The Chip Design Game at the End of Moore’s Law

The Chip Design Game at the End of Moore’s Law
by Paul McLellan on 05-27-2014 at 2:58 pm

I just came across and interesting video from last year’s Hot Chips conference. Dr. Robert Colwell of DARPA discusses how the processor design industry is likely to change after it becomes too difficult to continue scaling transistors to ever-smaller dimensions. This is likely to occur sometime within the next decade,… Read More


IBM and GLOBALFOUNDRIES Deal!

IBM and GLOBALFOUNDRIES Deal!
by Daniel Nenni on 05-25-2014 at 10:10 am

An interesting deal was announced last week, another piece in the What is Next for GlobalFoundries? puzzle. IBM is sending up to 200 employees from their East Fishkill R&D facility to GF’s Malta R&D center in Saratoga County. The first thing that comes to my mind is 10nm! Considering GF is licensing Samsung 14nm, what else… Read More


Motley Fools Intel Investors Again!

Motley Fools Intel Investors Again!
by Daniel Nenni on 05-22-2014 at 12:00 pm

It really is quite a racket. Investor bloggers spread semiconductor disinformation for $.01 per click, that coincidentally covers their stock positions, and I get paid $300 per hour to explain it to Wall Street. While I appreciate the opportunity to bond with the financial people, I do wonder how these bloggers sleep at night.… Read More


Can Intel be a Leading Semiconductor Foundry?

Can Intel be a Leading Semiconductor Foundry?
by Daniel Nenni on 05-21-2014 at 6:00 am

This is the third part of a series answering the most frequently asked questions I get from Wall Street. Please read the previous two articles on Intel’s Manufacturing Lead and Intel’s SoC Challenge before flaming me in the comment section. First let’s look at why there is a foundry business and go from there.

The big… Read More


Intel’s SoC Challenge!

Intel’s SoC Challenge!
by Daniel Nenni on 05-18-2014 at 8:00 pm

Innovation is the cornerstone of the semiconductor industry and as history has shown, the majority of semiconductor innovation has come from fabless companies. Apple computer is my favorite example since they went from selling mother boards to computer hobbyists in the 1970’s to being one of the largest and most influential … Read More


Intel’s Manufacturing Lead Explained

Intel’s Manufacturing Lead Explained
by Daniel Nenni on 05-17-2014 at 4:00 pm

The calls from Wall Street keep coming with basically the same set of questions: “Does Intel really have a 2-3 year process lead? Can Intel lead the foundry segment? Can Intel Lead the Mobile SoC Segment?” The feeling amongst the buy and sell side investment people is that unless Intel can lead a market they will not stay in it… Read More


Do You Really Know RapidIO?

Do You Really Know RapidIO?
by Eric Esteve on 05-06-2014 at 4:53 am

About 10 years ago, I was in charge of the product definition of our next IP to be released, the PCI Express gen-1 Controller. I was also involved in the decision process to select the new functions to develop, in respect with the market size, all of this being the definition of “marketing”. The reason why our company decided not to develop… Read More


Strong 2014 for Semiconductor Equipment and CapEx

Strong 2014 for Semiconductor Equipment and CapEx
by Bill Jewell on 04-24-2014 at 9:00 pm

Spending on semiconductor manufacturing equipment is headed for healthy growth in 2014. The latest data from SEMI and the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ) shows March 2014 three-month-average billings for semiconductor manufacturing equipment were up 16% from February 2014 and up 31% from a year ago. Bookings… Read More


Another Intel Slide Debunked!

Another Intel Slide Debunked!
by Daniel Nenni on 04-20-2014 at 4:00 am

This was one of the most memorable keynotes I have seen, absolutely. Probably because it supports my belief that the infamous Intel slide that “projected” Intel will continue a linear manufacturing cost per transistor improvement at 14nm and 10nm is pure marketing fluff. Even more interesting, according to Intel, other semiconductor… Read More


Intel Lost $1B in Mobile Last Quarter

Intel Lost $1B in Mobile Last Quarter
by Paul McLellan on 04-16-2014 at 8:00 am

Intel announced their quarterly results today. Revenue was $12.8B, up 1% from a year ago with operating income of $2.5B also up 1% from last year.

Since the future of the world is mobile and not desktop/laptop, the mobile results are the most interesting. Mobile sales fell 61% to $156M. This includes mobile products and anything … Read More