IC design company Realtek Semiconductor has recently raised wafer starts at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), due to orders for new notebooks set to be released in 2011, according to industry sources.
The sources said Realtek is expected to start fulfilling orders from several brand-name notebook vendors in December. Combined orders Realtek has placed with the two foundry partners for the fourth quarter are estimated to be about 10% higher than those placed in the third quarter, the sources added.
Realtek will supply 70-80% of Hewlett-Packard's (HP) total demand for Wi-Fi integrated combo chips used in notebooks in 2011, and 50% of Acer's overall network IC demand for notebooks, the sources indicated.
TSMC has said it expects demand for communications-related ICs to continue growing in the fourth quarter though that for both PC and consumer applications would decline. IC packagers Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE) and Siliconware Precision Industries (SPIL) also forecast demand from the wireless communications area will outperform that from other sectors.
In other news, Atheros Communications has cut orders to TSMC for the fourth quarter by about 60% from 60,000-70,000 wafers in the third quarter, according to sources at institutional investors. The sources revealed that Atheros has also failed to grab orders of Wi-Fi chips used in IPTVs from Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics and Vizio.
Article translated by Jessie Shen
