Samsung IEDM 2018 Keynote and the Foundry Business

Samsung IEDM 2018 Keynote and the Foundry Business
by Daniel Nenni on 12-06-2018 at 12:00 pm

IEDM is a premier semiconductor conference so it was certainly appropriate for Samsung to do the keynote since they are the largest and one of the most innovative semiconductor companies in the world, absolutely.

Samsung is also one of the more interesting semiconductor companies since they do it all: chip design, semiconductor… Read More


Intel Diversity Semiconductors

Intel Diversity Semiconductors
by Daniel Nenni on 11-12-2018 at 7:00 am

Growing up in a military family, mostly in California, I would consider my cultural diversity life experience to be more than most. I remember in the 1960s some older folks were chattering about a colored family moving into our neighborhood and they had a son my age. Imagine my excitement as a child in having a multicolored friend!… Read More


The Changing Face of IP Management

The Changing Face of IP Management
by Alex Tan on 11-05-2018 at 11:00 am


Aristotle once said “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts”. The notion of synergism echoes the importance of leveraging design IPs to the maximum extent with the rest of the system under development, in order to ensure a successful SoC design outcome in a shorter development cycle.

SoC design cost and entry point
For over… Read More


Semiconductor stocks free fall as bad news gets worse

Semiconductor stocks free fall as bad news gets worse
by Robert Maire on 10-26-2018 at 12:00 pm

Semiconductor stocks have had another significant down leg as the bad news continues to pile on. Bad news in this case doesn’t come in threes , it comes in droves. TI is perhaps very scary news as it is a rather broad based supplier of semiconductors that has fared better than more pure play chip suppliers. TI gave weak guidance… Read More


Essential Analog IP for 7nm and 5nm at TSMC OIP

Essential Analog IP for 7nm and 5nm at TSMC OIP
by Tom Simon on 10-24-2018 at 7:00 am

When TSMC’s annual Open Innovation Platform Exposition takes place, you know it will be time to hear about designs starting on the most advanced nodes. This year we were hearing about 7nm and 5nm. These newer nodes present even more challenges than previous nodes due to many factors. Regardless of what kind of design you are undertaking… Read More


TSMC Q3 2018 Earnings Call Discussion!

TSMC Q3 2018 Earnings Call Discussion!
by Daniel Nenni on 10-22-2018 at 7:00 am

The TSMC OIP Forum was very upbeat this year and now we know why. It wasn’t long ago that some media outlets and a competitor said 7nm would not be a popular node because it is too expensive blah blah blah. People inside the fabless semiconductor ecosystem however know otherwise. As I have said before, 7nm will be another strong node … Read More


Honey I Shrunk the EDA TAM

Honey I Shrunk the EDA TAM
by Daniel Nenni on 10-19-2018 at 7:00 am

The “20 Questions with Wally Rhines” series continues

Throughout the history of the EDA industry, pricing models have caused discontinuities in the way the industry operates. For a variety of competitive reasons, individual companies have developed ways to change the pricing model in an attempt to secure competitive… Read More


TSMC and Synopsys are in the Cloud!

TSMC and Synopsys are in the Cloud!
by Daniel Nenni on 10-08-2018 at 7:00 am

EDA has been flirting with the cloud unsuccessfully for many years now and it really comes down to a familiar question: Who can afford to spend billions of dollars on data center security? Which is similar to the question that started the fabless transformation: Who can afford to spend billions of dollars on semiconductor manufacturing… Read More


The real race for superiority is TSMC vs Intel

The real race for superiority is TSMC vs Intel
by Robert Maire on 10-07-2018 at 7:00 am

Recent talk of AMD vs Intel market share share is misguided, the real race for superiority is TSMC vs Intel underlying that, tech dominance between US & China.

There has been much discussion of late about market share between Intel and AMD and how much market share AMD will gain at Intel’s expense due to Intel’s very… Read More


UMC and GF or Samsung and GF?

UMC and GF or Samsung and GF?
by Daniel Nenni on 09-17-2018 at 7:00 am

One of the interesting rumors in Taiwan last week was the possibility that UMC and GF will do a deal to merge or UMC will buy some GF fabs. I have talked to quite a few industry experts about it and will talk to more this week at the GSA US Executive Forum (more at the end). The US Executive Forum is what they call a C Level event which means it… Read More