18 months ago Renesas announced they were prototyping their SG-MONOS eFlash on 28nm, and at the time we said it would be a couple of years before actual product. Yesterday, Renesas revealed their partner in this effort is TSMC – no surprise – and hinted things are moving, with better performance than expected but on a longer qualification… Read More
TSMC Fab 12 is a Pokemon Go Stop!
It only seems fitting that Fab 12 is a PokeStop since TSMC stands to make a lot of money from the augmented reality gaming craze that is sweeping the world. Unfortunately, most of the press I have read about Pokemon Go has been negative but that is the new “negative media” world we live in. As a player myself (level 25) and a semiconductor… Read More
Apple will NEVER use Intel Custom Foundry!
The media already has Apple and Intel in talks to make the A11 SoC in 2018 as a result of the recent Intel/ARM IP licensing deal. This is probably one of the funnier media bumbles I have read in a while so let’s talk about it in a little more detail.
“According to Nikkei Asian Review, Intel is now perfectly poised to give TSMC a good run for… Read More
MediaTek is on the Move with TSMC!
MediaTek (MTK) recently made the news for announcing their first leading edge SoC (Helio X30), a 32% increase in quarter over quarter sales, and an expected 30% increase for the year. Both of which deserve a closer look as we move into the second half of 2016 which should be very strong for MTK TSMC, and the fabless semiconductor ecosystem.… Read More
What is Inside the iPhone 7?
TSMC is the bellwether for not only the foundry business, since they are the dominant player, but also the semiconductor industry as a whole. You could also argue that TSMC is a sneak peek into the world economy since they build capacity based on their customer’s forecasts and the world now revolves around semiconductors.
The other… Read More
TSMC and Pokemon Go!
As Pokemon Go invades the world, let me give you a firsthand player’s description of the game and why the next generation of augmented reality apps will energize the fabless semiconductor ecosystem and greatly benefit TSMC.
While I am not a “gamer” per say, I am a technologist and am always looking for new semiconductor market drivers.… Read More
Circuit Simulation Panel Discussion at #53DAC
Four panelists from big-name semiconductor design companies spoke about their circuit simulation experiences at #53DAC in Austin this year, so I attended to learn more about SPICE and Fast SPICE circuit simulation. I heard from the following four companies:… Read More
Xilinx is Killing Altera!
At a recent outing with FPGA friends from days gone by, the long running Xilinx vs Altera debate has come to an end. The bottom line is that Xilinx has used the FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) of the Intel acquisition quite effectively against Altera and is racking up 20nm and 16nm design wins at an alarming rate. It will be a while … Read More
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Poised To Claim The Gaming And VR Performance Crown
NVIDIA has been teasing the promise of Pascal for years, but this year Pascal’s performance became much more real. With the announcement of the Tesla P100 based on Pascal, NVIDIA was able to show the neural-network world what Pascal was really capable of. However, that chip is very different from the gaming-focused Pascal chip … Read More
TSMC Update at #53DAC!
TSMC is having an interesting year for sure. I was at the TSMC Symposium in Hsinchu last week and everyone was talking about the new 16FFC process. Silicon is out and it is exceeding expectations leading some people (me included) to believe that TSMC 16FFC will be the next TSMC 28nm in regards to popularity. To be clear, 16FFC is currently… Read More