New-Tech Europe Magazine | Jan 2018

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Fabless IC Company Sales Top $100 Billion for First Time Ever

In 2015, for only the second time on record, IDM IC sales “growth” (-1%) outpaced fabless IC company sales “growth” (-3%). The primary cause of the fabless companies’ 2015 sales decline was Qualcomm’s steep 17% drop in sales. Much of the sharp decline in Qualcomm’s sales that year was driven by Samsung’s increased use of its internally developed Exynos

Two Chinese companies—HiSilicon and Unigroup—are among the top 10 fabless IC sales leaders. IC Insights is currently researching and writing its 21st edition of The McClean Report, which will be released later this month. As part of the report, a listing of the 2017 top 50 fabless IC suppliers will be presented. Unlike the relatively close annual market

application processors in its smartphones instead of the application processors it had previously sourced from Qualcomm. Although Qualcomm’s sales continued to decline in 2016, the fabless companies’ sales in total (5%) once again outpaced the growth from IDM’s (3%). In 2017, the market behaved very similarly to 2010, when strong growth in the memory market propelled the IDM IC sales growth rate higher than the fabless IC supplier growth rate. With the total memory market, a market in which the fabless IC companies have very little share, surging by 58% last year, IDM IC sales growth easily outpaced fabless company IC sales growth in 2017.

growth relationship between fabless IC suppliers and foundries, fabless IC company sales growth versus IDM (integrated device manufacturers) IC supplier growth has typically been very different (Figure 2). The first time IDM IC sales growth outpaced fabless IC company sales growth was in 2010 when IDM IC sales grew 35% and fabless IC company sales grew 29%. Since very few fabless semiconductor suppliers participate in the memory market, the fabless suppliers did not receive much of a boost from the surging DRAM and NAND flash memory markets in 2010, which grew 75% and 44%, respectively. However, the fabless IC suppliers once again began growing faster than the IDMs beginning in 2011 and this trend continued through 2014.

Gemalto launches the first biometric EMV card for contactless payments

Gemalto (Euronext NL0000400653 GTO), the world leader in digital security, has been selected by Bank of Cyprus to supply the world’s first EMV biometric dual interface payment card for both chip and contactless payments. Using fingerprint recognition instead of a PIN code to authenticate the cardholder, the card is compatible with existing payment terminals already installed in the country. When customers place their

A biometric solution and enrolment process designed to ensure optimal user privacy Gemalto’s biometric sensor payment card is based on the principle that biometric data should always remain in the hands of end users. Bank of Cyprus’ customers will complete the swift enrolment process at the bank’s branches, using Gemalto’s tablet

fingerprint on the sensor, a comparison is performed between the scanned fingerprint and the reference biometric data securely stored in the card. The biometric sensor card is powered by the payment terminal and does not require an embedded battery; this means there is no limit from battery life nor on the number of transactions.

designed for the solution. The biometric personalization and card activation process is designed to avoid transmission of biometric data over the air to ensure that users’ data privacy is protected. The fingerprint template captured during the enrolment process is stored only on the card. “Bank of Cyprus customers will be first in the world to enjoy

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