The New "Mobile Foundry" Era: Whose Wheelhouse?

The New "Mobile Foundry" Era: Whose Wheelhouse?
by Ed McKernan on 02-25-2013 at 1:12 pm

Nothing seems to raise the Visceral Ire of Semiwiki readers like the two words: Intel and Foundry. To get maximum steam coming out of the ears make sure you combine the two words in a sentence. Something along the lines like: Intel is Now Going to be a Leader in the Foundry Business. Pause…..Ok catch your breadth and now let’s move on … Read More


Intel’s x86 – Foundry Breakup Comes into View

Intel’s x86 – Foundry Breakup Comes into View
by Ed McKernan on 02-21-2013 at 12:46 am

The announcement by Intel during their January earnings call that they were going to hike Capex in 2013 over 2012 left many folks scrambling as to the reasons and the what-the hecks? Here was a company that was exiting 2012 with 50% utilization of their advanced 22nm process and yet signaling more building was to come. Furthermore,… Read More


Intel’s New Tablet Strategy Brings Ivy Bridge to the Forefront

Intel’s New Tablet Strategy Brings Ivy Bridge to the Forefront
by Ed McKernan on 12-19-2012 at 11:00 pm

In an article published this week in microprocessor report and highlighted in Barron’s, Linley Gwennap makes the argument that Intel should stay the course and fix the PC instead of trying to offset its declines with sales into the Smartphone and Tablet space. He cites that lower PC sales growth was due to a dramatic slowdown in processor… Read More


How Apple Plans to Leverage Intel’s Foundry

How Apple Plans to Leverage Intel’s Foundry
by Ed McKernan on 12-09-2012 at 4:00 pm

Tim Cook’s strategy to disengage from Samsung as a supplier of LCDs, memory and processors while simultaneously creating a worldwide supply chain from the remnants of former leaders like Sharp, Elpida, Toshiba and soon Intel is remarkable in its scope and breadth. By 2014, Apple should have in place a supply chain for 500M iOS devices… Read More


Intel Taps The Debt Market: Should They Go Private?

Intel Taps The Debt Market: Should They Go Private?
by Ed McKernan on 12-06-2012 at 9:25 am

Intel’s ability this week to raise $6B in debt at rock bottom interest rates should give one a moment to pause and consider what this portends for the future of the company and whether it remains in public hands. We live in extraordinary times where a fiscally excessive government can sell 10 year treasuries at 1.6% and the largest … Read More


Altera’s Real Impact with ARM based SOC FPGAs

Altera’s Real Impact with ARM based SOC FPGAs
by Ed McKernan on 10-16-2012 at 8:15 pm

At the annual Linley Processor Conference this past week a number of chip vendors proposed a raft of new networking solutions directed at solving today’s bandwidth issues. Perhaps the overall highlight of the conference was the recognition by Keynote Speaker Linley Gwennap of the shift that is taking place towards ARM based solutions.… Read More


Dear Meg, HP is Still a Goner

Dear Meg, HP is Still a Goner
by Ed McKernan on 10-11-2012 at 9:30 pm


A year ago, Meg Whitman decided it was time to venture back into the business world by grabbing onto the HP CEO baton from a badly wounded Leo Apotheker. What for? My best guess is to enter the Pantheon of Great Turnaround CEOs of failing companies, best exemplified by the work of Lou Gerstner with IBM in the early 1990s. It comes too late… Read More


ARM in Networking/Communications

ARM in Networking/Communications
by Paul McLellan on 10-11-2012 at 7:15 pm

I was at the Linley Processor Conference yesterday. There are two of these each year, one focused on mobile and this one, focused on networking and communications (so routers, base-stations and the like). You probably know that ARM is pretty dominant in mobile handsets (and Intel is trying to get a toe-hold although I’m skeptical… Read More


Apple’s Victory Will Re-Shuffle the Semi Industry

Apple’s Victory Will Re-Shuffle the Semi Industry
by Ed McKernan on 08-27-2012 at 2:00 pm

Apple’s legal victory over Samsung has been analyzed in thousands of articles and TWEETs since last Friday’s announcement and surely more will follow. Most of the commentary has focused on the first order impact to handset manufacturers. It is not entirely clear how it will all settle but there are sure to be secondary ramifications… Read More


Qualcomm Acquires Intel’s Playbook

Qualcomm Acquires Intel’s Playbook
by Ed McKernan on 08-10-2012 at 12:00 pm

The Mobile Tsunami wave has yet to crest and the surfers strong enough to mount it are dwindling fast to the dismay of market watchers and experienced analysts. The distraction of these past few days is the courtroom drama being played out between the sumo wrestlers, Apple and Samsung, which in the end will not result in a cessation… Read More