Taiwan suppliers of network communication chips are busy ramping up their shipments to fulfill increasing orders from web giants, cloud service providers and datacenter operators mainly in the US and China, and their shipment momentum is expected to further strengthen into 2019, when 100G network switches will be upgraded to 400G ones in line with the advent of the 5FG era, according to industry sources.
The sources said that Taiwan makers of network chips have been asked by their US cloud service customers such as Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft and server makers including Dell, HPE and Super Micro to step up shipments to smoothly close annual supply projects by the end of 2018. In addition, the chipmakers also see strong demand from China datacenter operators.
This will enable network chipmakers to maintain high shipment momentum by the end of the year, and the momentum is believed to turn even stronger in 2019, when 5G communication era will kick off and 400G network switches will become the market mainstream, the sources continued.
Among Taiwan's network chipmakers, only MediaTek, Aspeed Technology, and Nuvoton Technology have tapped into the world's core server market, but they are actively upgrading their main network chip solutions to next-generation tech specs, allowing other domestic peers including Realtek Semiconductor, IC Plus, ASIX Electronics and DAVICOM Semiconductor to scramble for orders for mature chip products from customers to boost their shares of the market for Ethernet and switch chips.
Such suppliers of high-speed transmission chips as ASMedia Technology, Parade Technologies, Phison Electronics and Silicon Motion are expected to start volume production of PCIe and DP chip solutions in the fourth quarter of 2018, and such solutions are expected to become a new revenue growth driver for the makers in 2019, the sources indicated.
Article translated by Willis Ke
