A Bloomberg article from early July caught my eye as it portends further changes in the competitive mobile market landscape. Intel is now in the business of paying Taiwanese panel suppliers to ensure the supply of touch-screen panels for PC ultrabooks. In essence it says that to win in the PC market, Intel has to mimic Apple and go … Read More
Thanks to SemiWiki readers for the feedback and comments on the previous “Introduction to FinFET Technology” posts – very much appreciated! The next installment on FinFET modeling will be uploaded soon.
In the interim, Dan forwarded the following link to me “ Intel’s FinFETs too complicated and difficult, says … Read More
Microsoft is in trouble. Many of you already know that. Steve Ballmer has one last opportunity to set the company on a growth path or they will retreat into IBM legacy mode… ala the post 1990s Lou Gerstner era. And so they introduce a large tablet-convertible in direct competition with their PC partners Dell and HP. The End Game is coming… Read More
Black Swan Events are not to be embraced, they are to be feared, if conventional wisdom holds true. And yet, the 2011 Black Swan that slammed the PC market (i.e. the Thailand Floods that wiped out a large part of the disk drive market) has turned out to be the key catalyst for reshaping the semiconductor industry in 2012 and 2013. Instead… Read More
The speed with which The Mobile Tsunami engulfs the old PC Market is just incredible. 18 months ago the tablet and smartphone markets were considered a Green Field of Opportunity for PC OEMs and chip suppliers to graze in for the next decade. The fences, however, are closing in fast as Apple continues to drive its iOS empire into new… Read More
As Apple races towards $200B in revenue, sometime in 2013 and perhaps $300B by 2015, Tim Cook knows it is in Apple’s best interests to start building a sizeable percentage of iPhones and iPADs in the US and soon. At the All Things D conference this week, Walt Mossberg asked Cook about Apple’s manufacturing presence in China and “if … Read More
Four years ago, a VC friend of mine was invited to a get together with a prominent Hedge Fund Manager from the Midwest. The meeting was an arrangement between fellow Harvard Grads. The Fund Manager was looking to make investments in the valley, to diversify away from his heavily weighted financial positions. Though, not recognized… Read More
Perhaps the most pertinent comment raised by an analyst at Intel’s Investor Forum last week came from Dan Hutcheson of VLSI Research to Brian Krzanich, the COO and head of global manufacturing and supply chain. He said: “I think you sold yourself short on Trigate, the benefit of fully depleted vs. planar and the impact on leakage.”… Read More
Talk about an unusual position. Intel finds themselves very much currently outside when it comes to mobile SoCs for phones and tablets. After several attempts at soul-searching and a true understanding of the term “low-power” (not meaning 3W, but instead < 1W), they finally have a part – in the form of “Medfield”, aka the Atom… Read More
This just in from Tech Trader Daily, quoting Piper Jaffraychip analyst Gus Richard:
The whole issue for Qualcomm, based on Richard’s conversations with industry types, is that the company has started making its “MSM8960″ chip with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM) only two to three quarters after TSM introduced… Read More
