobalWafers has run all its production lines for 12-, 8- and 6-inch silicon wafers at full capacity, according to company chairperson Doris Hsu. The silicon wafer supplier plans to raise its quotes offered to the spot market, judging from its tight supply that will persist through the first half of 2021, said Hsu.

Taiwan makers will see revenues from server-related hardware and software including motherboards, full-rack systems, networking equipment and storage equipment, increase by about 11% on year to reach over NT$1.5 trillion (US$52.88 billion) in 2020, higher than the 7% growth in server shipments in the year, according to latest numbers from Digitimes Research's Server Tracker.Taiwan's strong revenue growth in 2020 is due to the facts that clients' orders have continued to lean toward servers for high performance computing (HPC) applications and high-density rack server systems that feature high profit margins, while increasing demand for cloud datacenter centers has also driven up shipments for storage and networking equipment.Taiwan's server-related product revenues are expected to grow further by 7.6% on year in 2021 as demand from US- and China-based first-tier datacenter operators will continue to pick up, Digitimes Research estimates.Foxconn Technology Group (Hon Hai Precision Industry) is the largest supplier in terms of server-related product revenues in 2020 thanks to its global deployment of key component production and strong economies of scale.The company's robust shipments of cloud computing servers and datacenter network communication devices will also help the EMS provider maintain an over 50% share in Taiwan's server-related product revenues in 2020. Quanta Computer will be the second largest supplier and Wistron (including Wiwynn) the third in the year.In terms of server shipments based on motherboard counts, Inventec will remain the top supplier in Taiwan in 2020 with an annual growth of 15% and volumes of 3.36 million units. However, if combining Wistron with Wiwynn, the Wistron Group's volumes will be the highest with an on-year increase of 4%.Inventec's shipments are expected to rise more than 8% on year in 2021 due to keen orders placed by its US- and China-based datacenter clients.Although Dell and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) are expected to cut their server orders for 2021 with their Taiwanese partners due to their enterprise clients reducing procurement in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, cloud computing services are expected to continue driving up server shipments in the year, especially to the top-4 datacenter operators - Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Face - in North America.