How can TI (Texas Instruments), the global leader in analog semiconductors, maintain its dominance if not through purchases?

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How can TI (Texas Instruments), the global leader in analog semiconductors, maintain its dominance if not through purchases? [Copy link]

 What is so great about TI? TI (Texas Instruments) is one of the top 10 semiconductor companies in the world and is also the world's largest manufacturer of analog circuit technology components. In the field of analog devices, TI firmly occupies a large part of the analog IC market. TI is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, USA, and its history can be traced back to 1930. At the beginning, TI was a geological exploration company, and later turned to a military supplier. TI is the first global semiconductor company. It produced the world's first transistor in 1954 and invented the world's first integrated circuit in 1958. In addition, TI also invented the handheld calculator in 1967. In 1982, TI released the world's first single-chip digital signal processor DSP, and then became the overlord in this field. Although TI was mainly engaged in military supply at the beginning, what really made TI famous was its achievements in signal processing and analog circuits. In addition to providing analog technology, digital signal processing (DSP) and microprocessor (MCU) semiconductors, TI is also committed to the research and development and production of automotive and industrial equipment chips. TI acquires NS and settles its position in the analog IC market once and for all In April 2011, TI announced that it had signed a final agreement with National Semiconductor, and TI acquired National Semiconductor for a total of approximately US$6.5 billion. Before acquiring National Semiconductor, although TI still ranked first in the global analog IC market, it was already very difficult to increase its market share. Due to the over-fragmented nature of the analog IC market and the fact that many people have invested a lot of money in equipment and factories in digital ICs over the years, analog IC suppliers are very fragmented. Even as the world's largest analog IC supplier, TI only accounted for 14% of the market share at the time. After acquiring NS, TI's market share in general analog devices quickly increased to about 17%, leaving its competitors far behind. In addition, it also solved TI's long-standing problem of "difficult birth" of analog ICs. It is reported that before acquiring NS, TI's analog ICs had been in short supply. In order to solve the problem of analog IC supply, TI once outsourced its digital IC production capacity. Everyone is busy with mergers and acquisitions, while TI is busy with revolution In September 2016, a depth bomb exploded in the semiconductor industry. It is reported that TI's distribution channels will no longer play the role of providing design services to customers, but only play the role of supply chain and logistics. This big move by TI has further compressed the intermediate links between the original manufacturer and the agent, and the value of the agent has become lower and lower. For a long time, the entire industry has been following the industrial chain model from the original manufacturer-agent-spot trader/design company-terminal manufacturer. Due to the wide dispersion of customer bases and the wide range of project requirements, the original manufacturer often lacks engineering resources and limited energy, and has no time to take care of customers other than large manufacturers. Then, when customers need a more complete design solution, the authorized agent of the original manufacturer will be close to the customer, and its technical support and design services will come into being. Distributors are the door to a large customer base, while the original manufacturer suppliers focus on their major customers. This is the relationship between suppliers, distributors and customers. Distributors provide suppliers with more resource channels by providing services that are closer to customers. In turn, suppliers provide distributors with product information, application knowledge, training and the right to use other resources. This traditional model was suddenly broken by TI. As the world's leading semiconductor manufacturer, TI took the lead in announcing that it would break this relationship. People in the industry have predicted that the authorization protection of the original manufacturer for the agent will begin to loosen. Many other original manufacturers will follow TI's lead, and more and more European and American original manufacturers will follow suit. However, some people question the feasibility of this move. After closing this intermediate link, how can TI solve the technical support problems of customers? The original manufacturer's FAE personnel are limited, and they need to rely on the FAE of the agent to provide auxiliary support. Even if TI abandons the agent, it still cannot avoid the FAE of the agent. The origin of TI and China The origin of TI and China began in 1986, when TI began to enter mainland China. In 1996, TI's China development strategy was officially implemented. In 1999, TI established two joint ventures with domestic enterprises, namely Shanghai Panorama Digital Technology Company and Beijing Changxinjia Information Technology Company. Panorama is committed to the design of broadband product systems, while Changxinjia is committed to the design of digital terminal products. In 2002, TI cooperated with 16 Chinese and foreign manufacturers to establish Kaiming Information Technology Co., Ltd., which is committed to the research and development of a new generation of wireless multimedia information terminal products. In addition to commercial cooperation, from 1996 to 2003, TI established dozens of DSPS laboratories in China and trained tens of thousands of DSP professionals for the Chinese industry. It is worth mentioning that TI has established a huge semiconductor agency sales network in China and also has a very strong technical support team. In 2010, TI established the first wafer production and manufacturing base in mainland China in Chengdu, helping Chengdu become another major city in China's integrated circuit industry after the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta and the Bohai Rim. TI's Competitors As the world's largest analog semiconductor supplier, TI has always maintained its position in the top 10 global semiconductor rankings. In 2005, TI ranked second in the world, second only to Intel. In 2015, TI ranked sixth in the world's top 10 semiconductor rankings. In the DSP field, TI's main global competitors are: ADI: ADI, an American analog device company, has a 11% share in the DSP chip market and has successively launched a series of DSP chips with their own characteristics. Its fixed-point DSP chips include ADSP210* series, ADSP211* series, ADSP216* series and ADSP2171*/2181, and floating-point DSP chips include ADSO210* series, etc. Intel: In 1979, Intel launched the Intel 2920 16-bit "analog signal processor", which was named because Intel wanted to design a chip for direct replacement of analog circuits, including on-board A/D and D/A converters. The 2920 processes analog signals in digital form, but it lacks a parallel multiplier; in addition, its 600ns cycle speed is too slow to do useful work in the audio band, which is the market for the first large-scale DSP chips. Renesas: The first "real" single-chip DSP appeared in the early 1980s, launched by Bell Labs and Renesas (formerly Japan's NEC). Renesas' μPD7720 is the first single-chip DSP that is truly mass-produced and sold on the commercial market. Although constrained by crude development tools, NEC's chip still provides sufficient speed. It uses a two-cycle MAC to achieve a cycle time of 122ns, which can do some useful work in the audio band. Freescale: (formerly Motorola's semiconductor division spun off and acquired by NXP) entered the DSP industry late, but now has become a manufacturer with 9% of the DSP market share. In 1986, Motorola launched the fixed-point processor MC56001, and in 1990 launched the floating-point DSP chip MC96002 compatible with the IEEE floating-point format. Its DSP chips can be divided into three types: fixed-point, floating-point and dedicated. Xilinx: In 2005, Xilinx completed a DSP strategy, that is, cooperating with TI and MathWorks to shift from traditional DSP to FPGA-based DSP hardware. It is the industry's first DSP plug-in for Xilinx FPGA. AMI:In 1978, American Micro-systems launched the world's first single-chip IC designed specifically for DSP: the 12-bit S2811. AMI invented a truly innovative circuit design, but its chip implementation used a radical "V groove" MOS technology, which has never been used in mass-produced commercial products. In the MCU field, TI's major global competitors include: Renesas, ST Microelectronics, Freescale+NXP, Microchip+Atmel, Infineon, Toshiba, Samsung, Cypress, ADI, Qualcomm, Fujitsu, Holtek, etc. TI's three main DSP series products (C2000 series, C5000 series, C6000 series) At present, TI's three main DSP product series are the C2000 series (mainly used in digital control systems); the C5000 (C54x, C55x) series is mainly used for low-power, portable wireless communication terminal products; the C6000 series is mainly used for high-performance and complex communication systems. The TMS320C54x series DSP chips in the C500 series are widely used in the fields of communications and personal consumer electronics. The TMS320C2000 series for digital control and motion control mainly includes TMS320C24x/F24x, TMS320LC240x/LF240x, TMS320C24xA/LF240xA, TMS320C28xx, etc. The TMS320C5000 series, which is aimed at low-power, handheld devices, and wireless terminal applications, mainly includes TMS320C54x, TMS320C54xx, TMS320C55x, etc. The TMS320C6000 series, which is aimed at high-performance, multi-function, and complex application fields, mainly includes TMS320C62xx, TMS320C64xx, TMS320C67xx, etc.