Samsung’s Hot Chips 2026 presentation, “HBM Base Die: How HBM Will Evolve Using Advanced Logic Processes,” argues that the base die beneath a High Bandwidth Memory stack is about to become far more than a communications layer. Traditionally, an HBM base die mainly connects stacked DRAM dies to a GPU, TPU, or other processor and … Read More
NVIDIA Vera: Rebuilding the CPU for Agentic AI
Source: Jonathon Evans and Polychronis Xekalakis, “NVIDIA Vera CPU,” Hot Chips 2026. Performance figures are NVIDIA claims, and several results were based on preproduction or unofficial testing.
NVIDIA’s Vera CPU is a server processor designed specifically for agentic AI, where language models repeatedly observe, reason,… Read More
ASML and TSMC’s 12-Inch Photomask Initiative: Technical Significance
ASML and TSMC’s proposed shift from 6-inch to 12-inch photomasks is an attempt to redesign a critical but often overlooked part of advanced semiconductor manufacturing. Photomasks are precision plates carrying the circuit patterns projected by a lithography scanner onto a silicon wafer. In extreme-ultraviolet lithography,… Read More
Semicon West: Transforming Tomorrow One Chip at a Time
SEMICON West 2026 arrives at a pivotal moment for the global chip industry. Scheduled for October 13–15 at San Francisco’s Moscone Center, the event returns to the Bay Area after its 2025 edition in Phoenix. Organized by SEMI under the theme “Transform Tomorrow,” it will bring together semiconductor manufacturers, equipment… Read More
HBM’s Vertical Ascent: Why Packaging Is Becoming the Heart of AI Memory
SK hynix’s Hot Chips 2026 presentation explains how High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) is evolving to meet the extraordinary memory requirements of artificial intelligence. Its central message is that future progress will depend not only on better DRAM circuits but also on advanced packaging, denser vertical integration, improved… Read More
DAC 2026: A Discussion of Who Owns the Intelligence Behind Tomorrow’s Chips and How to Make it Better
The industry is moving from simple documentation chatbots to agentic workflows capable of performing complex, multi-step tasks like design creation, verification, and library characterization. These agents are intended to enhance engineering productivity by roughly 50%. A panel of industry experts met at DAC to discuss… Read More
GenAlpha Brings a Practical Approach for Analog AI to DAC 2026
Agentic AI was everywhere at DAC 2026. Various focus areas were presented that covered many parts of the chip design flow. Verification and debug were a popular topic since so much time is spent there. Analog design is another pressure point. Every chip design has analog content. While the size of the analog blocks may not be huge,… Read More
Crescent Island: Turning Memory Capacity into Agentic AI Throughput
Intel’s Crescent Island is a discrete data-center GPU designed for agentic AI inference, where performance is constrained by more than matrix arithmetic. Multi-step agents impose latency through repeated model calls and tool interactions, consume large memory capacity for weights and long-context key-value caches, and… Read More
Intel Diamond Rapids: Building Xeon Up, Out, and Through Silicon
Akhilesh Kumar & Krishnakanth Sistla, Intel
Diamond Rapids is Intel’s next-generation Xeon processor, designed around the proposition that hyperscale performance increasingly depends on moving, processing, and protecting data as efficiently as executing instructions. The architecture replaces the conventional… Read More
Bronco AI at DAC 2026, What a Difference a Year Makes
During my time at DAC 2026 I felt like I was attending two events. One was the traditional DAC where approaches to designing complex chips using the best tools and methodologies were the focus. There was another focus for the conference. This one was like the traditional DAC with an important difference. Here, the discussion centered… Read More


The $9.5 Billion Design IP Market: Shifting Boundaries, Arm’s Monopoly, and the RISC-V Response