Today Micron announced that it is shipping 2GB Hybrid Memory Cube (HMC) samples. The HMC is actually 5 stacked die connected with through-silicon-vias (TSVs). The bottom die is a logic chip and is actually manufactured for Micron in an IBM 32nm process (and doesn’t have any TSVs). The other 4 die are 4Gb DRAM die manufactured… Read More
Intel 14nm versus Samsung 14nm
The legend of Intel being two process nodes ahead of the rest of the industry is quickly coming to an end. To come to terms with this you need to do an apple to apple comparison which is what I will do right here, right now.
First and foremost let’s compare SoC silicon delivery since SoCs are driving the semiconductor industry and will … Read More
Another Major Consolidation in Semiconductor Space!
This time it is between the suppliers of semiconductor manufacturing equipments. And they are among the top ranked global peers. Applied Materials Inc., holding the numero uno position in sales of chip manufacturing equipments in 2012, agreed to acquire Tokyo Electron Ltd, the third in that ranking. Gary Dickerson of Applied… Read More
A Brief History of TSMC’s OIP part 2
The existence of TSMC’s Open Innovation Platform (OIP) program further sped up disaggregation of the semiconductor supply chain. Partly, this was enabled by the existence of a healthy EDA industry and an increasingly healthy IP industry. As chip designs had grown more complex and entered the system-on-chip (SoC) era, the amount… Read More
Samsung 28nm Beats Intel 22nm!
There was some serious backlash to the “Intel Bay Trail Fail” blog I posted last week, mostly personal attacks by the spoon fed Intel faithful, but there are however some very interesting points made amongst the 30+ comments so be sure and read them when you have a chance.
The Business insider article “The iPhone… Read More
Are 28nm Transistors the Cheapest…Forever?
It is beginning to look as if 28nm transistors, which are the cheapest per million gates compared to any earlier process such as 45nm, may also be the cheapest per million gates compared to any later process such as 20nm.
What we know so far: FinFET seems to be difficult technology because of the 3D structure and so the novel manufacturing… Read More
TSMC’s 16FinFET and 3D IC Reference Flows
Today TSMC announced three reference flows that they have been working on along with various EDA vendors (and ARM and perhaps other IP suppliers). The three new flows are:
- 16FinFET Digital Reference Flow. Obviously this has full support for non-planar FinFET transistors including extraction, quantized pitch placement, low-vdd
Intel Bay Trail Fail
Now that the IDF 2013 euphoria is fading I would like to play devil’s advocate and make a case for why Intel is still not ready to compete in the mobile market. It was very clear from the keynotes that Intel is a chip company, always has been, always will be, and that will not get them the market share they need to be relevant in mobile electronics,… Read More
Semiconductor Manufacturing in India?
Last week I heard about the Indian Cabinet approving the proposal for setting up of two Fabs in India. One led by IBM, Tower Jazzand JP Associates(an Indian business house), and the other led by HSMC(Hindustan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.), ST Microelectronicsand Silterra. Indian Semiconductor community including IESA… Read More
Sidense and TSMC Processes
I’ve written before about the basic capabilities of Sidense’s single transistor one-time programmable memory products (1T-OTP). Just to summarize, it is an anti-fuse device that works by permanently rupturing the gate oxide under the bit-cells storage transistor, something that is obviously irreversible.… Read More


Intel to Compete with Broadcom and Marvell in the Lucrative ASIC Business