The Week In Review: Manufacturing


In a much-anticipated deal, IBM is close to selling its chip unit to GlobalFoundries, according to Bloomberg. GlobalFoundries wants IBM’s engineers and the IP, and not the fabs. Intel lost its challenge against a record 1.06 billion euro ($1.44 billion) European Union fine handed down five years ago, according to Reuters. The EU said Intel tried to thwart AMD by giving rebates to PC makers... » read more

MEMS Foundries Play Waiting Game


By Mark LaPedus For years, the foundries in the microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) business have been patiently waiting for the MEMS integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) to outsource some or all of their production. The MEMS foundries are still waiting for that development. Because MEMS are custom devices tuned to a proprietary process and toolset, IDMs still prefer to use their own f... » read more

Good Times For Analog Designers


By Ann Steffora Mutschler For a number of technological reasons, analog/mixed-signal design and low-power design are converging, and with that comes both challenges and opportunities. As far as challenges go, process variations at 14nm, 20nm and even 28nm have increased significantly to include DFM impacts such as layout-delay effects. On the digital side, those process changes affect... » read more

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