Real men have fabs!

Real men have fabs!
by Claus Aasholm on 04-24-2024 at 8:00 am

Semiconductor Ecosystem

“Real men have fabs” was an insult AMD founder Jerry Sanders hurled at his poor competitors who could not afford to build fabs. A few years later, AMD would be fabless, spinning off its manufacturing facilities as GlobalFoundries. This was the beginning of a transformative period for the industry.

Lisa Su could rightfully retort:

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Synopsys Expands Synopsys.ai EDA Suite with Full-Stack Big Data Analytics Solution

Synopsys Expands Synopsys.ai EDA Suite with Full-Stack Big Data Analytics Solution
by Kalar Rajendiran on 09-11-2023 at 10:00 am

Wafer Circuit Detail

More than two years ago, Synopsys launched its AI-driven design space optimization (DSO.ai) capability. It is part of the company’s Synopsys.ai EDA suite, an outcome of its overarching AI initiative. Since then, DSO.ai has boosted designer productivity and has been leveraged for 270 production tape-outs. DSO.ai uses machine… Read More


How Intel will Beat Samsung

How Intel will Beat Samsung
by Daniel Nenni on 03-09-2022 at 6:00 am

Intel vs Samsung

Now that Intel is back in the foundry business, and with the Tower Semiconductor acquisition they are definitely back in the foundry business, Samsung will be the biggest foundry loser here.

You can break the IDM foundry business into two parts: First, and foremost, the NOT TSMC Business. Second is the the Better PPA (Power/Performance,… Read More


CEO Interview: John O’Donnel of yieldHUB

CEO Interview: John O’Donnel of yieldHUB
by Daniel Nenni on 06-26-2020 at 10:00 am

John ODonnell CEO 150

Let me introduce John O’Donnell, CEO of yieldHUB. After earning a degree in microelectronics John spent 18 years at Analog Devices before founding yieldHUB in 2005. If anybody knows yield it is Analog Devices having shipped billions upon billions of chips, absolutely.

SemiWiki will be digging deeper into the technology… Read More


A New Kind of Analog EDA Company

A New Kind of Analog EDA Company
by Daniel Payne on 07-10-2018 at 12:00 pm

My IC design career started out with circuit design of DRAMS, so I got to quickly learn all about transistor-level design at the number one IDM in the world, Intel at the time. In the early days, circa 1978 we circuit designers actually had few EDA tools, mostly a SPICE circuit simulator followed by manual extraction, manual netlisting,… Read More


The Fabless Empire Strikes Back, Global Foundries and Cadence make moves into Integrated Photonics!

The Fabless Empire Strikes Back, Global Foundries and Cadence make moves into Integrated Photonics!
by Mitch Heins on 10-20-2016 at 4:00 pm

In August I wrote an article proclaiming Score 1 for IDMs vs Fabless and discussedIntel’sannouncement of volume production of their 100G PSM4 and 100G CWDM4 transceiver products.

This week the Fabless Empire strikes back.
Daniel Nenni and I attended a two-day Photonic Summit and workshop hosted by Cadence Design, PhoeniX Software
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Score 1 for IDMs vs Fabless Intel King of the Photonics Hill in Data Centers

Score 1 for IDMs vs Fabless Intel King of the Photonics Hill in Data Centers
by Mitch Heins on 08-18-2016 at 12:00 pm

For those of you waiting with baited breath to see the Fabless community with the likes of Broadcom or Qualcomm challenge Intel in the data center space, you were just dealt a significant blow. Intel debuted their long awaited silicon photonics modules for what they called “lightning-fast” connectivity in data centers. Intel … Read More


Pure-play Foundries to Prevail in Future

Pure-play Foundries to Prevail in Future
by Pawan Fangaria on 01-17-2016 at 7:00 am

In a consolidating semiconductor business environment and innovation in semiconductor fabrication already scaling new heights with existing strong players, where do you think the wafer capacity should concentrate? It’s pure-play foundries or pure-play-like foundries, and those who supply high-volume common components… Read More


IDMs are Much Ahead of Fabless Semicon Companies

IDMs are Much Ahead of Fabless Semicon Companies
by Pawan Fangaria on 12-06-2015 at 7:00 am

In a balancing global economy, it’s a common phenomenon that at certain times a few sectors or segments within the sectors grow much faster compared to others. And a few companies within the growing sectors lead those sectors. Both the growing sectors and the leading companies in those sectors become the centers of attraction. … Read More