Breakfast with Aart de Geus and the Foundries!

Breakfast with Aart de Geus and the Foundries!
by Daniel Nenni on 09-06-2017 at 7:00 am

Being the number one EDA and the number one IP company does have its advantages and the resulting foundry relationships are a clear example. One of the DAC traditions that I truly enjoy is the Synopsys foundry breakfasts. Not only does Synopsys welcome scribes, they reserve a table up front for us and Synopsys CEO Aart de Geus has been… Read More


AI ASICs Exposed!

AI ASICs Exposed!
by Daniel Nenni on 08-01-2017 at 12:00 pm

Artificial intelligence, or AI is really heating up these days. The technology has been around for decades, but of late it is becoming quite a focus for applications such as data center analytics, autonomous vehicles and augmented reality. Why the rebirth? The trend appears to be driven by two forces – availability of data to train… Read More


Semicon West – The FDSOI Ecosystem

Semicon West – The FDSOI Ecosystem
by Scotten Jones on 07-21-2017 at 12:00 pm

At Semicon West last week I attended presentations by Soitec and CEA Leti, and had breakfast with CEA Leti CEO Marie Semeria, key members of the Fully Depleted Silicon On Insulator (FDSOI) ecosystem. I have also seen some comments in the SemiWiki forum lately that make me believe there is some confusion on the roles of different companies… Read More


Standard Node Trend

Standard Node Trend
by Scotten Jones on 07-15-2017 at 4:00 pm

I have previously published analysis’ converting leading edge logic processes to “standard nodes” and comparing standard nodes by company and time. Recently updated details on the 7nm process node have become available and in this article, I will revisit the standard node calculations and trends.… Read More


Exclusive – GLOBALFOUNDRIES discloses 7nm process detail

Exclusive – GLOBALFOUNDRIES discloses 7nm process detail
by Scotten Jones on 07-08-2017 at 7:00 am

In a SemiWiki EXCLUSIVE – GLOBALFOUNDRIES has now disclosed the key metrics for their 7nm process. As I previously discussed in my 14nm, 16nm, 10nm and 7nm – What we know now blog GLOBALFOUNDRIES licensed their 14nm process from Samsung and decided to skip 10nm because they thought it would be a short-lived node. At … Read More


LETI Days 2017: FD-SOI, Sensors and Power to Sustain Auto and IoT

LETI Days 2017: FD-SOI, Sensors and Power to Sustain Auto and IoT
by Eric Esteve on 07-07-2017 at 7:00 am

I have attended last week to the LETI Days in Grenoble, lasting two days to mark the 50[SUP]th[/SUP] anniversary of the CEA subsidiary. Attending to the LETI Days is always a rich experience: LETI is a research center counting about 3000 research engineers, but LETI is also a start-up nursery. The presentations are ranging from Read More


Bosch to Build $1.1 Billion Fab for Automotive and IoT!

Bosch to Build $1.1 Billion Fab for Automotive and IoT!
by Daniel Nenni on 07-02-2017 at 7:00 am

There has been quite a bit of coverage on this already but Bosch building a fab in Dresden is a big deal so let me share my experience, observation, and opinion as us bloggers do. The $1.1B question of course is: Why didn’t Bosch invest in GlobalFoundries FD-SOI fabs in Dresden instead? Automotive and IoT is perfect for FD-SOI,… Read More


FD-SOI in Japan?

FD-SOI in Japan?
by Adele Hars on 05-27-2017 at 7:00 pm

If you want to get your finger on the Japan FD-SOI pulse, registration is still open for a free, two-day workshop in Tokyo this week organized by the SOI Consortium. This is the 3rd Annual SOI Tokyo Workshop, and there’s a really interesting line-up of speakers.

In case you’re wondering, Japan is doing FD-SOI. In fact… Read More


14nm 16nm 10nm and 7nm – What we know now

14nm 16nm 10nm and 7nm – What we know now
by Scotten Jones on 04-07-2017 at 7:00 am

Last week Intel held a manufacturing day where they revealed a lot of information about their 10nm process for the first time and information on competitor processes continues to slowly come out as well. I thought it would be useful to summarize what we know now, especially since some of what Intel announced was different than what… Read More