It was CES 2011 when Steve Ballmer sweatered up and pitched the coming universe according to Microsoft, where the same Windows base would run on everything – PC, phone, tablet, and game console. Getting from that visionary statement to Windows 10 hasn’t been a smooth ride.… Read More
Tag: intel
ARM ♥ TSMC!
This week is the 10[SUP]th[/SUP] annual ARM Technical Conference in Silicon Valley. In regards to size, content, and relevance, I believe ARM TechCon is the #1 event for the fabless semiconductor ecosystem for sure. I attended keynotes, sessions, and walked the hallways on Wednesday and Thursday. I wish I could write about everything… Read More
ANSYS Tools Shine at FinFET Nodes!
In the modern semiconductor ecosystem we are seeing rapid advancement in technology breaking past once perceived limits; 28nm, 20nm, 16-14nm, 10nm and we are foreseeing 7nm now. Double and multi-patterning are already being seen along with complex FinFET structures in transistors to gain the ultimate advantages in PPA from… Read More
Who Will Lead at 10nm?
There has been a lot of discussion on SemiWiki lately around 14nm FinFET technology and who really leads and by how much. I thought it would be interesting to review some process metrics for previous technology generation and then make some forecasts around 10nm.
The focus of this article will be Intel, TSMC and Global Foundries/Samsung… Read More
ARM ♥ Xilinx!
The good news is that as a part of SemiWiki we get free media passes to all of the cool conferences. The bad news is that our inboxes get flooded with announcements. ARM TechCon is next week and my delete button is on overtime but it is interesting to see who is active in conferences and who is not. In this case Xilinx is very active and Altera… Read More
Who will be “lucky dog” in 4G LTE basebands?
The official term is “beneficiary rule”, but among colorful racing broadcasters, drivers, and fans it is more commonly referred to as the “lucky dog”: the driver who is down a lap, but gets to advance to the lead lap by virtue of being farthest ahead when a caution flag is raised.
Qualcomm has lapped the entire field when it comes to … Read More
Intel Core M vs Apple A8!
There were two big announcements last week right in my backyard and I missed them both! Instead, I was in Taiwan investigating yet another big development and all three of these events will intersect next year, absolutely.
At IDF in San Francisco Intel outlined the new 14nm Core M. This is an impressive CPU, one that will fill the now… Read More
What Does Intel Look Like 10 Years From Now?
Intel (INTC) CEO Brian Krzanich keynoted the Citi Global Technology Conference last week. This was a precursor to the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco this week. Normally these types of events are scripted dog and pony shows but sometimes interesting information comes out. The first question for example:
What does Intel… Read More
Intel Versus TSMC 14nm Processes
Intel has begun to release some details on their 14nm process. I thought it would be interesting to contrast what Intel has disclosed to TSMC’s 16nm process disclosure from last year’s IEDM (TSMC calls their 14nm process 16nm).
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Who will Manufacture Apple’s Next SoC?
Just to review: The brain inside the current Apple iPhone 5s is the A7 SoC manufactured by Samsung using a 28nm process. The A6 (iPhone 5) and A5 (iPhone 4s) are based on Samsung 32nm. The rest of the Apple SoCs also used Samsung processes. I think we can all now agree that the coming Apple A8 SoC (iPhone 6) will use the TSMC 20nm process.… Read More