New-Tech Europe Magazine | October 2018

Latest News 81% to $16.3 billion in 2017 and is expected to

extraordinary, may not result in a similar amount of excess capacity, as has been the case in the past. As seen in Figure 2, the DRAM ASP is forecast to rise 38% in 2018 to $6.65, but IC Insights forecasts that DRAM market growth will cool as additional capacity is brought online and supply constraints begin to ease. (It is worth mentioning that

climb another 40% to $22.9 billion this year. Capex spending at these levels would normally lead to an overwhelming flood of new capacity and a subsequent rapid decline in prices. However, what is slightly different this time around is that big productivity gains normally

associated with significant spending upgrades are much less at the sub-20nm process node now being used by the top DRAM suppliers as compared to the gains seen in previous generations. At its Analyst Day event held earlier this year, Micron presented figures showing that manufacturing DRAM at the sub-20nm node requires a 35% increase in the number of mask levels, a 110% increase in the number of non-lithography steps per critical mask level, and 80% more cleanroom space per wafer out since more equipment—each piece with a larger footprint than its previous generation—is required to fabricate ≤20nm devices. Bit volume increases that previously averaged around 50% following the transition to a smaller technology node, are a fraction of that amount at the ≤20nm node. The net result is suppliers must invest much more money for a smaller increase in bit volume output. So, the recent uptick in capital spending, while At least two Chinese IC suppliers, Innotron and JHICC, are set to participate in this year’s DRAM market. Although China’s capacity and manufacturing processes will not initially rival those from Samsung, SK Hynix, or Micron, it will be interesting to see how well the country’s startup companies perform and whether they will exist to serve China’s national interests only or if they will expand to serve global needs. Siemens closes Mendix acquisition, extending industry leading digital innovation platform Samsung and SK Hynix in 3Q18 reportedly deferred some of their expansion plans in light of expected softening in customer demand.) Of course, a wildcard in the DRAM market is the role and impact that the startup Chinese companies will have over the next few years. It is estimated that China accounts for approximately 40% of the DRAM market and approximately 35% of the flash memory market.

community, building on our legacy as the most innovative and open low-code cloud platform,” said Derek Roos, co- founder and CEO of Mendix. “Our platform will remain industry and ecosystem agnostic. We will build on our industry-first partnerships with SAP and IBM, and we’re going to bring even more differentiated software solutions to market by combining Siemens’ deep vertical know-how with the Mendix platform.” Further, thecombinedmarketofferingofSiemenscomprehensive Digital Enterprise Software suite, Mendix low-code application development, and MindSphere IoT ecosystem creates a true innovation platform of choice for organisations large and small to digitally transform their enterprises. Customers are empowered to make product and manufacturing information universally accessible and useful for their business via a range of integrated, yet open, best-in-class technology for

Siemens closed the acquisition of Mendix, eight weeks after the transaction was announced as part of the company’s Vision 2020+ strategy. As enterprises invest to digitalize their operations, demand for business applications is growing significantly faster than the capacity of IT organizations to deliver them. This gap between business demand for smart applications and lack of adequate developer talent has created unprecedented demand for low- code, high productivity platforms. With the addition of Mendix, Siemens enters the rapidly growing low-code application development market and will invest in Mendix to build on its market-leading position, across both its existing customer verticals and the Siemens customer base. “Siemens will continue to invest in Mendix’s independent go- to-market operations, product roadmap, brand and developer

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