IDMs' shift to foundries undermines startups

摘要

As foundries get better and fabs get bigger, the landscape of the semiconductor industry is changing, spurred in part by pressure from the financial community. Large integrated device manufacturers like STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and others are keeping Wall Street happy by moving more leading-edge digital CMOS production to foundries. Midsized companies like Agere Systems and LSI Logic, faced with building 300-mm factories, have become fabless, while the large fabless companies, like Qualcomm and Xilinx, resist suggestions that they build their own fabs.