The semiconductor market in 3rd quarter 2021 was $144.8 billion, according to WSTS, up 7.4% from the prior quarter and up 27.6% from a year ago. The strong year-to-year growth was a slight deceleration from 30.4% in 2nd quarter 2021. The major memory companies reported very healthy 3Q21 revenue increases versus 2Q21 with all of … Read More
KLAC- Foundry/Logic Drives Outperformance- No Supply Chain Woes- Nice Beat
KLA- great quarter driven by continued strong foundry/logic
No supply chain hiccups- Riding high in the cycle
Wafer inspection remains driver with rest along for the ride
Financials remain best in industry
A superb quarter
There was little to complain about in the quarter. Revenues of $2.1B and EPS of $4.64, both nicely beating… Read More
Alchip Reveals How to Extend Moore’s Law at TSMC OIP Ecosystem Forum
The TSMC Open Innovation Platform (OIP) event brings together a wide array of companies reporting cutting edge work that are part of TSMC’s rather substantial ecosystem. The event covers everything from high-performance computing to mobile, automotive, IoT, RF and 3D IC design. Of particular interest for this post is a presentation… Read More
SISPAD – Cost Simulations to Enable PPAC Aware Technology Development
I was invited to give a plenary address at the SISPAD conference in September 2021. For anyone not familiar with SISPAD it is a premiere TCAD conference. This year for the first time SISPAD wanted to address cost and my talk was “Cost Simulations to Enable PPAC Aware Technology Development”.
For many years the standard in technology… Read More
Intel – “Super” Moore’s Law Time warp-“TSMC inside” GPU & Global Flounders IPO
“Super” Moore’s Law- 5 nodes in 4 years- Too good to be true?
Gelsinger said “Intel will be advantaged with High NA EUV”
Ponte Vecchio better with “TSMC Inside”
Global Flounders IPO as price drops on public debut
Lets do the time warp again….(apologies to Riff Raff)
Its just … Read More
CEO Interview: Dr. Ashish Darbari of Axiomise
Dr. Ashish Darbari is the founder & CEO of Axiomise. As founder & CEO of Axiomise, he has led the company to successfully deploy the unique combination of training, consulting, services, and verification IP to a range of customers. Dr. Darbari has expertise in all aspects of formal methods including theorem proving, property… Read More
Semiconductor CapEx too strong?
Semiconductor capital expenditures (CapEx) are on track for strong growth in 2021. For many companies the increase should continue into 2022. TSMC, the dominant foundry company, expects to spend $30 billion in CapEx in 2021, a 74% increase from 2020. TSMC announced in March it plans to invest $100 billion over the next three years,… Read More
Intel- Analysts/Investor flub shows disconnect on Intel, Industry & challenges
Analysts missed all warning signs until Intel spelled it out
12% stock drop shows disconnect and misunderstanding
No quick fix, this is a long term, uncertain problem & solution
Everyone ignored the obvious until it ran them over
A 12% stock drop is fault of investors/analysts not Intel
Whenever a stock drops 12% in one day there… Read More
Verification Completion: When is Enough Enough? Part II
Verification is a complex task that takes the majority of time and effort in chip design. At Veriest, as an ASIC services company, we have the opportunity to work on multiple projects and methodologies, interfacing with different experts.
In this “Verification Talks” series of articles, we aim to leverage this unique… Read More
LRCX- Good Results Despite Supply Chain “Headwinds”- Is Memory Market OK?
Lam- good quarter but supply chain headwinds limit upside
Memory seems OK for now but watch pricing
China will also weaken which may add caution
Performance remains solid as does technology prowess
The yellow caution flag in the Semi race impacts Lam as well
As we suggested two weeks ago and saw with ASML this morning, supply chain… Read More


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