Qualcomm, Xilinx and Altera cut wafer starts

TOP WIRELESS CHIPMAKERS Qualcomm, Xilinx and Altera have decided to cut back on wafer starts at their foundries for the last quarter of the year.

According to DigiTimes, wireless driver IC designers have also slowed their pace of increasing wafer starts at the foundry chipmakers for the year's last quarter.

Qualcomm is estimated to have reduced its foundry orders by 10 to 15 per cent sequentially for the fourth quarter, sources indicated.

This means that its foundry partners TSMC, UMC and Chartered Semiconductor will have to slow down production.

It could hit backend service providers' revenue performance in the fourth quarter, including packaging and testing houses ASE, SPIL and Amkor Technology, and IC substrate maker Kinsus Interconnect Technology.

Altera has been even more cost-cutting conscious. It will cut back its orders by a third over what it bought in the last quarter. Xilinx has also cut its orders to UMC by 10 to 15 per cent.

Although some of this is due to the seasonal slow down, it is a little odd as TSMC and UMC have seen growth in orders from network chip vendors Broadcom and Atheros, and GPU customers AMD and Nvidia.

All this means that the big wireless chipmakers appear to be wanting to keep their products on short supply during the first quarter of next year. µ