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Non-Tech : Kirk's Market Thoughts -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Gottfried who wrote (516)	1/23/2014 10:08:50 AM
From: Kirk ©	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 26443

Interesting list. Where does Reed Hastings live? CA but not sure what city... He's pulled enough cash out of Netflix to probably affect the total deficit with a few tenths of a percent via taxes paid in CA. Netflix soars after crushing estimates. Netflix added 2.33M subscribers in the U.S., and it now has well over 30M domestically and more than 44M in total. The company expects to gain another 2.25M U.S. members in Q1, and it plans to start a "substantial" expansion in Europe, where it sees a large opportunity. Netflix racked up another quarter of impressive growth to finish 2013, surpassing 30 million paid subscribers in the United States for the first time and predicting continued growth through the first quarter of this year. The company was already more popular than any other subscriber service — HBO included — and the fourth quarter provided an increase of 2.33 million new subscribers in the United States, the very top end of what analysts had projected. The total number of domestic subscribers — including free trial memberships — grew to 33.4 million, the company announced Wednesday. Paid subscriptions reached 31.7 million. HBO costs a lot more to get so I can see why Netflix is cheaper. You do need a decent internet connection to use it. I have slow DSL so don't bother but if I upgrade to the new DISH DVR that allows "Aps" then I think I can use the DVR to download Netflix to watch when I want over my slow DSL line just as I do with many shows I can't record directly when broadcast. That is my DVR lets me get any HBO show or movie over DSL to download to the DVR for 30 days to watch...

To: Gottfried who wrote (516)

2/11/2014 9:42:13 AM

From: Kirk ©

Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 26443

Interesting to see Apple/TSMC go backwards on wafer size as they were not getting the economy of scale with only 70% yield with 12" wafers.

Also, isn't reliability more of a concern when yields are so low? Do we have any reliability engineers here?

This could be the nose under the tent for Intel to get into wafer fab business at Apple also....

TSMC shifts to 8-inch processing to produce fingerprint sensors for next-generation iPhone

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) will use its 8-inch processing, instead of 12-inch, to produce fingerprint sensors for Apple's next-generation iPhone due to concerns about yield rates for 12-inch wafer-level packaging (WLP), according to industry sources.

Apple previously decided to have TSMC produce fingerprint sensors for its next-generation iPhone at the foundry's 12-inch facilities using a 65nm process, the sources noted. However, acknowledging risks associated with 12-inch WLP technologies, Apple has finally chosen TSMC's 8-inch processing which enables mature yield rates for WLP to produce the fingerprint sensors, the sources said.

As TSMC shifts back to 8-inch processing to fabricate fingerprint sensors for the next-generation iPhone as done previously, the foundry will continue to subcontract the packaging process to backend houses, the sources indicated. Xintec and China WLCSP are identified as the backend partners.

According to Apple's previous decision, which was to have TSMC fabricate the new fingerprint sensors at its 12-inch fabs, TSMC would handle the backend wafer-level chip-scale packaging (WL-CSP) process in-house, the sources pointed out.

Yield rates for 8-inch WLP are able to exceed 95%, while those for 12-inch WLP at TSMC's facilities at the Southern Taiwan Science Park (STSP) stay between 70% and 80%, the sources revealed.

Fingerprint sensors for Apple's iPhone 5s have been manufactured at TSMC's 8-inch fabs. Produciton of the sensors once suffered unsatisfactory yield rates limiting the availability of the 5s, according to the sources.

via email from News website: www.digitimes.com