A couple of great questions submitted recently:

On the recent CC, it was stated that the ArcticLink III BX was included in a reference design from a U.S. Tier 1 semiconductor supplier.  How do you define “tier 1” as it relates to semiconductor companies?

and a follow-up from the same reader:

Clearly companies like Intel, QCOM, and TI are tier 1, but do you consider companies like BRCM, MRVL, and Nvidia to be tier 1?

So, to answer both:

We consider a Tier 1 to be a company with a significant market share in a specific market.  The companies that were noted by the reader on the follow-up question would all be considered Tier 1’s, in our opinion.

Thanks for the questions, and for reading!