AMD and Intel Update with Xilinx

AMD and Intel Update with Xilinx
by Daniel Nenni on 11-06-2020 at 10:00 am

AMD Xilinx Acquisition

The AMD acquisition of Xilinx is certainly big news but as an insider looking at the media coverage I think there are a few more points to consider. While most of the coverage has been positive there will always be negatives and we can look at that as well.

Intel acquired Altera in 2015 for $16.7B at a 50% premium which was a major disruption… Read More


Are TSMC and Intel Partnering in Arizona?

Are TSMC and Intel Partnering in Arizona?
by Daniel Nenni on 11-01-2020 at 10:00 am

TSMC Career Opporunitites

After months of back and forth TSMC finally announced plans to build a fab in Arizona. The announcement was not made in the press or on the most recent investor call but on LinkedIn. A sign of the times I guess but since they need to hire a bunch of semiconductor people it was more than appropriate.

“We’re delighted to catch up with you … Read More


Intel TSMC Update!

Intel TSMC Update!
by Daniel Nenni on 10-23-2020 at 10:00 am

Intel Bob Swan TSMC SemiWiki 1

Based on the Intel investor call yesterday here are some interesting comments Bob Swan made related to Intel outsourcing manufacturing and 7nm progress. Let’s start with the prepared statement:

Bob Swan: Over the last couple of years, we have been focused on three critical priorities; improving our execution to strengthen … Read More


Is Intel Losing its Memory?

Is Intel Losing its Memory?
by Robert Maire on 10-19-2020 at 12:00 pm

Intel SK Hynix NAND
  • It’s reported that Intel is selling its NAND ops to SK Hynix
  • Would likely get Intel out of a tough & distracting market
  • Is Intel abandoning China? Like Intel’s sale of XPoint to Micron

Getting out of NAND makes sense
The memory market is very tough, competitive and worst of all, very cyclical. Unless you have an iron… Read More


Three Things You Have Wrong About Intel!

Three Things You Have Wrong About Intel!
by Daniel Nenni on 10-09-2020 at 10:00 am

Three Things You Have Wrong About Intel

First let me tell you that I have nothing but respect for Intel. I grew up with them in Silicon Valley and have experienced firsthand their brilliance and the many contributions they have made to the semiconductor industry. In fact, I can easily say the semiconductor ecosystem would not be what it is today without Intel.

But no company… Read More


Online Verification Meet-up With Intel and Arm!

Online Verification Meet-up With Intel and Arm!
by Daniel Nenni on 09-11-2020 at 10:00 am

Online meetup sep semiwiki

Veriest is headquartered in Israel with engineering sites in Serbia & Hungary. The team has accumulated a wealth of experience through involvement in projects in the forefront of semiconductor technology.

Veriest maintains unrivaled quality standards in terms of both service and knowledge. With the ability to take on … Read More


Blue Cheetah Technology Catalyzes Chiplet Ecosystem

Blue Cheetah Technology Catalyzes Chiplet Ecosystem
by Tom Simon on 09-09-2020 at 6:00 am

Blue Cheetah Ecosystem

There are many reasons today for dividing up large monolithic SoCs into chiplets that are connected together inside a single package. Let’s look at just some of these reasons. Many SoCs share a common processing core with application specific interfaces and specialized processing engines. Using chiplets would mean that it is… Read More


A “Super” Technology Mid-life Kicker for Intel

A “Super” Technology Mid-life Kicker for Intel
by Tom Dillinger on 08-17-2020 at 10:00 am

TigerLake WillowCove

Summary
At the recent Intel Architecture Day 2020 symposium, a number of technology enhancements to the Intel 10nm process node were introduced.  The cumulative effect of these enhancements would provide designs with a performance boost (at iso-power) approaching 20% – a significant intra-node enhancement, to be sure.  The… Read More


Murphy’s Law vs Moore’s Law: How Intel Lost its Dominance in the Computer Industry

Murphy’s Law vs Moore’s Law: How Intel Lost its Dominance in the Computer Industry
by Michael Bruck on 08-06-2020 at 6:00 am

Intel INTC SemiWiki

Last week, Intel announced its second-quarter financial results which easily beat the analysts’ consensus expectations by a handsome margin. Yet the stock price plummeted by over 16% right after the earnings call with management. Seven analysts downgraded the stock to a sell and the common theme on all the downgrades was that… Read More


Die shrink: How Intel scaled down the 8086 processor

Die shrink: How Intel scaled down the 8086 processor
by Ken Shirriff on 07-22-2020 at 2:00 pm

Intel 8086 Comparison

The revolutionary Intel 8086 microprocessor was introduced 42 years ago this month so I’ve been studying its die.1 I came across two 8086 dies with different sizes, which reveal details of how a die shrink works. The concept of a die shrink is that as technology improved, a manufacturer could shrink the silicon die, reducing… Read More