One of my favorite events is just around the corner and that is the TSMC OIP Ecosystem Forum and it’s at my favorite Silicon Valley venue the Santa Clara Convention Center. Nobody knows more about the inner workings of the ecosystem than TSMC so this is the premier semiconductor collaboration event, absolutely.
In my 40 years as a … Read More
There is a major shift in innovation occurring all around us. We see the results every day. We can interact with them in an easier, more intuitive way. They deliver insights about our health and our daily habits. All this can be categorized as a move towards Smart Everything – ubiquitous machine-assisted intelligence for the good… Read More
Multi-die design is not a new concept. It has been around for a long time and has evolved from 2D level integration on to 2.5D and then to full 3D level implementations. Multiple driving forces have led to this progression. Whether the forces are driven by market needs, product needs, manufacturing technology availability or EDA… Read More
The introduction of direct die-to-die bonding technology into high volume production has the potential to substantially affect the evolution of the microelectronics industry. The concerns relative to the “end of Moore’s Law”, the diminishing returns of continued (monolithic) CMOS process scaling, and the disruptive effect… Read More
The introduction of heterogeneous 3DIC packaging technology offers the opportunity for significant increases in circuit density and performance, with corresponding reductions in package footprint. Yet, the implementation of a complex 3DIC product requires a considerable investment in methodology development for all… Read More
Cadence has clearly found its groove with Intelligent System Design, something that Lip-Bu reinforced in the CadenceLIVE kickoff keynote on Tuesday, August 11th. Anirudh Devgan, president of Cadence, continued to discuss the theme in his keynote on Wednesday, August 12th with his equally consistent subtitle—”Strength… Read More
This year TSMC did a FinFET victory lap with the success of 16nm, 12nm, 10nm, and 7nm. It really is well deserved. Even though TSMC credits the ecosystem and customers, I credit TSMC and their relationship with Apple since it has pushed us all much harder than ever before. TSMC CEO C.C. Wei summed it up nicely in his keynote: Innovation,… Read More
The semiconductor industry has built decades of success on hyper-integration to increase functionality and performance while also reducing system cost. But the standard way to do this, to jam more and more functionality onto a single die, breaks down when some of the functions you want to integrate are built in different processes.… Read More
For the last several years, people have predicted the end of Moore’s Law. The reasoning is that there is a limit at which one can’t shrink transistors any further. A reoccurring comment has been “You can’t divide an atom.” I had assumed that its demise would be at the hands of a new paradigm like quantum computing. Now, with Intel’s … Read More
At the TSMC Technology Symposium last month Suk Lee presented a lot of information on design enablement. Suk is an interesting guy with a unique background in ASIC, Semiconductor, EDA, and now Foundry. In baseball terms that would be like playing infield, outfield, home plate, and umpire!
Around the turn of the millennium Suk actually… Read More
