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SemiWiki.com Analytics Exposed 2012

SemiWiki.com Analytics Exposed 2012
by Daniel Nenni on 07-29-2012 at 7:30 pm


About 4 years ago some of my semiconductor cohorts urged me to blog. “Hey Dan, you’re a funny guy, write about EDA and IP, make us laugh!” Of course what I think is funny most people think is snarky, which is a nice word for being a smart ass. The traditional semiconductor press was crumbling, the non traditional EDA websites were outdated,… Read More


The Future of Lithography and the End of Moore’s Law!

The Future of Lithography and the End of Moore’s Law!
by Paul McLellan on 07-24-2012 at 10:35 pm

Thisblog with a chart showing that the cost of given functionality on a chip is no longer going to fall is, I think, one of the most-read I’ve ever written on Semiwiki. It is actually derived from data nVidia presented about TSMC, so at some level perhaps it is two alpha males circling each other preparing for a fight. Or, in this… Read More


Media Tablet Strategy from Google and Microsoft: illusion about the effective protection of NDAs…

Media Tablet Strategy from Google and Microsoft: illusion about the effective protection of NDAs…
by Eric Esteve on 07-24-2012 at 10:26 am

Extracted from an interesting article from Jeff Orr from ABI research, “We have all heard about leaked company roadmaps that detail a vendor’s product or service plans for the next year or two. Typically, putting one’s plans down in advance of public announcement has two intended audiences: customers who rely on Read More


EUV: No Pellicle

EUV: No Pellicle
by Paul McLellan on 07-22-2012 at 10:00 pm

There’s a dirty secret problem about EUV that people don’t seem to to be talking about. There’s no pellicle on a EUV mask. OK, probably you have no idea what that means, a lot of jargon words, nor why it would be important, but it seems to me it could be the killer problem for EUV.

In refractive masks, you print a pattern… Read More


Higgs bosons, (un)certainty, and black holes

Higgs bosons, (un)certainty, and black holes
by Beth Martin on 07-18-2012 at 9:00 pm

Ever since the announcement in early July from CERN that they likely have, probably, finally found the Higgs boson, I’ve been thinking about what quantum mechanics means to our daily ‘classical model’ existence. On the surface, nothing. The most fantastical aspects of quantum mechanics, like uncertainty, tunneling and the … Read More


Qualcomm’s Moment to Re-Align Globally

Qualcomm’s Moment to Re-Align Globally
by Ed McKernan on 07-16-2012 at 6:00 pm

Qualcomm has a nice problem to have: too much demand for its Snapdragon and 4G LTE baseband parts. How Qualcomm realigns its manufacturing strategy around this problem will determine whether or not they can breakaway from the ARM camp and go toe to toe with Intel. Last week Malcolm Penn claimed TSMC was too big to fail. Really? The … Read More


Nokia: the Epic Version

Nokia: the Epic Version
by Paul McLellan on 07-12-2012 at 2:00 pm

Whenever I write about the handset industry, lots of people seem to be interested. As I’ve said before, my go to person for the industry but especially for Nokia, is Tomi Ahonen. He has written a long (and I mean long, it is nearly 30,000 words) indictment of Elop’s tenure at Nokia and how he has destroyed one of the most … Read More


Minitel Shuts Down

Minitel Shuts Down
by Paul McLellan on 07-05-2012 at 5:02 pm

When I first came to the US, one project that we had going on at VLSI Technology was an ASIC design being done by a French company called Telic. The chip would go into something called “Minitel” which the France Telecom (actually still the PTT since post and telecomunications had not yet been separated) planned to supply… Read More


Crushed Blackberry

Crushed Blackberry
by Paul McLellan on 07-02-2012 at 12:00 am

I wasn’t going to write about the cell phone business again for some time. After all, this is a site about semiconductor and EDA primarily. But the cell-phone business in all its facets is a huge semiconductor consumer and continues to grow fast (despite my morbid focus on those companies that do anything but).

But Research… Read More


The Scariest Graph I’ve Seen Recently

The Scariest Graph I’ve Seen Recently
by Paul McLellan on 07-01-2012 at 4:00 pm

Everyone knows Moore’s Law: the number of transistors on a chip doubles every couple of years. We can take the process roadmap for Intel, TSMC or GF and pretty much see what the densities we will get will be when 20/22nm, 14nm and 10nm arrive. Yes the numbers are on track.

But I have always pointed out that this is not what drives… Read More