If you are a TSMC customer, no doubt you have heard TSMC is requiring lithography and planarity analysis for all 45nm designs. Their website says customers can either run it themselves, or contract TSMC services to do it. The most cost-effective way would be for the customers to run it themselves, but some might not have the resources… Read More
Tag: semiconductor
TSMC’s DFM Announcement
If you are a TSMC customer, no doubt you have heard TSMC is requiring lithography and planarity analysis for all 45nm designs. Their website says customers can either run it themselves, or contract TSMC services to do it. The most cost-effective way would be for the customers to run it themselves, but some might not have the resources… Read More
Effects of Inception
I finally got to watch the critically acclaimed sci-fi movie “Inception” last weekend and life has not been the same since. Without giving away too much detail for the benefit of those who have not watched it yet, the main plot involves dreams within dreams within dreams – three levels to be precise—to “incept” an idea into … Read More
Critical Area Analysis and Memory Redundancy
Simon Favre, one of our Calibre Technical Marketing Engineers, presented a paper on Critical Area Analysis and Memory Redundancy at the 2010 IEEE North Atlantic Test Workshop in Hopewell Junction, NY, just up the road from Fishkill. As Simon says…
Fishkill, New York. IBM is in Fishkill. IBM invented Critical Area Analysis in what,… Read More
The New Semiconductor Economy
Bill Wiseman of McKinsey & Company presented “Waking up to the new normal, the world economy after the great recession” at a recent ITAC GSA Conference. Bill supports my previous semiconductor financial predictions in great and graphical detail.
In the United States: unemployment claims are up, home sales are down without… Read More
Personal Message to Carl Icahn RE: MENT
According to an amended 13S filing, you now own 7.9% of Mentor Graphics, up from 6.86% disclosed on May 27th. Just what are you thinking!?!?!? Clearly you are a smart guy and you pretty much invented the game of corporate raidership, but EDA? Mentor Graphics? EDA does not need you, Mentor Graphics does not need you, I do not need you … Read More
Warning Signs for Semiconductors!
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke recently testified before Congress that the U.S. economy is recovering, and he predicts the nation will not experience a double-dip recession, or as I predicted a big “V” then a small “v” in my blog: China Semiconductor Bubble.
Bill Jewel from Semiconductor Intelligence agrees with Bernanke:… Read More
Synopsys Acquires Virage Logic!
Overshadowing the acquisition of Denali by Cadence, Synopsys, the #2 semiconductor IP provider acquires Virage Logic, the #3 IP provider. Virage brings the #1 embedded SRAM, #1 BIST, #1 Logic Libraries, #1 DDR, #1 NVM, the ARC CPU cores and audio/video interface technology, and all the AMS IP from the NXP acquisition.
Under the… Read More
Semiconductor Capacity Shortages 2010
In a previous blog, Black Friday and the Predicted Semiconductor Shortages, I reported that total semiconductor manufacturing capacity is shrinking as older fabs close and new ones ramp up even slower than expected, resulting in a record reduction of total wafer capacity and silicon allocation starting in 2010. DRAM shortages… Read More
TSMC Earthquake Damage Redo
As you may know I enjoy poking fun at the current state of semiconductor design and manufacture media; sloppy reporting, editors with little or no actual semiconductor experience taking corporate marketing spins on news/events and passing it along as fact.
Last week it was the EETimes parroting the Samsung foundry business press… Read More