CEO Interview: Toshio Nakama of S2C

CEO Interview: Toshio Nakama of S2C
by Daniel Nenni on 01-16-2017 at 7:00 am

I haven’t sat down to speak with S2C since we collaborated on the book, PROTOTYPICAL, published just before DAC 2016 and even then, I hadn’t spoken to Toshio Nakama, their CEO. Toshio splits his time between the San Jose headquarters and the Shanghai headquarters so getting time to meet face-to-face has been challenging. I was finally… Read More


Three Interesting Things from TSMC!

Three Interesting Things from TSMC!
by Daniel Nenni on 01-13-2017 at 12:00 pm

First, the TSMC Museum of Innovation is now open and it’s quite impressive. Located right below Fab 12, it is definitely worth an hour of your time. Second, Morris Chang was on the investor call which made it much more interesting, especially his comments on the recent Report to the President on U.S. semiconductor leadership. Third,… Read More


Making the Move from 28nm to FinFET!

Making the Move from 28nm to FinFET!
by Daniel Nenni on 01-12-2017 at 12:00 pm

If you click FinFET in the SemiWiki.com Latest News: navigation bar at the top of this page you will get a list of 86 blogs that have been viewed more than 600,000 times. If you go to the last blogs on the list, meaning the first blogs to be published, you will see a three part series, “Introduction to FinFET Technology” written by Tom Dillinger… Read More


Analog Bits and TSMC!

Analog Bits and TSMC!
by Daniel Nenni on 01-10-2017 at 12:00 pm

TSMC Wafer

As a long time semiconductor IP professional I can tell you for a fact that it is one of the most challenging segments of semiconductor design. Given the growing criticality of semiconductor IP, the challenges of being a leading edge IP provider are increasing and may be at a breaking point. The question now is: What does it take to … Read More


2017 Semiconductor Dead Pool

2017 Semiconductor Dead Pool
by Daniel Nenni on 01-05-2017 at 12:00 pm

In 2015 we saw $85B in semiconductor acquisition activity and in 2016 there was more than $110B. Given 2015 and 2016 were relatively flat years for the $335B semiconductor industry and 2017 looks like more of the same we should expect consolidation to continue, absolutely.

So, let’s come up with a list of companies that may fall in… Read More


Executive Interview: Joe Rowlands, Chief Architect at NetSpeed Systems

Executive Interview: Joe Rowlands, Chief Architect at NetSpeed Systems
by Daniel Nenni on 01-02-2017 at 7:00 am

Joe has devoted his career to understanding and designing cache coherent systems and has been granted over 95 patents on the subject. For the past four years, he has been Chief Architect at NetSpeed, a developer of network-on-chip SoC interconnect.… Read More


Intel Spreadtrum ARM SoCs

Intel Spreadtrum ARM SoCs
by Daniel Nenni on 12-27-2016 at 12:00 pm

In June of 2013 Edward Snowden copied and leaked classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA). His actions exposed numerous surveillance programs that many governments around the world reacted to, including China. In September of 2013 China Vice Premier Ma Kai declared semiconductors a key sector for the … Read More


CTO Interview: Mohamed Kassem of efabless

CTO Interview: Mohamed Kassem of efabless
by Daniel Nenni on 12-26-2016 at 7:00 am

Tell us about your personal vision for efabless
You recall that efabless is building a community of analog and mixed signal designers and providing the crowdsourcing platform that lets them (1) create and market their own new designs and (2) respond to customer requests for on-demand IP and ICs. I see us at the forefront of bringing… Read More


GLOBALFOUNDRIES ASIC Update!

GLOBALFOUNDRIES ASIC Update!
by Daniel Nenni on 12-15-2016 at 7:00 am

Back in my IP days we spent a lot of time with the ASIC companies chasing multi-million dollar licensing deals. IBM was a fierce ASIC competitor back then with leading edge processes and a silicon proven IP catalog that was unmatched.

Unfortunately that ended at 65nm as the pure-play foundries (TSMC and UMC) and fabless ASIC companies… Read More


Flex Logix is a Different Kind of IP Company!

Flex Logix is a Different Kind of IP Company!
by Daniel Nenni on 12-13-2016 at 7:00 am

The embedded FPGA business has been getting quite a bit of press lately so it is definitely worth a closer look. Intel started it all when they acquired the #2 FPGA company Altera for $16.7B last year. Microsoft is also a big FPGA fan for search and deep learning. In fact, Microsoft’s commitment to FPGAs, specifically Altera FPGAs,… Read More