hip webinar automating integration workflow 800x100 (1)
WP_Term Object
(
    [term_id] => 158
    [name] => Foundries
    [slug] => semiconductor-manufacturers
    [term_group] => 0
    [term_taxonomy_id] => 158
    [taxonomy] => category
    [description] => 
    [parent] => 0
    [count] => 1235
    [filter] => raw
    [cat_ID] => 158
    [category_count] => 1235
    [category_description] => 
    [cat_name] => Foundries
    [category_nicename] => semiconductor-manufacturers
    [category_parent] => 0
    [is_post] => 
)

A Brief History of TSMC

A Brief History of TSMC
by Daniel Nenni on 08-02-2012 at 7:30 pm

In 1985 Morris Chang was recruited by the Taiwanese government to help develop the emerging semiconductor industry. In 1986 Morris joined the Hsinchu based non profit research institute ITRI as Chairman and President and launched what would be TSMC’s first semiconductor wafer fabrication plant on the ITRI campus. Taiwan… Read More


A Brief History of the Fabless Industry

A Brief History of the Fabless Industry
by Daniel Nenni on 07-31-2012 at 7:30 pm

Even though most of us have witnessed the emergence of the fabless semiconductor industry it is still good to go back and remember how we got to where we are today, to realize that the semiconductors that you now hold in your hand were enabled by the rise of the fabless semiconductor business model. This is the first in a series of blogs… Read More


The Coming Battle for AMD’s x86 Hidden Cache

The Coming Battle for AMD’s x86 Hidden Cache
by Ed McKernan on 07-30-2012 at 10:58 am

Not yet a year into Rory Read’s term and the AMD board must be considering that the value of the x86 patents and engineering talent is worth much more than the stocks $3B valuation and easier to fathom putting on the auction block than continuing to sell $25 processors into the back channels of China and the Developing World. As I read… Read More


ARM and TSMC Beat Revenue Expectations Signaling Strength in a Weakening Economy?

ARM and TSMC Beat Revenue Expectations Signaling Strength in a Weakening Economy?
by Daniel Nenni on 07-25-2012 at 11:00 am

Fabless semiconductor ecosystem bellwethers, TSMC and ARM, buck the trend reporting solid second quarters. Following “TSMC Reports Second Highest Quarterly Profit“, the British ARM Holdings “Outperforms Industry to Beat Forecasts“. Clearly the tabloid press death of the fabless ecosystem claims… Read More


Re-defining Semiconductor Collaboration!

Re-defining Semiconductor Collaboration!
by Daniel Nenni on 07-22-2012 at 7:00 pm

GlobalFoundries did a nice response to my “How has 20nm Changed the Semiconductor Ecosystem?” and redefined the word collaboration. Our industry is plagued with sound bites and acronyms so let us agree on a semiconductor ecosystem definition of collaboration.

Mojy Chianis senior vice president, design enablement at… Read More


Morris Chang Comments on Q2 2012: 28nm, 20nm, 16nm, FinFets, CAPEX, etc…

Morris Chang Comments on Q2 2012: 28nm, 20nm, 16nm, FinFets, CAPEX, etc…
by Daniel Nenni on 07-19-2012 at 5:42 pm

Twenty eight nanometer is progressing very well. Our output and our yields are both above the plans that we set for ourselves and the plans that we communicated to our customers early in the year. Early in the year means January-February of the year, we set our plans in output and in yields and we, of course, ever since then we tried toRead More


TSMC Reports Second Highest Quarterly Profit!

TSMC Reports Second Highest Quarterly Profit!
by Daniel Nenni on 07-19-2012 at 5:23 am

We all knew this quarter would be big but maybe not this big. Not all good news though so keep on reading. The news coverage is all over the map, mostly because they have no idea what a pure-play foundry really is. They also underestimate the power of mobile computing which should be a “Revenue by Application” market segment itself. … Read More


How has 20nm Changed the Semiconductor Ecosystem?

How has 20nm Changed the Semiconductor Ecosystem?
by Daniel Nenni on 07-15-2012 at 7:30 pm


What does mango beer have to do with semiconductor design and manufacturing? At a table of beer drinkers from around the world I would have never thought fruity beer would pass a taste test, not even close. As it turns out, the mango beer is very good! Same goes for 20nm planar devices. “Will not work”, “Will not yield”, “Will not scale”,… Read More


Intel Opens a New Front with ASML

Intel Opens a New Front with ASML
by Ed McKernan on 07-10-2012 at 4:00 pm

Behind great humor often lies irony. In the midst of a struggle by the European Union to extract $1.3B from Intel in an ages old Anti-Trust case, the latter makes a strategic move to embolden the Dutch firm ASML to accelerate the development of 450mm and EUV and thus save a continental jewel. What now say EU? When disfunction and bankruptcy… Read More


Intel Goes Vertical to Guarantee PC Growth

Intel Goes Vertical to Guarantee PC Growth
by Ed McKernan on 07-07-2012 at 8:30 pm

A Bloomberg article from early July caught my eye as it portends further changes in the competitive mobile market landscape. Intel is now in the business of paying Taiwanese panel suppliers to ensure the supply of touch-screen panels for PC ultrabooks. In essence it says that to win in the PC market, Intel has to mimic Apple and go … Read More