Manufacturing Constraint Fears Grow


The semiconductor industry could become a victim of its own success. With so many semiconductors being consumed inside of cars, home electronics and industry, capacity shortages are beginning to surface in some areas. Foundries set rates depending upon a complex mix of process technology, equipment depreciation, customer demand and the need to push customers from one node the next depending ... » read more

Resurrecting The Semiconductor Industry


Every so often the semiconductor industry approaches a wall, and it takes the best minds in the world to figure out whether to go left, right, below, above or through it. As an industry we faced that at 1 micron, and again at 45nm with lithography. Now we are approaching another wall. Complexity has exploded—hardware, software, IP and process technologies—while the entire time-to-market cy... » read more

Everything Changes At 45nm


Design engineers are pretty good about sharing ideas with their colleagues. They’re extremely good about sharing the limelight with their peers. But they’re not particularly good about implementing new ideas and concepts and changing the way they work.   There are good reasons for this, of course. It takes a long time to become proficient at skills for designing new chips or creating a... » read more