In early May of this year, eSilicon announced the tape-out of a test chip which included the latest additions to its neuASIC™ IP platform. At the upcoming Hot Chips Symposium to be held at Stanford on August 19 and 20, 2019, eSilicon will be demonstrating the software component of this AI-enabling IP platform. At the event, eSilicon… Read More
300mm Fab Watch 2019!
Unless you are new to SemiWiki you should be familiar with Scotten Jones, founder of IC Knowledge, semiconductor process expert, and blogger extraordinaire. Scott joined SemiWiki in 2014 and has been blogging ever since with 130 posted thus far.
Scott’s, company, IC Knowledge LLC, is the world leader in cost modeling of… Read More
The China trade issue is back with a vengeance!
Watching the boats go by in Shanghai-
As I write this note I happen to be looking out my hotel window over the Bund onto the brightly lit party boats cruising the Huangpu river that meanders through Shanghai. All is well here in China and the parties on the boats with millions of LEDs go on……
The view from China is that the… Read More
Lam beats reduced guide as 2019 is done and 2020 is just a hope!
Nice house in a neighborhood in decline
Lam posted EPS and revenues ahead of reduced expectations, but guided the current quarter below street current estimates.
Is a “beat” really a “beat” if its against greatly reduced numbers? We would remind investors that we are looking at EPS cut more or less in … Read More
The Wild, Wild SEMICON West TechTALK – Joe Costello Speaks Out
On July 9, 2019, I attended the TechTALK session hosted by Dave Kelf of Breker Systems, Inc. titled, “Applied AI in Design-to-Manufacturing.” I was happy to hear what Dave had put together for this since it is a topic I am keenly interested in and because I have known Dave personally through music and charitable activities we have … Read More
eSilicon’s Latest SerDes Solution is Here – And It Took A Village
I recently watched a webinar given by eSilicon about its project to enhance its licensable solution for 56 and 112 Gigabit per second PAM4 & NRZ DSP-based SerDes family in 7nm. I am sure it was complicated enough to coordinate a webinar with a host, a moderator, and three different technical presenters – however when we are talking… Read More
Great, early signs of a recovery in logic, not memory
A “Logic Lead” recovery confirmed- Memory still mired, 3400C = “Third times a charm”. EUV finally accelerates as all ducks now in a row.
ASML posted a good quarter with great orders and capped off with a strong outlook for the current quarter. Logic demand is sparking a recovery while memory remains essentially… Read More
Semicon West 2019 – Day 2
Tuesday July 9th was the first day the show floor was open at Semicon. The following is a summary of some announcements I attended and general observations.
AMAT Announcement
My day started with an Applied Materials (AMAT) briefing for press and analysts where they announced “the most sophisticated system they have ever released”.… Read More
Semicon West was sluggish with hopes of 2020 recovery
Bouncing along a not too bad bottom
Given that we have followed the semiconductor industry through many down cycles, we can safely say that this one isn’t all that bad by comparison. Everyone, big & small, is still safely profitable and in relatively good shape. Though we are seeing the normal week long holiday shut downs
The Nanometrics – Rudolph Technology Merger: What Was Nanometrics Thinking?
On June 24, 2019, Nanometrics and Rudolph Technology announced they will combine in an all-stock merger of equals transaction. The companies say the combination increases the SAM (served available market) opportunity to approximately $3B.
This article attempts to analyze the two companies in their different business segments,… Read More


An Insight into Building Quantum Computers