Synopsys IP Designs Edge AI 800x100

Applied Materials Will Regain Semiconductor Equipment Lead From ASML in 2020

Applied Materials Will Regain Semiconductor Equipment Lead From ASML in 2020
by Robert Castellano on 11-29-2020 at 10:00 am

2020 WFE Share

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


CD-Pitch Combinations Disfavored by EUV Stochastics

CD-Pitch Combinations Disfavored by EUV Stochastics
by Fred Chen on 11-29-2020 at 6:00 am

CD Pitch Combinations Disfavored by EUV Stochastics

Ongoing investigations of EUV stochastics [1-3] have allowed us to map combinations of critical dimension (CD) and pitch which are expected to pose a severe risk of stochastic defects impacting the use of EUV lithography. Figure 1 shows a typical set of contours of fixed PNOK (i.e., the probability of a feature being Not OK due… Read More


Webinar: 5 Reasons Why Others are Adopting Hybrid Cloud and EDA Should Too!

Webinar: 5 Reasons Why Others are Adopting Hybrid Cloud and EDA Should Too!
by Daniel Nenni on 11-27-2020 at 6:00 am

Rescale SemiWiki

With the complexity of transistors at an all time high and growing foundry rule decks, fabless companies consistently find themselves in a game of catch up. Semiconductor designs require additional compute resources to maintain speed and quality of development. But deploying new infrastructures at this current speed is a tall… Read More


Low Power SRAM Register Files for IoT, AI and Wearables

Low Power SRAM Register Files for IoT, AI and Wearables
by Tom Simon on 11-26-2020 at 10:00 am

SRAM register files

SRAM is the workhorse for on-chip memories, valued for its performance and easy integration with standard processes. The needs of wearable, IoT and AI SOCs have put a lot of pressure on the requirements for all on-chip memories. This is perhaps most evident in the area of power. AI chips that rely heavily on SRAM register files are… Read More


Folding at Home. The Ultimate in Parallel Acceleration

Folding at Home. The Ultimate in Parallel Acceleration
by Bernard Murphy on 11-26-2020 at 6:00 am

COVID spike protein min

You may have heard of Folding at Home. It’s a very creative way that a bioengineering team, based at Washington University in St Louis, are modeling the process of protein folding. Greg Bowman, an associate professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the university directs the project and presented at Arm DevSummit this year. … Read More


China Semiconductor Bond Bust!

China Semiconductor Bond Bust!
by Robert Maire on 11-25-2020 at 10:00 am

China Semiconductor Bond Bust

– Tsinghua $198M Bond Bust
– Good for memory: Samsung Micron LG Toshiba –
– Not good for chip equipment
– Could China Credit Crunch hit more than foundry embargo?
– Damage to China memory positive for other memory makers
– Not good for chip equip if customers can’t get money

China’s… Read More


Cadence is Making Floorplanning Easier by Changing the Rules

Cadence is Making Floorplanning Easier by Changing the Rules
by Mike Gianfagna on 11-25-2020 at 8:00 am

Mixed placement floorplan

SoC designs are getting more complex, resulting in a higher level of difficulty to get anything done. This trend is well-known. What I want to focus on here is how to deal with the issue of complexity. There are many approaches to taming this problem — faster algorithms for one, and improved algorithm efficiency or the ability to run… Read More


Is Apple the Most Valuable Semiconductor Company in the World?

Is Apple the Most Valuable Semiconductor Company in the World?
by Robert Maire on 11-25-2020 at 6:00 am

Apple M1

– The new M1 chip unveils previously hidden asset
– Could/should Apple sell semiconductors?
– Are servers next?
– The M1 chip appears to be a rousing success and the beginning of a new era

Essentially 100% of all early reports on the performance of the M1 chip have come back with stellar reviews. Great performance… Read More


Webinar Replay on TileLink from Truechip

Webinar Replay on TileLink from Truechip
by Tom Simon on 11-24-2020 at 10:00 am

TileLink

The extremely popular RISC-V instruction set architecture (ISA) originally came from the Berkeley Architecture Research (BAR) group. BAR also developed several other key pieces of enabling technology that have helped RISC-V become so popular. Among these are Rocket Chip which serves as a RISC-V based SOC generator. It can … Read More


The Reality of ISO 26262 Interpretation. Experience Matters

The Reality of ISO 26262 Interpretation. Experience Matters
by Bernard Murphy on 11-24-2020 at 6:00 am

Man scratching head min

Interpreting ISO 26262 without ambiguity is not always easy. Suppliers and integrators can read some aspects differently, creating confusion. Which is a problem since ISO 26262 has become so much a part of any discussion on automotive electronics that it has gained almost biblical significance. Yet most of us, even suppliers… Read More