The annual Siemens Digital Industries Software user group event was held virtually on May 26th, which made it easy to attend from my home office, although selecting from the list of speakers was a challenge, because they offered 475 sessions, wow. My focus is EDA, so I listened to Joseph Sawicki, the Executive Vice President, IC … Read More
Semiconductor production can’t be turned on and off like a switch
Semiconductor fabs have to run 24/7 to make money. They have to be running full all the time to fully utilize the high running costs and in the case of new fabs, high capital costs.
Unlike a brake pad factory hat can hire and fire people at will and source readily … Read More
I used to be part of the custom silicon management team at Apple. I’ve seen how great a challenge it is to pull off a custom silicon strategy within a one year product cycle. Apple is the perfect example of this custom silicon model since they develop the best mobile processors in the world for their products. Which also includes other… Read More
The semiconductor foundry business has been front page news of late and for good reason, it’s an exciting time in the semiconductor industry and the foundries are where it all begins. Unfortunately, most of the “exciting” news has been overblown but this topic is of great interest, to me at least. Having been intimately involved… Read More
TSMC is the bellwether for not just the semiconductor industry but the worldwide economy. TSMC makes semiconductors, semiconductors are where electronics begin and electronics are the foundation of modern life, absolutely.
Apple is also a key economic indicator and as we all know Apple is a strategic partner of TSMC. The Apple… Read More
I made it through the Virtual Intel Architecture Day last week and much to my surprise it was very well done. Virtual events have been hit and miss but this one was definitely a hit. Great content, approachable experts, a glitch-free experience. The mainstream media has been redundantly covering it so let me add my many years of experience,… Read More
Will/should others follow?
TSMC vs Intel impact?
Moving Apple’s supply chain further overseas
Apples move to self served silicon was no surprise…..
It has been speculated for years and we have talked about it many times. It makes more sense for Apple to have silicon, custom designed for their applications and products… Read More
-Could GloFo come back?
-TSMC or Intel or both or neither?
-Samsung would be a long shot?
-Perhaps Apple could convince TSMC?
The Wall Street Journal put out an article that detailed what we had indicated in our newsletter 10 days ago, that the US government is looking at getting a US based foundry to protect our interests given our … Read More
Last-level cache seemed to me like one of those, yeah I get it, but sort of obscure technical corners that only uber-geek cache specialists would care about. Then I stumbled on an AnandTech review on the iPhone 11 Pro and Max and started to understand that this contributes to more than just engineering satisfaction.
Caching
A brief… 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
