A Quick TSMC 2019 Tech Symposium Overview

A Quick TSMC 2019 Tech Symposium Overview
by Daniel Nenni on 04-26-2019 at 7:00 am

This year TSMC did a FinFET victory lap with the success of 16nm, 12nm, 10nm, and 7nm. It really is well deserved. Even though TSMC credits the ecosystem and customers, I credit TSMC and their relationship with Apple since it has pushed us all much harder than ever before. TSMC CEO C.C. Wei summed it up nicely in his keynote: Innovation,… Read More


A Brief History of IP Management

A Brief History of IP Management
by Daniel Nenni on 04-24-2019 at 12:00 pm

As RTL design started to increase in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, it was becoming apparent that some amount of management was needed to keep track of all the design files and their associated versions. Because of the parallels to software development, design teams looked to the tools and methodologies that were in use by software… Read More


User2User Silicon Valley 2019

User2User Silicon Valley 2019
by Daniel Nenni on 04-22-2019 at 7:00 am

This will be one of the more interesting Mentor User Group Meetings now that the Siemens acquisition has fully taken effect and the new management team is in place. The Mentor User Conference is at the Santa Clara Marriott, Santa Clara, California on May 2, 2019 from 9:00 am to 6:00pm.

Remember, in 2017 Siemens acquired Mentor Graphics… Read More


TSMC Q1 2019 Earnings Call Discussion!

TSMC Q1 2019 Earnings Call Discussion!
by Daniel Nenni on 04-19-2019 at 7:00 am

It’s no coincidence that the TSMC Symposium is right after the Q1 earnings call. This will allow TSMC to talk more freely and they certainly will, my opinion. It is a very interesting time in the semiconductor industry and TSMC, being the bellwether, can tell us what will happen the rest of the year and give us some 2020 insights.… Read More


Samsung 5nm and TSMC 6nm Update

Samsung 5nm and TSMC 6nm Update
by Daniel Nenni on 04-16-2019 at 12:00 pm

TSMC and Samsung continue to raise the competitive bar for FinFET foundry market share with dueling announcements this week. As I mentioned previously in the blog Semiconductor Foundry Landscape Update 2019, FinFETs are the market to watch with the coming onslaught of 5G and AI chips on the edge, in the cloud, and in our autonomous… Read More


From Wild West to Modern Life the Semiconductor Evolution

From Wild West to Modern Life the Semiconductor Evolution
by Daniel Nenni on 04-15-2019 at 7:00 am

What started as blogs, or vignettes as Wally calls them, posted on SemiWiki is now a free PDF eBook. The journey starts with his school days at Stanford through 20+ years at TI and 24+ years at Mentor Graphics. Wally has traveled millions of miles meeting with every customer imaginable while presenting hundreds of different keynotes… Read More


My Thoughts on Cadence in the Cloud

My Thoughts on Cadence in the Cloud
by Daniel Nenni on 04-03-2019 at 12:00 pm

The cloud is a highly popular term that a lot of people don’t fully understand. If you are one of those people please read on as I will share my experience, observations, and opinions. Even if you are a cloud aficionado you may want to catch up on what’s new with EDA cloud services so again read on.

When we first started SemiWiki 9 years … Read More


FPGA Landscape Update 2019

FPGA Landscape Update 2019
by Daniel Nenni on 04-01-2019 at 7:00 am

In 2015 Intel acquired Altera for $16.7B changing one of the most heated rivalries (Xilinx vs Altera) the fabless semiconductor ecosystem has ever seen. Prior to the acquisition the FPGA market was fairly evenly split between Xilinx and Altera with Lattice and Actel playing to market niches in the shadows. There were also two FPGA… Read More


Semiconductor Foundry Landscape Update 2019

Semiconductor Foundry Landscape Update 2019
by Daniel Nenni on 03-29-2019 at 5:00 am

The semiconductor foundry landscape changed in 2018 when GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Intel paused their leading edge foundry efforts. Intel quietly told partners they would no longer pursue the foundry business and GF publicly shut down their 7nm process development and pivoted towards existing process nodes while trimming headcount… Read More


With Great Power Comes Great Visuality

With Great Power Comes Great Visuality
by Daniel Nenni on 03-29-2019 at 12:00 am

Every system-on-chip (SoC) designer worries about power. Many widely used electronics applications run on batteries, including smartphones, tablets, autonomous vehicles, and many Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices. Even “big iron” products such as network switches and compute servers must be careful when it comes to power… Read More