In the 1980s, Japan was seen as the leader in the semiconductor industry. Their quality was higher, especially in memories, and the US was worried about falling behind. In fact Sematech was created in 1987 by the US government and a consortium of 14 US-based semiconductor companies primarily to pool investment on common problems… Read More
Want 10nm Wafers? That’ll Cost You
As you know, I’ve been a bit of a bear about what is happening to wafer costs at 20nm and below. At the Common Platform Technology Forum last week there were a number of people talking about this in presentations and at Harvey Jones’s “fireside chat”.
At the press lunch I asked about this. There are obviously… Read More
Notes from Common Platform: Collaborate or Die
FinFETs are hot, carbon nanotubes are cool, and collaboration is the key to continued semiconductor scaling. These were the main messages at the 2013 Common Platform Technology Forum in Santa Clara.
The collaboration message ran through most presenations, like the afternoon talk by Subi Kengeri of GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Joe Sawicki… Read More
Advanced Technology-Design-Manufacturing Co-optimization
I spent some quality time with Subi Kengeri, Vice President, Technology Architecture, Office of the CTO, GLOBALFOUNDRIES in Las Vegas during CES. Great guy, he worked at Silicon Access, Virage and TSMC before GF. One thing you should know about embedded memory guys, SRAM is the first thing that goes through a new process so they … Read More
How GLOBALFOUNDRIES is Differentiating in 2013
GLOBALFOUNDRIES changed the landscape of the foundry business in 2009 with a simple but ambitious plan to become the world’s first truly global foundry. At the Common Platform Technology Forum February 5th in the Santa Clara Convention Center GF Executive Vice President Michael Noonen will give an update on how that is … Read More
The First 14nm FinFET Wafer Sighting!
Incredibly exciting! Even my beautiful wife was impressed by the rainbow of colors it reflected. From left to right: 28nm, 20nm, and 14nm wafers. The 20nm and 14nm wafers are from the GLOBALFOUNDRIES NY fab, made in the USA! GF also announced another $3-4B CAPEX for 2013 to increase capacity of all three of their 300mm fabs (Singapore,… Read More
Celebrity Electronics Show 2013 (CES)
Time to pack up for the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, I will be driving down with my beautiful wife Shushana because she does not like to fly. The drive takes the better part of a day so we will leave early and see the sunrise over the desert. She is great company, the time will fly by. We will be 2 of the more than 150,000 people… Read More
Tech Forum, February 5, features 32/28-, 20-, 14-, and 10-nanometer processes
The Common Platform Alliance — IBM, Samsung Electronics, Co., Ltd., and GLOBALFOUNDRIES — continues to redefine the landscape of the semiconductor industry with its groundbreaking collaboration. Join us at our 2013 Common Platform Technology Forumon Tuesday, February 5, 2013 at the Santa Clara Convention Center as we showcase… Read More
The Semiconductor Landscape – II
It has been a year since my article Semiconductor Landscape in Jan 2012 I wanted to look back into the major events over the year and then anticipate what’s in store going forward. What has happened over the year is much more than what I could foresee. Major consolidation in EDA space – Synopsys acquired Magma, SpringSoft, Ciranova,… Read More
GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Mentor Develop Methods to Identify Critical Features in IC Designs
Since the beginning of the semiconductor industry, improving the rate of yield learning has been a critical factor in the success silicon manufacturing. Each fab has dedicated yield teams that look at the yield of wafers manufactured the previous day and attempt to find the root cause of any unexpected “excursions.” In earlier… Read More
Flynn Was Right: How a 2003 Warning Foretold Today’s Architectural Pivot