This was my 35th DAC and it did not disappoint, especially when it came to the DAC Drama Department. This year DAC proved once again that it is THE place for semiconductor professionals and academics to learn and network. The big news is that Synopsys did not reserve a booth for 56DAC in Las Vegas next year which resulted in quite a bit… Read More
I joined Texas Instruments (TI) in 1972. Most Stanford PhD’s in my field at that time remained in the Bay Area to work for Fairchild, National Semiconductor, HP or other local companies. But TI was the largest semiconductor company and there were plenty… Read More
EDA companies advertise their physical verification tools, aka DRC (Design Rule Check), mostly in terms of specific engine qualities such as capacity, performance and scalability. But they do not address an equally if not more important aspect: the correctness of the actual design rules.
Put bluntly: It’s not about how… Read More
Samsung throws further gas on the fire of weak handset and CAPEX not set but will be down versus 2017. Samsung reported revenues of KRW 60.56 Trillion and KRW 15.64 Trillion operating profit ($56B and $15B). Chips accounted for whopping KRW 11.55 Trillion in operating profit on revenues of KRW 20.78 Trillion ( $11B and $19B)….a… Read More
TSMC warns soft phone/crypto & flat capex!
Does this impact DRAM?
Can Intel keep Apple?
We love Tesla (Model 3)!… Read More
Years ago my good friend Herb Reiter promoted the importance of 2.5D packaging to anybody and everybody who would listen including myself. Today Herb’s vision is in production and the topic of many papers, webinars, and conferences. According to Herb, and I agree completely, advanced IC packaging is an important technology for… Read More
DVCon turns 30 this year which is a very big deal. My oldest child also turns 30 this year which really puts things in perspective looking back at what we have all accomplished during that time. DVCon originally started as a user’s group at the 1988 Design Automation Conference in Anaheim California and the rest as they say is history.… Read More
The SEMI Industry Strategy Symposium (ISS 2018) started today with session one on economic trends. Daniel Niles (Alpha One Capital Partners) started it off with “A Golden Age for Global Growth – Semiconductor revenues up over 20% y/y (The Good News is Also the Bad News)”. The good news of course is that semiconductors continue… Read More
Production of electronic equipment is continuing healthy growth. China, the world’s largest producer of electronics, had a three-month-average increase of 14% in October 2017 versus a year ago. Year-to-date through October, China’s electronic production has gained 13.8% compared to 10.0% for the year 2016, putting China… Read More
One of the most important aspects of any manufacturing effort is the yield of the process. Today, the investment in facilities, equipment and materials is so high that consistently high yields are vital to the profitability of the semiconductor manufacturer. Furthermore, the engineers must get to that consistent high yield … Read More
