Previous articles have discussed a segmentation of the electronics market called Long Life Cycle(LLC) Products. LLC products are those whose useful life is longer than five years. In a subsequent article, the current state of the electronics ecosystem, and the connection of the LLC market to the AI/IOT mega-trends were also discussed. Overall, LLC customers…
The global coronavirus has upended many of the metrics used to forecast supply, demand, economic activity and financial stability. Two electronics associations – the IPC and ECIA – report electronics markets are recovering, but forward momentum is decelerating. “The economy improved over the last month, but it is clear that momentum is slowing and future…
The world-shaking event of the coronavirus pandemic has led to an economic downturn in many markets, on top of unpredictable supply and demand shifts. Due to these challenges, industrial supply chain operations are looking to trim the fat. Minimizing expenses in supply chain can be handled in a variety of ways. Currently, new technology solutions…
Driven by growing demand for application processors and other telecomm device sales into 5G smartphones, the pure play foundry market is on pace to expand by a strong 19% this year, after declining 1% in 2019. IC Insights forecasts 200 million 5G smartphone handsets will be shipped in 2020 (although some forecasts expect 250 million…
The events of 2020 have shaken the very pillars of global supply chain and manufacturing organizations. The effects have been widespread and costly, but they have also revealed the need for us to revisit and rethink our approach to sourcing and procurement. While strategic sourcing has been a known method since the first 8-step model…
After nearly two months of negotiations and press reports that a blockbuster deal was in the works, Nvidia this week announced a $40 billion agreement to buy ARM—the leading supplier of processor intellectual property (IP)—from financially struggling SoftBank in Japan. If approved, the deal would be the largest semiconductor acquisition in history, provided the additional…
A growing amount of waste — in the form of plastics and electronics — is putting increased pressure on the recycling industry and its supply chains. Despite big initiatives by public and private organizations, recycling rates remain low. This increases the chance that plastics accumulate in the environment. Public information on recycling is also limited.…
Total microprocessor sales are forecast to grow 1.4% in 2020 to nearly $79.3 billion, following a 2.4% decline in 2019, which was the first revenue drop in the worldwide MPU market in 10 years, according to data released in IC Insights’ Mid-Year Update to the 2020 McClean Report. The mid-year forecast shows total MPU…
Machine learning (ML) is positioned to solve a range of supply chain challenges today, but commercializing ML applications lags behind research. Businesses that stand to gain from ML solutions are helping accelerate that process. Last week, MIT’s Computer Science Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) research alliance launched, via webinar, MachineLearningApplications@CSAIL to develop applications for the latest…
“LLC defined” highlighted an electronics market segment whose end products have an expected useful life over 5 years and “LLC electronics ecosystem” explored the challenges for the support for these products today. The technical challenges involve issues of reliability and obsolescence, but these are driven by business challenges of the relative size of the LLC…