If you live in California anyway, with its large Asian population, you can’t have helped noticing that it was the Lunar New Year a couple of weeks ago, the start of the year of the sheep. A couple of days after the New Year, Xilinx announced their new families of what they now call FPGAs, 3D ICs and MPSoCs. But which the rest of us … Read More
Tag: fabless
Semiconductor in China: Is 3rd Time a Charm?
China has recently announced extremely ambitious plans for becoming more self-sufficient in semiconductors. Today China is about 1/3 of the worldwide IC market but about 90% of that is imported. Think of something like the iPhone assembled in Shenzen with chips from TSMC, Samsung, Hynix, Toshiba/Sandisk , Micron and more (Taiwan,… Read More
IP for IoT: Thanks for the Memory
The Internet of Things (IoT) is clearly the buzzword of the moment, and like many catchy phrases it also tends to mean what you want it to mean, rolling up some things that exist like the automotive market or industrial automation, along with markets for things like wearables and healthcare that are largely in the future. But however… Read More
eSilicon Just Taped-out a SonicsGN-based SoC. And It’s Not a Secret
I slipped into the shadows at the back of the bar in the Tenderloin. Mid-afternoon on a weekday, almost nobody in there.
“So you’re with the NSA?” I asked.
“I can’t confirm that,” the man said.
“The Network Stealing Agency.”
“That’s not what it stands for,” he said indignantly. “It’s the National Security Agency. We ensure…well, … Read More
eSilicon Try IP Before You Buy
I’ve written before about eSilicon’s IP Marketplace. This is the latest in several steps to automate more and more of the interface between eSilicon and its customers: MPW quotes, production quotes, tracking orders through manufacturing, and now IP quotes. There is a phrase in software development called “eating… Read More
Is Fab Business The Forte of APAC?
A little ago, I was looking at the top20 semiconductor companies in the world and was surprised to see a couple of large companies in Taiwan and South Korea garnering >34% of total sales (See – Look who is Leading the World Semiconductor Business). This time it’s another surprise, when I look at IC Insights report on global 300mm… Read More
TSMC Gets Ready for IoT
With all the talk about 14/16nm and 10nm it is important to realize that older processes are still important. Eventually 16nm may end up being cheaper than 28nm but for the time being 28nm seems to be a sort of sweet spot, not just cheaper than every process that came before it (which was true for every new node) but also cheaper than every… Read More
eSilicon’s IP Marketplace
eSilicon engages with customers in many different ways, from providing a full menu of design services down to simply manufacturing parts. Increasingly, they have been automating a lot of this on their website. It started with automatic quotes for MPW shuttles and more recently they have a full production quote system for parts… Read More
Money for data and your MEMS for free
An ongoing IoT debate centers on the notion that just because we can do something does not mean we should. From discussions at the recent MEMS Executive Congress, looking at what TSMC and some others see as the endgame for a trillion sensors signals possible trouble ahead.… Read More
Cliff Hou at TSMC OIP
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