Changing Trends at the Top of Semicon Space

Changing Trends at the Top of Semicon Space
by Pawan Fangaria on 05-31-2015 at 5:00 am

As we have moved down from a CAGR of ~9% over last three decades to a CAGR of ~5% in the current decade, it’s time to check the realities. It can be definitely argued that a 5% of CAGR over a solid base of ~$378 billion should be considered good enough. In my view that’s the sign of maturity in the semiconductor market. At the same time we are… Read More


PDK Generation Needs Paradigm Shift

PDK Generation Needs Paradigm Shift
by Pawan Fangaria on 04-28-2015 at 4:00 pm

For any semiconductor technology node to be adopted in actual semiconductor designs, the very first step is to have a Process Design Kit (PDK) developed for that particular technology node and qualified through several design tools used in the design flow. The development of PDK has not been easy; it’s a tedious, time consuming,… Read More


US is the Ultimate Leader in Semiconductor Business

US is the Ultimate Leader in Semiconductor Business
by Pawan Fangaria on 04-07-2015 at 6:00 pm

Last year in November when I looked at the world’s top20 semiconductor companies with Samsungand TSMCbeing at the second and third rank respectively, first being Intel, I computed the sales numbers of the companies based on their countries and found that Taiwan and South Korea accounted for 34.5% of the total sales of the top20 … Read More


Intel Q4 and 2014 Results

Intel Q4 and 2014 Results
by Paul McLellan on 01-16-2015 at 5:03 pm

Intel announced their results yesterday for last quarter (and the year). And they were good financially. As Brian Krzanich said:The fourth quarter marked a strong finish to a great year. We began 2014 expecting roughly flat year-over-year revenue and operating income. Instead the company’s full year revenue grew 6% touchingRead More


Look who is Leading the World Semiconductor Business

Look who is Leading the World Semiconductor Business
by Pawan Fangaria on 11-08-2014 at 7:00 pm

A couple of days ago I was reading a news article which said how long the world economy will be dependent on a single engine to drive it; obviously that single engine is USA. If we consider the overall economy, definitely USA is driving it, and semiconductor is a large part of it. The semiconductor is driving electronics and that is attracting… Read More


TI – The Initial Innovator of Semiconductor ICs

TI – The Initial Innovator of Semiconductor ICs
by Pawan Fangaria on 02-09-2014 at 9:00 am


[TI’s China Foundry acquired from SMIC]

During my engineering graduation, electronic design courses and mini-projects, the ICs I used to come across were SN 7400 series from Texas Instrumentsthat covered a large range of devices from basic gates and flip-flops to counters, registers, memories, ALUs, system controllers, and… Read More


A Brief History of the Foundry Industry, part 1

A Brief History of the Foundry Industry, part 1
by Paul McLellan on 03-06-2013 at 2:10 pm

The fundamental economics of the semiconductor industry are summed up in the phrase “fill the fab.” Building a fab is a major investment. With a lifetime of just a few years, the costs of owning a fab are dominated by depreciation of the fixed capital assets (the building, the air and water purification equipment, the manufacturing… Read More


A Brief History of the Fabless Semiconductor Ecosystem

A Brief History of the Fabless Semiconductor Ecosystem
by Daniel Nenni on 12-05-2012 at 7:00 pm

Clearly the fabless semiconductor ecosystem is driving the semiconductor industry and is responsible for both the majority of the innovation and the sharp decline in consumer electronics costs we have experienced. By definition, a fabless semiconductor company does not have to spend the time and money on manufacturing related… Read More


A Brief History of Semiconductors: the Foundry Transition

A Brief History of Semiconductors: the Foundry Transition
by Paul McLellan on 09-04-2012 at 11:30 am

A modern fab can cost as much as $10B dollars. That’s billion with a B. Since it has a lifetime of perhaps 5 years, owning a fab costs around $50 per second and that’s before you buy any silicon or chemicals or design any chips. Obviously anyone owning a fab had better be planning on making and selling a lot of chips if they are going to make… Read More


A Brief History of TSMC

A Brief History of TSMC
by Daniel Nenni on 08-02-2012 at 7:30 pm

In 1985 Morris Chang was recruited by the Taiwanese government to help develop the emerging semiconductor industry. In 1986 Morris joined the Hsinchu based non profit research institute ITRI as Chairman and President and launched what would be TSMC’s first semiconductor wafer fabrication plant on the ITRI campus. Taiwan… Read More