In the past year, seeing the kinds of wearables doing what Smartphones can do, I wasn’t much excited about wearables; however after looking at what Intelhas demonstrated in CES 2015, a button sized SoC called Curie, I get to believe that it will be a game changer in wearables and would let Intel do what it couldn’t do with Smartphone… Read More
Intel: 2015 and Beyond?
Russ Fischer of Seeking Alpha fame just posted another article on Intel which, for a change, I agree wholeheartedly with except of course the part where he comments on the fabless semiconductor ecosystem, something he knows nothing about. But other than that it is definitely worth a read because as investments go Intel is certainly… Read More
Apples Versus Zebras
I have seen a couple of posts comparing the density of the Apple A8 to the Intel Core M and concluding that the TSMC 20nm process is denser than the Intel 14nm process. In one of the threads one of the posters likened this to comparing apples to oranges, I agree except I think it is even worse than that, I think it is more like comparing apples… Read More
IEDM Advanced CMOS Technology Platform Session
First I want recognize that IEDM once again provided all of the attendees with the proceedings as soon as we arrived at the conference, in fact the proceeding included every year of IEDM back to 1955. This is how a conference should be run! Anyone who read my blog about the SPIE Advanced Lithography Conference will know how frustrating… Read More
Fabless Semiconductor Milestones of 2014!
After working in the semiconductor industry for the past thirty years and writing about it for the past six I would say that 2014 was one of the more interesting years of late. Vindication is the word that pops into my mind now that many “predictions” the fabless detractors have made over the last three years were proven wrong.
As a student… Read More
IEDM: TSMC, Intel and IBM 14/16nm Processes
This week is IEDM. Three of the presentations today were by TSMC, Intel and IBM going over some of the details of their 14/16nm processes. They don’t provide the slides at IEDM, just the single page papers so this may end up being a somewhat random collection of facts.
TSMC were up first. They talked about the improvements that… Read More
Jean-Louis Gassée on Intel and Mobile
I came across a very interesting article/blog written over the weekend by Jean-Louis Gassée on Intel and mobile. It covers some similar ground to several of my blog posts on the topic but also has some new facts. And it has additional credibility since Jean-Louis was head of product development and worldwide marketing at Apple (pre-iPhone).… Read More
Intel is NOT Quitting Mobile!
Judging from the presentation Hermann Eul did at NASDAQ this week Intel is still in mobile. This presentation was probably inked before Intel Mobile was folded into the PC Group however. The first clue is Hermann’s title was listed as “General Manager and Vice President, Mobile Communications Group” which he is no longer. Even … Read More
Intel 2014 Investor Meeting and 14nm Status
Intel’s investor meeting was held yesterday and for me the presentation that is most interesting is Bill Holt’s. The presentations are available on the Intel website: Intel Corporation – Presentations Material 2014. Here is the 2013 version of this presentation: Intel Corporation – Presentations Materials 2013… Read More
Intel Quits Mobile
It happened today. As I have predicted for over a year, Intel would not be successful in mobile and would be forced to exit the market. Last quarter they lost $1B on revenues of $1M (as Dave Barry would say, I am not making this up, that M is not a typo). They ship “contra revenue” with their chips for the tablet market, meaning… Read More