FD-SOI, an Opportunity for China?

FD-SOI, an Opportunity for China?
by Paul McLellan on 11-04-2014 at 11:00 pm

Last month in Shanghai was a meeting of the FD-SOI consortium. The focus of the meeting was largely on the suitability of using FD-SOI to serve the Chinese market. The fabs in China are not right on the bleeding edge and are very cost-sensitive so 28nm is probably as advanced as they will get for a long time if not indefinitely. China … Read More


The Great 28nm Debacle!

The Great 28nm Debacle!
by Daniel Nenni on 07-06-2014 at 9:00 am

40nm was a big node while I was Director of Foundries at the IP company Virage Logic which was later acquired by Synopsys. 40nm was big because the top fabless companies multi-sourced designs from one foundry to another with relative ease to get the best wafer prices. It was also the node where some of the big IDMs went fab-lite moving… Read More


TSMC Updates: 20nm, 16nm, and 10nm!

TSMC Updates: 20nm, 16nm, and 10nm!
by Daniel Nenni on 05-05-2014 at 2:30 pm

*Spoiler Alert: The Sky is Not Falling*
The TSMC Technology Symposium last month provided a much needed technology refresh to counter aging industry experts (they make their living selling reports) who have been somewhat negative on the future of the fabless semiconductor ecosystem. If the sky wasn’t falling who would… Read More


Handel Jones Predicts Process Roadmap Slips

Handel Jones Predicts Process Roadmap Slips
by Paul McLellan on 01-15-2014 at 11:51 pm

At the SEMI ISS conference earlier this week, the last speaker in the technology challenges section was Handel Jones of IBS. I’ve known Handel since the mid-1980s when he came to VLSI Technology and told us we were losing money on 90% of the designs we were doing but our cost model was not good enough and so we didn’t even… Read More