The third quarter 2020 semiconductor market totaled $114 billion, up 11.0% from second quarter 2020, according to World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS). The 3Q20 growth was the highest since 11.6% in 3Q16. The strong 3Q20 growth follows a 2.1% decline in 2Q20 versus 1Q20. The second quarter is normally a healthy growth … Read More





Webinar: Menta is Breaking New Ground with eFPGA IP Using Adaptive DSP
Menta is a unique embedded FPGA (eFPGA) company. Their eFPGA IP is based completely on standard cells provided by the foundry, the customer or a third party – no custom cells or custom cell characterization is needed. They also don’t require any specific library, process step or metal stack. All this makes Menta’s eFPGA IP easy to… Read More
EDA Tool Support for GAA Process Designs
With the announcement of early PDK availability for the 3nm GAA process node, designers are extremely interested in the characteristics of the new “gate-all-around” transistor structure and how it compares to the existing FinFET device. The GAA transistor has been denoted as a (horizontal) nanowire or nanosheet.
I will talk… Read More
The Impact of AI-enabled EDA Tools on the Semiconductor Industry
The semiconductor industry today is faced with several substantial issues—the continuing rise in design costs for complex SoCs, the decrease in the incidence of first-time-right designs and the increase in the design cycle time against shrinking market windows and decreasing product life cycles. An additional factor has … Read More
DoorDash IPO Spins COVID-19 Impact
The outlook for DoorDash’s highly anticipated public offering announced last week is inextricably bound up in the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. It seems that the worse the COVID-19 pandemic becomes, the better the IPO circumstances look for DoorDash, but that’s not exactly how DoorDash tells the tale.
DoorDash filed… Read More
Silicon Catalyst Hosts Semiconductor Industry Forum – A View to the Future … it’s about what’s next®
Silicon Catalyst has been hosting semiconductor forums since 2018. At these events, a group of industry leaders gathers to discuss trends in the semiconductor industry and what the future may hold as a result. I recently had an opportunity to speak with Pete Rodriguez, CEO at Silicon Catalyst. Pete explained that these forums … Read More
Can Samsung Foundry Really Compete with TSMC?
The semiconductor foundry business has been front page news of late and for good reason, it’s an exciting time in the semiconductor industry and the foundries are where it all begins. Unfortunately, most of the “exciting” news has been overblown but this topic is of great interest, to me at least. Having been intimately involved… Read More
Achieving 112Gbps PAM4 Channels with Achronix FPGAs and Samtec Interconnect
They say that getting there is half the fun. On December 1, Achronix and Samtec will present a webinar on this topic in the context of high-performance front panel to midplane and midplane to backplane channel design. Technology, materials and system design will all be discussed with a focus on achieving 112Gbps PAM4 channels with… Read More
The Tell-Tale Entrepreneur, An Easy New Year’s Resolution
Wondering what you might do to up your game this year? What about improving your communication skills? Soothing an angry client, trying to find appeal for a product that’s not exciting customers, or finding the right investor? Working through a growth challenge you under-estimated, or generating excitement in an audience you… Read More
Time to Listen to GM’s Mark Reuss
General Motors President Mark Reuss told Reuters last week that he is worried about the COVID-19 pandemic currently running rampant in the U.S. and globally. “I’m so worried about it because it’s accelerating and it’s not being contained,” he said during a “fireside chat” at the Reuters Automotive Summit which concludes Monday.… Read More
Rapidus, IBM, and the Billion-Dollar Silicon Sovereignty Bet