The 8051 processor has been widely used in many embedded applications over the past 30 years. While the 8051 core is small and simple-to-use, the newest generation of consumer electronics being developed today often require more than the 8051 MCU can reasonably deliver. New SOC applications such as flash drives, power management… Read More
Author: Daniel Nenni
Sidense Beats Kilopass in Court Again!
The technology headlines in 2013 were often stolen by frivolous legal actions that made little or no sense to me at all. Patent Trolling is at an all-time high inside the fabless semiconductor ecosystem and as a result litigation reform is coming to Silicon Valley, believe it.
Currently working its way through the legislative process… Read More
Low Power @ DesignCon 2014
Taking place annually in Silicon Valley, DesignCon is the premier educational conference and technology exhibition for electronic design engineers in the high speed communications and semiconductor communities.
Created by engineers for engineers, DesignCon is the largest gathering of chip, board and systems designers… Read More
Innovations that will change our lives in the next five years
The theme of our book “Fabless: The Transformation of the Semiconductor Industry” comes from the Steve Jobs quote,“You can’t really understand now if you don’t know what came before.” After chronicling the rise of the semiconductor industry and transformation to the fabless business model we ask in the final chapter, … Read More
SEMI Industry Strategy Symposium
The SEMI Industry Strategy Symposium (ISS) is Jan 13th-15th at the Ritz-Carlton in Half Moon Bay. When I discussed this with my beautiful wife as a possible business trip for us and mentioned the agenda she stopped me and said, “You had me at Ritz-Carlton!” As you can see by the picture it has a beautiful ocean view and includes a world… Read More
SemiWiki 2013 in Review!
This certainly was an interesting year. The fabless semiconductor ecosystem definitely got stronger and I see nothing but clear skies in 2014. Judging by the SemiWiki 2013 analytics and key search terms we all have an interesting year ahead of us with even more opportunities to grow and innovate. 2013 was also a year of growth and… Read More
Intel Wafer Pricing Exposed!
One of the big questions on Intel’s foundry strategy is: Can they compete on wafer pricing? Fortunately there are now detailed reports that support what most of us fabless folks already know. The simple answer is no, Intel cannot compete with TSMC or Samsung on wafer pricing at 28nm, 20nm, and 14nm.
In fact, recent reports have shown… Read More
Fab-U-Less! The 2013 Global Semiconductor Awards!
It was a dinner with more than a thousand semiconductor professionals from around the world keynoted by Author and Editor in Chief of Forbes Magazine Steve Forbes. What more could a humble blogger ask for? Even at $250 a plate it was well worth it just to mingle amongst the people who make this industry so great.
Global Semiconductor… Read More
DAC 2014: Designer Track/IP Call for Submissions
Yes, it is that time of year again, DAC is coming and it is in San Francisco so you can bet we will break attendance records, absolutely. I would like to call on ALL semiconductor IP companies to exhibit this year. IP is the center of the semiconductor design universe, DAC is the premier semiconductor design event, and San Francisco … Read More
Should Intel Offer Foundry Services?
This has been a heated topic since Intel announced that it would open its manufacturing facilities to the fabless ecosystem more than a year ago. I for one think it is a colossal mistake and I’m not surprised that many others share this view. IDM’s offering of excess manufacturing capacity to semiconductor design companies… Read More
Intel Foundry Delivers!