Although there has been always a strong relationship between ARM and GlobalFoundries, it is interesting to notice that Intel has helped to boost it and make it even stronger. Indeed when AMD renegotiated its x86 licensing deal with Intel in 2009, one of the most significant long-term changes was a marked reduction in how much of … Read More
Process Design Kits: PDKs, iPDKs, openPDKs
One of the first things that needs to be created when bringing up a new process is the Process Design Kit, or PDK. Years ago, back when I was running the custom IC business line at Cadence, we had a dominant position with the Virtuoso layout editor and so creating a PDK really meant creating a Virtuoso PDK, and it was a fairly straightforward… Read More
CES GlobalFoundries Party ( pics )
Unlike the last CES, this year I saw compelling technology, technology that will definitely drive the semiconductor industry and make the analyst fortunetellers look bad yet again. Anyone who thinks semiconductor growth next year will be in single digits is absolutely wrong, TSMC will grow even more, 20%+. First and foremost… Read More
TSMC vs GlobalFoundries IBM Samsung
GlobalFoundries has brought the Common Platform Alliance back from the dead!?!?!?! Good thing too as it is probably their most comprehensive weapon against TSMC and answers the single biggest question customers have at 28nm and that is; Will there be enough CAPACITY?
The Common Platform technology alliance hosted its first-ever… Read More
GlobalFoundries Exposed, Part II!
EDA CEO panels are usually rather dull but this one definitely held my interest. It was standing room only and I was surrounded by familiar faces from not only EDA and IP company executives, but also representatives from the top semiconductor companies around the world! The theme of course was collaboration, promoting the GFI “IDM-Like”… Read More
GlobalFoundries Exposed!
The GlobalFoundries Technical Conference last week was one of the best I’ve seen. The theme of the conference was “GlobalFoundries is bringing the collaborative IDM semiconductor design and manufacturing culture to the merchant foundry business!”
“We ramped volume production at the 45/40nm node well ahead of all foundries… Read More
TSMC versus GlobalFoundries: Semiconductor Design Enablement!
As mentioned in previous blogs, design enablement is a key enabler to fabless semiconductor design and manufacture, without question. The purpose of this blog (in 500 words) is to compare and contrast two very different design enablement strategies and engage the semiconductor community in a meaningful discussion.
The GlobalFoundry… Read More
2010 Semiconductor Foundry Update: Consolidation!
It has been an interesting month in the semiconductor business. Record revenues, profits, aggressive expansion plans, something we have not seen before and may not see again. Let’s start in Taiwan then move to Silicon Valley, Upstate New York, China, and Korea, with a look at: financials, capacity, and consolidation.
TSMC and… Read More
Redefining the Semiconductor Foundry Model: Abu Dhabi versus Taiwan
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
Redefining the Foundry Model: TSMC versus GlobalFoundries
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!
What would you do if you were the CEO of Intel?