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Micron Races to Its Future

Micron Races to Its Future
by Ed McKernan on 12-31-2011 at 2:01 pm

Perhaps no semiconductor company took it on the chin harder the last half of 2011 than Micron. And yet, perhaps no company was racing as hard as Micron to make a radical changeover. Micron is considered a bell weather on the overall health of the semiconductor industry given that DRAM, NAND and NOR Flash are used in some combination… Read More


America Heads Into a Generational Turn

America Heads Into a Generational Turn
by Ed McKernan on 12-30-2011 at 7:24 pm

America has received a gift whose consequence and magnitude is just now unfolding before our eyes. Taken to its limits, it may in the course of the next decade finally free us from many of our foreign entanglements while lifting the economic burdens from the working majority that has seen their wages stagnate for the past 40 years.… Read More


Happy Holidays From SemiWiki

Happy Holidays From SemiWiki
by Daniel Nenni on 12-25-2011 at 4:38 pm


It has been an amazing year for us so we wanted to thank you all for being a part of the Semiconductor Wiki Project!

The SemiWiki Bloggers are off this week and will return the first week of January. During this time there will be a major SemiWiki software update. There will be performance upgrades and lots of new features to enhance the… Read More


eTale of Christmas: DSK, sex, economy and geopolitics

eTale of Christmas: DSK, sex, economy and geopolitics
by Eric Esteve on 12-21-2011 at 11:14 am

Former International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief, Mr Dominique Strauss-Kahn, has spoken at a conference organized by a Chinese Internet company, NetEase.com Inc. in Beijing last Monday, and he was rather pessimistic about the future of European economy, at least if politician keep focus on Continent’s dept problem and not enough… Read More


T’is the season for…semiconductor forecasts

T’is the season for…semiconductor forecasts
by Paul McLellan on 12-20-2011 at 3:10 pm

T’is the season to be jolly…and to predict the next year’s semiconductor market.

KPMG does a regular survey of senior executives in semiconductor companies to get their outlook on the year ahead. The message this year is mixed. 41% of executives expected their business to grow by more than 5% next year, which sounds not too bad until… Read More


View from the top: Chris Rowen

View from the top: Chris Rowen
by Paul McLellan on 12-20-2011 at 1:41 pm

I met with Chris Rowen, CEO of Tensilica, last week to get his outlook on the year ahead.

He gave me an interesting quote from his time at Silicon Graphics. “We wanted to be very fast in development not to be first to market but so that we could be the last to start.”

A lot of what Tensilica does is bound up with evolving standards in audio,… Read More


Why AMD is Up Q4, While Intel is Down

Why AMD is Up Q4, While Intel is Down
by Ed McKernan on 12-19-2011 at 5:45 pm

Immediately following Intel’s announcement that they expected Q4 revenue to come up short by $1B, Rory Read the new CEO of AMD, countered that they were on track to meet their original guidance (see article). Furthermore, “In 1Q and 2Q, maybe you see some manifestations, but I wouldn’t bet against the supply chain,”… Read More


What Will 2012 Bring The Semiconductor Ecosystem?

What Will 2012 Bring The Semiconductor Ecosystem?
by Daniel Nenni on 12-18-2011 at 4:30 pm

During my annual holiday meal with one of my favorite EDA icons some rather bold predictions were made. On his side it was more of what he would LIKE to see happen, on my side it was more of what will HAVE to happen for the semiconductor ecosystem to thrive in the coming years.

Mike Gianfagna (Viva Italia!) spent 15+ years with RCA/GE Semiconductor… Read More


Will Rising Smartphone Tide Lift Semiconductor Boats in 2012?

Will Rising Smartphone Tide Lift Semiconductor Boats in 2012?
by Ed McKernan on 12-16-2011 at 5:12 pm

Memo to Self: When all else fails, return to the Smartphone Market!

The announcement by Intel earlier this week that they would come up short this quarter is a reminder that it is not growth, but very high growth that covers a Multitude of Economic Sins (many which are unforeseen). The semiconductor industry has had to endure three… Read More