At SEMICON West I attended the imec technology forum where Zsolt Tokei presented “How to Solve the BEOL RC Dilemma” and the SEMICON Economics of Density Scaling session where Larry Clevenger of IBM presented “Interconnect Scaling Strategic for Advanced Semiconductor Nodes”. I also had the opportunity… Read More
Semicap Thoughts: ASML AMAT INTEL SAMSUNG TSMC MICRON
ASML reported results in line and slightly ahead of expectations which helped push ASML and the other semicap stocks back to their original valuations prior to the two step pull back that lasted about a month. We are now back to relatively high, record valuations not seen or ever seen previously (at least for a long time) by many companies.… Read More
CEO Interview: Chris Henderson of Semitracks
In looking at the SemiWiki analytics over the last six years it is clear that the average age of our readers is trending down. (Yes, Google knows how old we are). The 25-35 age group now represents our largest readership and that is supported by the conferences I have attended recently. At the Design Automation Conference last month… Read More
Custom SoCs for IoT Revolution!
There are two interesting transformations that are currently taking place inside the semiconductor industry: First, systems companies (not chip companies) are now driving the semiconductor industry. Second, IoT focused chips are accelerating design starts. The result is what I would call the Custom SoCs for IoT Revolution!… Read More
Open Source Hardware: Chiplicity.io
What’s new with eFabless? Let’s check in with CEO Michael Wishart (MSW) and CTO Mohamed Kassem CTO (MKK):… Read More
3D NAND Myths and Realities
For many year 2D NAND drove lithography for the semiconductor industry with the smallest printed dimensions and yearly shrinks. As 2D NAND shrunk down to the mid-teens nodes, 16nm, 15nm and even 14nm, the cells became so small that there were only a few electrons in each cell and cross-talk issues made further shrinks very difficult… Read More
Memories for the Internet
In 1969 the Internet was born at UCLA when a computer there sent a message to a computer at Stanford. By 1975, there were 57 computers on the ‘internet’. Interestingly in the early seventies I actually used the original Xerox Sigma 7 connected to the internet in Boelter Hall at UCLA. A similar vintage computer is now in this room commemorating… Read More
Open-Silicon SerDes TCoE Enables Successful Delivery of ASICs for Next-generation, High-Speed Systems
With 5G cellular networks just around the corner, there is an ever-increasing number of companies working to bring faster communications chips to the market. Data centers are now deploying 100G to handle the increased bandwidth requirements, typically in the form of four 28Gbps channels and that means ASIC designers are looking… Read More
Electronics upturn boosting semiconductors
Production of electronics has been accelerating in the last several months, contributing to strong growth in the semiconductor market. China, the largest producer of electronics, has seen three-month-average change versus a year ago (3/12 change) accelerate from below 10% for most of 2016 to 14.5% in April 2017. China’s April… Read More
Worldwide Design IP Revenue Grew 13.1% in 2016, According to Final Results by IPnest
Despite the strong consolidation in the semiconductor industry, the Design IP market is going well, very well with YoY growth of 13.1% in 2016, according with the Design IP Report from IPnest. ARM Group of Softbank (previously known as ARM Holding) is again the strong #1 with IP revenues (licenses plus royalties) of $1,647 million… Read More
AI Bubble?