When Intel entered the foundry business with IDM 2.0 I was impressed. Yes, Intel had tried the foundry business before but this time they changed the face of the company with IDM 2.0 and went “all-in” so to speak. The progress has been impressive and today I think Intel is well positioned to capture the NOT TSMC business by providing… Read More
TSMC Advanced Packaging Overcomes the Complexities of Multi-Die Design
The TSMC Technology Symposium provides a worldwide stage for TSMC to showcase its advanced technology impact and the extensive ecosystem that is part of the company’s vast reach. These events occur around the world and the schedule is winding down. TSMC covers many topics at its Technology Symposium, including industry-leading… Read More
Real men have fabs!
“Real men have fabs” was an insult AMD founder Jerry Sanders hurled at his poor competitors who could not afford to build fabs. A few years later, AMD would be fabless, spinning off its manufacturing facilities as GlobalFoundries. This was the beginning of a transformative period for the industry.
Lisa Su could rightfully retort:
No! TSMC does not Make 90% of Advanced Silicon
Throughout the debate on fab incentives and the Chips Act I keep seeing comments like; TSMC makes >90% of all advanced silicon, or sometimes Taiwan make >90% of all advanced silicon. This kind of ill-defined and grossly inaccurate statement drives me crazy. I just saw someone make that same claim in the SemiWiki forums and… Read More
Intel and TSMC IDM 2024 Discussions
In December 2023, we published the Intel Revenue forecast for external wafer sales, gave a breakdown on how customers plan to ramp the foundry. The forecast is still valid (it assumes Intel executes on all plans) but since then we have a better understanding of Intel’s strategy and scenarios that could unfold.
The scenarios… Read More
Intel should be the Free World’s Plan A Not Plan B, and we need the US Government to step in
There are trillions of dollars at stake with AI and huge geopolitical consequences. However, the weak foundation to American technological power is their dependence on Taiwan and TSMC, which is where most advanced silicon is manufactured. America has also been taking China to the ropes lately in their economic/technology proxy… Read More
How Disruptive will Chiplets be for Intel and TSMC?
Chiplets (die stacking) is not new. The origins are deeply rooted in the semiconductor industry and represent a modular approach to designing and manufacturing integrated circuits. The concept of chiplets has been energized as a response to the recent challenges posed by the increasing complexity of semiconductor design. … Read More
2024 Big Race is TSMC N2 and Intel 18A
There is a lot being said about Intel getting the lead back from TSMC with their 18A process. Like anything else in the semiconductor industry there is much more here than meets the eye, absolutely.
From the surface, TSMC has a massive ecosystem and is in the lead as far as process technologies and foundry design starts but Intel is … Read More
IEDM: TSMC Ongoing Research on a CFET Process
I attended the recent International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) last week. Many of the sessions are too technical and too far away from high volume manufacture to make good topics for a blog post. As a Fellow from IBM said about 5nm at and earlier IEDM, “none of these ideas will impact 5nm. It takes ten years for a solution to from… Read More
Analog Bits Leads the Way at TSMC OIP with High-Accuracy Sensors
The 15th TSMC Open Innovation Platform® (OIP) event was held recently. This event is a focal point across the industry for cutting-edge development and industry-level collaboration. Appropriately, advanced packaging, paving the way for multi-die design was a focal point for the event. You can get a good overview of what was … Read More