The outlook for semiconductor capital expenditures (capex) in 2016 is weak. Gartner’s January 2016 forecast called for a decline of 4.7%. IC Insights in February projected a 0.8% decline. The table below shows the Gartner forecast along with the capex forecasts from the top three spenders (Intel, Samsung and TSMC) which… Read More
Why I’ll Always Be an Andy Grove Fan
Silicon Valley sadly lost a respected and revered leader with the death of Andrew Grove in March. The co-founder and former CEO of Intel was an inspiration to generations of technologists and business leaders, including me. Andy had a profound influence on me throughout my career. And while I only met him once, I feel as though I’ve… Read More
No reason for FD-SOI Roadmap to follow Moore’s law!
We in Semiwiki are writing about FD-SOI since 2012, describing all the benefits offered by the technology in term of power consumption, price per performance compared with FinFET, etc. Let me assess again that I am fully convinced that FD-SOI is a very smart and efficient way to escape from the Moore’s law paradox: the transistor… Read More
Intel Got Fit At CES 2016 And Even Reached Some New Heights At X-Games
You may have noticed this weekend that Intel was all over the X-Games. You couldn’t turn on the TV, web video or Twitter without seeing the company on and around the X-Games. Intel’s love affair with sports started when Brian Krzanich took the reigns as Intel’s CEO and has been amplified at nearly corporate event… Read More
Intel And Qualcomm Partner (Yes, Really)
For the longest time, the 802.11ad space, also known as WiGig by others, was a conglomeration of different 60 GHz Wi-Fi technologies. There have been many companies that have announced technologies utilizing 60 GHz Wi-Fi technologies including Intel, Nitero, Peraso, Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics and SiBEAM. Even though many… Read More
Samsung 10nm and 7nm Strategy Explained!
Samsung Foundry had an intimate gathering recently for 200 customers and partners that I missed, but I know several people who attended. This event was a precursor to #53DAC where Samsung has the largest foundry presence. I was able to clarify what I had heard via a phone call with Kelvin Low so here is my version of what is important:… Read More
Webinar: How to Implement an ARM Cortex-A17 Processor in 22FDX 22nm FD-SOI Technology
Who’s doesn’t like a good webinar? I certainly do as it is one of the most time efficient ways to interact with the fabless semiconductor ecosystem, absolutely. Especially when it addresses two of the top trending topics on SemiWiki and they are ARM and FD-SOI. Here is a quick summary of what you will learn:
GLOBALFOUNDRIES… Read More
The Semicon Industry Keeps Wafer Fabs Moving Up
The worldwide revenue of semiconductor industry has remained flat in last few years; to be more precise, overall semiconductor revenue declined by 1.9% in 2015 and Gartner forecasts it to further decline by 0.6% in 2016. The total revenue was at record high of $340.3 billion in 2014.
Well, semiconductor industry has matured. A … Read More
ARM and FD-SOI are like Peanut Butter and Jelly!
When I first heard about a foundry possibly licensing FD-SOI I would have bet it was SMIC in China. What better market for a low cost, low power, easy to manufacture alternative to FinFETs? The foundry of course was Samsung which also made complete sense since they have 28nm gate-first capacity that matches up nicely to 28nm FD-SOI.… Read More
Intel Dinner Keynote – IOT Solutions: System scaling during the convergence of IT and OT
The Electronic Design Processes (EDP) 2016 Workshop and Symposium, in its 23rd year, has fostered the free exchange of ideas among the top thinkers, movers, and shakers who focus on how chips and systems are designed in the electronics industry. It has provided a forum for this cross-section of the design community to discuss state-of-the-art… Read More
Bluetooth 6.0 Channel Sounding is Here