A Virtual Platform for any kind of design or manufacturing in any discipline of science or engineering (electrical, mechanical, aeronautics etc.) must be able to provide an accurate representation of an actual design/product in a fraction of time and cost it takes to build working prototypes. In the case of semiconductors at … Read More
The semiconductor industry seems to be the most challenged in terms of cost of error; a delay of 3 months in product development cycle can reduce revenue by about 27% and that of 6 months can reduce it by almost half; competition is rife, pushing the products to next generation (with more functionality, low power, high performance,… Read More
There have been a lot of articles and discussion on SemiWiki about Intel. These articles have all been written from the perspective of an outsider commenting on what Intel is doing, or should or shouldn’t be doing. I thought it would be interesting to take a look at how Intel got to where they currently are, what their current strengths… Read More
The growing process integration complexity at each technology node has increased development time and cost, and this trend looks to continue. There is a looming risk of delivering unrepeatable critical unit processes (or process modules) that would require revisiting development and manufacturing requalification or in … Read More
In the beginning of this decade there was a lot of buzz around 3D chip manufacturing. Many EDA tools were developed to facilitate semiconductor designs in 3D space. Naturally, we are moving to the edge on 2D without much room to further squeeze transistors and interconnect. However, lately I haven’t heard much about 3D products.… Read More
This time it is between the suppliers of semiconductor manufacturing equipments. And they are among the top ranked global peers. Applied Materials Inc., holding the numero uno position in sales of chip manufacturing equipments in 2012, agreed to acquire Tokyo Electron Ltd, the third in that ranking. Gary Dickerson of Applied… Read More
I have been spending some time at Semicon West at the Moscone center the last couple of days. Since it was only a month ago that I was there for DAC, the first contrast is the size of the show. DAC didn’t fill Moscone South. Semicon fills Moscone South, and North, and the corridor between. And Moscone West on the other side of 4th … Read More
