The semiconductor foundry business has been front page news of late and for good reason, it’s an exciting time in the semiconductor industry and the foundries are where it all begins. Unfortunately, most of the “exciting” news has been overblown but this topic is of great interest, to me at least. Having been intimately involved… Read More
TSMC to Build first US Fab in Arizona!
Well, it’s official, the TSMC Board of Directors approved an investment to establish a wholly-owned subsidiary in Arizona with a paid-in capital of $3.5 billion. As history shows the investment may be more than that but $3.5B is a great starting point. This is being discussed in the SemiWiki Forum and I have been gathering inside… Read More
Intel’s Secret Key to Decrypt Microcode Patches is Exposed
A group of security vulnerability researchers, after many months of work, were able to figure out the update process and secret key used to decrypt Intel microcode updates for the Goldmont architecture product lines.
This is an important finding as it peels back yet another layer of the onion that protects the core CPU from malicious
AMD and Intel Update with Xilinx
The AMD acquisition of Xilinx is certainly big news but as an insider looking at the media coverage I think there are a few more points to consider. While most of the coverage has been positive there will always be negatives and we can look at that as well.
Intel acquired Altera in 2015 for $16.7B at a 50% premium which was a major disruption… Read More
Leading Edge Foundry Wafer Prices
I have seen several articles recently discussing foundry wafer selling prices for leading edge wafers, these articles all quote estimates from a paper by the Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET). The paper is available here.
My company IC Knowledge LLC is the world leader in cost and price modeling of semiconductors… Read More
Designing Smarter, not Smaller AI Chips with GLOBALFOUNDRIES
On October 20 at the Linley Fall Processor Conference, GLOBALFOUNDRIES made a compelling case for designing smarter, not smaller AI chips. The virtual conference was filled with presentations on the latest architectures and chips for all types of AI/ML applications. It was therefore a refreshing change of pace to hear the fab… Read More
Are TSMC and Intel Partnering in Arizona?
After months of back and forth TSMC finally announced plans to build a fab in Arizona. The announcement was not made in the press or on the most recent investor call but on LinkedIn. A sign of the times I guess but since they need to hire a bunch of semiconductor people it was more than appropriate.
“We’re delighted to catch up with you … Read More
Intel TSMC Update!
Based on the Intel investor call yesterday here are some interesting comments Bob Swan made related to Intel outsourcing manufacturing and 7nm progress. Let’s start with the prepared statement:
Bob Swan: “Over the last couple of years, we have been focused on three critical priorities; improving our execution to strengthen … Read More
The Most Interesting CEO in Semiconductors!
Hands down, without a doubt, the most interesting CEO in semiconductors is Lip-Bu Tan, founder of Walden Capitol and current CEO of Cadence Design Systems. If you want to talk about a man with a plan it’s Lip-Bu Tan.
Before we get into the fireside chat between Tom Caufield and Lip-Bu at the GTC 2020 Virtual event let’s do a quick biography:… Read More
Is Intel Losing its Memory?
- It’s reported that Intel is selling its NAND ops to SK Hynix
- Would likely get Intel out of a tough & distracting market
- Is Intel abandoning China? Like Intel’s sale of XPoint to Micron
Getting out of NAND makes sense
The memory market is very tough, competitive and worst of all, very cyclical. Unless you have an iron… Read More
MediaTek Develops Chip Utilizing TSMC’s 2nm Process, Achieving Milestones in Performance and Power Efficiency