TSMC and Flex Logix?

TSMC and Flex Logix?
by Daniel Nenni on 03-26-2016 at 7:00 am

There was a lot to learn at the TSMC Technical Symposium last week, in the keynotes for sure but also in the halls and exhibits. Tom Dillinger did a nice job covering the keynotes in his posts Key Take aways from the TSMC Technology Symposium Part 1 and Part 2 but there was something interesting that many people may have missed in the exhibit… Read More


10nm SRAM Projections – Who will lead

10nm SRAM Projections – Who will lead
by Scotten Jones on 03-25-2016 at 12:00 pm

At ISSCC this year Samsung published a paper entitled “A 10nm FinFET 128Mb SRAM with Assist Adjustment System for Power, Performance, and Area Optimization. In the paper Samsung disclosed a high density 6T SRAM cell size of 0.040µm[SUP]2[/SUP]. I thought it would be interesting to take a look at how this cell size stacks … Read More


Key Takeaways from the TSMC Technology Symposium Part 2

Key Takeaways from the TSMC Technology Symposium Part 2
by Tom Dillinger on 03-22-2016 at 4:00 pm

In Part 1, we reviewed four of the highlights of the recent TSMC Technology Symposium in San Jose. This article details the “Final Four” key takeaways from the TSMC presentations, and includes a few comments about the advanced technology research that TSMC is conducting.… Read More


TSMC 2016 Technology Symposium and Apple SoCs!

TSMC 2016 Technology Symposium and Apple SoCs!
by Daniel Nenni on 03-08-2016 at 4:00 pm

It is that time again, time for the originators of the pure-play foundry business to update their top customers and partners on the latest process technology developments and schedules. More specifically, all of the TSMC FinFET processes (16nm, 10nm, 7nm, and beyond), TSMC IP portfolio (CMOS image sensor, Embedded Flash, Power… Read More


Semiconductor, Oil, and GDP – Correlated? What’s Expected?

Semiconductor, Oil, and GDP – Correlated? What’s Expected?
by Pawan Fangaria on 02-10-2016 at 7:00 am

In last 3 decades of semiconductor market, the largest growth in IC sales was at 33% in 2010. At that time global recession had started due to financial crisis and in 2009 oil prices fell more than 30%. It appeared that oil prices were negatively correlated with semiconductor market growth. Today again there is another sharp decline… Read More


The Best Analyst Presentation at SEMI ISS 2016!

The Best Analyst Presentation at SEMI ISS 2016!
by Daniel Nenni on 01-22-2016 at 5:00 pm

The problem I have with semiconductor analysts and media today is that they rarely have depth in what they are talking about. Some because they have never actually worked in the industry and others because they have not worked in the industry since the 1970s. One famed analyst even repeated the mythical “Fabs cost $10B” generalization… Read More


Pure-play Foundries to Prevail in Future

Pure-play Foundries to Prevail in Future
by Pawan Fangaria on 01-17-2016 at 7:00 am

In a consolidating semiconductor business environment and innovation in semiconductor fabrication already scaling new heights with existing strong players, where do you think the wafer capacity should concentrate? It’s pure-play foundries or pure-play-like foundries, and those who supply high-volume common components… Read More


FinFET will finally arrive for GPU’s in 2016

FinFET will finally arrive for GPU’s in 2016
by Tom Simon on 01-13-2016 at 12:00 pm

It used to be that GPU chips moved to new process nodes pretty frequently, previously as often as annually. That is up until 2011. That was the year that 28nm GPU’s were unveiled. Since then there has been a long pause. Now in the wake of the 2016 CES both Nvidia, with its previously announced Pascal, and AMD, with the just announced Polaris,… Read More