2016 semiconductor capex highest in 5 years

2016 semiconductor capex highest in 5 years
by Bill Jewell on 10-25-2016 at 4:00 pm

Global semiconductor capital expenditures (capex) are expected to return to the level of 2011 either this year or next. 2011 was the record year for capex as the industry returned to growth following the 2009-2010 recession. IC Insights’ August 2016 forecast called for 3.5% growth in capital spending to reach $67.1 billion, the… Read More


What’s the Intel Capex Outlook?

What’s the Intel Capex Outlook?
by Robert Maire on 10-23-2016 at 7:00 am

Intel has terrific QTR & slightly light guide Intel is recovering & transforming at the same time. Whats the Capex outlook? Impact on ASML KLAC LRCX?

Intel reported revenues of $15.78B and earnings of $0.80 for the quarter beating expectations and previous upward guidance. CCG (PCs) were up 21% Q/Q and 5% Y/Y. Data center… 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
Read More


CEO Interview: Geoff Tate of Flex Logix

CEO Interview: Geoff Tate of Flex Logix
by Daniel Nenni on 10-10-2016 at 7:00 am

Geoff Tate Flexlogix

This is the second in series of interviews we will do with executives inside the fabless semiconductor ecosystem. Geoff Tate was the founding CEO of Rambus and is now CEO and co-founder of Flex Logix (embedded FPGA). This one should be of great interest due to the recent $16.7B acquisition of Altera by Intel. We all now know the importance… Read More


One line of macOS code could cap a 20-year pivot

One line of macOS code could cap a 20-year pivot
by Don Dingee on 10-07-2016 at 4:00 pm

When Steve Jobs made it clear at the 1997 Apple Worldwide Developer Conference he was taking back his company, he tossed the now famous line in his opening monologue: “Focusing is about saying no.” Approaching 20 years later, that decision still reverberates.… Read More


Processors, Processors, Processors Everywhere

Processors, Processors, Processors Everywhere
by Tom Simon on 10-06-2016 at 7:00 am

At first glance a processor conference might seem a bit arcane, however we live in an era where processors are ubiquitous. There is hardly any aspect of our lives that they do not touch in some way. Last week at the Linley Processor Conference the topics included deep learning, autonomous driving, energy, manufacturing, smart cities,… Read More


Microsoft, FPGAs and the Evolution of the Datacenter

Microsoft, FPGAs and the Evolution of the Datacenter
by Bernard Murphy on 10-03-2016 at 12:00 pm

When we think of datacenters, we think of serried ranks of high-performance servers. Recent announcements from Google (on the Tensor Processing Unit), Facebook and others have opened our eyes to the role that specialized hardware and/or GPUs can play in support of deep/machine learning and big data analytics. But most of us would… Read More


Intel Altera FPGA at the heart of an autonomous Audi A8

Intel Altera FPGA at the heart of an autonomous Audi A8
by Claudio Avi Chami on 10-02-2016 at 4:00 pm

Audi announced its piloted driving technology at CES 2015. The Audi Prologue includes the Advanced Driver Assistance System Platform (zFAS), co-developed with TTTech. The zFAS board is based on four devices: an Nvidia k1 processor and Infineon Aurix processor, Mobileye’s EyeQ3 for vision processing, and an Altera Cyclone Read More


Demystifying IoT – The 15 key building blocks of an IoT solution

Demystifying IoT – The 15 key building blocks of an IoT solution
by Padraig Scully on 09-23-2016 at 7:00 am

IoT solution development is complex. In many cases, development entails combining expertise from a number of different areas such as embedded system engineering, connectivity solution design, big data handling, application development, and data encryption techniques. Each area demands a specific array of competences Read More


Intel Stratix 10 MX FPGA Highlights

Intel Stratix 10 MX FPGA Highlights
by Claudio Avi Chami on 09-15-2016 at 7:00 am

These days, FPGAs are fairly complex pieces of silicon. Being that the case, it would take several articles even to put a summary of the features embedded in high-end FPGA devices. Hence, in this article, I will concentrate in just one feature, namely, the new embedded memory blocks of the recently released Intel-Altera StratixRead More