Legend has it that in 1984, Morris Chang was approached by a friend who was looking for money to buy equipment for manufacturing his electronic chip designs. Morris told him to do more homework. When his friend did not return, Morris reached out to him. His friend, it turned out, did not need the money after all. He had found another … Read More
IITC – Imec Presents Copper, Cobalt and Ruthenium Interconnect Results
The IEEE Interconnect Technology Conference (IITC): Advanced Metallization Conference was held June 4th through 7th in Santa Clara. Imec presented multiple papers on comparing copper, cobalt and ruthenium interconnect. One paper in particular caught my eye: Marleen H. van der Veen, # N. Heylen, O. Varela Pedreira, S. Decoster,… Read More
7nm, 5nm and 3nm Logic, current and projected processes
There has been a lot of new information available about the leading-edge logic processes lately. Papers from IEDM in December 2017, VLSIT this month, the TSMC and Samsung Foundry forums, etc. have all filled in a lot of information. In this article I will summarize what is currently known.… Read More
Semiconductor Cycles Always End the Same Way
It appears the current cycle has rolled over? The reason is memory & could be worsened by trade Figuring out length, depth and impact of the downturn? We had said that AMAT “called” the top of the cycle on their last conference call even though they may not think so. Semiconductor cycles always ends the same way. The… Read More
TSMC OIP DAC Theater Schedule 2018
The TSMC OIP DAC Theater schedule is finalized and ready to go. It kicks off Monday at 10:15 am in booth #1629 and ends with a raffle at 5:45 pm each day (Mon-Tue-Wed) TSMC gives out some very nice prizes so check in with the TSMC booth staff when you arrive. There are 66 coveted presentation spots representing the top ecosystem partners… Read More
Are memory makers colluding against China?
Maybe OMEC is the new OPEC? A bargaining chip in June trade show down?
China has started an apparent investigation into pricing of DRAM memory with Samsung, Micron and SK Hynix as targets. We find this somewhat coincidental given the current trade issues. Memory pricing has been unusually strong for a very long time. Much longer … Read More
Imec technology forum 2018 – the future of memory
At the Imec technology forum in Belgium Gouri Sankar Kar and Arnaud Furnemont presented memory and storage perspectives and I also got to interview Arnaud. Arnaud leads overall memory development at Imec and personally leads NAND and DNA research.
Memory research is focused on power, energy, speed and cost with energy and throughput… Read More
Imec Technology Forum: Gary Patton of GLOBALFOUNDRIES
The imec technology forum was held in Belgium last week. At the forum I had a chance to sit down with Gary Patton the CTO of GLOBALFOUNDRIES (GF) for an interview and he also presented “Enabling Connected Intelligence – Technology innovation: Enablers for an intelligent future” at the forum. In this article … Read More
Top 10 Highlights from the Samsung Foundry Forum
Samsung Foundry recently held their annual technology forum in Santa Clara CA. The forum consisted of: presentations on advanced and mainstream process technology roadmaps; the IP readiness for those technology nodes; a review of several unique package offerings; and, an informal panel discussion with IP designers and EDA… Read More
Welcome DDR5 and Thanks to Cadence IP and Test Chip
Will we see DDR5 memory (device) and memory controller (IP) in the near future? According with Cadence who has released the first test chip in the industry integrating DDR5 memory controller IP, fabricated in TSMC’s 7nm process and achieving a 4400 megatransfers per second (MT/sec) data rate, the answer is clearly YES !
Let’s come… Read More


AI RTL Generation versus AI RTL Verification