Taiwan Semiconductor Tries To Pull A FinFAST One!

Taiwan Semiconductor Tries To Pull A FinFAST One!
by Daniel Nenni on 06-16-2013 at 7:00 pm


This completely misleading title is from a Seeking Alpha (SA) article, a stock investment version of the National Enquirer. As I mentioned inA Call to ARMs, fame and fortune seeking SA Authors make a penny per click so sensationalism sells. The article is not worth your time so I will save you the click and skip to the misguided conclusion:… Read More


A Call to ARMs!

A Call to ARMs!
by Daniel Nenni on 06-12-2013 at 7:00 pm

It sure has been an interesting experience watching Intel enter the semiconductor foundry business! While I credit Intel for increasing the exposure of the fabless semiconductor ecosystem to the financial markets, the attention from the Intel biased press is a bit overwhelming. The TSMC and ARM bashing is reaching new levels… Read More


Meeting with Sidense at TSMC Technology Symposium

Meeting with Sidense at TSMC Technology Symposium
by Eric Esteve on 06-10-2013 at 11:34 am

If you have attended DAC in Austin (June 2-5), you probably have missed the first TSMC Technology Symposium. It was held on June 6 in Shanghai. Considering my own experience of a 29 hours trip to come back home (in France), I doubt that it was any possible to leave Austin on June 5 to attend TSMC Technology Symposium in Shanghai on June… Read More


DAC IP Workshop: Are You Ready For Quality Control?

DAC IP Workshop: Are You Ready For Quality Control?
by Paul McLellan on 06-07-2013 at 3:08 am

On Sunday I attended an IP workshop which was presented by TSMC, Atrenta, Sonics and IPextreme. It turns out that the leitmotiv of the afternoon was SpyGlass.

Dan Kochpatcharin of TSMC was first up and gave a little bit of history of the company. They built up their capacity over the years, as I’ve written about before, and last… Read More


TSMC ♥ Berkeley Design Automation

TSMC ♥ Berkeley Design Automation
by Daniel Nenni on 05-30-2013 at 11:00 am

As I mentioned in BDA Takes on FinFET Based Memories with AFS Mega:

Is AFS Mega real? Of course it is, I’m an SRAM guy and I worked with BDA on this product so I know. But don’t take my word for it, stay tuned for endorsements from the top SRAM suppliers around the world.

Here is the first customer endorsement from the #1 foundry.… Read More


BDA Takes on FinFET-based Memories with AFS Mega

BDA Takes on FinFET-based Memories with AFS Mega
by Daniel Nenni on 05-29-2013 at 12:00 pm

Berkeley Design Automation today announced the first silicon-accurate circuit simulation for mega-scale arrays like memories and CMOS image sensors. If this tool lives up to its claims, it is going to be a big deal for FinFET-based circuits, Memory designers are rightly worried about having the accuracy necessary to include… Read More


Avoiding layout related variability issues

Avoiding layout related variability issues
by Daniel Nenni on 05-26-2013 at 7:55 am

In advanced process technologies, electrical and timing problems due to variability can become a big issue. Due to various processing effects, a circuit performance (both speed and power) is dependent on specific layout attributes and can vary a lot from instance to instance. The accumulated effects can be severe to the point… Read More


Tag it! Your customer will love using IP compliant with TSMC9000 IP Tag specification

Tag it! Your customer will love using IP compliant with TSMC9000 IP Tag specification
by Eric Esteve on 05-16-2013 at 1:26 am

We have seen last week in a first post how crucial was the IP qualification process (TSMC 9000) to increase the probability of successfully Tape Out a chip. Being able to discriminate between dangerous and safe IP is the first step of TSMC 9000 Quality process, IP tagging is the complementary step, almost as essential as the first … Read More


The Morphing of Intel’s Monopoly

The Morphing of Intel’s Monopoly
by Ed McKernan on 05-09-2013 at 12:01 am

It was a generation ago when Intel, less than three years old, created the three fundamental building blocks of the compute era: the DRAM, the EPROM and the Microprocessor, an incredible feat of innovation by any measure. Manufacturing yield, not power or performance determined success of failure and in the first two … Read More