Are AI Powered Robot Soldiers Coming?

2016 will be another defining year for semiconductors and it all starts with the Industry Strategy Symposium in Half Moon Bay next week. If you have not attended one of these you should definitely put it on your bucket list. Not only do you get to hang out in a five star cliff side resort, you get to mingle with semiconductor royalty and find out what is really going on inside this mission critical industry of ours, absolutely.

First up is a keynote from Mary Miller, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Army research and Technology. Ms. Miller overseas 12,000 scientists and engineers with an annual budget of $2B dedicated to developing military technology. I’m guessing the semiconductor industry is now recognized as pivotal to national security so let’s hope we get the recognition we deserve here. I would also like to know just how close we are to AI powered robot soldiers, like in the movies.

What follows is a wide range of presentations which you can see HERE, but I will highlight my personal top five in order of interest:

EUV benefits confirmed as volume production becomes visible on horizon
Frits van Hout (Biography), Executive Vice President, ASML

The IoT Opportunity: The Next Golden Age for Semiconductors
Thomas Caulfield, Ph.D (Biography), Senior Vice President and General Manager, GLOBALFOUNDRIES

New Era of Electrification and Vehicle Intelligence
Haruyoshi Kumura, Ph.D. (Biography), Fellow, Nissan

Semiconductors in 2016: Demand, Consolidation and China’s Growing Role
Mark Lipacis (Biography), Managing Director, Jefferies

What the Consensus Outlook for the Global Economy Means for Semiconductors
Duncan Meldrum, Ph.D. (Biography), Chief Economist, Hilltop Economics

And last but not least the concluding panel discussion which is worth the extra night hotel stay for sure:

It’s 2050… Moore’s Law is Dead… What’s the New Business Model

Panelists:
Terry Brewer, Founder and President, Brewer Science(Biography)
Robert Bruck, Corporate VP, Intel(Biography)
Aart de Geus, Chairman and CEO, Synopsys(Biography)
Aglaia Kong, CTO for Internet of Everything, Cisco Systems(Biography)
Subi Kengeri, Vice President, CMOS Platforms Business Unit, GLOBALFOUNDRIES(Biography)

This year, we are asking our panelists to think ahead … Way ahead … to 2050. It’s been fifty year’s since Moore’s Law was discovered. So, it’s a safe assumption that by 2050, Moore’s Law as we know it … will be dead. Yet we also know that the semiconductor industry will still be thriving, as innovation will never die, as that is what we do. This year’s panelists have been chosen for their track record as visionaries to share their views of how they see our industry evolving as it transitions away from Moore’s Law. Here are some of the questions that they have been asked to address: How do we get from here to there? What direction will innovation take beyond scaling? Will the weight shift from process to design or will both become more critically interdependent? Will the business model still be grounded in lowering cost-per-transistor or will it shift to raising value-per-chip and what does that mean in their mind?

SEMI Expositions are recognized around the world as the premier events for micro- and nano-electronics manufacturing, reaching more than 250,000 industry professionals each year. Find more information at: http://www.semiexpos.org.