The semiconductor industry is in the midst of a structural supply challenge that’s tightly coupled to exploding demand for advanced chips, especially those used in AI, HPC, and next-generation mobile and consumer devices. At the center of this vortex is the 2nm class of manufacturing technology, representing one of the most … Read More
TSMC vs Intel Foundry vs Samsung Foundry 2026
The global semiconductor industry sits at the foundation of modern technology, powering everything from smartphones and cloud data centers to artificial intelligence, automobiles, and national defense systems. At the center of advanced chip manufacturing are three major players: TSMC, Samsung Foundry, and Intel Foundry… Read More
Memory Matters: The State of Embedded NVM (eNVM) 2025
Make a difference and take this short survey. It asks about your experience with embedded non-volatile memory technologies. The survey is anonymous, and the results will be shared in aggregate to help the industry better understand trends: 2025 Embedded Non-Volatile Memory Survey.
We are now in the AI era where data is the lifeblood… Read More
Musk’s new job as Samsung Fab Manager – Can he disrupt chip making? Intel outside
– Musk chip lifeline to Samsung comes with interesting strings attached
– Musk chose Samsung over Intel-What does that say about Intel?
– Musk will hold sway over Samsung much as Apple/NVDA over TSMC
– Will Musk do a “DOGE” on chip tool makers? How much influence?
Tesla/Samsung $16.5B deal
… Read MoreWhat if China doesn’t want TSMC’s factories but wants to take them out?
Insights into the Semiconductor Industry and the Semiconductor Supply Chain
I am not an expert in geopolitical issues, but lately, my research has begun to worry me. As I was preparing to be interviewed for Chinese media, I was in my “Chinese Zone”, adapting to what is palatable to a Chinese audience. Maybe my mode provoked the thought:… Read More
VLSI Technology Symposium – Intel describes i3 process, how does it measure up?
At the VLSI Technology Symposium this week Intel released details on their i3 process. Over the last four nodes Intel has had an interesting process progression. In 2019, 10nm finally entered production with both high performance and high-density standard cells. 10nm went through several iterations eventually resulting in… Read More
The Case for U.S. CHIPS Act 2
Despite murky goals and moving targets, the recent CHIPS Act sets the stage for long term government incentives.
Authored by Jo Levy and Kaden Chaung
On April 25, 2024, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced the fourth, and most likely final, grant under the current U.S. CHIPS Act for leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing.… Read More
ISS 2024 – Logic 2034 – Technology, Economics, and Sustainability
For the 2024 SEMI International Strategy Symposium I was challenged by members of the organizing committee to look at where logic will be in ten years from a technology, economics, and sustainability perspective. The following is a discussion of my presentation.
To understand logic, I believe it is useful to understand what makes… Read More
Arm Total Design Hints at Accelerating Multi-Die Activity
I confess I am reading tea leaves in this blog, but why not? Arm recently announced Arm Total Design, an expansion of their Compute Subsystems (CSS) offering which made me wonder about the motivation behind this direction. They have a lot of blue-chip partners lined up for this program yet only a general pointer to multi-die systems… Read More
How Intel, Samsung and TSMC are Changing the World
Given the changes in the music business, the term “Rock Star” doesn’t really have any relevance to music or its performers anymore. Instead, we use the term to describe leaders, innovators and generally people or organizations of great significance. In the world of semiconductors, the designers of advanced chips were the rock… Read More


Breker Hosts an Energetic Panel on Spec-Driven Verification