Wanna Build a Bitcoin Miner: GlobalFoundries Will Manufacture it For You

Wanna Build a Bitcoin Miner: GlobalFoundries Will Manufacture it For You
by Paul McLellan on 01-30-2014 at 11:00 am

You may know a bit about Bitcoin, the digital currency. One part of the system is “mining” new bitcoins, analogous to mining new gold when we were on the gold standard, creating “money” out of thin air but at a cost of doing the actual mining.

Here is an interesting aside. When I lived in France the father of… Read More


What will drive MEMS to drive I-o-T and I-o-P?

What will drive MEMS to drive I-o-T and I-o-P?
by Pawan Fangaria on 01-27-2014 at 5:45 am

By I-o-P, I mean Internet-of-People- I couldn’t think of anything better than this to describe a technology which becomes your custodian for everything you do; you may consider it as your good companion through life or an invariably controlling spy. This is obvious with the embedded sensor techno-products such as Kolibree, a … Read More


Technology Challenges: Intel, IBM, Xilinx, GlobalFoundries, IMEC

Technology Challenges: Intel, IBM, Xilinx, GlobalFoundries, IMEC
by Paul McLellan on 01-14-2014 at 7:00 pm

I spent the day at the SEMI Industry Strategy Symposium in Half Moon Bay. The early part of the day was devoted to technology challenges. Obviously everyone did not say exactly the same things, and had a little bit of a different spin depending on what business they are in. But there was a lot of commonality between Intel, IBM, Xilinx… Read More


Why SOI is the Future Technology of Semiconductor

Why SOI is the Future Technology of Semiconductor
by Eric Esteve on 01-14-2014 at 8:34 am

No doubt that FDSOI generate high interest these days and I found a very interesting contribution from Zvi Or-Bach, President and CEO of MonolithIC 3D, Inc. Zvi has accepted to share his wrap-up from IEDM, in a blog for Semiwiki readers. If you remember the long discussion we had in Semiwiki about cost comparison, some comments were… Read More


GlobalFoundries Has a New CEO

GlobalFoundries Has a New CEO
by Paul McLellan on 01-06-2014 at 4:07 pm

Sanjay Jha is taking over as CEO of GlobalFoundries. His background is in mobile. He was at Qualcomm in the early part of his career and was COO from 2006 to 2008 before going to be co-CEO of Motorola and then, when the company was split, CEO of Motorola Mobility. That was acquired by Google and he stepped down after the acquisition closed.… Read More


Semicon Technology Advancement – A View From IEDM

Semicon Technology Advancement – A View From IEDM
by Pawan Fangaria on 12-20-2013 at 10:00 am

As I see the semiconductor industry going through significant changes and advances, yet ironically plagued by a growing perception that the pace of scaling is slowing, I was inclined to take a peek into what the industry experts say about the state of the industry and the future of Moore’s Law. Fortunately, at last week’s InternationalRead More


The Leading Edge Depends on What You Are Doing

The Leading Edge Depends on What You Are Doing
by Paul McLellan on 12-06-2013 at 11:10 pm

At Semicon Japan a few days ago, Subi Kengeri of GlobalFoundries delivered the keynote. While he covered a number of topics, using Tokyo’s recent win of the 2020 Olympics as a hook, one major theme was the increasing importance of processes other than the bleeding edge digital processes that get all the news.

What is leading… Read More


GlobalFoundries and ARM

GlobalFoundries and ARM
by Paul McLellan on 11-04-2013 at 4:56 pm

GlobalFoundries had several interesting things at the ARM TechCon last week. Firstly, GlobalFoundries won the best in show award in the chip design category recognizing the best-in-class technologies introduced since the last TechCon.

Earlier in the summer GlobalFoundries and ARM announced the ARM Cortex-A12 processor,… Read More


Intel 14nm versus Samsung 14nm

Intel 14nm versus Samsung 14nm
by Daniel Nenni on 09-25-2013 at 4:15 am

The legend of Intel being two process nodes ahead of the rest of the industry is quickly coming to an end. To come to terms with this you need to do an apple to apple comparison which is what I will do right here, right now.

First and foremost let’s compare SoC silicon delivery since SoCs are driving the semiconductor industry and will … Read More


Process Variation is a Yield Killer!

Process Variation is a Yield Killer!
by Daniel Nenni on 09-20-2013 at 11:00 am

With the insatiable wafer appetites of the fabless semiconductor companies in the mobile space, yield has never been more critical. The result being better EDA tools every year and this blog highlights one of the many examples. It has been a pleasure writing about Solido Design Automation and seeing them succeed amongst the foundries… Read More