In celebrating the 10th anniversary of SMIC, CEO David Wang ushers in a new era of China semiconductor manufacturing with triumphs versus promises. By triumphs David means profits, which SMIC saw for the first time in Q2 2010. The future looks even brighter for SMIC as the China semiconductor demand versus supply gap is an estimated… Read More
Bill Wiseman of McKinsey & Company presented “Waking up to the new normal, the world economy after the great recession” at a recent ITAC GSA Conference. Bill supports my previous semiconductor financial predictions in great and graphical detail.
In the United States: unemployment claims are up, home sales are down without… Read More
As mentioned in previous blogs, design enablement is a key enabler to fabless semiconductor design and manufacture, without question. The purpose of this blog (in 500 words) is to compare and contrast two very different design enablement strategies and engage the semiconductor community in a meaningful discussion.
The GlobalFoundry… Read More
This blog posting is sponsored by EVA airlines, as I’m in the EVA executive lounge eating free food (I blog for food). “Fly EVA, the lesser of evils for Taiwan air travel!” EVA Air has a perfect safety record in 9 years of operation, China Air on the other hand has the worst safety record in the industry!
This blog was inspired by one of … Read More
It has been an interesting month in the semiconductor business. Record revenues, profits, aggressive expansion plans, something we have not seen before and may not see again. Let’s start in Taiwan then move to Silicon Valley, Upstate New York, China, and Korea, with a look at: financials, capacity, and consolidation.
TSMC and… Read More
As you may know I enjoy poking fun at the current state of semiconductor design and manufacture media; sloppy reporting, editors with little or no actual semiconductor experience taking corporate marketing spins on news/events and passing it along as fact.
Last week it was the EETimes parroting the Samsung foundry business press… Read More
This blog is a follow-up to my second most viewed page Moore’s Law and 40nm Yield, with a strong recommendation of how to design for yield at the advanced nodes (32/28/22nm) with Verify High-Sigma design technology.
Case in point: Circuit blocks such as complex standard cells or memory bit cells are repeated thousands or even millions… Read More
This blog is about the legal battle between TSMC and SMIC which is currently playing in the California court system. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TSMC) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) do what their names suggest – the manufacturing of semiconductors for an international… Read More
The big news last week was Global Foundries’ (GFI) agreement to acquire Chartered Semiconductor (CHRT) for $3.9B, but what does it really mean to the semiconductor world in total?
CurrentlyTSMC has 11 fabs producing wafers, 8 in Taiwan, 1 in Shanghai, 1 in Singapore, and 1 in Washington State. After the acquisition, Global Foundries… Read More
