IEDM: TSMC, Intel and IBM 14/16nm Processes

IEDM: TSMC, Intel and IBM 14/16nm Processes
by Paul McLellan on 12-16-2014 at 7:10 am

This week is IEDM. Three of the presentations today were by TSMC, Intel and IBM going over some of the details of their 14/16nm processes. They don’t provide the slides at IEDM, just the single page papers so this may end up being a somewhat random collection of facts.

TSMC were up first. They talked about the improvements that… Read More


Jean-Louis Gassée on Intel and Mobile

Jean-Louis Gassée on Intel and Mobile
by Paul McLellan on 12-15-2014 at 7:10 am

I came across a very interesting article/blog written over the weekend by Jean-Louis Gassée on Intel and mobile. It covers some similar ground to several of my blog posts on the topic but also has some new facts. And it has additional credibility since Jean-Louis was head of product development and worldwide marketing at Apple (pre-iPhone).… Read More


TSMC Bringing EUV Into Production

TSMC Bringing EUV Into Production
by Paul McLellan on 12-08-2014 at 7:00 am

Last week was ASML’s investor day. I wasn’t there and they haven’t yet got the material posted on their website, so this is all second hand information. As you know, if you have read any of my comments on EUV, I have been dubious about whether EUV would ever work for production.

The three big problems seem to be:

  • source
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IEDM 2014 Preview

IEDM 2014 Preview
by Scotten Jones on 11-17-2014 at 8:00 pm

The International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) is one of the premier conferences for the presentation of the latest semiconductor processes and process technologies. IEDM is held every year in December alternating between San Francisco and Washington DC. This year IEDM will be held at the San Francisco Hilton on December… Read More


Cliff Hou at TSMC OIP

Cliff Hou at TSMC OIP
by Paul McLellan on 10-26-2014 at 7:00 am

I attended Cliff Hou’s keynote at TSMC OIP Forum earlier this month. OIP is a huge undertaking. It currently has over 100 ecosystem partners, 10 technology generations, 7600+ IPs, 60+ EDA tools, 7000+ tech files and 150+ PDKs.

Most of Cliff’s presentation gave details on where TSMC are with the various processes. … Read More


TSMC Breaks More Records in Q3 2014!

TSMC Breaks More Records in Q3 2014!
by Daniel Nenni on 10-16-2014 at 4:00 pm

As previously predicted TSMC is having another record breaking SoC quarter. TSMC is my favorite economic bellwether and from what I can see the semiconductor industry will continue to grow this year and next at a rapid rate thanks to TSMC and the fabless semiconductor ecosystem:

We have set a new record of revenue and profitabilityRead More


ANSYS Tools Shine at FinFET Nodes!

ANSYS Tools Shine at FinFET Nodes!
by Pawan Fangaria on 09-30-2014 at 4:00 pm

In the modern semiconductor ecosystem we are seeing rapid advancement in technology breaking past once perceived limits; 28nm, 20nm, 16-14nm, 10nm and we are foreseeing 7nm now. Double and multi-patterning are already being seen along with complex FinFET structures in transistors to gain the ultimate advantages in PPA from… Read More


Place & Route with FinFETs and Double Patterning

Place & Route with FinFETs and Double Patterning
by Paul McLellan on 09-29-2014 at 8:00 am

Place & route in the 16/14nm era requires a new approach since it is significantly more complex. Of course, every process generation is more complex than the one before and the designs are bigger. But modern processes have new problems. The two biggest changes are FinFETs and double patterning.

FinFETs, as I assume you know,… Read More


TSMC Delivers First FinFET ARM Based SoC!

TSMC Delivers First FinFET ARM Based SoC!
by Daniel Nenni on 09-25-2014 at 9:00 am

Right on cue, TSMC announces 16nm FinFET production silicon. I believe this is the original version of FinFET versus 16FF+ which is due out in 1H 2015. I will confirm this next week at the TSMC OIP event in San Jose, absolutely. Either way this is excellent news for the fabless semiconductor ecosystem and I look forward to the first … Read More


Xilinx: Revenue Down, Profit Up, FinFET on Schedule

Xilinx: Revenue Down, Profit Up, FinFET on Schedule
by Paul McLellan on 07-22-2014 at 11:59 pm

Xilinx announced their results today and had their conference call this afternoon, which I listened to. For them this is 1Q fiscal 2015 which means you have to be careful since there is a big difference between talking about fiscal quarters and calendar quarters. Xilinx’s conference calls are interesting for a couple of … Read More