Smartphone shipments have been dropping over the past few years, as shown in Chart 1, as a result of several factors, but primarily the slowdown in smartphone innovation while at the same time prices have kept increasing. Even with the much anticipated 5G in 2020, unimpressive speed gains coupled with a Covid-19 backdrop, smartphones… Read More
On December 2, 2019, I posted a SemiWiki article entitled “ASML Will Take Semiconductor Equipment Lead from Applied Materials in 2019.”Since losing its dominance for the first time since 1990 in 2019, Applied Materials is poised to lose its retake the 2020 lead in the semiconductor equipment market. ASML led the… Read More
Back in September 2019 semiengineering.com published an article called “The Hidden Potential of Test Engineers”. This article was of particular interest to me having previously worked as a mixed signal test development engineer.
Within the article Carl Moore explained that test engineers have the potential to increase revenue.… Read More
Despite the improvements in glass material used in smartphone displays, many, if not all, leading smartphone manufactures such as Apple and other smartphone manufacturers are evaluating a coating method that further increases the durability of screens at a cost of just pennies per display by coating them with diamonds.… Read More
I had a chance to preview the subject webinar recently. Yes, it’s a long title, but a very important topic. When it comes to hyper-scale data centers, there are substantial challenges associate with thermal management, power distribution and processing performance. Moortec explores approaches to these issues using their … Read More
On September 26 there were media reports that the U.S. Commerce Department has added China’s largest chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) , to its entity list, after it determined there an “unacceptable risk” that equipment SMIC received could be used for military purposes
U.S. firms would… Read More
At the recent TSMC OIP Ecosystem Forum and Technology virtual events, TSMC re-affirmed their previous prediction that 5G is going to be a multi-year silicon mega-trend with the biggest drivers being the ramp up of 5G handsets, supporting infrastructure and the continued growth of high performance computing (HPC).
We all want… Read More
No-one likes being put on the spot and yet we all like a forecast…and as we all know, the only guarantee with a forecast is that it is wrong. Sports commentators have carved out a special niche for themselves with the ‘commentators curse’, just as they extol the virtues of an individual or a team, the sporting gods prove them wrong in … Read More
Designers spend plenty of time analyzing the effects of process, voltage and temperature. But everyone knows it’s not enough to simply stop there. Operating environments are tough and have lots of limitations, especially when it comes to power consumption and thermal issues. Thermal protection and even over-voltage protections… Read More
We take for granted today the staggering precision of modern technology. Cars, electronics, robots and medical equipment, all come off the factory floor composed of effortlessly interchangeable parts; but this was not always the case. In the late 18th century most things that required any kind of precision were made by hand, … Read More
