Integrated Device Technology recently announced it has expanded its system-on-chip (SoC)-friendly PCI Express timing family with the addition of 1.5 V clock generators and clock multiplexers. The new devices join the previously introduced 1.5 V buffers to provide enterprise-level performance for space- and power-constrained designs. The chips offer up to a 90% reduction in power and board space compared to standard 3.3 V current-mode HCSL devices.The 9FGU clock generator family delivers two, four, six or eight outputs and is offered with and without internal terminations, giving the designer a choice of a flexible termination, or minimal board space with integrated terminations, for 100 ohm transmission lines. All devices are pin-compatible with IDT's 1.8 V 9FGV PCIe G123 clock generator family.The 1.5V 9DMU and pin-compatible 1.8V 9DMV clock multiplexers are two-input devices with either one or four outputs. These clock multiplexers are offered with a choice of external terminations or integrated 100-ohm terminations, and feature a choice of switchover modes. The user can choose between asynchronous switching or synchronous switching modes.The entire family supports PCIe Gen1, Gen2, and Gen3 (Gen 1-2-3) phase jitter requirements. The chips are ideal for use in DSLR cameras, multi-function printers, solid state drives, vehicle infotainment systems, servers, micro-servers, set-top boxes, PCIe-based storage arrays, and a variety of other PCIe-based applications.

Global DRAM bit demand growth will be higher that of bit supply growth in the fourth quarter of 2014, easing pressure on the prices of DRAM chips in the quarter, according to Digitimes Research.However, DRAM chip prices still may face a downward correction in the second half of the fourth quarter on concerns of global economic growth momentum and the impact of the off-peak season in the first quarter of 2015.In addition to a lack of capacity ramps by major players, the world's top-three suppliers, Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Micron Technology, have also shifted part of their DRAM production capacity to the production of NAND flash chips, resulting in a three-year consecutive decline in 12-inch DRAM wafer output since 2011.Samsung migrated to a 25nm process in the second quarter of 2013 and ramped up the ratio of 25nm process products significantly in 2014, driving up DRAM bit supply in the year.Led by Samsung, global DRAM bit supply growth will reach 24.2% in 2014 compared to a growth of 23.1% a year earlier. But DRAM bit supply is set for slow growth in the future as current bit supply growth has been driven by upgrades of manufacturing processes rather than by the installation of new production, Digitimes Research commented.

Average retail pricing for LCD monitors in the US, UK, Germany, Japan and China will all see declines on month in October 2014, with 27-inch units dropping 5% to US$341, 24- and 23-inch units 1% to US$264 and US$259, respectively, and 22-inch units 2.8% to US$175, according to Digitimes Research.From July 2013-January 2014 global average pricing for 23-inch units was higher than for 24-inch units. However, for six consecutive months leading into October 24-inch unit pricing has exceeded that of 23-inch LCD monitors, largely driven by 24-inch units from Samsung Electronics that come equipped with touch panels and wide-angle viewing, noted Digitimes Research.

Third-quarter 2014 global notebook shipments are estimated at 45.198 million units (not including 2-in-1 models), increasing 6.4% sequentially and 2.6% on year, according to Digitimes Research.HP accounted for 21% of the global shipments, followed by Lenovo (20.9%), Dell (12.5%), Acer (9.7%), Apple (8.5%), Asustek Computer (8.3%) and Toshiba (6.2%), Digitimes Research indicated.Taiwan-based ODMs shipped 36.958 notebooks in the quarter, accounting for 81.77% of global shipments with their shipments growing 6.1% sequentially but slipping 2.9% on year.Quanta Computer was the largest ODM accounting for 34.6% of the shipments, Compal Electronics 32.2%, Wistron 15.7%, Inventec 6.7% and Pegatron 5.7%.Of the ODM shipments, 8.2% were sub-12-inch models, 2.9% 12-inch ones, 13% 13-inch ones, 22.7% 14-inch ones, 47.2% 15-inch ones, 6.1% 16-inch and above ones.

GT Advanced Technologies' (GTAT) move to seek bankruptcy protection on October 6 came as a surprise to the IT industry especially because the maker was a major supplier of Apple for sapphire screens.The related supply chain in general, Digitimes Research believes, will feel the impact, such as seeing tight supplies of LED-use sapphire ingots and smartphone vendors reconsidering plans to adopt sapphire for their devices' screens.There had been already many signs showing that GATA had been in trouble before it filed for Chapter 11 protection: The mass production schedule of the company's sapphire had seen a long delay until August 2014; its sapphire yield rate was only 30%; the company's sapphire production ramp up costs in 2014 were expected to reach as high as US$100 million; Apple's prepayments for orders had been delayed; and the company had reduced its capex and revenue target for 2014.In August 2014, Digitimes Research estimated that GTAT would only be able to supply 1.35-2.25 million 5.5-inch sapphire screens in 2014, far lower than what Apple would have required.Although GTAT is hoping to be able to maintain its operation after filing bankruptcy protection, Digitimes Research believes the chance that Apple will adopt its sapphire for products is slim, because GTAT's sapphire production yield rates remain low.As a result, Apple is expected to turn to other sapphire suppliers for components used in cameras, home bottons, and Apple Watch's protective covers. Apple's orders are expected to impact these suppliers' capacities assigned for LED-related applications.On the other hand, some other smartphone vendors originally planned to follow Apple's step to adopt sapphire screens for their devices, but GTAT's difficulties are likely to deter them from doing so now.As makers in China have turned aggressive about expanding their sapphire capacities since early 2014 with the major application being smartphone-use sapphire screens, how these sapphire makers are going to find downstream partners that will use their products could become another issue. At the same time, existing first-tier sapphire makers' expansion plans for smartphone-use sapphire screen capacities may need to be postponed.

September average retail price for 7W LED light bulbs (equivalent to 40W incandescents) in the China market increased 11% on month to CNY33.9 (US$5.50), while 9W models (equivalent to 60W) fell 7.3% to CNY41.70, according to Digitimes Research.Average retail prices for 40W- and 60W-equivalent LED light bulbs in Japan in September stood at JPY1,667 (US$15) and JPY3,073, respectively, with the former slipping 2% on month and the latter rising 11.9%, Digitimes Research indicated.September average retail prices for 40W- and 60W-equivalent LED light bulbs in other markets were: KRW12,462 (US$12.50, flat on month) and KRW14,591 (flat) in South Korea; US$19.4 (down 4.4%) and US$19.8 (down 3.9%) in the US; EUR13.20 (US$16.90, up 6.5%) and EUR12.70 (up 9.5%) in Europe.LG Electronics 40W-equivalent LED light bulbs for sale in South Korea and Samsung Electronics 60W-equivalent models available in Europe had the highest average lumen-price ratios of 67.8lm/US$ and 108.1lm/US$, respectively, in September. In terms of luminous efficiency, Sharp 40W-equivalent LED light bulbs and Toshiba 60W-equivalent models for sale in the Japan market had the highest average levels of 77.6lm/W and 100.5lm/W, respectively.

Support for PCIe technology and the adoption of triple-level cell (TLC) NAND to reduce costs are the major focuses in the development of SSD controller chips in 2014. The penetration rate of SSD applications is expected to experience vigorous growth in 2015 thanks to the reduction of related costs and the development of new controller chips, according to Digitimes Research.Marvell Technology is one of the leading chipset suppliers introducing SSD controller chips supporting both PCIe and SATA interfaces in 2014, while also delivering enhanced endurance and data protection. Meanwhile, SandForce is ready to release its third-generation SSD controller chips supporting PCIe with enhanced read/write performance.Samsung Electronics, Micron Technology and SK Hynix have also been actively promoting their SSD controller chips which deliver comparable stability and durability.Taiwan-based Silicon Motion Technology and JMicron Technology have also come out with new SSD controller chips with are catching up with mainstream devices in terms of specifications, and are being adopted by a number of clients.

Although Silicon Works' revenues from the LCD driver IC (LDI) business dropped 8.1% on year and reached KRW128.7 billion (US$120 million) in the first half of 2014 because of two consecutive quarters of decline in iPad shipments, the company is expected to be able to expand its revenues from non-LDI product lines such as LED driver ICs and car electronics ICs in the future as it became a subsidiary of the LG Group in the second quarter of 2014.Silicon Works' revenues from non-LDI product lines were higher than those of other major Taiwan and Korea makers during the first half of 2014, with a revenue proportion of 24.3%. The company is expected to continue supplying timing controller (TCon) applications to LG Display in the future in addition to LED driver ICs, car electronics ICs and power management IC applications.Digitimes Research also expects the company to supply various touch IC solutions to LG Electronics and LG Chemical as a result of LG's stake in the company, which will push up its revenue proportion of non-LDI products in the future.Digitimes Research also noted that Silicon Works' operating profits increased to 6.5% in the first half despite its revenue decline.

Hewlett-Packard (HP) will separate into two companies, HP Inc. and HP Enterprise with the former focusing mainly on PC and printer products and the later on servers, storage, software and services.Digitimes Research believes the strategy will help HP break through bottlenecks in its overall operations, but the company's PC and printer businesses, now under HP Inc. will have issues in long-term development since the company is still not able to achieve any significant results in the mobile market and is mainly defending the PC market and pushing the 3D printer business, an emerging industry, but still small in scale.With bring your own device (BYOD) becoming a trend in the enterprise market, HP Enterprise is expected to accelerate its cooperation with other mobile device brand vendors to answer its enterprise clients' demand for mobile applications. In the past four quarters, the company's server, storage and Internet products have been mostly achieving positive on-year growths (negative 2% to 2%).During the period, although the company's operating profit rates were not able to reach a level similar to those of previous years, they still stayed firmly above 14% and did not drop as in previous years.As for HP Inc., although the printer business is able to contribute strong profits with the latest quarter's operating profit rate reaching 18%, revenues continued to stay in decline with a 4% drop in the latest quarter. Trying to use 3D printers, which are still emerging products, to reverse its situation is unlikely to occur in the short term.The PC business, which contributes 60% of HP Inc.'s revenues, has seen shipments, revenues and operating profits significantly improve thanks to the company's aggressive moves to land education and enterprise orders in the previous year, and strategies to launch new entry-level notebooks and expand related shipments.Since HP Inc. will continue to be operated by its original team, Digitimes Research believes during the spin-off, the company's competitors are unlikely to have much chance to snatch its market share.However, most of HP Inc.'s target industries are already mature. Mobile devices, which are expected to stay the mainstream products of the end device market, are expected to become a weak point of HP's future development since the company has been operating in the related market for several years, but has not achieved any practical results.

In addition to gradually integrating Android's ecosystem into the Chrome OS, Google is looking to support more processors. Chromebook-supported processors will include solutions from MediaTek and Rockchip in 2015, helping vendors to develop LTE-based inexpensive Chromebooks, according to information obtained by Digitimes Research from the upstream supply chain.By boosting device values and cutting prices, the plan is expected to increase shipments of the Chromebook by another 100%.Currently, both Samsung and Nvidia have already begun related businesses, but Digitimes Research estimates that ARM-based processors' proportion in the Chromebook's overall shipments will drop from over 60% in 2013 to only around 40% in 2014 because more brand vendors have released Intel-based Chromebooks due to Intel's aggressive promotions. At the same time, Samsung's ARM-based Chromebooks have not seen shipments grow as much as expected.In 2015, MediaTek's and Rockchip's ARM-based solutions will enter the Chromebook market, but they are unlikely to boost ARM's share back to the2013 level. ARM is likely to have around 50% in 2015.