– 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
Weak 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
Samtec Advances Multi-Channel SerDes Technology with Broadcom at DesignCon
There were many announcements and significant demonstrations of new technology at the recent DesignCon. The show celebrated its 30th anniversary this year and it has grown quite a bit. As in past years Samtec had a commanding presence at the show. There will be more about that in a moment, but first I want to focus on a substantial … Read More
Outlook 2025 with David Hwang of Alchip
Dave Hwang joined Alchip in 2021 as General Manager of Alchip’s North America Business Unit. He also serves as Senior Vice President, Business Development. Prior to join Alchip, Dave served as Vice President, Worldwide Sales and Marketing for Global Unichip and in a variety of management and technical roles at TSMC. He holds… Read More
Trump whacking CHIPS Act? When you hold the checkbook, you make up the new rules
- News reports that Trump will change CHIPS Act to suit his views
- We specifically predicted this months ago as deals closed 11th hour
- Blue states, enemies list & foreign entities likely to get cut
- Big changes/cuts likely to a program Trump roundly criticized
Reuters: Exclusive: Trump prepares to change US CHIPS Act conditions,… Read More
AMAT- In line QTR – poor guide as China Chops hit home- China mkt share loss?
- QTR was just “in-line” but guide was below expectations
- We think its not just China export rules but share loss as well
- Leading edge is strong but obviously not enough to offset China
- Memory remains weak-Foundry (TSMC) is the primary driver
Headwinds slow growth to flat
Applied reported $7.166B in revenues and Non … Read More
Podcast EP274: How Axiomise Makes Formal Predictable and Normal with Dr. Ashish Darbari
Dan is joined by Dr. Ashish Darbari, CEO of Axiomise. Axiomise was founded in 2017 by Dr. Darbari, who has spent over two decades in the industry and top research labs increasing formal verification adoption. At Axiomise, they believe the only way to make formal methods mainstream for all semiconductor design verification is to… Read More
2025 Outlook with Oliver Jones of Sondrel
IEDM 2025 – TSMC 2nm Process Disclosure – How Does it Measure Up?
Initial thoughts
At IEDM held in December 2024, TSMC presented: “2nm Platform Technology featuring Energy-efficient Nanosheet Transistors and Interconnects co-optimized with 3DIC for AI, HPC and Mobile SoC Applications,” the authors are:
Geoffrey Yeap, S.S. Lin, H.L. Shang, H.C. Lin, Y.C. Peng, M. Wang, PW Wang, CP Lin, KF… Read More
KLAC Good QTR with AI and HBM drive leading edge and China is Okay
– KLA put up a good qtr & year with consistent growth
– AI & HBM are the main drivers of leading edge which helps KLA
– China slowing but not too fast, Outlook OK but not super
– Wafer inspection is huge but reticle inspection continues to slip
KLA reports good quarter and OK outlook
KLA reported revenues… Read More


The Risk of Not Optimizing Clock Power