More and more companies, regardless of their vertical, are trying to get closer to their customers and see various aspects of the internet of things (IoT) as the way to do so. For a good example, here is Salesforce Wear Developer Pack which, as they say:..is a collection of open-source starter apps that let you quickly design and build… Read More
TSMC Breaks More Records in Q3 2014!
As previously predicted TSMC is having another record breaking SoC quarter. TSMC is my favorite economic bellwether and from what I can see the semiconductor industry will continue to grow this year and next at a rapid rate thanks to TSMC and the fabless semiconductor ecosystem:
We have set a new record of revenue and profitability… Read More
Demler: Quad Core is Just For Marketing; Intel Will Not Succeed in Mobile
At Memcon today Mike Demler of the Linley Group (and coincidentally someone who used to work for me back at Cadence and who now run Memcon, small world) gave an interesting presentation on Trends in Mobile Processors. A mobile application processor (AP) is a highly integrated SoC to run the applications in a mobile device. Mostly… Read More
Intel: Spectacular PC, Some Progress in Mobile
Intel announced their quarterly results today. They beat consensus by a cent. Not surprisingly their business is driven heavily by the microprocessor businesses, what Intel calls PC and Datacenter. Revenue and earnings both set new records in both groups.
As Brian Krzanich, the CEO, said:In the Data Center, we saw double-digit… Read More
Making Wafers in Space?
The Albuquerque Journal had an article about a local company sending silicon carbide wafers into suborbital space to improve their quality. ACME Advanced Materials plans to buy low quality $250 wafers, send them into space using their process, and sell the higher quality wafers for about $750. They are working to add gallium nitride… Read More
TSMC ♥ Cadence!
One of the questions I routinely ask amongst the fabless semiconductor ecosystem is, “How are the EDA vendors doing?” There are always complaints because, let’s face it, we all like to complain. On occasion however I do hear about a vendor who goes above and beyond the call of duty and it really brightens my day.
Of late,… Read More
Maker Movement Embraced by Major Semiconductor Companies
How the Arduino Changed Embedded System Development Forever
In 2005 with the development of the Arduino, everything changed for people building things that required a microcontroller. The Arduino brought with it a low price standard, and open, hardware platform and an easy to use open source development environment. It was … Read More
WTL Leverage FDSOI to Achieve Both Low Power AND High Speed
In fact, this is the title of a presentation given by Pete Foley during FD-SOI Forum 2014 held in Shanghai, a couple of weeks ago. What is nice with clever people like Pete Foley is that they get the point, and get it quickly. Getting the point is to insert AND in capital in the title, as using FD-SOI technology allows to benefit from low-power… Read More
Intel Invades China Mobile Market!
As you may have heard, Intel is making some interesting moves into the China mobile market. At first it had me a bit puzzled but I had some lengthy discussions about it during ARM TechCon last week so I’m ready to start writing. Spoiler alert: This will be pro Intel so please sit down and take some deep breaths before reading.
The first… Read More
The Apple Samsung TSMC Intel 14nm Mashup!
One of the strengths of the fabless semiconductor ecosystem is competition since it keeps innovation high and prices low. One of the challenges of fostering competition is that you have to make good on a threat of using a competing product during a pricing negotiation. Well, in my opinion, for the next version of the iPhone, Apple… Read More
TSMC Formally Sues Ex-SVP Over Alleged Transfer of Trade Secrets to Intel