There is an adage that says that quality is not something that can be slapped on at the end of the design or manufacturing process. Ensuring quality requires careful thought throughout development and production. Arguably this adage is more applicable to the topic of Design for Test (DFT) than almost any other area of IC development… Read More
-Short term Covid19 impact is primarily logistics related
-Longer term impact is more systemic/demand driven
-Impact will wind through supply chain over several qtrs
-Other issues, such as trade, remain an overhang
Short term versus long term in the semiconductor industry
The stocks declines over the last months seem to indicate… Read More
COVID-19 underscores the importance of US-based production for strategic industries
The COVID-19 pandemic has drawn intense focus on the need to repatriate pharmaceutical manufacturing back to the United States. The increased awareness that a strategic adversary manufactures or controls up to 80% of the active pharmaceutical… Read More
Corona Fab Impact –
lower production/raise prices
Chip production supply chain may break
It could temporarily fix memory oversupply
Could it risk the fall roll out of next Iphone
The ” Two week tango” – Waiting games at fabs
When a highly specialized piece of semiconductor equipment misbehaves to the… Read More
Now that the dust has settled and I’m out of cronovirus quarantine let’s talk about the Intel and AMD conference calls. Unfortunately, the Intel and AMD marketing teams are still outpacing engineering so it is difficult to write something serious but I will do my best.
Spoiler Alert: Both CEOs disappoint.
First an Intel 10nm update:… Read More
The Intel versus AMD rivalry is legendary amongst us Silicon Valley AARP members and is one of the reasons why the semiconductor industry is as competitive as it is today, absolutely.
AMD’s boisterous corporate culture started with AMD’s co-founder and long time CEO Jerry Sanders. Jerry was the ultimate showman but his credo “People… Read More
Intel is again apologizing to customers for 14nm chip shortages. As a result PC makers are revising down revenue expectations for 2020. Something does not smell right here. I have also read that due to the continued shortages Intel will be second sourcing CPU chips to Samsung 14nm. This smells even worse, absolutely.
First and foremost,… Read More
Arguably the cloud was the quickest road to riches for chip designers large and small. As an emerging company, if you wanted to raise money just put “Datacenter” in your pitch deck and you were assured millions. You would be competing with semiconductor’s version of David and Goliath (AMD and Intel) but that was a good thing, right?… Read More
The 3 way relationship is more complex than it seems
On the surface it seems simple. AMD and TSMC compete with Intel making its own chips and TSMC making them for AMD. But… Read More
TSMC puts up solid QTR, Capex increase for 5NM and capacity increase, 5G/mobile remains driver- HPC good 7NM, 27% of revs- Very nice margins!
In line quarter-Good guide
TSMC reported revenues of $9.4B and EPS of $0.62 , more or less in line with expectations, perhaps a touch below ” whisper” expectations which had been… Read More
