The biggest surprise embedded in the Intel 22nm SoC disclosure is that they still do NOT use Double Patterning which is a big fat hairy deal if you are serious about the SoC foundry business. The other NOT so surprising thing I noticed in reviewing the blogosphere response is that the industry term FinFET was dominant while the Intel… Read More
IP Scoring Using TSMC DFM Kits
Design For Manufacturing (DFM) is the art and science of making an IC design yield better in order to receive a higher ROI. Ian Smith, an AE from Mentor in the Calibre group presented a pertinent webinar, IP Scoring Using TSMC DFM Kits. I’ll provide an overview of what I learned at this webinar.… Read More
Intel’s New Tablet Strategy Brings Ivy Bridge to the Forefront
In an article published this week in microprocessor report and highlighted in Barron’s, Linley Gwennap makes the argument that Intel should stay the course and fix the PC instead of trying to offset its declines with sales into the Smartphone and Tablet space. He cites that lower PC sales growth was due to a dramatic slowdown in processor… Read More
Cortex-A9 speed limits and PPA optimization
We know by now that clock speeds aren’t everything when it comes to measuring the goodness of a processor. Performance has direct ties to pipeline and interconnect details, power factors into considerations of usability, and the unspoken terms of yield drive cost.
My curiosity kicked in when I looked at the recent press release… Read More
Intel not interested by NVELO? Samsung was…
Short news came during last week-end and Linkedin was the most efficient media to learn that NVELO has been acquired. Probably very few people out of the SSD ecosystem knew about NVELO. Based in Santa Clara, the company was a spin off from Denali, privately owned and if you look at the top management, you will recognize a few name, like… Read More
TSMC 28nm and 20nm Update Q4 2012
The big news in Taiwan last week was another increase in TSMC capital expenditures to $9B in 2013. That number could grow however. Last year TSMC CAPEX was set at $6B and ended up at $8.3B due to rapid 28nm capacity expansion and an accelerated 20nm program. 2013 will be all about FinFETs and manufacturing Apple SoCs so $9B may not cover… Read More
When ARM and CEVA team-up for “Designing a Multi-core LTE-A Modem”
ARM and CEVA have launched a white paper, addressing one of the hottest topics of the day: LTE-Advanced modem architecture. This very exhaustive paper, written by David Maidment (Mobile Segment Manager, ARM), Chris Turner (Senior Product Manager, ARM) and Eyal Bergman (VP Product Marketing, Baseband & Connectivity, CEVA… Read More
Apple Will NOT Manufacture SoCs at Intel
The internet is a funny place where rumors are true and truths are rumors. The latest one has Apple using Intel as a foundry. This is fuel for the rivalry between SemiWiki blogger Ed McKernan and me. Ed says Apple will use Intel, I say Apple will use TSMC, we have a very expensive dinner riding on this one.
How Apple Plans to Leverage Intel’s Foundry
Tim Cook’s strategy to disengage from Samsung as a supplier of LCDs, memory and processors while simultaneously creating a worldwide supply chain from the remnants of former leaders like Sharp, Elpida, Toshiba and soon Intel is remarkable in its scope and breadth. By 2014, Apple should have in place a supply chain for 500M iOS devices… Read More
Intel Taps The Debt Market: Should They Go Private?
Intel’s ability this week to raise $6B in debt at rock bottom interest rates should give one a moment to pause and consider what this portends for the future of the company and whether it remains in public hands. We live in extraordinary times where a fiscally excessive government can sell 10 year treasuries at 1.6% and the largest … Read More
Flynn Was Right: How a 2003 Warning Foretold Today’s Architectural Pivot