As I have mentioned before, I’m part of the Coleman Research Group so you can rent me by the hour to better understand the semiconductor industry. Most of the conversations are by phone but sometimes I do travel to the East Coast, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China for face-to-face meetings. Generally the calls are the result of an event … Read More
Tag: tsmc
Getting an MPW Quote on My iPhone
As I blogged about recently, eSilicon have completely automated the quote process for their MPW shuttle service. You can use an online interface that runs in the browser but there is also an app that you can download from the App Store.
So I decided I had a few million dollars to burn and I’d get myself my very own TSMC 20nm parts.… Read More
Dr. Cliff Hou, TSMC VP of R&D, Keynote
This will be my 30[SUP]th[/SUP] Design Automation Conference. I know this because my first DAC was the same year I got married and forgetting how many years you have been married can cost you half your stuff. I have known Cliff Hou for half of that time and he has proven to be one of the most humble and honorable men I have worked with, definitely.… Read More
Smart Strategies for Efficient Testing of 3D-ICs
3D-IC has a stack of dies connected and packaged together, and therefore needs new testing strategies other than testing a single die. It’s given that a single defective die can render the whole of 3D-IC unusable, so each die in the stack must be completely and perfectly tested before its entry into that stack. Looking at it from a … Read More
Designing an SoC with 16nm FinFET
IC designers contemplating the transition to 16nm FinFET technology for their next SoC need to be informed about design flow and IP changes, so TSMC teamed up with Cadence Design Systems today to present a webinar on that topic. I attended the webinar and will summarize my findings.
Shown below is a 3D layout concept of an ideal FinFET… Read More
The Great Wall of TSMC
TSMC doesn’t just sell wafers, it sells trust. It’s the Colgate Ring of Confidence for fabless customers. This focus on trust started at the very beginning when Morris Chang founded TSMC over 25 years ago, and still today trust remains an essential part of their business.
When TSMC started, the big thing it brought … Read More
Why Intel 14nm is NOT a Game Changer!
On one hand the Motley Fool is saying, “Intel 14nm could change the game” and on the other hand the Wall Street Cheat Sheet is saying, “Intel should shut down mobile”. SemiWiki says Intel missed mobile and should look to the future and focus on wearables and in this blog I will argue why.
Let’s look back to 2009 when Intel and TSMC signed… Read More
RTL Sign-off – At an Edge to become a Standard
Ever since I have seen Atrenta’s SpyGlass platform providing a comprehensive set of tools across the semiconductor design paradigm, I felt the need for a common set of standards to evolve for sign-off at RTL level. Last December, when I read an EE Times articleof Piyush Sancheti, VP, Product Marketing at Atrenta, where he talks … Read More
Wanna Build a Bitcoin Miner: GlobalFoundries Will Manufacture it For You
You may know a bit about Bitcoin, the digital currency. One part of the system is “mining” new bitcoins, analogous to mining new gold when we were on the gold standard, creating “money” out of thin air but at a cost of doing the actual mining.
Here is an interesting aside. When I lived in France the father of… Read More
A Brief History of Qualcomm
Qualcomm is the largest fabless semiconductor company in the world. If you have a smarphone there is a good chance you have a Qualcomm chip in your pocket. It is headquartered in San Diego with offices pretty much everywhere.
Qualcomm’s roots are in Linkabit, which was founded by Irwin Jacobs and Andrew Viterbi. They, along with … Read More