tag: IBM

Real Countries Have Fabs
By Ed Sperling - 17 Apr, 2014 - Comments: 3

Persistent rumblings about the sale of IBM’s semiconductor unit might have seemed absurd a couple decades ago—before IBM sold off its PC unit to Lenovo and lost the gaming chip business to AMD’s x86 chips—but no one is scoffing at the possibility these days. The reality is that IBM will never reach the volume necessary to be the No. 1 or No. 2 player in its segment. It’s not even i... » read more

Billions And Billions Invested
By Mark LaPedus - 17 Apr, 2014 - Comments: 4

Over the years, next-generation [getkc id="80" kc_name="lithography"] (NGL) has suffered various setbacks and delays. But until recently, the industry basically shrugged its shoulders and expressed relatively little anxiety about the NGL delays. After all, optical lithography was doing the job in the fab and NGL would eventually materialize. Today, however, the mood is different. In fact, th... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing
By Mark LaPedus - 04 Apr, 2014 - Comments: 1

GlobalFoundries has emerged as the leading candidate to buy IBM's semiconductor unit, according to Reuters, which cited the Wall Street Journal as it source. IBM, which recently put its semiconductor unit on the block, has held discussions with GlobalFoundries, Intel and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. GlobalFoundries did not respond to the reports by press time. GlobalFoundries ... » read more

Look Who’s Making Chips
By Ed Sperling - 27 Mar, 2014 - Comments: 1

The entry into the chip business by companies such as Apple, and possibly Google, Amazon and a handful of others, may seem like a land grab in the semiconductor world, but the reality is that system companies have always done their own semiconductor design. Only the names have changed. IBM made its own PC processors, and it still makes them for its high-end servers. HP made chips for its PCs... » read more

Synopsys-Coverity Deal Final
By Ed Sperling - 26 Mar, 2014 - Comments: 2

Synopsys’ acquisition of Coverity, which makes tools for testing and analyzing software, was made official yesterday. Now what? That may be the $334 million question, which is the price Synopsys paid for the 11-year-old software tools vendor. Even Synopsys’ top executives are rather candid in their uncertainty about where this deal will lead, and they made no qualms about that at the Syn... » read more

Directed Self-Assembly Gains Momentum
By Mark LaPedus - 20 Mar, 2014 - Comments: 0

At last year’s SPIE Advanced Lithography symposium, directed self-assembly (DSA) grabbed the spotlight as chipmakers provided the first glimpse of their initial work and results with the technology. The results were stunning, thereby propelling DSA from a curiosity item to a possible patterning solution for next-generation devices. Last year, in fact, GlobalFoundries, IBM, Intel and Sams... » read more

Enabling Test Portability With Graphs
By Ann Mutschler - 20 Mar, 2014 - Comments: 0

Is it time to move up again? When it comes to test portability between simulation, emulation, prototypes and silicon, as well as an easier way to create a test structure, the answer appears to be a resounding ‘Yes.’ Looking at these activities from a higher level of abstraction and using a graph-based approach should allow automation where there has been none previously, and could allow val... » read more

EUV Reaches A Crossroads
By Mark LaPedus - 20 Mar, 2014 - Comments: 3

[gettech id="31045" comment="EUV"] (EUV) [getkc id="80" comment="lithography"] is at a crossroads. 2014 represents a critical year for the technology. In fact, it may answer a pressing question about EUV: Does it work or not? It’s too early to make that determination right now, but there are more uncertainties than ever for the oft-delayed technology. Originally aimed for the 65nm node in... » read more

Blog Review: March 19
By Ed Sperling - 19 Mar, 2014 - Comments: 0

ARM’s Diya Soubra has discovered an interesting term in relation to the Internet of Things: Compound Applications. Will that make the IoT more compelling? Mentor’s Colin Walls points to some less obvious reasons for choosing a processor. No. 4 on his list is particularly noteworthy. Synopsys’ Mick Posner has some thoughts about wearable computing prototypes. Check out the top pho... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: March 18
By Mark LaPedus - 18 Mar, 2014 - Comments: 0

Magazine chips Semiconductor manufacturing can produce tiny chips. The technology can also enable tiny magazine covers. For example, IBM and National Geographic plan to set a Guinness World Records title for the world's smallest magazine cover. IBM has devised a tiny chisel with a nano-size tip, which is 100,000 times smaller than a sharpened pencil point. [caption id="attachment_10920" ali... » read more

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