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Amazon’s Kindle Fire Spells Trouble for nVidia, Qualcomm and Intel

Amazon’s Kindle Fire Spells Trouble for nVidia, Qualcomm and Intel
by Ed McKernan on 10-05-2011 at 11:50 am

With the introduction of the Kindle Fire, it is now guaranteed that Amazon has the formula down for building the new, high volume mobile platform based on sub $9 processors. In measured fashion, Amazon has moved down Moore’s Law curve from the initial 90nm Freescale processor to what is reported to be TI’s OMAP 4 in order to add the … Read More


Samsung versus Apple and TSMC!

Samsung versus Apple and TSMC!
by Daniel Nenni on 09-28-2011 at 6:56 am

Apple will purchase close to eightBILLION dollars in parts from Samsung for the iSeries of products this year alone, making Apple Samsung’s largest customer. Samsung is also Apple’s largest competitor and TSMC’s most viable competitive foundry threat so it was no surprise to see Apple and TSMC team up on the next generations of… Read More


TSMC and Dr. Morris Chang!

TSMC and Dr. Morris Chang!
by Daniel Nenni on 09-05-2011 at 6:14 pm

While I was in Taiwan last month battling a Super Typhoon, Morris Chang was in Silicon Valley picking up his IEEE Medal of Honor. Gordon Moore, Andrew Grove, and Robert Noyce all have medals. The other winners, including 10 Nobel prize recipients, are listed HERE. An updated wiki on Dr. Morris Chang is located HERE.

The 12+ hour plane… Read More


Manufacturing Analysis and Scoring (MAS): GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Mentor Graphics

Manufacturing Analysis and Scoring (MAS): GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Mentor Graphics
by Daniel Payne on 09-05-2011 at 3:37 pm

Last week GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Mentor Graphics presented at the Tech Design Forum on how they collaborated on a third generation DFM flow. When I reviewed the slides of the presentation it really struck me on how the old thinking in DRC (Design Rule Checking) of Pass/Fail for layout rules had been replaced with a score represented… Read More


HP Will Farm Out Server Business to Intel

HP Will Farm Out Server Business to Intel
by Ed McKernan on 09-04-2011 at 7:36 pm


In a Washington Post Column this past Sunday, Barry Ritholtz, A Wall St. Money Manager and who has a blog called the Big Picture, recounts the destruction that Apple has inflicted on a wide swath of technology companies (see And then there were none). He calls it “creative destruction writ large.” Ritholtz though is only accounting… Read More


I love you, you love me, we’re a happy family…

I love you, you love me, we’re a happy family…
by Paul McLellan on 08-31-2011 at 8:00 pm

The CEO panel at the 2nd GTC wasn’t especially enlightening. The theme was that going forward will require cooperation for success and everyone was really ready to cooperate.

The most interesting concept was Aart talking about moving from what he called “scale complexity” aka Moore’s law to what he … Read More


Global Technology Conference 2011

Global Technology Conference 2011
by Paul McLellan on 08-31-2011 at 7:07 pm

I went to the second Global Technology Conference yesterday. It started with a keynote by Ajit Manocha who is the CEO of about 2 months. I hadn’t realized until someone asked him during the press lunch that he is technically only the “acting” CEO. Actually, given his experience he might be the right person anyway,… Read More


Apple’s $399 Plan to Win Consumer Market in Summer 2012

Apple’s $399 Plan to Win Consumer Market in Summer 2012
by Ed McKernan on 08-30-2011 at 10:30 am

The complete destruction of the consumer PC market in the US and Europe is well within Apple’s grasp and will begin to unfold next summer. There is nothing that Intel, Microsoft or the retail channels can do to hold back the tsunami that was first set in motion with the iPad last year and comes to completion with the introduction of one… Read More


Semiconductor Yield @ 28nm HKMG!

Semiconductor Yield @ 28nm HKMG!
by Daniel Nenni on 08-28-2011 at 4:00 pm

Whether you use a gate-first or gate-last High-k Metal Gate implementation, yield will be your #1 concern at 28nm, which makes variation analysis and verification a big challenge. One of the consulting projects I have been working on with the foundries and top fabless semiconductor companies is High-Sigma Monte Carlo (HSMC) … Read More


Will AMD and Samsung Battle Intel and Micron?

Will AMD and Samsung Battle Intel and Micron?
by Ed McKernan on 08-26-2011 at 2:00 pm

We received some good feedback from our article on Intel’s Back to the Future Buy of Micron and I thought I would present another story line that gives readers a better perspective of what may be possibly coming down the road. In this case, it is the story of AMD and Samsung partnering to counter Intel’s platform play with Micron. The… Read More