9 Issues Face Today’s Semiconductor Supply Chain

JB’s Circuit – While the GSA report focuses on China, the challenges apply to the global IC supply chain market.

The GSA recently released its “State of China IC Design Industry 2012” report. While primarily focused on China, the report characterizes global challenges facing the semiconductor industry.

The GSA report lists nine major changes facing the supply chain process: more> http://tinyurl.com/ap2rlac

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Views from the Solar System (91)

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Air Quality Suffering in China
NASA – Residents of Beijing and many other cities in China were warned to stay inside in mid-January 2013 as the nation faced one of the worst periods of air quality in recent history. The Chinese government ordered factories to scale back emissions, while hospitals saw spikes of more than 20 to 30 percent in patients complaining of respiratory issues, according to news reports.

At the time that this Jan. 14 image was taken by satellite, ground-based sensors at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing reported PM2.5 measurements of 291 micrograms per cubic meter of air. Fine, airborne particulate matter (PM) that is smaller than 2.5 microns (about one thirtieth the width of a human hair) is considered dangerous because it is small enough to enter the passages of the human lungs. Most PM2.5 aerosol particles come from the burning of fossil fuels and biomass (wood fires and agricultural burning). The World Health Organization considers PM2.5 to be safe when it is below 25.

Also at the time of the image, the air quality index (AQI) in Beijing was 341. An AQI above 300 is considered hazardous to all humans, not just those with heart or lung ailments. AQI below 50 is considered good. On January 12, the peak of the current air crisis, AQI was 775 the U.S Embassy Beijing Air Quality Monitor—off the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency scale—and PM2.5 was 886 micrograms per cubic meter.

› View image comparisons with annotations. Image Credit: NASA/Terra – MODIS

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Euro zone factory slump deepens but Asia perks up

By Jonathan Cable and Kim Coghill – Euro zone factories sank deeper into recession in December as new orders tumbled, business surveys showed on Wednesday (Jan 2), a sharp contrast to continuing signs of revival in China.

“It’s pretty grim really,” said Jonathan Loynes at Capital Economics. “These surveys are pointing to a pretty deep recession. If the German industrial sector is contracting quite sharply it is pretty hard to see where growth across the euro zone as a whole is going to come from.”

Germany, Europe‘s largest economy, saw its crucial manufacturing sector shrink for the 10th straight month and at a faster pace, while French data showed a decline in all but one of the past 17 months. The slump in Spain deepened, while Italy’s index, although improved, remained below 50 for the 17th month. more> http://tinyurl.com/bkoxzz8

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The Battle for the Future of the Internet?

English: AGRA. Vladimir and Lyudmila Putin visiting the Taj Mahal. Русский: АГРА. Владимир и Людмила Путины во время посещения мавзолея Тадж-Махал. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By Jean-Christophe Nothias – Constructing a fairy tale usually requires a cast of ‘bad guys.’ Vladimir Putin declares that WCIT-12 should address Internet governance, and you get the plot line that Russia wants to control the Internet and its infrastructure networks. Ditto China. Add the apparent influence of Dr Hamadoun Touré, ITU‘s Malian Secretary-General who received his Ph.D. in the former USSR, to the mix.

For the U.S. chorus-preaching doomsday scenarios, it is the ‘threat’ of centralized control — and the alleged implications for increased governmental censorship — that is presented as the defining question at stake. In essence, their argument goes that the Internet in its current form is a pure and perfect example of a democratic, decentralized system. A fairy tale. more> http://tinyurl.com/cbzsblo

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