After driving to Silicon Valley for the past 30 years I am acutely aware of traffic patterns and to me that directly relates to the economy. The recession of 2009 really hit traffic patterns with what I would estimate as a 20% unemployment rate in Silicon Valley. I could leave my home in Danville anytime of the day and have no traffic … Read More
Author: Daniel Nenni
TSMC is a more profitable semiconductor company than Intel
There is an interesting article on Seeking Alpha, “A More Profitable Semiconductor Company Than Intel”, and for a change the author does not PRETEND to know semiconductor technology. Refreshing! Personally I think the stock market is a racket where insiders profit at the expense of the masses. But if you are going to gamble you … Read More
New Media and the Semiconductor Ecosystem!
Gary Smith did a nice write-up on the current state of electronics media. It’s posted on his Gary Smith EDAwebsite. Traditional media certainly is in transition and there is more change to come, definitely. Gary lists me as one of the heroes carrying the flag which is very nice of him to say. In reality though, he missed Paul … Read More
Intel 14nm Delayed?
One of the more interesting pieces of information I overheard at SEMICON West earlier this month was that Intel 14nm was delayed. This rumor came from the semiconductor equipment manufacturers and they would know. What I was told is that the Intel 14nm process has not left the OR development facility to be replicated in the OR and … Read More
Premier Gathering for Semiconductor Professionals!
The US Executive Forum hosted by the Global Semiconductor Alliance is coming up on September 25th at the beautiful Rosewood Sand Hill Hotel in Menlo Park. Over 150 executives from the semiconductor and technology industry will attend creating a truly unique opportunity to listen to some of the world’s foremost speakers… Read More
Metastability Starts With Standard Cells
Metastability is a critical SoC failure mode that occurs at the interface between clocked and clockless systems. It’s a risk that must be carefully managed as the industry moves to increasingly dense designs at 28nm and below. Blendics is an emerging technology company that I have been working with recently, their MetaACE… Read More
Where will Apple Manufacture the next iPhone Brain?
There still seems to be a lot of confusion here so let me set the record straight. In regards to the Apple Ax SoC, the Apple iPhone 5s will have Samsung 28nm Silicon. Samsung 28nm is still ramping but Samsung can make enough wafers and eat the yield issues no problem. The Apple iPhone 6 in 2014 will have TSMC 20nm as I reported previously.… Read More
How to Engage with the Fabless Semiconductor Ecosystem
SemiWiki is absolutely the best place to start of course. You can read observations, opinions, and experiences on a wide variety of semiconductor related topics from semiconductor professionals around the world. You can also mingle with the 653,105+ people who visit SemiWiki in the comment sections and the forum. Registration… Read More
Intel Benchmark Hoax!
To be fair, cheating on CPU benchmarks is not new, so if you haven’t followed the computer industry for the past 30 years you might be surprised by Intel cheating, but I’m certainly not. Back in the day I worked for Data General and we “creatively” benchmarked against the Digital Equipment VAX all day long. There are different types… Read More
Interview with Arasan
Recently I had a chance to chat with Arasan Ganesan, CEO at Arasan Chip Systems in San Jose, CA. Arasan Chip Systems has provided Silicon interface IP and supporting hardware and software to the semiconductor industry for more than 15 years. The headquarters are in San Jose and engineering offices in Bangalore and Tuticorin, India.… Read More
Weebit Nano Brings ReRAM Benefits to the Automotive Market