At IEDM in 2015 I had a chance to sit down with Subramani (Subi) Kengeri and get a briefing on GLOBALFOUNDRIES 22FDX technology. At IEDM 2016 Rick Carter of GLOBALFOUNDRIES presented a paper on 22FDX. Following Rick’s presentation, I had a chance to sit down with Rick and John Pellerin, VP of Technology and Integration and … Read More
ESD Alliance Executive Outlook Features View of How Multi-Physics is Reshaping Chip Design and EDA ToolsEvery spring, the ESD Alliance, a SEMI Technology…Read More
The Growing Importance of PVT Monitoring for Silicon Lifecycle ManagementIn an era defined by complex chip architectures,…Read More
TSMC Brings Packaging Center Stage with SiliconThe worldwide TSMC 2025 Technology Symposium recently kicked…Read More
TSMC 2025 Technical Symposium BriefingAt the pre-conference briefing, Dr. Kevin Zhang gave…Read More
Perspectives from Cadence on Data Center Challenges and TrendsFrom my vantage point in the EDA foxhole…Read More
Reducing the Cost of SoC Testing
Every year certain technology themes appear, like at ITC this year a big theme was how to reduce the cost of SoC testing. I spoke with Rob Knoth of Cadence by phone to hear more about this cost of test theme. Rob gave me an example of an SoC that takes 27 seconds on a tester, so at $0.04 per second in test costs amounts to $1.08 per part. If you… Read More
Enter the Cellular IoT
You could be forgiven for thinking that wireless in an IoT device must be Bluetooth-5 or Zigbee or Thread. After all, that’s what ARM has introduced as a part of their IoT solution and they have market weight that is difficult to dismiss. However those options aren’t the only game in town. There is already some level of (second… Read More
What Stephen Hawking gets right and wrong about the most dangerous time for our planet
Stephen Hawking made a bold headline last week: “This is the most dangerous time for our planet.”
In an essay in the Guardian, the renowned theoretical physicist wrote: “Whatever we might think about the decision by the British electorate to reject membership of the European Union and by the American public to embrace Donald Trump… Read More
Cybercriminals Next Targets: Long Term Prizes (part 2 of 2)
In the previous blog, Cybercriminals Next Targets: Short Term Dangers (part 1 of 2), I outlined how cybercriminals will use the holiday season to victimize unwary consumers and target businesses. They will also dive deeper into leveraging Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices. The longer-term outlook expands their reach to more… Read More
GLOBALFOUNDRIES ASIC Update!
Back in my IP days we spent a lot of time with the ASIC companies chasing multi-million dollar licensing deals. IBM was a fierce ASIC competitor back then with leading edge processes and a silicon proven IP catalog that was unmatched.
Unfortunately that ended at 65nm as the pure-play foundries (TSMC and UMC) and fabless ASIC companies… Read More
Waymo Misses the Boat… Wayless?
The big news in the world of transportation today is Alphabet’s spinoff of its automated driving business into a business unit called Waymo. The effort is positioned as Alphabet’s formal attempt to commercialize automated driving technology.
The project has been greeted with much fanfare and rumors of a late 2017… Read More
Cybercriminals Next Targets: Short Term Dangers (part 1 of 2)
Knowing what cybercriminals are targeting today is easy. Their attacks are loud, impactful, and have the elegance of a herd of bulls crashing through a glassware shop. The tougher challenge is figuring out where they will take aim tomorrow. Knowing where cyber threats will attack in the future, gives the necessary insights to … Read More
An End of Year View of Semi Consolidation
The last couple of years have been tumultuous for the semiconductor market. IC Insights just released a report showing just how much consolidation has concentrated market strength in a small number of companies. The report (which excludes fabs) shows that the 5 top companies – Intel, Samsung, Qualcomm, Broadcom and SK Hynix – … Read More
Advanced Semiconductor Process Cost Trends
The cost trend for leading edge semiconductor technologies is a subject of some controversy in the industry. Cost is a complex issue with many interacting factors and much of the information out in the industry is in my opinion misleading or incorrect. In this article, I will discuss each of the factors as well as present a view of … Read More
Emerging NVM Technologies: ReRAM Gains Visibility in 2024 Industry Survey