The arrival of fall seems to typically raise the number of conferences hosted by semiconductor ecosystem companies. The conferences may go by different names. But whether called a forum, summit, conference, or by some other creative name, the purpose is the same. It is to bring together technologists and business people together… Read More
Mike Wishart has a storied career in investment banking and technology. His resume includes stints at Smith Barney, Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs after his Stanford MBA. He has served as a director at Brooktree, Spansion, Cypress and now Knowles. Mike is also a venture partner at Tyche Partners, a venture capital firm focused… Read More
The history of TSMC and its Open Innovation Platform (OIP) is, like almost everything in semiconductors, driven by the economics of semiconductor manufacturing. Of course ICs started 50 years ago at Fairchild (very close to where Google is headquartered today, these things go in circles). The planarization approach, whereby… Read More
Interesting notes from my most recent Taiwan trip: Taiwan unemployment is at a record low. Scooters once again fill the streets of Hsinchu! TSMC will be passing out record bonuses to a record amount of people. TSMC Fab expansions are ahead of schedule. The new Fab 15 in Taichung went up amazingly fast with equipment moving in later… Read More
Okay, this is more of a, “What I would do if I was TSMC” than a critique, but I needed a one word descriptor for the title. This was the third TSMC OIP Conference and I would guess about 250 people attended. This was the first time I have seen TSMC in “reactive” mode versus “proactive” leadership mode, so I was a bit disappointed. TSMC is … Read More
Launched in April 2008, the TSMC OIP initiative is a collaborative strategy aimed at breaking down the barriers of semiconductor design enablement in order to reduce waste and increase the profitability of the industry as a whole.
The TSMC Open Innovation Platform promotes timeliness-driven innovation amongst the semiconductor… Read More
