One of the many advantages of being part of SemiWiki is the interesting people we get to meet. As I have mentioned before, the semiconductor industry is home to many brilliant and successful people and Dr. Michel Villemain is certainly one of them. Michel is the founder and CEO of Presto Engineering and it is interesting to note that… Read More
Author: Daniel Nenni
Apple iPhone Super Cycle Update!
In 2014 Apple released the iPhone 6 which included the first SoC built on a TSMC (20nm) process. This phone started what many call a “Super Cycle” of people upgrading. According to Apple, they now have more than 1 billion activated devices so this super cycle could be seriously super, absolutely.… Read More
High Bandwidth Memory ASIC SiPs for Advanced Products!
When someone says, “2.5D packaging” my first thought is TSMC and my second thought is Herb Reiter. Herb has more than 40 years of semiconductor experience and he has been a tireless promoter of 2.5D packaging for many years. Herb writes for and works with industry organizations on 2.5D work groups and events at conferences… Read More
Oracle is out of the Chip Business!
This is a story I have been tracking for some time now. Oracle is one of the companies I was enamored with early in my career, Sun microsystems as well. They are both legacies here in Silicon Valley, absolutely. I can now confirm that Oracle is getting out of the chip business. Oracle got into the chip business with the $7.4B acquisition… Read More
Semiconductor Reliability and Product Qualification
This week, we are continuing our discussion of various topics that Semitracks addresses in their training activities. One area that they focus on quite a bit is Semiconductor Reliability and Product Qualification.
One of the key activities that a Product Engineer will coordinate is the qualification of new products before they… Read More
TSMC OIP Ecosystem Forum 2017 Preview!
The TSMC OIP Ecosystem Forum is upon us again. I have yet to meet a disappointed attendee so it is definitely worth your time: Networking with more than 1,000 semiconductor professionals, the food, mingling with the 50+ EDA, IP, and Services Companies, the food, and of course the content. The 7nm and 7nm EUV updates alone are worth… Read More
SiFive RISC-V and the Future of Computing!
Having started my career during the mini computer revolution it has been an incredible journey from using computers that consumed entire rooms – to the desktop – and now we have supercomputers in our pockets. It makes me chuckle when I hear people complaining about their smartphones when they should be jumping up and… Read More
EDA Machine Learning from the Experts!
Traditionally, EDA has been a brute force methodology where we buy more software licenses and more CPUs and keep running endless jobs to keep up with the increasing design and process complexities. SPICE simulation for example; when I meet chip designers (which I do quite frequently) I ask them how many simulations they do for a … Read More
CEO Interview: Jim Gobes of Intrinsix
Experience gives us the ability to make better decisions and in a fast moving industry like semiconductors, experience is critical. As chips get more integrated and complex the number of design decisions that must be made increases at a dramatic rate. Process technologies for example, never in the history of semiconductors have… Read More
Introduction to Semiconductor Processing
We introduced you to Semitracks last week with an interview of their CEO, Chris Henderson. This week, we thought it might be worthwhile to continue that introduction with an overview of one of their more popular online and in-houses courses:
Introduction to Semiconductor Processing.
One of the big challenges in our industry for… Read More







An Insight into Building Quantum Computers