Maheen Hamid, a member of the ESD Alliance (a SEMI Technology Community) Governing Council and a member of SEMI’s North America Advisory Board, is an astute business executive. Together with her husband Adnan Hamid, they founded Breker Verification Systems, a company developing test synthesis solutions. She serves today … Read More
ASML-Strong Results & Guide Prove China Concerns Overblown-Chips Slow to Recover
-ASML reports better results & guide despite China restrictions
-Supports our view of China issues not that impactful longer term
-Industry recovery seems very far off with more delays
-ASML remains the best, most robust story in a weak industry
ASML reports nice beat despite China concerns
ASML reported revenues of Euro6.9B… Read More
Upskill Your Smart Soldiers and Conquer the Chip War in Style!
My recent article, ‘Chip War without Soldiers’ explained the importance of upskilling and preparing the chip design workforce in this current scenario, and it also explained how it will lead to ‘Fabs without Chips’ if we don’t prioritize it. VLSI Engineers are the pillars of the semiconductor industry, and they can only transform… Read More
The Efabless Generative AI Challenges and Why They Matter
Last week, Efabless announced the second edition of its AI Generated Open-Source Silicon Design Challenge series. As we discussed in earlier blogs, the first challenge was a great success with twelve submissions and six successful designs created in just three weeks. The contestants used natural language prompts to create… Read More
Has Electronics Bottomed?
The current slump in the electronics market began in 2021. Smartphone shipments versus a year earlier turned negative in 3Q 2021. The smartphone market declines in 2020 were primarily due to COVID-19 related production cutbacks. The current smartphone decline is due to weak demand. According to IDC, smartphone shipments were… Read More
SEMICON West 2023 Summary – No recovery in sight – Next Year?
-SEMICON well attended but bouncing along the biz bottom
-Recovery seems at least a year away with memory even more
-AI creates hope but not impactful- Disconnect tween stocks & reality
-AMAT me too platform- Back end benefits from chiplets
SEMICON busy but subdued
SEMICON is certainly back to pre-covid levels or perhaps better.… Read More
Sondrel Extends ASIC Turnkey Design to Supply Services From Europe to US
It’s no secret that system companies are driving a lot of new silicon. Google, AWS, Tesla and others have well-established design teams delivering differentiated servers, AI engines and other technologies. I’m sure NVIDIA suspects sub rosa projects are already underway in many of these hyperscalers to design out their GPUs.… Read More
Semiconductor CapEx down in 2023
Semiconductor capital expenditures (CapEx) increased 35% in 2021 and 15% in 2022, according to IC Insights. Our projection at Semiconductor Intelligence is a 14% decline in CapEx in 2023, based primarily on company statements. The biggest cuts will be made by the memory companies, with a 19% drop. CapEx will drop 50% at SK Hynix… Read More
Efabless Celebrates AI Design Challenge Winners!
The first AI Generated Open-Source Silicon Design Challenge invited participants to use generative AI to design an open-source silicon chip and tape it out in just three weeks. The contestants were required to create Verilog code from natural language prompts, and then implemented their designs using the chipIgnite platform… Read More
Optimism Prevailed at CEO Outlook, though Downturn Could Bring Unpredictable Challenges
Chances are anyone who attended the CEO Outlook will say it was an engaging, entertaining and enlightening view of the chip design space, though CEO Outlook may be a misnomer as four of the seven panelists had C-Suite titles other than CEO.
Regardless, the collective view was optimistic, though caution prevailed as the economic… Read More
Rapidus, IBM, and the Billion-Dollar Silicon Sovereignty Bet