Happy Birthday GSA

This year marks the 20th anniversary of GSA and collaboration around the foundry and fabless ecosystem. Originally GSA was FSA, the fabless semiconductor association. There was a semiconductor associations 20 years ago, the SIA, but that was still the “real men have fabs” era and fabless semiconductor companies were not considered “real” semiconductor companies and so were excluded. Now, of course, nobody would claim companies like Qualcomm, Broadcom, Xilinx are not real semiconductor companies. Going forward, only Intel and Samsung have their own fabs to build their own chips. And both of them also have at least some foundry business and so participate in the fabless ecosystem too.

During the year each month there GSA will be producing video interviews with industry leaders discussing GSA. The first one is features Steve Mollenkopf of Qualcomm, Scott McGregor of Broadcom, Mark Edelstone from Morgan Stanley and more.

GSA also has 2 technical working group meetings this week that are open for registration.
What: 3DIC Packaging Working Group Meeting
When: Wed, JAN 22, 2014 | 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Where: Altera, 101 Innovation Drive, San Jose, CA 95134
Why: The industry is developing 3D-IC related standards to help ensure interoperability and minimize development time. The Q1 3DIC Working Group meeting will focus on:

• Altera’s 3D-IC Strategy with Arif Rahman, Architect
• Standards update from Si2, SEMI, and IPC

Register here

What: IP Working Group Meeting
When: Thurs, JAN 23, 2014 | 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Where: Synopsys, 700 E. Middlefield Road, Bldg 8, Mountain View, CA, 94043
Why: Widely used interfaces help drive IP development, and MIPI technology, used in mobile applications, is such an interface. The Q1 IP Working Group meeting will cover:

• MIPI organization will discuss how their standards efforts help drive IP development.
• IEEE-ISTO Nexus 5001™ will discuss on-chip instrumentation and the impact on IP development.

Register here

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