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As you may know I enjoy poking fun at the current state of semiconductor design and manufacture media; sloppy reporting, editors with little or no actual semiconductor experience taking corporate marketing spins on news/events and passing it along as fact.
Last week it was the EETimes parroting the Samsung foundry business press… Read More
It was a pleasure to see the GlobalFoundries (GFI) corporate pitch at the Mentor Graphics U2U Conference last week. Wally Rhines is a tough act to follow but Mojy Chian, Senior Vice President of Design Enablement at GlobalFoundries, presented a compelling argument for a refined foundry business model. The GFI people were also … Read More
The 17[SUP]th[/SUP] annual TSMC Technical Symposium finished its North American tour in Boston, a day before the Boston Marathon. I would like to be clever and say the foundry business is also a marathon but it clearly is not. If you watch TSMC, the foundry business is both a sprint AND a marathon!
In contrast to the previous blog on… Read More
My visit to Taiwan last week was very encouraging. No earthquake, no typhoon, and both TSMC and UMC again posted record financial results, giving a peek into what 2011 has in store for us semiconductor professionals around the world.
A transcript from the TSMC earnings call can be foundhere, the UMC transcript is here. The TSMC transcript… Read More
The 2010 ISSCC theme was all about “Sensing the Future” and was one of the most inspiring semiconductor conferences I have experienced. The halls were filled with the top names in semiconductor design and manufacture from around the world. The sessions highlighted not only technology breakthroughs (first 4G silicon), but new… Read More
According to the EETimes – “The leading-edge foundry market is up for grabs, as several vendors have stumbled or been victims of the shakeout “. According to people who actually work with the foundries, like myself, the leading edge foundry market will continue to be dominated by TSMC and GlobalFoundries is the “dark horse”. Samsung… Read More
Last week TSMC hosted the2010 Executive Forum on Leading Edge Semiconductor Technology in Yokohama, Japan. The Senior Vice President of R&D at TSMC lectured on process development and the individual technologies for the 45/40nm, 32/28nm and 22/20nm nodes and explained the current status.
Dr. Shang-Yi Chiang joined TSMC… Read More
One may ask why in the semiconductor world would GlobalFoundries(GFI) exhibit at the Mobile World Congress last week, the world’s largest exhibition for the mobile industry. And not just exhibit, GFI turned out at en force with meeting rooms and bright orange signage declaring a mobile revolution. Why? Here is your first clue:… Read More
When AMD sought to shed its costly manufacturing unit Ibrahim Ajami saw an interesting opportunity, one that will eventually bring semiconductor manufacturing to Abu Dhabi. Let’s start with the recent interview published with Ajami, the 34 year old Chief Executive Officer of Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC),… Read More
Transistors may be shrinking but atoms are not. Transistors are now just a handful of atoms so it matters even more when a couple of those atoms are out of place. Process variations, whether they are statistical, proximity, or otherwise, have got to be thoughtfully accounted for if we are to achieve the low-power, high-performance,… Read More
Why NA is Not Relevant to Resolution in EUV Lithography