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Rest in Peace Randy Smith (1959-2020)

Rest in Peace Randy Smith (1959-2020)
by Daniel Nenni on 02-08-2020 at 8:00 pm

Randy Smith Memorial

The semiconductor industry lost another good one last week, my friend, co-worker, and longtime SemiWiki contributor, Randy Smith. Randy published sixty blogs on SemiWiki over the last eight years that have been viewed more than a half million times. That is quite a digital legacy, absolutely.

Like myself, and many other semiconductor… Read More


Good December but March variable due to Coronavirus

Good December but March variable due to Coronavirus
by Robert Maire on 02-07-2020 at 10:00 am

Coronavirus
  • Trend remains positive for 2020 overall
  • New tools & EUV suggest better growth in 2020
  • Calendar 2019 ends on strong foundry note

KLAC reported revenues of $1.509B and EPS of $2.66 NonGAAP versus street of $1.48B and $2.58.  Foundry (TSMC) was obviously the big driver of the quarter and into 2020 as well.  Memory remains subdued… Read More


AI Interposer Power Modeling and HBM Power Noise Prediction Studies

AI Interposer Power Modeling and HBM Power Noise Prediction Studies
by Mike Gianfagna on 02-07-2020 at 6:00 am

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I attended a session on 2.5D silicon interposer analysis at DesignCon 2020. Like many presentations at this show, ecosystem collaboration was a focus. In this session, Jinsong Hu (principal application engineer at Cadence) and Yongsong He (senior staff engineer at Enflame Tech) presented approaches for interposer power modeling… Read More


Tesla: Two Heads are Better Than One

Tesla: Two Heads are Better Than One
by Roger C. Lanctot on 02-06-2020 at 10:00 am

Tesla Two Heads are Better Than One

Telsa Motors’ stock skyrockets and all observers are shocked and amazed. The shorts that took a multi-billion-dollar hit then double down with their concerns regarding the German gigafactory construction permits or coronavirus or the company’s ability to create demand or fulfill it.

All of these investors are ignoring something… Read More


Executive Interview: Howie Bernstein of HCL

Executive Interview: Howie Bernstein of HCL
by Daniel Nenni on 02-06-2020 at 6:00 am

Howie Bernstein SemiWiki

Howie began his career at Digital Equipment Corporation working on real-time device drivers, but within a few years started working at the other end of the stack with one of the pioneering electronic mail systems.  Since then, Howie has worked on developing systems involving electronic mail, workflow processing, configuration… Read More


TSMC Unveils Details of 5nm CMOS Production Technology Platform Featuring EUV and High Mobility Channel FinFETs at IEDM2019

TSMC Unveils Details of 5nm CMOS Production Technology Platform Featuring EUV and High Mobility Channel FinFETs at IEDM2019
by Don Draper on 02-05-2020 at 10:00 am

Diagram of BEOL metallization comparing EUV vs. immersion photolithography

Back in April, 2019, TSMC announced that they were introducing their 5 nm technology in risk production and now at IEDM 2019 they brought forth a detailed description of the process which has passed 1000 hour HTOL and will be in high volume production in 1H 2020.  This 5nm technology is a full node scaling from 7nm using smart scaling… Read More


Verification, RISC-V and Extensibility

Verification, RISC-V and Extensibility
by Bernard Murphy on 02-05-2020 at 6:00 am

RISC-V

RISC-V is obviously making progress. Independent of licensee signups and new technical offerings, the simple fact that Arm is responding – in fundamental changes to their licensing model and in allowing custom user extensions to the instruction set – is proof enough that they see a real competitive threat from RISC-V.

Which all… Read More


Signal Channel Design and Simulation for Silicon Interposer Packaging on High-Speed SerDes

Signal Channel Design and Simulation for Silicon Interposer Packaging on High-Speed SerDes
by Mike Gianfagna on 02-04-2020 at 10:00 am

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This year is the 25th anniversary for DesignCon.  The show has changed a lot over the years. Today, it’s a vibrant showcase of all aspects of advanced product design – from ICs to boards to systems. The show floor reflects the diverse ecosystem. If you missed it this year, definitely plan to go next year.

The DesignCon technical program… Read More


Intel vs AMD Q4 2019 Conference Calls

Intel vs AMD Q4 2019 Conference Calls
by Daniel Nenni on 02-04-2020 at 6:00 am

Intel 10nm Roadmap

Now that the dust has settled and I’m out of cronovirus quarantine let’s talk about the Intel and AMD conference calls. Unfortunately, the Intel and AMD marketing teams are still outpacing engineering so it is difficult to write something serious but I will do my best.

Spoiler Alert: Both CEOs disappoint.

First an Intel 10nm update:… Read More


DVCon Is a Must Attend Event for Design and Verification Engineers

DVCon Is a Must Attend Event for Design and Verification Engineers
by Daniel Payne on 02-03-2020 at 10:00 am

dvcon 2020

Learning is a never-ending process for design and verification engineers, so outside of reading SemiWiki you likely want to attend at least a few events per year to keep updated, learn something new, attend a workshop, or even present something that has made your IC project work much better than before. Sure, DAC is always a great… Read More