As we all know, venture capital has all but disappeared for semiconductor companies. Do semiconductor startups still exist and where do they come from? I ask these questions quite frequently but bloggable answers are hard to come by. When I asked Mike Gianfagna of eSilicon during ISSCC he reminded me of an old new source of emerging… Read More
5nm Chips? Yes, but When?
For any invention, technical proof of concept or prototyping happens years ahead of the invention being infused into actual products. When we talk about 5nm chip manufacturing, a test chip was already prototyped in last October, thanks to Cadence and Imec. Details about this chip can be found in a blog at Semiwiki (link is given … Read More
2016 Samsung Foundry Update!
When sketching out the chapters for our book “Mobile UnLeashed” we sought out the events and technology that empowered the mobile devices that literally changed our world. One of the companies that enabled this change of course is Samsung. Cleverly embedded in chapter 8 “To Seoul, via Austin” is the story of how Samsung got into … Read More
Inception of "Intel Inside"
Let me start with a quote:
“Competition is always a good thing. It forces us to do our best. A monopoly renders people complacent and satisfied with mediocrity.”– Nancy Pearcy
By the end of post, it will be quite evident that it was the competition that led to one of the classiest campaign “Intel Inside” for its processors. As I mentioned… Read More
How Makers are changing the world—and why I’m so excited about it
I’ve spent my entire career in the tech space, being exposed to some of the world’s biggest and most innovative companies. But these days, the thing that excites me a most is how Makers are using technology to make the world a better place.
Consider this: The recent Hackaday prize challenged Makers to build something that matters … Read More
Japan..silent but strong players of semiconductor industry
Japanese stood to be the world leaders during 1980-1990 regime in semiconductor manufacturing[SUP] [2][/SUP]. During my research, I found that Japanese semiconductor firms are very strong leaders in process which gave them a competitive advantage over others. Situation is bit different today, as we have fabless firms taking… Read More
Intel to Focus on IoT and NOT Mobile?
The Intel Q4 investor call was last week and as Brian Krzanich approaches his 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] year as Intel CEO a new synergistic corporate strategy is emerging:
That strategy is also resulting in the evolution of our business model to focus on three key areas of growth: The Data Center, the Internet of Things, and Memory.
DCG, IoTG… Read More
Pure-play Foundries to Prevail in Future
In a consolidating semiconductor business environment and innovation in semiconductor fabrication already scaling new heights with existing strong players, where do you think the wafer capacity should concentrate? It’s pure-play foundries or pure-play-like foundries, and those who supply high-volume common components… Read More
The China Semiconductor Market Explained!
The overwhelming theme of the SEMI Industry Strategy Symposium in Half Moon Bay this week was China. On day number two Sunny Hui, SVP of SMIC, did one of the best overviews of the China market I have seen, absolutely. While I’m not allowed to post the presentation in its entirety I can post up to three slides (the prettiest ones) and summarize… Read More
FinFET will finally arrive for GPU’s in 2016
It used to be that GPU chips moved to new process nodes pretty frequently, previously as often as annually. That is up until 2011. That was the year that 28nm GPU’s were unveiled. Since then there has been a long pause. Now in the wake of the 2016 CES both Nvidia, with its previously announced Pascal, and AMD, with the just announced Polaris,… Read More
MediaTek Develops Chip Utilizing TSMC’s 2nm Process, Achieving Milestones in Performance and Power Efficiency