Some call it co-opetition (collaborative competition), some call it keeping your enemies close. Others call it for what it is, unfair competition and/or other types of legally actionable behavior. GlobalFoundries calls it“Fab Syncing”, which in reality will SINK their FABS!
“With this new collaboration, we are making one … Read More
AMD’s Crossing of the Chasm
When AMD announced its cutbacks recently many people were left wondering why they were so deep given the strong financial performance in Q3 and the guidance for an up Q4. It couldn’t have been related to the Thailand floods that could have been at most a one-quarter squeeze expected in Q1. Now it is apparent from reports that AMD’s … Read More
GlobalFoundries’ Expansion on Hold! Trouble in Abu Dhabi?
When AMD sought to shed its costly manufacturing operations, Ibrahim Ajami saw an interesting opportunity, one that promised to bring semiconductor manufacturing to Abu Dhabi. Let’s start with the January 2010 interview with Ajami, the 35 year old Chief Executive Officer of Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC), … Read More
Happy 40th birthday microprocessor
Intel has been making a little bit of a PR fuss about the 40th anniversary of the microprocessor. And they are entitled to. The Intel 4004 was the first customer-programmable chip. Of course if you look at it’s capabilities today they are laughably minimal, and even looking at the chip, a 16-pin DIP (dual-in-line-package … Read More
Physical Verification of 3D-IC Designs using TSVs
3D-IC design has become a popular discussion topic in the past few years because of the integration benefits and potential cost savings, so I wanted to learn more about how the DRC and LVS flows were being adapted. My first stop was the Global Semiconductor Alliance web site where I found a presentation about how DRC and LVS flows were… Read More
Synopsys Awarded TSMC’s Interface IP Partner of the Year
Is it surprising to see that Synopsys has been selected Interface IP partner of the year by TSMC? Not really, as the company is the clear leader on this IP market segment (which includes USB, PCI Express, SATA, DDRn, HDMI, MIPI and others protocols like Ethernet, DisplayPort, Hyper Transport, Infiniband, Serial RapidIO…). But,… Read More
3D Transistors @ TSMC 20nm!
Ever since the TSMC OIP Forum where Dr. Shang-Yi Chiang openly asked customers, “When do you want 3D Transistors (FinFETS)?” I have heard quite a few debates on the topic inside the top fabless semiconductor companies. The bottom line, in my expert opinion, is that TSMC will add FinFETS to the N20 (20nm) process node in parallel with… Read More
ARM Chips Away at Intel’s Server Business!
When Intel entered the server market in the 1990s with their Pentium Processor and follow on Xeons beginning in 1998, they focused on the simple enterprise applications. At the same time they laid the groundwork for what will turn out to be a multi-decade, long war to wrest control from all mainframes and workstations. The announcements… Read More
PC Growth Latches on to the Parabolic Curve of Emerging Markets
One of the interesting tidbits of information to come from Intel’s October earnings call was that Brazil, a country of nearly 200M people, has moved up to the #3 position in terms of PC unit sales. This was a shock to most people and as usual brushed aside by those not familiar with the happenings of the emerging markets (i.e. the countries… Read More
High-efficiency PVT and Monte Carlo analysis in the TSMC AMS Reference Flow for optimal yield in memory, analog and digital design!
Hello Daniel,
I am very interested on the articles on the PVT simulation, I have worked in that area in the past when I worked in process technology development and spice modeling and I also started a company called Device modeling technology (DMT) which built a Spice model library of discrete components, such as Bipolar/MOS /POWER… Read More
Speculative Execution: Rethinking the Approach to CPU Scheduling