President Donald Trump has initially excluded semiconductors from his latest round of U.S. tariffs. However, he could put tariffs on semiconductors in the future. If tariffs are placed on semiconductors imported to the U.S., how would that affect U.S.-based semiconductor companies? The chart below shows U.S. semiconductor… Read More
Achieving Seamless 1.6 Tbps Interoperability for High BW HPC AI/ML SoCs: A Technical Webinar with Samtec and Synopsys
HPC Bandwidth Explosion and 1.6T Ecosystem Interop Need
The exponential growth in data bandwidth requirements driven by HPC systems, AI, and ML applications has set the stage for an ever-increasing need for 1.6Tbps Ethernet. As data centers strive to manage vast data transfers with maximum efficiency, the urgency for interoperability… Read More
Design IP Market Increased by All-time-high: 20% in 2024!
Design IP revenues achieved $8.5B in 2024 and this is an all-time-high growth of 20%. Wired Interface is still driving Design IP growth with 23.5% but we see the Processor category also growing by 22.4% in 2024. This is consistent with the Top 4 IP companies made of ARM (mostly focused on processor) and a team leading wired interface… Read More
Elon Musk Given CHIPS Act & AI Oversight – Mulls Relocation of Taiwanese Fabs
– Trump gives CHIPS Act & AI oversight to DOGE/Musk-“Tech Support”
– CHIPS Act to switch from incentive based to tariff/punitive based
– Musk to be responsible for US AI policy & security- Will rule ChatGPT
– Talks underway to relocate Taiwan fabs & staff to avoid China threat… Read More
Semiconductor CapEx Down in 2024 up in 2025
Semiconductor Intelligence (SC-IQ) estimates semiconductor capital expenditures (CapEx) in 2024 were $155 billion, down 5% from $164 billion in 2023. Our forecast for 2025 is $160 billion, up 3%. The increase in 2025 is primarily driven by two companies. TSMC, the largest foundry company, plans between $38 billion and $42 billion… Read More
Podcast EP278: Details of This Year’s Semiconductor Startups Contest with Silicon Catalyst’s Nick Kepler
Dan is joined by Nick Kepler, COO and Director at Silicon Catalyst. Nick has over 30 years of experience in the semiconductor industry, with varied leadership and technology management roles including semiconductor process technology development and manufacturing, design enablement, technical program management, and … Read More
Cutting Through the Fog: Hype versus Reality in Emerging Technologies
Silicon Catalyst is an organization that supports early-stage semiconductor startups with an ecosystem that provides tools and resources needed to design, create, and market semiconductor solutions. It is the only incubator + accelerator focused on the Global Semiconductor Industry and operates with the motto “It’s about… Read More
Accellera at DVCon 2025 Updates and Behavioral Coverage
As usual I check in on Accellera activities each year at DVCon. Lu Dai (chair) gave an opening talk at the Accellera lunch, with contributions from other speakers on a few topics. In the afternoon I heard an update on PSS 3.0. What follows is a quick summary with my own musings on behavioral coverage.
Notable non-PSS topics
Karsten … Read More
CHIPS Act dies because employees are fired – NIST CHIPS people are probationary
– NIST to lose 100’s of mainly CHIPS Act people
– If no people are left to administer CHIPS Act it dies by default
– Following USAID play book to kill an unwanted program
– Using the “probationary” clause as excuse to fire recent CHIPS hires
Trump will kill CHIPS Act by gutting NIST employees
… Read MoreWeak Semiconductor Start to 2025
WSTS reported the global semiconductor market in 4th quarter 2024 was $170.9 billion, up 17% from a year earlier and up 3% from 3rd quarter 2024. The full year 2024 market was $628 billion, up 19.1% from 2023.
We at Semiconductor Intelligence give a virtual award for the most accurate semiconductor market forecast for the year. The… Read More
Should Intel be Split in Half?