I remember a couple of decades ago, my father used to go to a nearby doctor’s clinic to get his blood pressure and sugar levels checked. I guess, in around 1990s small electronic kits became available to measure these usual daily health indicators and instantly display the numbers. I bought a few for my father then. Today, the scene… Read More
The Apple A9 Samsung & TSMC Love Triangle
The Apple A9 drama continues to play out with no certainty!
At the end of the day does it matter?
Will the winner be the loser?
A Comedy, Tragedy or Love Story?
Depends on your view…
Act I Scene I…The stage is set….
We are watching an Italian Opera of a standard love triangle….
The object of desire is the rich … Read More
TSMC 2015 Technology Symposium
This year’s North American TSMC Technology Symposium is fast approaching. There are three, starting in Silicon Valley.
- San Jose on Tuesday April 7th at the San Jose Convention Center
- Boston on Tuesday April 14th at the Burlington Marriott
- Austin on Thursday April 16th at the downtown Hilton
The symposium will also take … Read More
TSMC ♥ UMC?
The relationship between TSMC and UMC is one of the more interesting ones in the fabless semiconductor ecosystem in my opinion. Both are headquartered in Hsinchu Taiwan and it is very hard to visit one company without seeing the other as they have facilities right across the street from each other. They also share humble beginnings… Read More
FD-SOI Foundry
At the end of last month during ISSCC there was a forum organized by the SOI Consortium. It took place in San Francisco at the Palace Hotel (which, if you have never been there, is famous for converting its old entryway for carriages into an amazing dining room, and for a bar with a huge painting by Maxfield Parrish of the Pied Piper valued… Read More
Apple Leaks Chip Sources?
Take a look at the figure below and tell me this information did not come from inside Apple. The question is: Was it voluntary or involuntary? Inquiring minds want to know! There are some minor surprises which I will get to in a minute but the actual source information is spot on to what I have heard the past few quarters. This spicy little… Read More
Will the IC Market Growth Rate Stagnate in 2015?
In my last blog here, I talked about last 30+ years of semiconductor IC market. While we have seen this market growing at CAGR of ~9% over last 30+ years, the CAGR of current decade is expected to be at just ~4%. Although the base size of the overall semiconductor IC market is quite healthy, expected to be at ~$378B by 2019, we cannot hope… Read More
RF on SOI at GF
Unless you have been living under a rock for the last decade, you can’t help but notice the increased importance of RF: bluetooth, WiFi, 3G, LTE, NFC, RFID and more. There is a lot of digital design associated with these standards, especially the highest bandwidth ones, but they also all contain a radio, often called a modem.… Read More
Is Semiconductor Technology a Strategic Industry?
Dependence on electronics is acute in all fields today. This includes both civilian and military use. Whether the technology used is state of the art or classic in nature, importance is pointed to the necessity of solid state electronic hardware in everyday life. In such an environment the need to ensure the availability of semiconductors… Read More
Intel and Samsung in Barcelona
This week it was Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Everyone who is anyone in mobile is there. Unfortunately I’m not since Barcelona is one of my favorite cities to visit. Two companies that set high expectations before the show were Samsung and Intel.
Samsung announced the new Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge smartphones on Sunday.… Read More
Quantum Computing Technologies and Challenges