One of the strengths of the fabless semiconductor ecosystem is competition since it keeps innovation high and prices low. One of the challenges of fostering competition is that you have to make good on a threat of using a competing product during a pricing negotiation. Well, in my opinion, for the next version of the iPhone, Apple… Read More
Tag: tsmc
ARM ♥ TSMC!
This week is the 10[SUP]th[/SUP] annual ARM Technical Conference in Silicon Valley. In regards to size, content, and relevance, I believe ARM TechCon is the #1 event for the fabless semiconductor ecosystem for sure. I attended keynotes, sessions, and walked the hallways on Wednesday and Thursday. I wish I could write about everything… Read More
ANSYS Tools Shine at FinFET Nodes!
In the modern semiconductor ecosystem we are seeing rapid advancement in technology breaking past once perceived limits; 28nm, 20nm, 16-14nm, 10nm and we are foreseeing 7nm now. Double and multi-patterning are already being seen along with complex FinFET structures in transistors to gain the ultimate advantages in PPA from… Read More
Who Will Lead at 10nm?
There has been a lot of discussion on SemiWiki lately around 14nm FinFET technology and who really leads and by how much. I thought it would be interesting to review some process metrics for previous technology generation and then make some forecasts around 10nm.
The focus of this article will be Intel, TSMC and Global Foundries/Samsung… Read More
ARM ♥ Xilinx!
The good news is that as a part of SemiWiki we get free media passes to all of the cool conferences. The bad news is that our inboxes get flooded with announcements. ARM TechCon is next week and my delete button is on overtime but it is interesting to see who is active in conferences and who is not. In this case Xilinx is very active and Altera… Read More
Mentor at TSMC OIP, 16nm, and 10nm
On Tuesday, September 30, TSMC hosts another Open Innovation Platform Ecosystem forum at the San Jose Convention Center. Have you registered? This year includes 30 technical sessions from TSMC’s ecosystem partners, divided into three separate tracks. I’ll be hanging out in the EDA track, listening to various takes on 16nm FinFET… Read More
TSMC Delivers First FinFET ARM Based SoC!
Right on cue, TSMC announces 16nm FinFET production silicon. I believe this is the original version of FinFET versus 16FF+ which is due out in 1H 2015. I will confirm this next week at the TSMC OIP event in San Jose, absolutely. Either way this is excellent news for the fabless semiconductor ecosystem and I look forward to the first … Read More
The TSMC iPhone 6!
Fortunately Paul McLellan and I missed IDF. Paul was atop Mt. Kilimanjaro and I was in Taiwan signing books. After reviewing the materials and watching the videos we really didn’t miss much in regards to mobile so no regrets. The Apple event would have been fun even though I won’t be buying an iPhone6 or an iWatch and I will tell you why.… Read More
Sidense overlays OTP on TSMC 16nm FinFET
Process shrinks, which have served us well for most of the Moore’s Law journey, are reaching their limits. For switching transistors, the biggest problems of leakage current and gate oxide vulnerability in planar MOSFETs have led the industry to new 3D microstructures such as FinFET. For non-volatile memory, the problem is generally… Read More
TSMC OIP: Registration Open
It’s that time of year again! The 4th TSMC Open Innovation Platform Ecosystem Forum is coming up on September 30th. As usual it is in the San Jose conference center. The TSMC OIP Ecosystem Forum brings together TSMC’s design ecosystem companies and their customers to share real case solutions to today’s design challenges.… Read More