If you are a TSMC customer, no doubt you have heard TSMC is requiring lithography and planarity analysis for all 45nm designs. Their website says customers can either run it themselves, or contract TSMC services to do it. The most cost-effective way would be for the customers to run it themselves, but some might not have the resources… Read More
LRCX- Coulda been worse but wasn't so relief rally- Flattish is better than downLam put in good quarter with flattish guide-…Read More
From Space-Central to Space-Time Balanced - A Perspective for Moore’s Law 2.0 and A Holistic Paradigm for EmergenceA friend of SemiWiki published an article on…Read More
The RISC-V and Open-Source Functional Verification ChallengeMost of the RISC-V action at the end…Read More
Sarcina Democratizes 2.5D Package Design with Bump Pitch Transformers2.5D package design is rapidly finding its stride…Read More
Effects of Inception
I finally got to watch the critically acclaimed sci-fi movie “Inception” last weekend and life has not been the same since. Without giving away too much detail for the benefit of those who have not watched it yet, the main plot involves dreams within dreams within dreams – three levels to be precise—to “incept” an idea into … Read More
Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation 2010
In celebrating the 10th anniversary of SMIC, CEO David Wang ushers in a new era of China semiconductor manufacturing with triumphs versus promises. By triumphs David means profits, which SMIC saw for the first time in Q2 2010. The future looks even brighter for SMIC as the China semiconductor demand versus supply gap is an estimated… Read More
TSMC OIP Conference 2010 Critique!
Okay, this is more of a, “What I would do if I was TSMC” than a critique, but I needed a one word descriptor for the title. This was the third TSMC OIP Conference and I would guess about 250 people attended. This was the first time I have seen TSMC in “reactive” mode versus “proactive” leadership mode, so I was a bit disappointed. TSMC is … Read More
Critical Area Analysis and Memory Redundancy
Simon Favre, one of our Calibre Technical Marketing Engineers, presented a paper on Critical Area Analysis and Memory Redundancy at the 2010 IEEE North Atlantic Test Workshop in Hopewell Junction, NY, just up the road from Fishkill. As Simon says…
Fishkill, New York. IBM is in Fishkill. IBM invented Critical Area Analysis in what,… Read More
Semiconductor Forecast 2010-2011 Update!
It’s that time of the quarter again, where the semiconductor analysts revise forecasts, passing off glorified guesstimates as valid financial planning data. They aren’t forecasts! They are observations! I blame these hacks for the 12.5% Silicon Valley unemployment rate! I blame these hacks for the dwindling available capitol… Read More
TSMC GigaFab Tour!
During my most recent Taiwan trip I was not only afforded a meeting with Dr Mark Liu, Sr VP of TSMC, a guided tour of GigaFab #12 was also included. Even more impressive, I’m now considered “Elite” by Eva Airlines so I automatically get the good seats, better food, and VIP service. My wife, however, is not impressed with my Elite status… Read More
Semiconductor Realization!
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results (Albert Einstein). Given that statement, according to John Bruggeman (Cadence CMO and EDA360 Chief Anarchist) the semiconductor industry is INSANE!
This year the EDA Tech Forum and the Global Semiconductor Alliance Expo were not only on the … Read More
GlobalFoundries Exposed, Part II!
EDA CEO panels are usually rather dull but this one definitely held my interest. It was standing room only and I was surrounded by familiar faces from not only EDA and IP company executives, but also representatives from the top semiconductor companies around the world! The theme of course was collaboration, promoting the GFI “IDM-Like”… Read More
GlobalFoundries Exposed!
The GlobalFoundries Technical Conference last week was one of the best I’ve seen. The theme of the conference was “GlobalFoundries is bringing the collaborative IDM semiconductor design and manufacturing culture to the merchant foundry business!”
“We ramped volume production at the 45/40nm node well ahead of all foundries… Read More
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