AMD is a fantastic company with highly talented people, but for some reason just hasn’t managed to put a winning streak of microprocessor architectures back-to-back. It’s frustrating to watch: they ride like mad to catch up to or even pull slightly ahead of Intel, then fall back in the pack when they have to make an extended pit stop,… Read More
Apple will NEVER use Intel Custom Foundry!
The media already has Apple and Intel in talks to make the A11 SoC in 2018 as a result of the recent Intel/ARM IP licensing deal. This is probably one of the funnier media bumbles I have read in a while so let’s talk about it in a little more detail.
“According to Nikkei Asian Review, Intel is now perfectly poised to give TSMC a good run for… Read More
MediaTek is on the Move with TSMC!
MediaTek (MTK) recently made the news for announcing their first leading edge SoC (Helio X30), a 32% increase in quarter over quarter sales, and an expected 30% increase for the year. Both of which deserve a closer look as we move into the second half of 2016 which should be very strong for MTK TSMC, and the fabless semiconductor ecosystem.… Read More
What is Inside the iPhone 7?
TSMC is the bellwether for not only the foundry business, since they are the dominant player, but also the semiconductor industry as a whole. You could also argue that TSMC is a sneak peek into the world economy since they build capacity based on their customer’s forecasts and the world now revolves around semiconductors.
The other… Read More
If an Intel 10nm transistor fell in the ARM forest
Intel’s news at IDF this week about partnering with ARM for foundry services on 10nm set off some wild speculation. It’s not a surprise that ARM would enable Intel – they’ve worked together before, ARM is an equal opportunity ecosystem partner, and ARM has publicly announced 10nm cores taped out at TSMC.… Read More
Score 1 for IDMs vs Fabless Intel King of the Photonics Hill in Data Centers
For those of you waiting with baited breath to see the Fabless community with the likes of Broadcom or Qualcomm challenge Intel in the data center space, you were just dealt a significant blow. Intel debuted their long awaited silicon photonics modules for what they called “lightning-fast” connectivity in data centers. Intel … Read More
Semi execs look at IoT tradeoffs a bit differently
What happens when you get a panel of four executives together with an industry-leading journalist to discuss tradeoffs in IoT designs? After the obligatory introductions, Ed Sperling took this group into questions on power, performance, and integration.… Read More
Further delays in KLAM deal not a good omen
Deal likely getting worse as time & remedies go by…
Just a couple of short weeks ago on the earnings conference call, Lam management was adamant about the KLAM deal getting done and done by the Oct 20th deadline. Martin Anstice, the CEO , went to great lengths to tell us that the deal was under control, was going to happen, … Read More
SEMICON West – Globalfoundries Update
On Wednesday of SEMICON West I got to sit down with Gary Patton, CTO of GlobalFoundries and get an update on what has been going on with them.
Gary started the interview by pointing out that it has now been a year since the GlobalFoundries purchase of many of IBM’s semiconductor assets and they have hit every commitment they made.… Read More
Qualcomm is Back on Top of the SoC World!
In 2015 Qualcomm stunned the fabless semiconductor world with an unprecedented layoff. When I first heard about it the number was 5% but it kept growing and finally hit 15%. The big misstep here was, that after being the SoC leader starting in 2007 with the Snapdragon series of chips that powered the Smartphone revolution, QCOM did… Read More
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