Semi execs look at IoT tradeoffs a bit differently

Semi execs look at IoT tradeoffs a bit differently
by Don Dingee on 08-15-2016 at 4:00 pm

What happens when you get a panel of four executives together with an industry-leading journalist to discuss tradeoffs in IoT designs? After the obligatory introductions, Ed Sperling took this group into questions on power, performance, and integration.… Read More


SEMICON West – Globalfoundries Update

SEMICON West – Globalfoundries Update
by Scotten Jones on 08-14-2016 at 12:00 pm

On Wednesday of SEMICON West I got to sit down with Gary Patton, CTO of GlobalFoundries and get an update on what has been going on with them.

Gary started the interview by pointing out that it has now been a year since the GlobalFoundries purchase of many of IBM’s semiconductor assets and they have hit every commitment they made.… Read More


One transistor for the future of mmWave?

One transistor for the future of mmWave?
by Don Dingee on 08-03-2016 at 4:00 pm

We’ve heard recently from several sources that millimeter wave radios, once the exclusive realm of defense and satellite use, are now finding homes in applications such as automotive radar and 5G networks. Therein lies a significant opportunity for digital design: moving frequency conversion and filtering from the analog … Read More


Body-biasing for ARM big or LITTLE in GF 22FDX

Body-biasing for ARM big or LITTLE in GF 22FDX
by Don Dingee on 05-04-2016 at 4:00 pm

GLOBALFOUNDRIES has been evangelizing their 22FDX FD-SOI process for a few months; readers may have seen Tom Simon’s write-up of their preview at ARM TechCon. Dr. Joerg Winkler recently gave an updated webinar presentation of their approach in an implementation of ARM Cortex-A17 core.

By now, you’ve probably heard that 22FDX… Read More


Webinar: How to Implement an ARM Cortex-A17 Processor in 22FDX 22nm FD-SOI Technology

Webinar: How to Implement an ARM Cortex-A17 Processor in 22FDX 22nm FD-SOI Technology
by Daniel Nenni on 04-22-2016 at 7:00 am

Who’s doesn’t like a good webinar? I certainly do as it is one of the most time efficient ways to interact with the fabless semiconductor ecosystem, absolutely. Especially when it addresses two of the top trending topics on SemiWiki and they are ARM and FD-SOI. Here is a quick summary of what you will learn:

GLOBALFOUNDRIESRead More


ARM and FD-SOI are like Peanut Butter and Jelly!

ARM and FD-SOI are like Peanut Butter and Jelly!
by Daniel Nenni on 04-19-2016 at 4:00 pm

When I first heard about a foundry possibly licensing FD-SOI I would have bet it was SMIC in China. What better market for a low cost, low power, easy to manufacture alternative to FinFETs? The foundry of course was Samsung which also made complete sense since they have 28nm gate-first capacity that matches up nicely to 28nm FD-SOI.… Read More


Positive pointers from Samsung, GF, Renesas, NXP/Freescale, ST, Soitec – so will 2016 be the year of FD-SOI?

Positive pointers from Samsung, GF, Renesas, NXP/Freescale, ST, Soitec – so will 2016 be the year of FD-SOI?
by Adele Hars on 02-10-2016 at 4:00 pm

A little over a month into 2016 and we already have a raft of FD-SOI news from Samsung, GlobalFoundries, NXP/Freescale, Renesas and more. Quite a bit of it came out of the recent SOI Consortium forum in Tokyo. Many of the presentations are now available on the SOI Consortium website (click here to see what’s there) – but keep checking… Read More


28nm FD-SOI: A Unique Sweet Spot Poised to Grow

28nm FD-SOI: A Unique Sweet Spot Poised to Grow
by Pawan Fangaria on 11-11-2015 at 12:00 pm

I have been silently watching STMicroelectronics pursuing FD-SOI technology since quite a few years. FinFET was anyway getting more attention in the semiconductor industry because of several factors involved. But from a technology as well as economic perspective there are many plus points with FD-SOI. I remember my debate,… Read More


How LETI IP will speed-up GlobalFoundries 22FDX™ ASIC Development

How LETI IP will speed-up GlobalFoundries 22FDX™ ASIC Development
by Eric Esteve on 10-19-2015 at 7:00 am

GlobalFoundries has positioned FDSOI proposal -22FDX- to provide better performance and power dissipation than competitive FDSOI offers on 28nm node. The FDSOI licensing agreement between LETI and GlobalFoundries is only a couple of months old (July 2015), but the real work has started in Dresden as several engineers from … Read More