As SemiWiki celebrates our 14th anniversary I wanted to wish you all a happy New Year! Working in the semiconductor industry for the past 40 years has been rewarding beyond belief. Working in the trenches and traveling the world has been an education in itself, more so than any other career that I could imagine. SemiWiki has broadened that experience and continues to do so every year. For that I am forever grateful.
I always ask my podcast guests how they got started in semiconductors. This is my story:
My father was a pilot so that is what I wanted to be when I grew up. Unfortunately, he died in an airplane crash when I was 13 so that complicated my career path. I started flying after I turned 18 without telling my family. The electronics in aviation led me to computers which took me straight to semiconductors. After finishing flight school, I switched to computer science and electrical engineering and never looked back. After I graduated, I married my college sweetheart and went to Silicon Valley to make my fortune.
I remember attending my first Design Automation Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico right after graduation. It was more of a party than a conference, so I felt right at home. The next year DAC was in Las Vegas, and I took my new bride with me since we could not really manage a honeymoon the previous year. It was an even bigger party, and I remember my wife giving me the side-eye as to my choice of careers. She is okay with it now of course and is an integral part of SemiWiki.
Throughout the years I have worked on many different levels of compute projects. It started with mini-computers, supercomputers, desktops, laptops, smartphones, IoT, automobiles, and of course cloud computing. I have had security clearances and have traveled the world so much that I had to add additional pages to my passports. I have worked with thousands of people in a dozen different countries, what an amazing experience.
As I approached my 50th birthday I had a midlife crisis of sorts and decided I wanted to do more for the industry that richly rewarded me, so I started writing. This is when blogging was first catching on in the 2000s. I started by researching forums and other grassroot technology sites. What I found is that semiconductors did not get the media attention it deserved and even when it did it was sensationalized to the point of disinformation, not unlike today. The authors of course were journalists, hobbyists, hackers, or people like me who were trying something different.
I told my wife I would blog once a week for a year then decide what to do next. I quickly gathered more than 10,000 followers and saw many other bloggers come and go. Being one of the first bloggers in the semiconductor industry came with a bit of fame and some amazing industry networking opportunities but of course I wanted more. My son and I started designing SemiWiki in the summer of 2010 and launched in it 2011. We began with the same software as the popular forums (vBulletin) but with a beta version which included a blogging interface. It was a bit buggy, but we got through it. I gathered other experienced bloggers (Dr. Paul McLellan and Daniel Payne) plus recruited some industry experts (Dr. Eric Esteve, Scotten Jones, Robert Maire, Dr. Bernard Murphy, etc..) to start blogging as well.
I can confidently say that SemiWiki was the first of its kind and is still unique. The site tagline “The Open Forum for Semiconductor Professionals” has never changed. The mission of SemiWiki was always to give semiconductor professionals a platform to speak their minds and to network. Today we have 253,701 registered members and have published 12,670 forum threads, 9,160 blogs, 6 books, and 268 podcasts. “Mission accomplished”, I would say.
The latest ChatGPT description of SemiWiki is pretty good:
SemiWiki is an online community and collaborative platform dedicated to the semiconductor industry. It provides a space for professionals, experts, and enthusiasts to share insights, news, and discussions about various aspects of the industry, including electronic design automation (EDA), intellectual property (IP), semiconductor manufacturing, and emerging technologies.
The platform features:
- Blogs: Written by industry experts and contributors, covering technical topics, trends, and innovations.
- Forums: Allowing members to discuss and exchange ideas on semiconductor-related topics.
- Technical Resources: Including white papers, webinars, and other educational materials.
- Industry News: Regular updates on developments in the semiconductor sector.
Founded by Daniel Nenni, SemiWiki aims to foster collaboration and knowledge sharing within the semiconductor ecosystem, serving as a valuable resource for engineers, researchers, and business professionals.
The media landscape has recently changed with semiconductors being front page news and a political football. Unfortunately, sensationalism and disinformation plague us more now than ever before. The good news is that anybody can publish semiconductor content, the bad news is that anybody can publish semiconductor content.
We first started with blogs, a forum, wikis, and a community calendar then added webinars, a job board, press release support, and podcasts. SemiWiki is now cloud based using industry standard software and we have new video series starting in Q1 so stay tuned. There seems to be another media shake-up coming but SemiWiki will continue to be an industry leader, absolutely.
Also Read:
The Intel Common Platform Foundry Alliance
What would you do if you were the CEO of Intel?
Share this post via:
Happy New Year from SemiWiki